Billionaire Sean Parker Gets Ready To Launch His Video Startup Airtime Again
Last summer, Parker and notable tech executive Shawn Fanning launched Airtime in front of media like The New York Times and Entertainment Tonight. The pair were joined by a number of celebrity supporters, such as Olivia Munn, Joel McHale, Jim Carrey, Martha Stewart, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Ed Helms.
Despite the buzzy debut and the $33 million Airtime raised pre-launch, the product never took off. Shawn Fanning left his day to day role at the company. In October, their CTO Eric Feng departed. Parker was left to start over.
Since then, Parker has trimmed down his staff. TechCrunch estimates cuts from 40 people last year to about ten now. In addition, Parker has moved the company's headquarters to New York City.
Now, he's made a big new hire to help him right the ship. Daniel Klaus, former Music Nation CEO and founder of K2 Media startup incubator, has joined Airtime as its president. Parker will remain CEO.
The product will be relaunching soon in an effort to get people using the product. But Parker's worst fears may be realized.
"The expectation thing definitely weighs on me," Parker told Dealbook last year. "There’s a sort of fear of launching something and failing.”