WayIn is a new startup being developed by Sun Microsystems’ co-founder Scott McNealy. But so far, the tech industry titan is going about the company’s launch in a slightly unexpected way: entirely over Twitter.
Here are the facts: WayIn was registered as a limited liability corporation in Burlingame, Calif. by former Sun executive Damien Eastwood in Feb. 2011. McNealy started dropping hints about his involvement in WayIn on his Twitter feed in late April. And on June 7, WayIn filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding a $6.39 million capital raise. According to both sets of filings, the company’s legal counsel is Silicon Valley heavyweight Wilson Sonsini Goodrich Rosati.
Beyond those regulatory documents, however, information about WayIn has been hard to come by. Visitors to WayIn’s website are told the company is “being quiet for now” and are advised to follow McNealy and WayIn on Twitter for updates on the upcoming launch. This week, McNealy finally gave in to what he said were “lots of great questions” about WayIn and Tweeted plans to hold “a live Twitter QA” at 9:30 a.m. EDT on Wednesday morning.
McNealy disclosed a few more interesting facts about WayIn during the virtual press conference of sorts:
- WayIn is headquartered in Denver, Colo.:
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Scott McNealy
- Reasons why the company won’t be based in California are forthcoming:
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Scott McNealy
- Overall, WayIn has a pretty ambitious mission statement:
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Scott McNealy
- WayIn will have a focus on the education market:
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Scott McNealy
- But not solely on education:
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Scott McNealy
- The company’s products will be targeted to enterprise customers:
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Scott McNealy
- WayIn is definitely in hiring mode:
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Scott McNealy
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Scott McNealy
- And it’s probably safe to say that Larry Ellison isn’t on WayIn’s board:
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Scott McNealy
If you have any thoughts on WayIn’s focus– or Scott McNealy’s social media-centric launch strategy– we’d love to hear them in the comments.
Image of Scott McNealy courtesy of Flickr user Yuichi Sakuraba.
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