Quoted: Earth Class Mail founder Ron Wiener is handing over the top executive spot at the Seattle company to Sarah Carr, a former Thomson and Print Inc. executive who has served as chief operating officer of the company for the past 10 months. Wiener, who founded the online postal mail company in 2004, will remain as chairman. Carr's title is listed as president, which means the company does not at the moment have a CEO. I have emails and calls into the company to get more clarification.

If there was not enough drama already... Note: I think it is jumping the gun a bit suggest the $9.6MM went to a "piggy bank". This equates to $200,000 per month which is potentially a reasonable amount to operate the Malaysia office.

Quoted: Investigators have not been able to account for about $9.6 million in Entellium funds that were believed to be transferred to the company’s operations in Malaysia between 2005 and 2008, a federal prosecutor told U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Alice Theiler during the hearing in U.S. District Court in Seattle.
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Johnston, a 40-year-old citizen of the United Kingdom who earned $1.1 million in salary and bonuses between 2004 and 2008, also was given $100,000 in loans from the company without the board’s knowledge or approval, said Carl Blackstone, the assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case.

Quoted: Instead of selling, they’ve raised their first real round of financing after the seed funding from Y Combinator - $900,000 from True Ventures, Chris Sacca, Tim Ferriss (author of the 4-Hour Workweek), Mike Seckler and Mike Koss.

We used TripHub for a group ski trip last year. I though the concept was good but the execution was a bit lacking. And, as with many consumer Web plays, it takes a lot of work (and luck) to reach critical mass and positive cash flow before funding runs out.

Quoted: TripHub, a Seattle-based group oriented travel site, has closed its doors. We originally covered the company’s beta launch in September 2006, when we described it as a good way to help compile and centralize information for a group trip, but questioned if it was viable as a standalone business, especially against other players in the travel space like Yahoo Travel.

Quoted: Find out what companies are cutting jobs.

I am a sucker for entrepreneurship-oriented reality shows. Start-Up Junkies Season 1 is about the evolution of a Seattle-based startup, Earth Class Mail. Accordingly, there are lots of familiar names, sites, experiences, etc. You can watch it for free on Hulu.

In Episode 2, they mention how Ignition Partners had cold feet but eventually participated (to the tune of $6M) in the $16M round.

As for the idea itself, I think they have the same problem as Netflix. Just as DVDs will eventually be replaced by streaming video, most mail-based communication will be (is already being) replaced by digital communication.

Unrelated note: Ron, the CEO, is a CMU CS/ECE grad.

My friend just left MS to co-found this company. Looks like they help you deploy Office Communications Server (OCS) and Exchange.

Quoted: Helping you deploy the world's leading platform for Unified Communications.
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Quoted: The Seattle area added the greatest number of high-tech jobs in 2006, outpacing Boston, San Francisco and more than 50 other U.S. cities, according to the Cybercities report from the American Electronics Association.