Silicon Valley is such a touchingly forgiving place. Nirav Tolia — the Epinions exec who lied in his resume and provoked a bitter legal dispute with his fellow founders — is back. The entrepreneur, known for his Bollywood idol looks as much as his bumpy career path, has returned, from exile in New York, to work on a new project in San Francisco. How on earth did this happen?
Here's the background. Epinions, a database of user reviews on everything from gadgets to holiday resorts, was one of the hottest internet startups of 1999. Tolia made about $20m when the venture merged with Dealtime and then went public.
But his fellow founders, whose shareholdings were wiped out in the deal, claimed Tolia had won their consent only by withholding vital information about Epinions' prospects. Already tarnished by the controversy, Tolia left the company, and the Valley, in something close to disgrace, when it emerged he'd lied about working for McKinsey, the elite management consultants.
So what are Tolia's chances of a comeback? Pretty good, actually. The Valley has a short memory. Entrepreneurs, especially battle-hardened ones, are in short supply. And, most importantly, word is that Tolia has a heavyweight backer: none other than Bill Gurley, the Benchmark partner who, the Epinions team claimed in their suit, was in on the scheme to squeeze them out of the company. Anyone know what they're working on?
Update: I've been told by a couple of people that Nirav Tolia is officially an entrepreur-in-residence at Benchmark. Though he's not yet listed on the partnership's website along with the other EIRs.
