I haven’t posted frequently on this blog for a number of reasons and I will keep this brief. In 2006, Markus Frind, Dennis Yu, and I collaborated on The Social Media Group. The goal of the group was to help non-profits adapt to and embrace the social web by providing them with tools, online marketing help, services and advice. We worked with a number of organizations including Grameen Foundation, The International Rescue Committee and Conservation international. In early 2007, the three of us decided to close Social Media Group’s doors. A year later Dennis Yu had started his own company Blitzlocal. I do not know exactly when they started, but I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Markus and I were not involved in any aspect of Blitzlocal LLC while we were collaborating on Social Media Group because it did not exist (to my knowledge). Social Media Group was very focused on the non-profit sector.
To my knowledge Markus has never been involved in Blitzlocal. In addition, I have never been involved in Blitzlocal or any other related entity run by either Markus or Dennis. I regularly talk to Markus and will grab a drink with him or Kim Kaplan his VP when they are in NYC or I am in Vancouver. He has been very clear all along that he was not involved in Blitzlocal.
I have known Markus for almost 4 years now on both a personal and professional level. He is a phenomenal entrepreneur with an amazing business in Plentyoffish.com. One that I would love to be an investor in if he ever gave me the chance! Over the years, he has always been a man of his word and very matter of a fact. Markus has bigger issues like building the largest dating website on the internet and it is a shame he has been pulled into a dispute between two other entrepreneurs. I have an enormous amount of respect and frankly admiration for Markus as a person and an entrepreneur, which is something I believe a lot of people share.
On that note, I would like to state that I have no opinion related to the dispute between other parties and I will not discuss it.
The Perceptions and Reverie of an Investor and Entrepreneur 