Jim Tuffin

One year ago, I wrote about Jamparii and their (IMO) bizarre method of raising funds for their business. As it turns out, the company was not able to profit on the rise of social networking websites, and failed to get the required funds.

According to Jim Tuffin, CEO and founder of Jamparii, they have now put the project on hold due to lack of funding. He says that all funds received are returned. I have no reason not to trust his words.

Jamparii serves as an example of how good (or bad) ideas need a critical mass to survive. Building a business is hard work and high risk. I usually see two main reasons young business fails:

• Lack of funding
• Lack of patience

Lack of funding is usually due to the fact that things takes much more time, and costs more money than first imagined. I have seen, and been part of, this kind of failure. It hurts, and it is not fun. The only way to deal with this is to get the funds in time, and enough of it.

Lack of patience is different - this happens if investors, or key members, stop trusting the product. This creates a downward spiral where all energy in the venture goes away, and takes with it the passion that is required to succeed.

Happily, way too few business creators know this. And if they know, they are able to push it aside and get their venture going anyway.

One year ago, I wrote about my thoughts on Jamparii, and I asked if it was just another scam.

Back then, Jim Tuffin, the CEO and founder, claimed that this would be the next great success within social networking. In a comment to my blog post, he also said that he did not want to involve professional venture capital, as they would require a high number of shares in exchange of their cash. Who would blame them?

Anyway, I would be very interested in knowing what happened to Jamparii, and their founder members. Do you know anything? Did you join? What are the prospect of getting your cash back? If you did not join, what where your reasons not doing it? Any news you have, please share!