Rahul leaves HP

http://www.rahulsood.com/2010/11/this-too-shall-pass.html

Sad to see, it's really all done now hey.

Interesting, thanks. As usual with these things there is more left unsaid than said. Do you have any other background info?

Over time I came to believe that he did not have the long term best interests of his customers at heart, but I have to give him credit for taking a company from nothing to a business that was worthy of being purchased by HP.

Ha ha, cool he mentioned Bastage in it!!!

Raul, If you are reading this. You designed a brand that not only yourself but your former customers are proud of. I am glad I had the opportunity to own several voodoo computers. I wish you the best of luck in your future business dealings.

Hardly a surprise. He seems to have spent more time travelling and engaging in sporting activities than creating or shepherding anything. Whatever he may say, I am not sure that his heart is in it anymore.

I agree. I can't say I'm surprised. The HP acquisition of Voodoo offered Rahul a fantastic out as the economy was starting to turn. I also wonder if he wasn't a bit tired with it all. You don't sell your business when you’re truly passionate about what you're doing. I think Rahul stayed with HP because he was contractually obligated to do so. It's not uncommon for key personnel to commit to a three-year position with the purchasing company.

pretty much....

the powers that be did not let him continue the brand as we all dreamed it would grow. Voodoo without the acquisition would not have survived very much longer on its own.

Rozzinator wrote:pretty much....

Voodoo without the acquisition would not have survived very much longer on its own.

This is true to a certain extent, But lets look at at this from a few different view points.

Dell bought alienware, Continued it as a brand. As far as I can tell they started designing there own laptop hardware. (I cant confirm for sure since I don't own an alienware made after dells acquisition) Dell slashed the prices of alienware systems to make them affordable to the masses. (A respectable alienware laptop is actually cheaper then a sony vaio now) Although It is hard to say what would have happened had hp done something similar with voodoo I would venture to say it would have been profitable and still in business today.

There was/is still a lot of brand loyalty to voodoo. HP tried to capture this with "voodoo dna" but at the end of the day it is still an hp. As best I can tell hp has admitted defeat in the gaming market. They do not have one gaming system for sale. The biggest mistake hp made was trying to assimilate voodoo into hp. I can personally say that I would never buy an HP anything after owning an HP pavilion n5150, hp photosmart p1000 and hp dv series laptop.

It is obvious that voodoo was not permitted to continue to market gaming computers after hp's acquisition because It would be direct competition for the gaming computers that hp planed to release.

I really an not buying that there is not a market for expensive gaming pcs either, Given the market has changed a lot however all of the other botique companies are still in busnuess (Falcon northwest, ibuypower, sager, prostar, eurocom, xoticpc) At the end of the day it all comes down to hp screwed up.

That is assuming a bit; namely, that Rozzie's statement about Voodoo not surviving without the acquisition simply referred to the economic downturn. I suspect that there was more behind the scenes than we know.

I don't doubt Rozzie's comments. After all, she did work for Voodoo.

Exactly.

I think the company was hurt financially as a result of a streak of problems with the various laptop models that were being offered in the 2004 - 2007 time frame. Cracked hinges, fried video cards, bios problems, etc. Not only would this have caused an increase in warranty claims that would have been financially draining, but the resulting decline in image would have effected sales of new machines as well. As laptops became an increasingly important segment of the sales, this would have caused problems with cash flow.

It had been evident for sometime that cash flow had been restricted based on the lengthy time it took to get an order for a new computer as well as the time it took for a returned computer to be repaired. It is not an unusual for a young company to have this type of problem, but the additional problems with the laptops was more than it could handle.

Good points. I remember having to pay for my RAGE in full, and then wait two months for them to build and deliver it. That does not speak well to cash flow.

Yes, that was always an odd point of the Voodoo experience and overall customer service model. The underlying message was always "We want your money now." I remember that bit quite clearly.

I think that was when the old Mutthaboards crew started to sour a bit towards their sponser . . .

Especially the laptop owners. There was definitely a different opinion about the "Voodoo experience" based on whether you owned a laptop or desktop.
Even the fanboy, who I didn't get along with, ( from Edmonton????) eventually soured on the experience.

I think you're referring to Freak.

I only ever bought a Voodoo desktop. The experience wasn't brilliant. I paid a lot of money up front for something that wasn't much faster that what I could have gotten elsewhere. And, it was plagued with problems for the first six months of its life. Of those six months, six weeks were spent in Voodoo's shop for repairs. I would have been without the computer longer if I lived outside Calgary. Not once did I receive any compensation or even an apology for my "experience."

The computer did eventually work properly and it was a good machine, though it was a bit dated by the time I actually got around to using it. That said, it did have a fine-looking case, complete with a pretty blue light and a slick cabling job inside.

I don't think I'd pay that kind of money for a computer again, but it was pretty cool to have had a computer that was as much of a pleasure to look at as it was to use (once it had been fixed, that is). It still runs today, though not well. And the case is not built for today's componenets, so upgrading options are slim.

Yup, Freak was the one.

After I had been a member of the MB's for about 6 months I became amazed at how Voodoo was able to maintain a good customer image in the minds of its existing customers even though posted problems should have produced contrary attitudes or at least a healthy skepticism. Were we all hypnotized by Kim or afraid to admit publicly that we had really spent that much money on a marginal product?

The snark had begun even by the time that I joined the club. I remember that every time someone posted something about a new purchase, many would immediately jump in with warnings about waiting periods.

Iago wrote:The snark had begun even by the time that I joined the club. I remember that every time someone posted something about a new purchase, many would immediately jump in with warnings about waiting periods.

But, that comment was invariably followed by one extolling the virtue of the wait because the product to be received was of such superior quality.

I actually met Kim. And I distinctly recall my first phone conversation with her, which went something like this: "Hi, we've received your order for your computer and you need to pay in full." Let the experience begin . . .

Voodoo did well selling its image and brand. However, like many things "high-end," there wasn't that much more going on inside a Voodoo PC to differentiate it from more modest-priced rivals. Mind you, that is a statement I would apply to many luxury goods, including, as examples, watches, hi-fi equipment and cars (though to a lesser degree). Indeed, there are some items that are different and worth the money, but consumers need to do their homework before purchasing. I don't regret my Voodoo purchase, but it was not a well-educated purchase. Let's face it, we mostly paid a premium for fancy cabling and a pretty case.

True, but the same is the case with any botique manufacturer. You are paying for bling, pure and simple. And hopefully VIP treatment to go with it, which is where Voodoo sometimes slipped up. My experience was fine, other than the wait (and to be fair to Voodoo, mine was literally one of the first SLi rigs to reach the market, so some delays were understandable.) But there were definitely some people (like ethelred) who had legitimate beefs.

Voodoo was pretty vocal about selling performance, too, often comparing their computers to Ferraris, suggesting that theirs was much faster than the competitions. Beyond modest overclocking, I was hard pressed to identify performance improvements, including their also-advertised BIOS improvements. To be honest, I made most of those tweaks myself.

That said, I still did like the looks of my Voodoo and the image Voodoo sold. Many of their staff were also awesome (Ryan, Rob and the viking dude, among many others) and extremely welcoming, offering suggestions for tweaking after the fact. That aspect of the Voodoo experience was very cool and worth every penny I spent.

Like I said, I was largely happy with my experience. I will never do something like that again, mind you.

right now his trying to discover the next big thing in computer. After reading lots of his interviews he pretty much says the same and usually the most obvious.


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