Golden was impressed by Skype’s innovation and its exploding popularity. But he soon understood that Skype would be a challenging investment; there was more “hair on the deal” than he had ever seen before, as he wrote in his investment note.[6] Accel was accustomed to backing solid, straight-arrow entrepreneurs, but Skype’s founders had been sued by the entertainment industry over online music theft. Accel favored startups that developed intellectual property that entrenched their market leadership; worryingly, Skype licensed its IP from a separate company and did not actually own it. Finally,
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