Sling Founders Slingshot Away

After what may have been the biggest and most important week in the life of Sling Media the visionaries behind the company are no longer with Sling.

Blake and Jason Krikorian were the brainchild’s behind the popular Slingbox device.  With a Slingbox you can watch and control your AV equipment from almost everywhere. With special software loaded onto PC’s, laptops and cell phones Slingbox owners could watch television programs from their home cable and satellite services anywhere. I personally consider the Slingbox one of the greatest electronic inventions of the last 10 years.

Sling Media was acquired in September 2007 by Echostar for $380 million in cash and stock.  Earlier this year at a Dish Network retailer’s conference in Nashville Dish Network Sling CEO Blake Krikorian announced that Sling and Echostar would be making a satellite receiver which merged Echostar’s award winning DVR technology with the power of a Slingbox. 

This new receiver called the “SlingLoaded” ViP 922 HD DVR was first shown publicly last week at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to rave reviews from members of the press.  However the Sling powered receiver was introduced by Echostar’s Mark Jackson and not Slings Blake Krikorian, something seemed strange there.

I spent a lot of time at the Sling Media booth at CES and I did not see either Krikorian on the show floor.  I was wondering why neither was there for Slings brightest moment in the spotlight.  This afternoon I got my answer when my phone started ringing off the hook letting me know of the departure of the Krikorian brothers and a number of other Sling executives.

I was not surprised to hear the news, I actually was expecting this awhile ago as it seems most execs usually leave their company after getting bought out. The corporate structure at Echostar is unlike any company I have ever dealt with and I can imagine going from being bosses to employees is not an easy move especially under the demanding conditions that Echostar is known to dish out.

 I have always thought of the brothers more as innovators and not executives.  Over the past year six new products have been introduced by Sling Media, which I feel is an incredible feat by any small tech company.

So what will be Jason and Blake do now that they are no longer with Sling?  That remains to be seen, but I hope that they continue to do what they have done best so far and that is to be amazing innovators.  Thank you guys for the Slingbox, it is an amazing product that I use every day!

I wish them all the best in their future endeavors!