It's not as if I told you so. But, one of the analysts quoted in a story I wrote more than two years ago when SunRocket was trying to close a second round of funding actually did tell you so. Here's an excerpt from that April 2005 story in The Deal:

SunRocket raised $9.25 million in first-round funding last year from BlueRun Ventures of Menlo Park, Calif., and Anthem Capital of Santa Monica, Calif. SunRocket hopes to close a $15 million second round by the end of June. The startup has already received commitments for $6 million, Erikson says, and the balance is open to new investors.

But William Stofega, a senior research analyst for VoIP services at IDC, isn't sure there's still time to invest in a consumer VoIP offering. "The window is closing or maybe closed for consumer companies offering VoIP," he argues. To be successful now, a company would need to address a niche such as teenagers or people who need access to their data at home and in the office.

DCM and Mayfield Fund failed to heed Stofega's advice and decided to participate in that second round. (They've already removed SunRocket from the portfolio pages of their web sites.) The company ended up raising a total of $79 million. Other losers in the deal include Finnish concern Varma Mutual Pension Insurance, Washington-based Grosvenor Funds and Bru Venture Capital of Iceland.

For more on SunRocket's shuttering, see:
Michael Cerda
The Deal

Tags: sunrocket, dcm, mayfield, vg, vc, venture+capital