I really hate to sound negative but all a former VP (or was it SVP?) at Google and an ex-CEO of Yahoo could come up for a startup idea is a new and improved contacts app.
Fair enough and perhaps in a few years my above comment would reach the same infamous status as the ones made on HN when Dropbox had launched. I wish the founders all the luck, I truly do.
Having said that, my comment was not at all about trivializing the idea or its future potential. A contact list can very well be the trojan horse to launch a new social network/IM platform.
My comment was more about that such founders have deep connections from the point of view of both access as well as availability of resources, have broad and deep insights due to their past experience and are obviously experienced and smart, and as such I would have liked them to tackle harder problems. That is all.