Count us as one of the people that had been intrigued by Kansas search engine start-up kozoru (even if we weren't fans of the name). Company founder John Flowers was a bit eccentric, but they seemed to trying to do something different.

Alas, kozoru's original business plan has not panned out as hoped, and we are all still waiting for a product.

Now comes a scathing article in The Pitch, a Kansas City publication that digs into Flowers' background and comes away unimpressed.

On more than one occasion, Flowers has compared kozoru with the Manhattan Project. He's undoubtedly intelligent and knowledgeable. But like A Million Little Pieces author James Frey, a talented writer who embellished the facts of his addiction to drugs and alcohol, Flowers is not all that he says he is. The daring of his hacking exploits is disputed. He lied to the state of Kansas about his education....

A "serial entrepreneur" in denim, Flowers has dazzled the local business community. But his relocation here looks as much like the arrival of a Silicon Valley washout as it does the coming of a hero.

Flowers has made it clear that he wouldn't mind selling the company. At the same, The Pitch notes, kozoru is due to release product next month. As the paper says, "A successful launch would quiet doubters.''

Stay tuned.

(Also see this Kansas Cty Business Journal story.)

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