3 ms·

I signed up for a trial of Mattermark a month ago. Within several minutes I learned that: 1. Their database is terribly outdated. A company that was funded by

by gk1 9y ago

I signed up for a trial of Mattermark a month ago. Within several minutes I learned that: 1. Their database is terribly outdated. A company that was funded by X two years ago did not show up in a search for companies funded by X. 2. Their "show contact info" feature wasn't working. That's not an easter-egg feature; that's the feature they're selling! After several frustrating minutes I thought, "People pay for this?!" Evidently not. To be clear, I don't wish this on anyone. I have friends who've had to sell their company for peanuts, and I had a pleasant chat with the Mattermark CEO just recently, but what do you expect when you enter a crowded market with a product that isn't delivering on its basic promise?

rmason 9y ago
I'm left wondering what sort of due diligence their B round investors did if Mattermark's app was really all that bad?
- jacquesm 9y ago
  At a guess, not a whole lot. And that is far more common than you would think.
minimaxir 9y ago
It’s worth nothing that employees have been leaving Mattermark gradually over the past year, which could explain an out-of-date database/features if there isn’t anyone to update it.
- confiscate 9y ago
  Yes, exactly. I see a lot of these comments on HN made by folks from-the-outside-looking-in. "I tried out this product. It had this bug I noticed that affected me a lot. By extension, this entire company will fail." That's like saying, I went to a restaurant. I noticed the silverware is a bit dirty, thus the shop will close down. Usually the commenter is someone who works in a specialized day job. Like an engineer :) Or silverware washer at a restaurant. Someone who sees and handles a narrow part of the picture. There are many possible reasons why Mattermark closed down. I am sad to see it. But it is probably not due to a specific feature or bug. There are probably reasons beyond the description in the article that led to the disappointing outcome. I hope Techcrunch will be able to find the reasons behind this so other startups can learn and avoid future tragedies :(
  - gk1 9y ago
    No, this is more like a pizza place that can't make good pizza. Oh and there are reports that they weren't able to sell their pizza: > We’re told that it was hard to convince people to pay for the business intel in a competitive landscape that includes Crunchbase, PitchBook and CB Insights.
    - confiscate 9y ago
      Yes, so the problem is not that the pizza quality is not good enough in some way. It's way bigger than that. It's that it's hard to convince people to even buy pizza. That's a much bigger-picture issue than saying "pizza not fresh, so they will close down". Put another way, making the pizza fresher, is not going to substantially improve the situation. Fixing the issues you saw (e.g. update the database to be super fresh, fix the contact feature so it is 100% working) will not get Mattermark out of it's current situation (unfortunately)
      - deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]

by gk1 9y ago

rmason 9y ago

I'm left wondering what sort of due diligence their B round investors did if Mattermark's app was really all that bad?

jacquesm 9y ago
At a guess, not a whole lot. And that is far more common than you would think.

minimaxir 9y ago

It’s worth nothing that employees have been leaving Mattermark gradually over the past year, which could explain an out-of-date database/features if there isn’t anyone to update it.

confiscate 9y ago
Yes, exactly. I see a lot of these comments on HN made by folks from-the-outside-looking-in. "I tried out this product. It had this bug I noticed that affected me a lot. By extension, this entire company will fail." That's like saying, I went to a restaurant. I noticed the silverware is a bit dirty, thus the shop will close down. Usually the commenter is someone who works in a specialized day job. Like an engineer :) Or silverware washer at a restaurant. Someone who sees and handles a narrow part of the picture. There are many possible reasons why Mattermark closed down. I am sad to see it. But it is probably not due to a specific feature or bug. There are probably reasons beyond the description in the article that led to the disappointing outcome. I hope Techcrunch will be able to find the reasons behind this so other startups can learn and avoid future tragedies :(
- gk1 9y ago
  No, this is more like a pizza place that can't make good pizza. Oh and there are reports that they weren't able to sell their pizza: > We’re told that it was hard to convince people to pay for the business intel in a competitive landscape that includes Crunchbase, PitchBook and CB Insights.
  - confiscate 9y ago
    Yes, so the problem is not that the pizza quality is not good enough in some way. It's way bigger than that. It's that it's hard to convince people to even buy pizza. That's a much bigger-picture issue than saying "pizza not fresh, so they will close down". Put another way, making the pizza fresher, is not going to substantially improve the situation. Fixing the issues you saw (e.g. update the database to be super fresh, fix the contact feature so it is 100% working) will not get Mattermark out of it's current situation (unfortunately)
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]