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"For four years we have offered the synchronization service for no charge, predicated on the hypothesis that a business model would emerge to support the free s
by aresant 16y ago
"For four years we have offered the synchronization service for no charge, predicated on the hypothesis that a business model would emerge to support the free service."
Not a bad hypothesis, one I see regularly but 90 days to close sure illustrates the downside and value of searching for that monetization model earlier rather than later.
- Tyrannosaurs 16y agoI think it's a fairly shocking hypothesis. My feeling was that the lesson from this is don't go into a business if you don't have at least a vague idea how you're going to make money out of it. I love XMarks and I'll absolutely miss it (and would have considered paying for it) but this would seem to be niaivity in the extreme.
- dillydally 16y agoIt was founded by Mitch Kapor. I think he knows a thing or two about starting companies...
- Tyrannosaurs 16y agoI don't care who founded them, they've just announced that they're closing citing a lack of a viable business model. That would seem to suggest that they might have thought about revenue a little earlier in the process and I have a feeling that with hindsight Mitch Kapor might agree.
- dillydally 16y agoFunny. Do you have any actual information about how early they tried to find a business model? I suspect you don't. So, the situation is this: we have a product lots of people want. The naive business model (freemium) won't work -- a simple back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that. What do you do? Go forward building a very popular product and look for a business model, or quit because you can't think of how to make money from day 1?