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> But the startup faced challenges. Its price tag of $80 million represents less than what it raised over the years in venture capital, according to PitchBook.

> But the startup faced challenges. Its price tag of $80 million represents less than what it raised over the years in venture capital, according to PitchBook. It's a shame that they sold for less than their funding. The product is significantly better than other lyric sites, and has been for a long time without a hint of decent competition. It's partially been superseded by lyric integration in Spotify, but it still fills a useful niche, and does it well.

jollybean 5y ago
People on this thread are lamenting the loss, but really failing to grasp how much money was spent on a fairly simple thing, and that is for a very narrow audience/use case. The economics for that are really, really bad and likely the only way it's even good, and that some people know about it is via their funding. Genius is really not well known outside a demo, and they don't rank hugely well in interactivity. While there is definitely a 'core user base' and a legit value proposition, it's nowhere near the valuations they were talking.
- acdha 5y ago
  > While there is definitely a 'core user base' and a legit value proposition, it's nowhere near the valuations they were talking. That's the key thing: if I'm reading things right, they had hundreds of employees and offices in Brooklyn. I'd easily believe that they could be profitable with, say, dozens of employees and probably a cheaper location but an ad-supported site with an audience which generally isn't buying much or sticking around on the site for a long time seems really hard to square with that kind of burn rate.
  - jollybean 5y ago
    It was a party/hustle from the beginning. These guys have a VICE-like ethos.
    - acdha 5y ago
      It sounded like someone's hobby site which got unexpectedly big — which, hey, good for them but that's definitely not “… and now we're ready to be a 9-figure company”.
      - jollybean 5y ago
        The origin story is that 3 young urban hustlers talking giant miles of smack, making ridiculous claims on the 'pitch stage' in full Millenial bloom, managed to convince some major players that they were onto something huge. I think their talent and boldness convinced some investors to go along, though the total investment seems to be a bit much.
dragonwriter 5y ago
> The product is significantly better than other lyric sites And...how much are people willing to pay for (annotated or not) song lyrics?

jollybean 5y ago

People on this thread are lamenting the loss, but really failing to grasp how much money was spent on a fairly simple thing, and that is for a very narrow audience/use case. The economics for that are really, really bad and likely the only way it's even good, and that some people know about it is via their funding. Genius is really not well known outside a demo, and they don't rank hugely well in interactivity. While there is definitely a 'core user base' and a legit value proposition, it's nowhere near the valuations they were talking.

acdha 5y ago
> While there is definitely a 'core user base' and a legit value proposition, it's nowhere near the valuations they were talking. That's the key thing: if I'm reading things right, they had hundreds of employees and offices in Brooklyn. I'd easily believe that they could be profitable with, say, dozens of employees and probably a cheaper location but an ad-supported site with an audience which generally isn't buying much or sticking around on the site for a long time seems really hard to square with that kind of burn rate.
- jollybean 5y ago
  It was a party/hustle from the beginning. These guys have a VICE-like ethos.
  - acdha 5y ago
    It sounded like someone's hobby site which got unexpectedly big — which, hey, good for them but that's definitely not “… and now we're ready to be a 9-figure company”.
    - jollybean 5y ago
      The origin story is that 3 young urban hustlers talking giant miles of smack, making ridiculous claims on the 'pitch stage' in full Millenial bloom, managed to convince some major players that they were onto something huge. I think their talent and boldness convinced some investors to go along, though the total investment seems to be a bit much.

dragonwriter 5y ago

> The product is significantly better than other lyric sites And...how much are people willing to pay for (annotated or not) song lyrics?