Updated
3Guppies, a Seattle company that lets you take pictures with your cell phone and immediately post them to your blog or social network, has apparently been shut down by its investor, VantagePoint Venture Partners — an aggressive move that has left its founders stunned.
The company, originally named Mixxer, first came into existence through a complicated deal in which VantagePoint spent $20 million to buy two companies: MoPhone, a mobile social networking company, and 3Guploads, a ringtone company founded by students from the University of Indiana. MoPhone’s CEO, Bill Bryant, was chosen to lead the new entity. Within a year, VantagePoint had removed Bryant from the helm, but, our source tells us, not before he walked out the door with a significant (but unknown) amount of cash derived from the sale of his original company.
And now, apparently to the complete surprise of 3Guppies’ management and employees, VantagePoint has turned off the lights, even though 3Guppies still had around $8 million in the bank. Employees were sent home about a week ago, but will continue to get paid until the end of the month.
We’ve reached out to VantagePoint for comment. We’ll update when we know more.
[Update: VantagePoint has responded. The firm says that, contrary to our source's assertion, the CEO and senior management knew what was coming if they proved unable to deliver on a set of metrics sufficient to raise a second round. VantagePoint says that in November, the CEO presented a set of plans for going forward, and that one of these plans involved shutting down.
The firm also says 3Guppies did not have $8 million in the bank, as reported, but less than $3 million. It also denies that original CEO Bill Bryant left with a significant amount of cash. Instead, says VantagePoint, he assisted in finding his replacement, stayed on board as an adviser, and was compensated for that assistance. Of the decision to shut down, VantagePoint say, "it just was not a good idea to blast to the end of the runway and crash, but to taxi off gracefully."]
Tags: co:3guppies, inv:vantagepoint-venturepartners3 Comments
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Keith Chosen said:
I knew this company - who had AWESOME technology - was doomed from the moment the name of the product changed from MIXXER (great name) to 3GUPPIES (horrid name). Didn’t think it would happen this fast, though.
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Subbu Mahesh said:
Mobile advertising is projected by analysts to be a $10 billion market by 2009. Greystripe, a mobile startup company based out of San Francisco is spearheading this growth with its revolutionary AdWRAP platform.
Check us out at http://www.greystripe.com, we are interested in server (Java and Web) and mobile (J2ME)engineers.
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William Volk said:
I am very sorry to hear about the layoffs etc.
This is why, as difficult as it has been, having a model centered on a social marketplace … where the members are posting content for sale to mobile consumers, always made more sense to us than a ‘eyeballs’ play.
That’s what our social marketplace MyNuMo.com does, and we did it without VC investment. MyNuMo.com is a social community that provides the tools to enable independent creators to upload and sell their mobile content (ringtones, wallpapers, and videos) from any website. We took the time (over a year) to get the deals to allow for carrier billing and delivery. People expect to buy mobile content and have it charged to their phone bill.
This is part of our vision to be The Social Entertainment Company, which now includes a leadership position in iPhone entertainment.
William Volk
CEO, MyNuMo
6 Trackbacks
5:20 pm
VCs Push 3 Guppies Into The Deadpool said:
[...] having $8 million of an original $20 million (April 2006) left to burn in the bank. VentureBeat reports that the company’s 40 employees were sent home last week, but will be paid through the end of [...]
12:20 am
pod6 - SERENITY NOW! » Blog Archive » I know what I did last summer… swimming with the fishes. said:
[...] on the ropes, cuts staff VantagePoint Venture Partners kills 3Guppies, a $20M investment VCs Push 3Guppies Into The Deadpool 3Guppies Loses Funding, Cuts Staff VantagePoint Venture [...]
10:19 am
Mobile | Business Finance | Mortgages » Trouble At 3Guppies After VC Firm Yanks Investment; Layoffs, Confusion said:
[...] Venture Partners, have yanked its $20 million investment, effectively shutting the company down. VentureBeat says VantagePoint “turned off the lights” at 3Guppies and sent its employees home last [...]
1:57 pm
Mobile | Business Finance | Mortgages » VantagePoint Venture Partners shutters 3Guppies said:
[...] For more on 3Guppies’ demise:- read this VentureBeat article [...]
8:20 pm
VCs Push 3 Guppies Into The Deadpool — hometown.at said:
[...] $8 million of an original $20 million (raised in April 2006) left to burn in the bank. VentureBeat reports that the company’s 40 employees were sent home last week, but will be paid through the end of [...]
4:07 pm
Our Techno Lyrics » Blog Archive » VCs Push 3Guppies Into The Deadpool said:
[...] $8 million of an original $20 million (raised in April 2006) left to burn in the bank. VentureBeat reports that the company’s 40 employees were sent home last week, but will be paid through the end of [...]