Synapse Corporate Solutions has decided to sell off its productivity suite, SynapseLife, by putting it up on eBay yesterday. It therefore enters the TechCrunch Deadpool of dead or dying companies.
The auction has started at $50,000. The eBay auction has become a cheap way for small companies to make an exit or sell of their lagging technology (see Kiko and Zookoda). SynapseLife has had a tough time, being sandwiched between more robust productivity management applications like Zimbra, Scrybe, and even the hipper Goowy.
Co-founder Daniel Rust says the sell off is so they can move away from the competitive corporate solutions market and focus on their Down2Night nightlife SMS alert product. Down2Night alerts users to special events and deals happening at venues in their area (currently only for San Francisco and Seattle).
The company’s team of 4, along with some sub-contractors, has been working on SynapseLife since last July. The value of the sale will mostly be attributed to the application’s technology, but the service has also attracted 4,500 users.
hmmm…i’ve checked out down2night…not sure if that’s a more viable company than synapse life. the localized service offering is even more crowded w/ yelp, citysearch, judy’s book not to mention google and yahoo.
Looks like a cool service…good luck!
There really is no premier online nightlife guide out there. Citysearch and Yelp are far too broad, Google and Yahoo…well forget about it. The closest sites now, I believe, are ImThere, Groovr, and CollegeTonight (thought you need an .edu address to sign up). I really don’t believe that mobile is the way to go in this market though, besides maybe user-initiated. I get texts all the time from local promoters and, though I’m a 20-something social butterfly, I delete them on the spot.
I think BarFrog came closest to creating a pure network (in Boston at least). They had a cult following - both an on and offline following, which is sometimes more powerful than just an online one. With this kind of member love and a little cash in their pocket, I predict BarFrog will come out on top.
BTW isn’t it better to sell one’s site on siteforum or Sedo?
Any thoughts Michael?
Man eBay is sweet. We’ll see what it was truly worth now.
Pretty cool that this is an option for these companies, and it’s interesting besides.
I actually just put my own high traffic sites for sale on ebay too.
http://cgi.ebay.com/High-Traff.....dZViewItem
Michael,
Once this gets sold, its time for another recap of eBay auctioned companies
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006.....a-auction/
Interesting. I actually reviewed down2night on my blog last week. It seems like a cool service, once it expands. Hopefully it’ll do well now they’re concentrating on it.
Interesting: it seems the auction virus is back. Feedostyle tried it a few weeks ago (wasnt that profiled on Techcrunch?) and now Feedyes.com is trying it as well I read on Mashable: http://www.feedyes.com/auction.php
I think this is potentially a good thing for the SynapseLife product’s success. As a small company, Synapse Corporate Solutions seems to not have the necessary funds to throughly promote the application at the level it deserves. I have been a member of SynapseLife since they launched it last year, and have found it very usefull for both my personal and professional activities.
Hopefully whomever gets the opportunity to purchase the application will retain the developer under contract to further its creative development. I believe it has potential for a long and fruitful life… Good Luck Synapse, its been a pleasure using your services… Sam Inspireus
I know why they want to sell their site… They fear competition… They are coward that’s why.
You got bunch of talent programmers out there suffer heartache.
“Co-founder Daniel Rust says the sell off is so they can move away from the competitive corporate solutions market and focus on their Down2Night nightlife SMS alert product.”
Good luck with that. It’s an interesting transition from the corporate solutions market to the mobile and nightlife markets. I don’t necessarily think Down2Night really solves a huge pain and to be financially successful with an SMS product, you need to have a huge volume.
“There really is no premier online nightlife guide out there. Citysearch and Yelp are far too broad, Google and Yahoo…well forget about it. The closest sites now, I believe, are ImThere, Groovr, and CollegeTonight (thought you need an .edu address to sign up).”
Uhm ever heard of EventVibe.com? There are a lot of popular online nightlife sites that far surpass the “Web 2.0″ services. In addition, MySpace is a haven for nightlife promoters.
I like the idea of businesses being sold on eBay…
Mobile media sharing service Mojungle was successfully acquired recently after posting itself for sale on eBay as well. Although, the Mojungle guys pulled the listing before it closed and finalized the sale offline it seems.
Mashable’s post: http://mashable.com/2007/03/06/mojungle-2/
Press Release: http://digital50.com/news/item.....-inc-.html
OnlineVideoStar.com for sale!!!
Down2Night is different from other event sites in its use of rss feeds sms’d to your phone and user voting. Services like Attendio and Eventful come closer.
Sell out… Sell out….
I guess Zoho drive Synapselife programmers nuts. Does Synapselife have badluck? If so, I don’t want to buy it. Give it to someone else….
ever heard of evenvibe?? No… After looking at it though I can see why I haven’t.
Once this gets sold, its time for another recap of eBay auctioned companie
Some way to set off losses.
http://www.tekno-world.blogspot.com
Business being sold on eBay is not that common. Who knows how many others will follow. Sucks that they’re taking the easy way out though.
Developing is always more lucrative.
OhCash
@19:
I said the EXACT same thing. LOL.
I saw the listing on ebay…it really seems to be a deadpool candidate…even there nobody is willing to pick it up..
23 its still early even Kiko a couple of days to get a bid.
I think you need a policy as to whether companies should move into the deadpool when they put themselves up for auction or when the auction is completed
http://interviews.direcpod.com.....-life-cell interview with the Co-founders
Awww, I like Zookoda, I thought it was a very good service, tis a pity they are on the ‘dying companies’ list
I’d hate to rain on their parade but this app is a work in progress. Checked out their “calendar” and there’s basically no error checking.
Examples:
- Neglect to put a name for the event and the event becomes undeletable
- Put rubbish in the date field, and the event “disappears”.
- Put a multi day event and the event only shows up on that day itself.
Now having said that, the UI looks slick… so if I had a working app but crappy UI, I might consider buying this just for the slick looks, but at the end of the day this app really is still pre-alpha… I mean its nice that there’s “9 apps!”… but they’re pretty shallow IMHO.
Also kudos to the team for knowing when to quit tho.. take a page out of the Kiko guys.. they dumped their “me-too” calendar and launched a kick-ass mobile-cam technology startup that’s getting all the buzz!
$60K! Nice chunk of change to put towards your efforts on Down2Night.com. Congrats!