Comments on: VCs Push 3Guppies Into The Deadpool http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/ Startup and Technology News Sun, 07 Sep 2008 09:26:23 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Kazeluwo http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-2460609 Kazeluwo Sat, 06 Sep 2008 14:25:23 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-2460609 Hi webmaster! Hi webmaster!

]]> By: Greentech Media: Green Light » Blog Archive » VantagePoint Ventures Gives Jim Woolsey A Special Parking Space for the Black Helicopter http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-2316091 Greentech Media: Green Light » Blog Archive » VantagePoint Ventures Gives Jim Woolsey A Special Parking Space for the Black Helicopter Wed, 21 May 2008 15:09:05 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-2316091 [...] is known for its big rounds and deep bench. Outside of greentech, the VC firm is well known for torpedoing one of its own web companies back in December. The hand to hand combat experience Jim Woolsey picked up in the jungles will serve him well around [...] [...] is known for its big rounds and deep bench. Outside of greentech, the VC firm is well known for torpedoing one of its own web companies back in December. The hand to hand combat experience Jim Woolsey picked up in the jungles will serve him well around [...]

]]> By: Reutan http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1896586 Reutan Thu, 03 Jan 2008 03:21:48 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1896586 Even weirder...the website still works. I just sent myself a ringtone just yesterday...but if it's going down soon, I still want to know the details on the file conversion. x.x Even weirder…the website still works. I just sent myself a ringtone just yesterday…but if it’s going down soon, I still want to know the details on the file conversion. x.x

]]> By: alfonso http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1893460 alfonso Tue, 01 Jan 2008 20:06:45 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1893460 i just got charged for a subscription renewal by 3guppies.... then i find out they tanked and their website is shutdown ...how do i get a refund? i just got charged for a subscription renewal by 3guppies…. then i find out they tanked and their website is shutdown …how do i get a refund?

]]> By: William Volk http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1861784 William Volk Fri, 21 Dec 2007 15:49:25 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1861784 Sorry to hear about the layoffs etc... It looks like bootstrapping MyNuMo (http://mynumo.com) was the right move here. Not only is our community thriving, we have also achieved a leadership role on iPhone entertainment. One key difference is that we did make the deals with the carriers to obtain carrier billing for user generated content. People simply won't buy mobile content that is not charged to their phone bill. Sorry to hear about the layoffs etc…

It looks like bootstrapping MyNuMo (http://mynumo.com) was the right move here. Not only is our community thriving, we have also achieved a leadership role on iPhone entertainment.

One key difference is that we did make the deals with the carriers to obtain carrier billing for user generated content. People simply won’t buy mobile content that is not charged to their phone bill.

]]> By: Next Up http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1859061 Next Up Thu, 20 Dec 2007 19:21:10 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1859061 SendMeMobile, just bought Mbuzzy.com. This is a very similar situation of a venture backed storefront/community play and I bet they are next to fall! According to Alexa, 3guppies.com has more traffic than Sendmemobile.com and mbuzzy.com combined! Backed By Spark Capital and True Ventures SendMeMobile, just bought Mbuzzy.com. This is a very similar situation of a venture backed storefront/community play and I bet they are next to fall!

According to Alexa, 3guppies.com has more traffic than Sendmemobile.com and mbuzzy.com combined!

Backed By Spark Capital and True Ventures

]]> By: Anti Fake Steve http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1858360 Anti Fake Steve Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:48:29 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1858360 Fake Steve, What happened to your links on that last post? You spent so much time coming up with such a contributing response - "lol" - that you deserve the links back to your hilarious blog. Fake Steve,

What happened to your links on that last post? You spent so much time coming up with such a contributing response - “lol” - that you deserve the links back to your hilarious blog.

]]> By: Frank http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1858032 Frank Thu, 20 Dec 2007 11:16:30 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1858032 Um, “evolving the company beyond this combined service proved too difficult,” is rather kind. Does anybody remember when 3GUpload was the most thriving mobile community around personalization in existence? Following the investment, they simply slapped a storefront on top of a community, and guess what….that community died. Rarely does one see such a great position squandered so swiftly by such clearly misdirected VC strategy than with 3GUpload. Um, “evolving the company beyond this combined service proved too difficult,” is rather kind.

Does anybody remember when 3GUpload was the most thriving mobile community around personalization in existence?

Following the investment, they simply slapped a storefront on top of a community, and guess what….that community died.

Rarely does one see such a great position squandered so swiftly by such clearly misdirected VC strategy than with 3GUpload.

]]> By: Raul Lopez http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1857484 Raul Lopez Thu, 20 Dec 2007 07:14:15 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1857484 3guppies laid off employees: Please send resumes to info@pugmedia.com, we are looking for good people for our software division and partner companies. RAUL 3guppies laid off employees:

Please send resumes to info@pugmedia.com, we are looking for good people for our software division and partner companies.

RAUL

]]> By: Rich Eicher http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1857248 Rich Eicher Thu, 20 Dec 2007 05:19:48 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1857248 Moblogging is a feature not a business. There is no viable business model (for making serious VC money at least) in moblogging in 2007/2008/2009.... When I was pitching VC's 2 years ago that’s all they were asking about.. and I will tell you what I told them... just because its good mobile idea doesn’t mean you can make money from it. - You cannot charge for it unless you use an MMS shortcode (which is only available on Verizon currently) - You can try to advertise on the widget....but people don’t like that... chicken and the egg. - It is now provided for free by half the photo sites because the technology was so easy to duplicate. As for the technology.... It's not rocket science to receive an email from any US phone, its the same as any other email except the phone number is in the FROM field. Just parse that out and store it. My guess is they were using moblogging to get the subscribers on the site and then sell them ringtone/wallpaper services. Since the ringtone business is commoditized with a few large storefronts, sharing communities and many "DO IT YOURSELF" apps, they must have decided that it was not worth losing the rest of their money just to be another mediocre 'sharing community/marketplace for ringtones' with no exit in sight. Mophone.com was a great site, one of the early innovators in mobile social communities and its too bad they got rid of it and choose to do mixxer . Moblogging is a feature not a business. There is no viable business model (for making serious VC money at least) in moblogging in 2007/2008/2009…. When I was pitching VC’s 2 years ago that’s all they were asking about.. and I will tell you what I told them… just because its good mobile idea doesn’t mean you can make money from it.

- You cannot charge for it unless you use an MMS shortcode (which is only available on Verizon currently)

- You can try to advertise on the widget….but people don’t like that… chicken and the egg.

- It is now provided for free by half the photo sites because the technology was so easy to duplicate.

As for the technology….
It’s not rocket science to receive an email from any US phone, its the same as any other email except the phone number is in the FROM field. Just parse that out and store it.

My guess is they were using moblogging to get the subscribers on the site and then sell them ringtone/wallpaper services. Since the ringtone business is commoditized with a few large storefronts, sharing communities and many “DO IT YOURSELF” apps, they must have decided that it was not worth losing the rest of their money just to be another mediocre ’sharing community/marketplace for ringtones’ with no exit in sight.

Mophone.com was a great site, one of the early innovators in mobile social communities and its too bad they got rid of it and choose to do mixxer
.

]]> By: Wes http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1857199 Wes Thu, 20 Dec 2007 04:34:07 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1857199 Maybe they got into the mobile ring tone market at the wrong time. I think good timing is very important. Maybe they got into the mobile ring tone market at the wrong time. I think good timing is very important.

]]> By: Pud http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1857182 Pud Thu, 20 Dec 2007 04:22:06 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1857182 Wow I have never heard of 3guppies, but it looks just like a site I used to run (for fun... no $20m investment), and recently shut down. Here's the story: http://www.pud.com/2007/11/mobog.html Wow I have never heard of 3guppies, but it looks just like a site I used to run (for fun… no $20m investment), and recently shut down.

Here’s the story:
http://www.pud.com/2007/11/mobog.html

]]> By: Ballmer http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1857165 Ballmer Thu, 20 Dec 2007 04:16:06 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1857165 lol fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com lol
fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

]]> By: Joel Strellner http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1857045 Joel Strellner Thu, 20 Dec 2007 03:21:41 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1857045 Sorry, but it should be, "VantagePoint then realized the combination would<b>n't</b> pay off to be the big hit they were looking for and pulled the plug on the operation." Theres a big difference. between you version and the intended one. Sorry, but it should be, “VantagePoint then realized the combination wouldn’t pay off to be the big hit they were looking for and pulled the plug on the operation.”

Theres a big difference. between you version and the intended one.

]]> By: Raj http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1856825 Raj Thu, 20 Dec 2007 02:00:33 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1856825 Nick, Have you seen ToneThis? http://www.tonethis.com - this model like Xingtone seems to be working... Raj Nick,

Have you seen ToneThis?

http://www.tonethis.com - this model like Xingtone seems to be working…

Raj

]]> By: Scott W. http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1856810 Scott W. Thu, 20 Dec 2007 01:55:20 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1856810 There's either a missing negating word from the first sentence of the last paragraph or VantagePoint hates success. There’s either a missing negating word from the first sentence of the last paragraph or VantagePoint hates success.

]]> By: Eric Eldon http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1856770 Eric Eldon Thu, 20 Dec 2007 01:43:14 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/vcs-push-3-guppies-into-the-deadpool/#comment-1856770 Nick, Here's an update from VantagePoint. http://venturebeat.com/2007/12/19/vantagepoint-venture-partners-puts-a-3guppies-a-20mm-investment-to-death/ Thanks, Eric Nick,

Here’s an update from VantagePoint.

http://venturebeat.com/2007/12.....-to-death/

Thanks,
Eric

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