3guppies
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
3Guppies was a Seattle-based mobile content company. Backed by a $20 million investment from VantagePoint Venture Partners in 2006, it built a widget that let users push pictures, videos, and other content from their MySpace pages to mobile phones, and sold ringtones and screensavers. Earlier in 2007 it claimed more than 750,000 unique monthly visitors.
02 / 3guppies FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
3Guppies was shut down by its own investor. Despite the $20 million invested, the company could not deliver the metrics needed to raise a second round, so VantagePoint Venture Partners pulled its funding and closed the business in December 2007 - a rare move by a venture firm. VantagePoint said the company had under $3 million remaining and that 'taxiing off gracefully' beat 'blasting to the end of the runway and crashing.' The company had also cycled through three names in under two years (MoPhone/3Guploads to Mixxer to 3Guppies), a sign it struggled to find a viable product.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- $20M VantagePoint investment
VantagePoint Venture Partners spends $20 million to buy MoPhone and 3Guploads and merge them into a new mobile content company, first named Mixxer.
- Rebrand to 3Guppies
The company rebrands to 3Guppies - its third name - and centers its business on a widget that pushes MySpace content to mobile phones, claiming over 750,000 unique monthly visitors.
- Investor-led shutdown
In December 2007, VantagePoint pulls its funding and forces 3Guppies to shut down operations; most of the 40-person staff is cut and new orders stop.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
In December 2007, VantagePoint Venture Partners pulled its investment and forced 3Guppies to shut down operations: employees were sent home and the company stopped accepting new orders.
- 02
Most of the 40-person staff was cut, and VantagePoint worked to sell its majority stake back to the management team; the firm said the company had under $3 million remaining.
- 03
No bankruptcy filing was documented; the closure was an investor-led wind-down.