Hello Chair
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Hello, Chair Inc. was a San Francisco startup founded in 2006 by Luke Iannini, Mike Jacobs and Kevin Corcoran to explore applied machine learning and internet advertising, entering Y Combinator’s Summer 2007 batch. After YC funding it produced Adpinion, one of the first advertising networks to use user feedback for personalized targeting, and later applied machine learning to ad targeting and App Store discoverability.
02 / Hello Chair FAILURE REASONS
Failure factors supported by the current evidence
The available evidence points to a lack of market need: Hello, Chair’s applied-machine-learning advertising products never found durable commercial traction. The company raised under $1 million, operated for a few years after Y Combinator, and wound down around 2010 without reaching a sustainable business.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Company founded
Luke Iannini, Mike Jacobs and Kevin Corcoran found Hello, Chair Inc. in San Francisco to explore applied machine learning and internet advertising.
- Funding round
Hello, Chair enters Y Combinator’s Summer 2007 batch and produces Adpinion, an early user-feedback-driven ad network.
- Operations ended
Hello, Chair winds down around 2010.
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
Applied machine learning for internet advertising (YC Summer 2007)
- 02
Adpinion: early ad network using user feedback for targeting
- 03
Raised under $1M; never found durable commercial traction
- 04
Wound down around 2010