Snowball
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
Some sections are still being researched1 / 4
Sections to complete：02
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Snowball was a San Francisco startup founded by Anish Acharya and Jeson Patel. Its Android app unified messaging across WhatsApp, Snapchat, Facebook Messenger, SMS, Line, WeChat, Twitter and Slack into one inbox, reached via a floating snowman mascot ('Steve'). It later pivoted to a 'priority inbox' for phone notifications. It raised a $2.3 million seed round (October 2014) from First Round Capital, Google Ventures and Felicis Ventures, and reported 250,000 downloads with tens of thousands of daily users.
02 / FAILURE REASONS
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Launch and funding
Snowball launches its unified-messaging Android app and raises a $2.3 million seed round from First Round Capital, Google Ventures and Felicis Ventures.
- Acquired and shut down
On December 30, 2015 Snowball is acqui-hired by Credit Karma; the app is removed from the Google Play store, maintained for three months, then shut down with all data deleted. Credit Karma did not use any of Snowball's IP.
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
Acqui-hired by Credit Karma, announced December 30, 2015; terms undisclosed.
- 02
App removed from Google Play, wound down over 3 months; data deleted.
- 03
No reliable company-level loss figure disclosed.