Curious Fictions
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Curious Fictions was a Y Combinator-backed (Winter 2018) platform billed as a Patreon for professional authors. Founded by Tanya Breshears, a designer who previously worked at Airbnb, it was an uncluttered, mobile-friendly site where readers could discover short fiction, see each story's word count and estimated reading time, and tip the writers. It only accepted stories that had already been published elsewhere, keeping participation low-risk for authors, and offered a weekly featured story chosen by Breshears.
02 / Curious Fictions FAILURE REASONS
Failure factors supported by the current evidence
Locus (2 Aug 2021) quotes founder/CEO Tanya Breshears: Curious Fictions was no longer sustainable because subscriptions and payments never let the site pay for itself or justify more funding after only a little outside funding at first.
Breshears via Locus: subscriptions and payments never allowed the site to pay for itself.
Little outside funding at first; revenue never reached a level that would justify more funding.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Product or service closed
Locus 2 Aug 2021: Curious Fictions announced indefinite hiatus from 27 Aug 2021. Andrew Liptak 26 Aug 2021 (opened): founder said the site would become inaccessible on the 27th and go into hibernation.
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
At the end of July 2021, founder Tanya Breshears announced that Curious Fictions would wind down, writing that keeping the site going was no longer sustainable.
- 02
The site closed on August 27, 2021.
- 03
No bankruptcy filing, asset sale or creditor recovery was reported; the shutdown was a voluntary wind-down by a two-person team.
- 04
No reliable loss figure, loss subject, period or basis was publicly disclosed, so no loss amount is recorded.