PubSub
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
PubSub (pubsub.com) was a prospective search engine founded in 2002 by Bob Wyman and Salim Ismail. It stored a user's search term as a subscription and checked it against blog posts, press releases, Usenet, USGS earthquake alerts, SEC filings and FAA flight-delay data - notifying the user when a new match appeared, even months later. It called itself a 'matching engine,' predating Google Alerts with real-time search results delivered on its website, browser sidebars, RSS, email or APIs.
02 / PubSub FAILURE REASONS
Why it failed
PubSub ran out of money in 2006. In a blog post, co-founder Bob Wyman wrote that 'our days are numbered': a merger attempt had been blocked and the company had been blocked from raising equity financing that would have let it keep paying salaries and pay off $3 million in debt. The website went offline from January to August 2007, and its assets were purchased by Something Simpler. A relaunched v2.0 appeared in November 2009, but it ceased operations in August 2013.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded
Bob Wyman and Salim Ismail founded PubSub as a prospective ('matching engine') search engine.
- Ran out of money
Co-founder Bob Wyman announced 'our days are numbered': a merger was blocked, equity financing was blocked, and the company owed $3 million in debt.
- Site offline; assets sold
The PubSub website was offline from January 15 to August 15, 2007; its assets were purchased by Something Simpler.
- Relaunch attempt
Something Simpler relaunched PubSub v2.0, publicly accessible from November 18, 2009.
- Ceased operations
PubSub ceased operations in August 2013.
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 / AFTERMATH
Lessons
PubSub was technically ahead of its time - a real-time search pioneer before Google Alerts - but being early wasn't enough: a blocked merger and blocked equity financing left it unable to service $3 million in debt. A technically admired product still needs a viable funding path; the asset sale and attempted relaunch show the technology had value even when the company couldn't sustain itself.