flowgram
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Flowgram let users create interactive screencasts out of live websites. A Flowgram looked like a narrated screencast, except viewers could scroll the pages, watch embedded videos, click live links and add comments, then share the result through an embeddable widget. It was founded in 2008 by Abhay Parekh, the co-founder of FastForward Networks and a former Accel venture partner.
02 / flowgram FAILURE REASONS
Failure factors
despite reviews and a core user base, Flowgram could not show Flowgrams would be prevalent enough to monetize via ads or subscriptions, especially in then-current economic times—so the service was terminated.
Could not demonstrate adequate monetization via ads or subscriptions.
Could not show Flowgrams would be prevalent enough to sustain the business.
Founder cited especially difficult economic times.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Service launched
Abhay Parekh launches Flowgram, a service for creating interactive screencasts with live websites; the company raises $1.3 million from angels including Reid Hoffman and Stewart Butterfield.
- Service terminated
Parekh emails users that Flowgram will terminate on June 30, 2009, saying the company could never demonstrate the product would be prevalent enough to monetize through ads or subscriptions.
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
Flowgram raised $1.3 million from angel investors including Reid Hoffman, Stewart Butterfield, Joi Ito, Josh Kopelman and Bud Colligan.
- 02
The service was terminated on June 30, 2009, after the company failed to find a monetization path.
- 03
No reliable loss figure with a clear subject, period and basis exists, so no loss amount is recorded.