FAILDEX失樂園
中文
← Back to archive

Fresco News

The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.

Event year2017

01 / WHAT IT BUILT

What the company did

Fresco News was a citizen journalism platform founded in 2014 by 19-year-old Thiel fellow John Meyer. Its iOS and Android apps gave users location-based assignments from TV newsrooms; users captured photos or videos at the scene, Fresco's content team curated submissions, and contributors were paid when their footage aired. The company partnered with Fox Television Stations across 11 markets and launched an Apple TV app in January 2016. Investors included Ashton Kutcher.

02 / Fresco News FAILURE REASONS

Failure reasons

Fresco News ran out of money. It missed at least 10 payroll periods between 2016 and 2017, and by June 2017 could not pay its roughly 40 employees for a full month. Founder John Meyer promised staff a multi-million dollar partnership was about to close, but the deal fell through nine days later and everyone was laid off effective immediately. The consumer citizen-journalism model never generated enough revenue to sustain the newsroom-style curation operation.

03 / EVENT HISTORY

Events in the structured record

  1. Company founded

    19-year-old Thiel fellow John Meyer founds Fresco News, a citizen journalism app.

  2. Partnerships and TV app

    Fresco partners with Fox Television Stations in 11 markets and launches an Apple TV app curating user-submitted news coverage.

  3. Collapse

    After missing at least 10 payrolls, Fresco cannot pay staff for a full month by June 2017; a promised rescue partnership falls through and all employees are laid off effective immediately.

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.

Rebuild difficultyPending assessmentNot completed
Scoring basisNot completed
ScalabilityPending assessmentNot completed
Scoring basisNot completed

Overall assessment: Not completed

05 / CAUSAL CHAIN

How the factors connect

  1. 01

    Fresco News was backed by investors including Ashton Kutcher.

  2. 02

    Between 2016 and 2017 the company missed at least 10 payroll periods.

  3. 03

    In June 2017 the company could not pay employees for a full month; a multi-million dollar partnership the founder promised fell through nine days later.

  4. 04

    All roughly 40 employees were laid off effective immediately in mid-2017.

  5. 05

    No reliable loss figure with a clear subject, period and basis exists, so no loss amount is recorded.