Booktrope
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Booktrope was a Seattle-based hybrid publisher founded by Andy Roberts, Katherine Sears, Heather Ludviksson and Ken Shear. It pioneered 'team publishing': ad hoc teams of authors, editors, designers and marketers used its platform to create and market print books and e-books, sharing revenue instead of paying upfront costs. Its proprietary Teamtrope software matched authors with creative professionals. The company published almost 1,000 books across imprints including Forsaken, Gravity, Edge, Entice and Vox Dei, getting over 4 million copies into readers' hands. It raised $1.2 million in seed funding led by Khosla Ventures in 2015 and ceased operations on May 31, 2016.
02 / Booktrope FAILURE REASONS
Failure factors supported by the current evidence
GeekWire (30 Apr 2016) quoted Booktrope CEO Ken Shear, CTO Andy Roberts and COO Jennifer Gilbert telling users that, despite about 1,000 team-published books, Booktrope titles had not generated sufficient revenues to make the business viable.
Executives wrote that Booktrope books did not generate sufficient revenues to make the business viable.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded in Seattle
Booktrope was founded in Seattle, building a team-publishing platform where creative teams shared revenue from book sales.
- Seattle Angel Conference win
The company won the Seattle Angel Conference competition in November 2013, securing $250,000 in investment.
- Y Combinator and $1.2M seed
Booktrope joined Y Combinator's winter 2015 batch and raised $1.2 million in seed funding led by Khosla Ventures.
- Managed shutdown
In April 2016 management announced the business was no longer financially viable; Booktrope ceased operations on May 31, 2016, paying all earned royalties and returning source files to authors.
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
Booktrope raised $1.2 million in seed funding led by Khosla Ventures in 2015, following its Y Combinator winter batch.
- 02
On April 29, 2016 the company announced a managed shutdown; it ceased operations on May 31, 2016, citing a revenue shortfall and changes in the book market.
- 03
The shutdown was managed: the company paid authors and creative team members all royalties earned, returned source files for republication, and reverted rights to authors on June 1.
- 04
No reliable realized loss figure with clear subject, period and basis has been disclosed; funding raised is not a loss.