moli
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Moli (short for 'Money and Living') was a Florida-based social network founded in 2006 by former E*Trade CEO Christos Cotsakos and based in West Palm Beach. Its differentiator was the ability to show different profiles to different sets of contacts — personal, business and family — via a patent-pending platform called CoVibe, along with e-commerce capabilities for small businesses. Cotsakos put $20 million of his own money into the venture and the company raised $29.6 million more in private investment. Launched publicly at DEMO in January 2008, it never rose above 2.5 million monthly visitors; after two rounds of layoffs from a peak staff of about 55, TechCrunch placed Moli in the deadpool in November 2008.
02 / moli FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Moli was a me-too social network founded in 2006, long after the social networking train had left the station. Despite a whopping $55.6 million raised and a roster of high-profile backers (including Home Depot co-founders Bernard Marcus and Kenneth Langone), it could not compete with Facebook and MySpace: the site never got above 2.5 million monthly visitors. A big round of layoffs in September 2008 cut all but ~15 people, and most of the rest were cut the following week — leaving only a handful keeping the lights on hoping for a sale that was unlikely to happen.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Company founded
Christos Cotsakos founds Moli in West Palm Beach, Florida, investing $20 million of his own money.
- Launch
Moli launches publicly at DEMO in January 2008 with 241,000 registered members, offering multiple profiles and small-business e-commerce tools.
- Funding
Moli raises another $29.6 million in private investment, bringing total raised to $55.6 million.
- Deadpool
After two rounds of layoffs from ~55 employees, TechCrunch places Moli in the deadpool in November 2008.
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
Moli raised a total of $55.6 million: $20 million of founder Christos Cotsakos's own money plus $29.6 million in private investment from backers including Bernard Marcus and Kenneth Langone.
- 02
The company was wound down after 2008 with no reported sale; no realized loss figure with disclosed subject, period and basis was found — the $55.6 million is capital raised, not loss.