Meevee
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
MeeVee was a Burlingame, California startup that billed itself as a TV Guide killer: tools for searching local, cable, satellite and Internet TV schedules, wrapped in a social entertainment community. Over four financing rounds it raised about $25 million from backers including DEFTA Partners and WaldenVC, and reported roughly 1 million organic unique users in March 2008. In May 2008 it was acquired by Brad Greenspan's LiveUniverse; by early 2009 it was a ghost town with all employees inactive.
02 / Meevee FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
MeeVee burned through $25 million without ever building a real business. Its roughly 1 million monthly uniques were, in the press's words, hardly a thriving community, and the company cut its workforce 20 percent to about 27 people — then down to just seven. Unable to monetize TV listings, it effectively put itself up for sale, soliciting buyout offers in a public statement. The May 2008 acquisition by LiveUniverse was no rescue: within months every MeeVee employee went inactive as operations were consolidated away, and by February 2009 the product was in the deadpool.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Acquisition
MeeVee, after raising about $25M and cutting staff to seven, is acquired by Brad Greenspan's LiveUniverse in May 2008.
- Closure announced
By February 2009 MeeVee is a ghost town with all employees inactive; the product enters the deadpool.
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
$25M over four rounds with 1M uniques is not a community, it is an expensive hobby
- 02
Putting yourself up for sale in a public statement is the market telling you the business model failed
- 03
An acquisition that consolidates you out of existence is a shutdown with extra steps
- 04
TV listings were never the product: without a monetization engine, search tools are just features