fatdoor
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
FatDoor was a neighborhood social-network project intended to connect people living nearby.
02 / fatdoor FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Fatdoor's neighborhood social network never got traction: when the Benchmark funding fell through in 2007 — Benchmark had done due diligence and signaled it wanted to invest, then pulled out — Fatdoor's investors lost confidence in the original concept, founder Raj Abhyanker was fired as CEO, and the company abandoned the neighborhood site to become a local deal aggregator, The Dealmap. The Dealmap was later bought by Google in 2011 along with its patents; Abhyanker later sued Benchmark claiming it stole the neighborhood-network idea for Nextdoor.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Operations ended
Neighbourhood social network FatDoor closed in April 2008 and reopened under the Centerd name.
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
Raj Abhyanker founded Fatdoor as a neighborhood social network and pitched it to Benchmark Capital in 2007; Benchmark conducted due diligence and signaled interest, then pulled out.
- 02
The funding collapse cost Abhyanker his CEO role and killed investor confidence in the neighborhood concept; Fatdoor abandoned it and pivoted to become local deal aggregator The Dealmap.
- 03
The Dealmap — with its granted patent and 40+ patent applications naming Abhyanker as lead inventor — was bought by Google in 2011; Abhyanker later sued Benchmark, alleging it stole the idea for Benchmark-funded Nextdoor.