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End of the Road for Xmarks

(blog.xmarks.com)
201 points willwagner | 2 comments | 27 Sep 10 23:27 UTC | HN request time: 0.617s | source
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joshu ◴[28 Sep 10 07:03 UTC] No.1734846[source]▶
2m users * 1% conversion rate * $10/yr = $100k = probably not enough for a VC-backed startup.

My suspicion is that because users just used the browser's internal bookmarks they couldn't easily add affordances that would draw attention, leaving no surface on which to advertise. I guess this is one advantage that delicious had, although breaking the bookmarking paradigm to do so was very painful in other ways.

I no longer believe startups who claim their value proposition is "the data will be really valuable someday."

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1. robk ◴[28 Sep 10 12:26 UTC] No.1735430[source]▶
Yep "probably not enough for a VC-backed startup" is the key here. This would have been a nice bootstrapped business. For them taking VC put them on a road that unfortunately wasn't the right one for them and forced them to swing for a bigger outcome than was possible. Sad.
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2. dillydally ◴[28 Sep 10 16:28 UTC] No.1736188[source]▶
$100k is an ok number for a one-person outfit, but it would be hard to support even one employee on that number.

In face, their current model of altering the Google SERPs almost certainly generates more revenue.