I use a huge range of Internet start-up websites and applications. There’s something very satisfying about being the early adopter and introducing others to great services that you have found, whether it’s a tool for improving productivity (Evernote) or a social media site (Social Median, ok maybe not a “start-up” anymore. Congrats Jason Goldberg). Anyway, one start-up I thought was great was iwantsandy.com.
But, Values of n, the company behind I Want Sandy had to close its doors on the 19th of December 2008. Possibly affected by the credit crunch, or lack of monetisation potential (a classic issue for start-ups), I don’t know, but users of the service have had to go elsewhere and find related services that can fill the void.
This is the problem with relying on start-ups. They may be free and provide a unique service, but you could be investing your trust and allegiance to a company that doesn’t last and ends up leaving you stuck on a raft in the middle of the pacific (if you catch my drift, get it?) If you use Evernote like I do, imagine if they closed the doors on their service.
So what do you do? Try to predict the longevity and success of a start-up before you sign-up, or trust your heart and stick with the start-up that is providing the best service for you? Despite feeling a little gutted about losing Sandy (Boing Boing have a great article on what Sandy did if you don’t already know), I will always support the service I believe deserves to grow and be adopted by the masses, and I hope you do to. Here’s to all those entrepreneurs providing great services to us for free while struggling to make ends meet.
By the way, if you too were upset about Sandy’s departure, you may be happy to know that Twitter acquired the intellectual property rights to the service. I can see great potential combining the two services, hopefully in the near future. You can read more about the acquisition here. Plus, possibly even better news is that some developers are looking to recreate I Want Sandy as an open source project, which would mean that Sandy can live on forever… which is nice.