

More Tech Start-Ups Call It Quits - condor
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123439862101275191.html?mod=todays_us_nonsub_marketplace

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tptacek
Reactrix took 75MM (!) to project video games on the floors of malls, with an
ad-supported (!) business model. 'twas ever thus.

Music startup Fuzz Artists couldn't get enough traffic to sustain a business
model. So the founder blames the market, which in "better" times would have
afforded him access to $10MM in capital to put his reckoning off by a couple
of years. Shouldn't he instead be happy to have his life and his career back?

Or how about nTag Interactive, which sold RFID nametags for conferences. Not a
crazy idea at all. But they hadn't had a news update since July '08, well
before the market crash. What does this have to do with the current climate?

This is an incredible easy, lazy story for any journalist to write. There are
_always_ a collection of companies with a sob story to write about. When that
collection includes Facebook, LinkedIn, or (hell) Twitter, maybe the story
will have teeth.

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dantheman
Unrelated question why do you put "MM" instead of "M" I've seen this before
but don't know why it's done like that.

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pg
Probably because M is already an abbreviation for thousand, e.g. CPM.

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tptacek
That's true, but the AP Stylebook says $...M means million; I too have only
seen this used among the MBA types.

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ijntybvrt
More tech start-ups funded (and controlled) by VCs are shutting down as VCs
try to get their money out. Startups started by people who have a business
plan to actually make money ,sell real product to real customers, rather than
just attract VCs and cash in are doing rather nicely thank you.

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DaniFong
Our business model couldn't be much simpler: build machines that save people
and utilities energy and money, sell them at a profit. But it's still tough
raising money.

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MrGunn
We've had troubles raising money, too. Our core business is making real
things, we have technology no one else has, it fits a under-served and well-
defined market niche, and there's tons of customer interest. The deals that
were available before just aren't there.

