Some of these consumer startups should be financed and built like a movie, not a company. Use off the shelf tooling, experienced staff, and expect the thing to die off in revenues over a couple of years with some residual revenues in maintenance mode.
HQ Trivia shuts down after acquisition falls through
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Re: HQ Trivia shuts down after acquisition falls through
#22Same thing happened to Draw Something and Words with Friends. The trick is to get the 9 figure valuation, raise as much funding as possible and then put as much in your pockets before the hype dies down.
Words with Friends is not dead I think: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/words-with-friends-2-word-game...
Re: HQ Trivia shuts down after acquisition falls through
#23This should be surprising to precisely no one. And this is nothing against HQ Trivia (although the founder seemed like a tool [1]) but any sort of format has a shelf life. Long-lasting shows like Jeopardy are outliers. The more typical case is where a given show will play for a few years, people will get bored with it and it'll be replaced by something else. That's really all that happened here. HQ Trivia had a novel…
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Re: HQ Trivia shuts down after acquisition falls through
#24I'm sure death among heroin addicts is common. It's only a matter of time they'll come in contact with a fentanyl laced dose.
It's not bizarre among heroin addicts, but death by heroin overdose is a bit bizarre among cofounders of high profile companies, isn't it?
Re: HQ Trivia shuts down after acquisition falls through
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Just like Alex Trebek is probably a big part of the reason for Jeopardy's longevity Off topic, but I do wonder what will happen to their ratings when he retires in the next few years. The Price is Right pulled it off, their ratings are apparently higher now than they had been, since they started putting clips on YouTube and other types of "millennial marketing".
Trebek had a strong vision of what the show should be that would be at odds with what most studio execs might prefer. When he's gone, there will be pressure to dumb it down, make the questions easier and more trendy, make it more flashy. If they do that it will no longer be special and will wither away.
> there will be pressure to dumb it down, make the questions easier and more trendy, make it more flashy.
You could see this already in their recent GOAT primetime special. Someone did the numbers, it was like 12% of the questions were about Disney properties.
Re: HQ Trivia shuts down after acquisition falls through
#26Same thing happened to Draw Something and Words with Friends. The trick is to get the 9 figure valuation, raise as much funding as possible and then put as much in your pockets before the hype dies down.
Sell your company to Zynga at the peak of your popularity is the play
Re: HQ Trivia shuts down after acquisition falls through
#27Same thing happened to Draw Something and Words with Friends. The trick is to get the 9 figure valuation, raise as much funding as possible and then put as much in your pockets before the hype dies down.
Words with Friends managed an actual exit (8 figures, mostly cash): https://venturebeat.com/2011/07/05/zynga-paid-53-3m-to-buy-w...
Re: HQ Trivia shuts down after acquisition falls through
#28It almost sounds like a Game of Thrones esque style episode of Silicon Valley. Huge success. Co-founder dies. There was a mutiny to remove the CEO from it's employees Layoffs and now shutdown. This happened all within about a year? (Cofounder passed in December 2018)
How do you successfully co-found a massive hit while being addicted to heroin?
By having a steady reliable supply of heroin.
Re: HQ Trivia shuts down after acquisition falls through
#29I'm sure death among heroin addicts is common. It's only a matter of time they'll come in contact with a fentanyl laced dose.
It's not bizarre among heroin addicts, but death by heroin overdose is a bit bizarre among cofounders of high profile companies, isn't it?
I'd guess they usually have access to better drugs. Addiction affects people from all walks of life, and people who can afford their addiction don't necessarily have it impact their work.
Re: HQ Trivia shuts down after acquisition falls through
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you successfully co-found a massive hit while being addicted to heroin?
It's called high-functioning addiction and there are tens of millions of such people (mostly addicted to alcohol).
Or benzodiazepines and prescription painkillers. People switch to heroin when they run out of money.