California tech startup once worth $1B shuts down

https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/flip-startup-shuts-down-billion-21022297.php

by mraniki • 11 months ago

16 8 11 months ago

“What’s the catch?” the company’s FAQ page said. “Honestly, there isn’t one. You post, you watch, you shop — and Flip rewards you for it. Rewards get you free products. Creator Earnings get you real money you can cash out. That’s really it.”

The catch is they're riding on a train of free money and it's not legally mandated that people keep paying them.

tyleo• 11 months ago

What did they do with that money? They just raised it last year. I feel like this goes outside of just being a bad economy.

Edit: they were giving hundreds of dollars of product away for free. I found a link to a previous article.

https://www.wired.com/story/flip-viral-video-app-shopping-fr...

speckx• 11 months ago

I don't see how giving away stuff is a good business plan. I guess they gave it all away and are now forced to close.

bdcravens• 11 months ago

TikTok sellers do a lot of that, but they didn't even launch the shop until they were viral for a few years. You can't shortcut network effect.

CyanLite2• 11 months ago

The bubble years did some really bad things to folks.

They were made to believe that money was free and would be free forever. Just think, if you were a kid in the Bay Area from 2006-2021 you knew nothing but free money with ZIRP.

Fast forward to today. These kids are now startup founders and they have a warped view of the world. ZIRP is over and simply pitching VCs isn't a viable business strategy anymore.

Nextgrid• 11 months ago

Growth and engagement.

I’m sure that during its heyday plenty of product managers, marketers and engineers boasted about lines going up.

Unfortunately it turns out there is no magic bank where you can drop all that engagement and get real money for it. These guys found out the hard way.

creer• 11 months ago

Customer acquisition always has a cost. Nothing wrong there. Advertising, handing out products or handing out cash. The fine article mentions 16.5 million users. Even if that's somehow inflated, that had a cost. Was this customer acquisition worthwhile, the right strategy? Who knows. Was it profitable? clearly not.

idiomat9000• 11 months ago

How is working in a company that closes up? Anyone any experience ?

California tech startup once worth $1B shuts down

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