Revver was one of the early pioneering video aggregators. After raising nearly $13M, it sold for less than $5M… despite the fact that YouTube - who launched after Revver - sold for $1.65B.
Exits of any kind, let alone mammoth-sized ones like YouTube’s have been rare. Today, one more exit, but not one that anyone should brag about: Podtech sells for - sit down folks - $500,000. The company had raised $7.5M over two rounds.
People, this is getting pathetic. Is the time nigh to admit that something is wrong in the marketplace, and the blame for that should largely rest with the investment community that has been investing in one bad video startup after another?
That last line sounds holier-than-thou; that’s not my intention. However, the facts and figures speak for themselves.
Last December, I was close to doing a financing round with a VC. In the end, we never did the deal. But I was asked to list other content companies who had done VC deals… and I mentioned that while Podtech was a different kind of content company, they were one example, adding “but I hear they are having some difficulties”. The elder VC in the room scolded me, suggesting that all was well at Podtech. Perhaps it was then, but now, that is not the case, apparently.
Venture Beat has a great piece on Podtech’s sale. If it can be called that. Isn’t a fire sale at 1/35th of the VC raised more euthanasia?
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