TeeBeeDee, the online social network tailored to the over 40 set, is going out of business. But instead of blaming the poor economy like so many of his peers — CEO Robin Wolaner says the site’s business model wasn’t able to grow its userbase big enough and fast enough to survive, reports VentureWire.
Things began auspiciously enough, with the company raising $4.8 million in a first round of funding two years ago. But, as Wolaner says, there just didn’t seem to be a way to tap into the baby boomer market more substantially. It topped out at 200,000 unique monthly visitors and 9 million monthly page views. Successful social networking sites tend to have five to 10 times this amount.
TeeBeeDee was unable to raise additional venture funding and soon ran out of steam. It had even introduced a virtual goods system — much like Facebook’s gifts — to bring in additional revenue, but it didn’t add up. The site will officially be taken down in two weeks.
Based in San Francisco, the company is looking to sell off its web site and assets. It previously raised capital from Shasta Ventures and Monitor Ventures.
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