A Salute to Experience

A former Microsoft guy, Marcelo Calbucci, dreamed up and launched a web place called Sampa.  It was a place where you could build your own website, blog site, picture place, etc.  It crashed and Marcelo closed the doors this week.  We can ignore all the of the autopsy, Monday morning quarterback stuff like timing, competition, etc.

For this post, I want to send you to his two blog posts on the death of his startup. If you are working on a startup they are a good read.

My view pre/post VC view remains the same. Taking the shot and ‘failing’ means hopefully gaining a wealth of experience that will make round two a better shot.  I salute you Marcelo, as I wade through my own code, projections, and presentation material at 1am.  I salute you as an experienced startup guy, not a failure.

You can read more here.

Comments

[Eric Friedman]

Thanks for sharing this - great read.

[Martin Edic]

I think the telling part of this story, aside from the general lack of originality of the concept, lies in the comment about the UI being designed by an engineer. Engineers generally assume knowledge on the part of users that simply doesn't exist in the real world, particularly in the consumer world.
Also I don't really see a revenue model mentioned- I'm assuming subs. That requires marketing and sales, neither of which are mentioned.
I would encourage any engineers planning a business to reread Marcelo's post with these comments in mind.

[renda extra]

Great post, i've already subscribed to your feed.

thanks