Spotrunner
Back in March when Spotrunner raised a monster round I was more than a little skeptical. So many things I had seen and heard about the company didn’t add up. The premise was wonderful but I think that the company simply hadn’t achieved any meaningful traction. And pumping their valuation up and raising wads of cash wasn’t going to solve that.
Valleywag reports (god can I even say that?) that the firm is about to layoff 100 people and re-focus on selling online advertising to small firms. Like that market is under-served.
The company joins other well-funded startups like ReachLocal and Yodle and then not to mention other huge companies like Dex who are making a move in the same direction.
The business is horrible from a margin point of view: You sell other people’s things and have to build out a huge sales force. But I guess you can show fast revenue growth and for troubled investors in the company the hope may be that a greater fool in the room may take it off their hands (desperate companies like Microsoft or someone like Comcast).
