I really liked the original Snaptalent product (sort of an AdSense for recruiting). Apparently the product didn’t succeed — I can imagine working on a recruiting product during this recession must have been frustrating. I’m even more impressed, though, with how the Snaptalent team decided to shut down the company: by posting their post-game analysis on their home page:
Its been a tough call, as we had enough capital in the bank to last for two years. The decision has primarily dictated by market conditions and opportunity cost which in aggregate would mean we probably wouldn’t have been able to show the kind of results we wanted to make this a big company in this market. There are a number of reasons behind that decision and a number of lessons, which I intend to articulate here in this note.
I’ve written one of those notes before (when a company I was running in 2001 shut down), but I just sent it to our investors. Posting their thoughts on the company and market allows everyone to learn from their experiences. Bravo.
I look forward to seeing what they do next.