The Blippy story - why an organization needs an early adopter AND a cranky person

Since Blippy debuted in 2009, responses have been mixed.

MG Siegler (12/11/2009):

Yes, I know this is a controversial idea — that’s part of what makes it potentially a great one. Imagine being able to see everything your friends buy with a credit card as they do it. This not only tells you what kind of things they’re actually into (rather than someone just saying they like something), but also other information like how cheap they are, as well as where they actually are at a given time. There is actually a lot of data tied into the transactions we make, and Blippy takes that and makes it social.

Steven Hodson (12/11/2009):

I’m sorry but there is nothing interesting or fun about this idea. Just as it is nobody’s business as to what goes on in my bedroom my purchasing habits are just as private and personal. The idea that wrapping it up in a bunch of social media mumbo-jumbo makes sharing that kind of information any better is fundamentally screwed.

Louis Gray (1/15/2010):

After first having a mental block on the entire concept of Blippy, I realized it could be interesting to share my iTunes purchases and my Netflix rentals with friends, and see what they were buying online. After all, if we are so willing to share those things that we like (See MyLikes for that) or things we are a fan of (try Facebook), it makes more sense to take a step upward and show what we actually spent money on.

John Bredehoft (in a comment to Gray's post):

While your Blippy feed may be interesting to you or your friends, it could be REALLY interesting to data miners and data aggregators.

CNN's John D. Sutter (12/13/2010):

Louis Gray ... spent $321.81 on groceries last month at Safeway. Also during November, he rented dozens of movies and TV shows from Netflix, including "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" and "Dexter," a Showtime series about a serial killer. He goes to the dentist at Great Smiles Care Dental in Cupertino, California. He's been there once in the past two months.

John Bredehoft (12/13/2010):

Louis Gray has a somewhat different set of privacy practices than I do. Not that he reveals EVERYTHING about himself - no one does - but some of the things that he chooses to share are not things that I would choose to share - for example, I would not join Blippy like he did. I'm not saying that I'm right and that Gray is wrong; I'm just saying that we have differing comfort levels for sharing information.

Fast-forward to Alexa Tsotis (5/19/2011):

Thus is the story of the failure of Blippy, a product that launched in private beta in December of 2009 and that we (TechCrunch, MG Siegler's employer) breathlessly fawned over again, and again, and again and again (and again and again …).

“Imagine being able to see everything your friends buy with a credit card as they do it,” MG wrote. “This not only tells you what kind of things they’re actually into (rather than someone just saying they like something), but also other information like how cheap they are, as well as where they actually are at a given time.”

What we failed to ask was, “Who cares?”

Tsotis then notes that "the Blippy team has stopped innovating upon Blippy, and has moved on to other products in the social ecommerce space." In other words, Blippy the service is kinda like FriendFeed - not quite pining for the fjords just yet, but the fjords are certainly calling.

Steven Hodson (5/29/2011):

Chalk one up for the cranky guy.

Now the protagonists in the timeline above do not fit into neat categories - Siegler and Gray are not starry-eyed optimists, and Hodson does not rule out every new idea that comes along. But they do somewhat illustrate differing points of view.

Now some could argue that the nay-sayers (e.g. exaggerated Hodson-ish types) should run companies to keep them from doing stupid things, while others could argue that the risk-takers (e.g. exagerrated Gray-ish types) should run companies to keep them innovative.

In truth, you need both types in a company. And for all we know, Blippy had both types, and there were people running around Blippy asking if anyone would be interested in the concept.

But for startups, it really doesn't matter what the users think. All that matters is what the investors think. And Blippy got investors:

Blippy is based in Silicon Valley and backed by leading venture capital firms and angel investors including Charles River Ventures, August Capital, Sequoia Capital, Ron Conway, Philip Kaplan, Evan Williams, Jason Calacanis, James Hong, and Ariel Poler.

In those terms of measurement, Blippy was a resounding success, even if the investors themselves don't use the service.