They'll build you up and knock you back down. Perhaps even for good reason!
Anyway, I think it's interesting to contrast RWW's coverage of Color.com three mere months ago, entitled, without any trace of cynicism, Why Color may be the next Twitter:
Love it or loath it, the smartphone app Color is one of the most innovative Web products to have launched this year. It has a user experience that is as unique and different as Twitter was 5 years ago.
(...)
In short, I believe that Color has a very good chance of becoming a large scale success like Twitter. Certainly it's funded to do so!
... to the coverage today:
The reasons why Color appears to be imploding can't be known for sure, but the whole thing looks like a lesson in the Lean Startup philosophy. Perhaps best articulated by consultant and author Eric Ries, the Lean Startup philosophy says the last thing you want to do is raise a whole lot of money, build a product in secret, then spring it on a world that may not want what you've built at all.
(...)
Instead, [Color] became a morass of ostentatious founder resumes, a huge coffer of funding, lots of hand waving about the technology behind the scenes and terrible reviews from users.
The lesson for founders? I'm not entirely sure, but it has something to do with this article.
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