Kwiry's SMS Swiss Army Knife is Folding for Good
Kwiry, a startup that built all kinds of functionality on top of SMS, emailed users this afternoon to announce that the company is giving up the ghost and it's time to get your data out. It's really a shame but we have to wonder - did this happen because people don't really want anything complex from their short messaging service?
I've enjoyed using Kwiry to text myself reminders and then subscribe to the RSS feed of items I sent in my Netvibes dashboard. When the service first launched it sent you an email with search results for the text of reminders you sent yourself by SMS. You could add movies to your Netflix queue using Kwiry and SMS. Other people did all kinds of things with it, like use it to turn off their computers remotely. In the end, it looks like only a few thousand people probably used the service regularly at all.
A couple of other things are notable about the Kwiry closure. The company upgraded all kinds of features just last month and took $1 million in funding just over a year ago two years ago. They cited tough economic times and thanked their investors, Hummer Winblad, in the announcement of the closure, but it's all happening fast enough that we're a little surprised.
$1 million isn't that much for a software startup, and perhaps working with SMS made the money go even faster, but poof there they go awfully quick!
It's great that the company is offering .csv downloads of customer data but that's only the case for the next 10 days. We hope anyone who needs it will come and get it within that time frame.
The lesson here could be that you could build a full-featured service, get some money from respected investors and still see your whole endeavor go up in smoke one year later. None of the reminder services online are catching on like the huge breakout hit born from SMS, Twitter, is. Twitter serves a universal need that's more fun than remembering obligations (communicating with people) and it's dead simple - all the bells, whistles and do-dahs are built by 3rd parties and are fully opt-in, not at all confusing.
It's too bad about Kwiry, though. We wish the team there well in their next endeavors.
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Some of these sites are just a tad ahead of their time (sounds funny seeing as it's 2009, but true). Either the technology hasn't evolved to simplify the process, or audiences aren't yet as tech sophisticated as the app requires.
I applaud entrepreneurs that throw their hats into any ring, and I certainly wish these folks the best!
Hi Marshall - thanks for your thorough note about our unfortunate shutdown of the kwiry service. Just a quick correction - we raised the $1 million in February of 2007, which is over 2 years ago now (hard to believe). That VentureBeat blog post about new features was over a year old. We did, however continue to release new features and improve the product all the way until the point where we could no longer sustain the service, we know no other way but continuing to work hard.
We are sad to see kwiry go in a space we feel has a great future and potential. If you're looking for a new home give txtful.com a try. txtful shortcuts lets you get things done on the web using sms, email, IM, twitter, etc
I'm actually on the lookout for a new sms service. This is one area I'm excited to see growth in.
I get the idea behind Kwiry, but these are only search results you get, so it is like saying "hey, send me some advertisements" - at least that is what I understand from seeing their quick tutorial. Does it go any further?