Brijit runs out of money!
I’m going to take a hesitant bow now, because this is truly sad, but also a vindication. Only days after I remarked that a web site based entirely off of sumarizing magazine articles had an “improbable or just plain risky” business model, the site is no longer posting new content because “at the moment, Brijit is out of money and can no longer afford to bring you the world in 100 words. We’re working hard to find a way forward for our service and hope to relaunch in the not-too-distant future.”
Curiously, the first comment on our May 14 post came from Brijit founder Jeremy Brosowsky:
Thanks for the notice, Josh — glad to know you like what we’re doing. As for the business model, keep an eye out in the coming months and I think it’ll start seem a little less “improbable or just plain risky.”
Jeremy further explains on the Brijit blog:
I’m sorry to share that we are ceasing publication of Brijit, at least for the time being, and possibly for good. Beginning today, I’ll be blogging here, and will keep you up to date on our status. I’m still working hard to find a home for Brijit and our community of smart readers, listeners, watchers, and writers. In the meantime, I hope you’ll stick with us on this blog.
Professionally, I’m pleased to say, I also received inquiries from a handful of credible potential investors and partners, upon which I’m already following up. Long shots, to be sure, but worth a shot nonetheless.
This is truly sad. I really liked the site: well-designed, highly functional and very useful. Hopefully, Jeremy will find some further financing.
The screen that currently greets visitors to Brijit.com:
May 17th, 2008 at
I worried when I read your lede that you were going to prance around like some online-media Nostradamus. But you didn’t. Thanks for that. In the end you’re respectful of the effort, and I appreciate it. I’m sure if we pull it out you’ll be one of the first to welcome us back and implore your readers to visit Brijit.
Best,
Jeremy
Jeremy Brosowsky
founder & CEO, Brijit
http://brijit.wordpress.com/
May 17th, 2008 at
Jeremy: After spending many days on the site, I’m sure someone will give you the cash you need, though I expect they’ll only lend it at a ruinous dilution to your existing shareholders. But there are usually at least a few white knights willing to invest a modest sum for a modest share of a potentially very high return. I’m guessing the real overhead is not the absurdly cheap labor (16k posts x $5 = 80k = great bargain), but your startup burn on graphic design and coding (worth the investment!) and ongoing server costs and maintenance. Aren’t you just the sort of company Google should be buying? My guess is they’d want to get rid of select writers and open the site to a yelp interface, and that’s not an awful idea, though the summary quality would then vary in a wiki way and articles would rank based on salaciousness. It’s not your goal, so I hope you don’t take that route, but the VC sheep are probably thinking along that route.
May 17th, 2008 at
I loved Brijit, too, but sadly only for a day. I found all kinds of interesting articles that I never would have found otherwise. Launching a human-driven project like Brijit is difficult, especially if the goal is to promote quality writing and not simply implement a borg-based ranking/editing system as Google and Wiki do.
These companies are always talking about online communities, but they stay as far away from individual human beings as possible. This impersonal approach may be necessary to maximize revenue, but it tends to promote the most boring recycled content while ignoring interesting and unique ideas, especially if those ideas take more than a paragraph to explain or go against the community’s will.
I look forward to seeing Brijit back online soon. In the meantime, readers might want to checkout Arts & Letters Daily http://www.aldaily.com. They do a nice job of linking to articles coming out of academia.