Friday, February 25, 2011

Mistake mini-story: Wesabe

This story comes from a NY Times article, "How Six Companies Failed to Survive 2010" and concerns one of those companies, personal finance website Wesabe.

WHAT WENT WRONG Ten months after Wesabe’s introduction, a competitor, Mint.com, appeared. As [co-founder Mark] Hedlund acknowledges, Mint had a better name and better design and was easier to use. Within nine months, Mint had 300,000 users and $17 million in venture financing. In 2009, Mint was sold to Intuit for $170 million.

LOOKING BACK Mr. Hedlund wishes he had simplified the consumer’s experience. “We wanted to help people,” he said, “but it was too much work to get that help.”

[Hat tip Tim Berry]

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