Why Everpix – the World’s Best Cloud-Based Photo Startup Failed?

What Exactly Was Everpix?

Everpix was an app that used to combine and organize all the photo libraries of users into a rich interface, regardless of whether they’re stored on a desktop or in the cloud. It was an amazing idea and was actually needed by users at that point of time.

While traveling around Asia, the founder of Everpix (Mr. Latour) got irritated because many of his photos turned into a wreck. To solve the issue, he partnered with his friend and developed Everpix – one-stop solution for users to organize and sort the photographs and store them online. The team of designers and developers developed the application based on an algorithm that pulled and sorted the most ideal shots at whatever point required.

By 2012 Everpix had 55,000 numbers of active users and substantial funding. By 2013 they close down. Here is all that happened to this amazing idea that market was in need of.

4 Reasons behind the Failure of World’s Best Photo Startup – Everpix

 

They Spent Too Much Time on Building the Product

The team at Everpix was obsessed with perfection and it showed it. Everpix was an excellent application with simple to use features, loads of functionality and clean design. It was an incredible product. But, to set up a successful business just having the perfect product is not enough.

While investing excessive efforts in making the product right, they never tried to get the users and traction that they needed to sustain growth. Hence, the app failed miserably because of improper management of time.

Lesson Learned: Even if you have a splendid product that clients need and love, you still need to think about time management and the business side of the equation. Keep an eye on the sort of quick growth wanted that will empower you to keep the lights on.

They Never Spent Resources on Marketing 

Everpix was started with small investments. It fund-raised from investors including Strive Capital, Index Ventures, and Michael Herf. The total funding of Everpix was enough for a startup to achieve the desired growth. However, the team of Everpix was obsessed with perfection; they spent much of their funding in just building the product right. And when it was the high time for marketing the product, they were not having the budget for the same.

Additionally, there was no salesperson in their team. They were developers and designers who relied on the product to sell itself. And that never happens.

Lesson Learned: You must be compelled to advertise your product, doesn’t matter how cool your product is. It’s essential to invest money in building an incredible product, but it is equally necessary to invest money in marketing your product and ensuring your business grows.

Also Read: Why Hailo – An On Demand Taxi App With $100 Million In Funding Failed In The US

The Company Was Having a Negative Operating Income

Yes, inspite of having an incredible product with potential for growth, Everpix was having a negative gross operating margin. Its marginal costs were surpassing its marginal revenues. All of the money that they earned or got from investors was spent on either paying salaries to employees or on other office related expenses. Here is the profit and loss statement of Everpix:

Lesson Learned: You should just fund-raise to build or get assets that generate money. You should never fund-raise to pay salaries, except if those salaries are directly generating money.

They Were Not Able to Convince Investors

With the team obsessed with perfection, the founders gave less attention to the subject investors care about most: the growth of a business. And that prompted a devastating deficiency of cash in hand when it came time to pay Amazon Web Services for the servers it was utilizing to store somewhere in the range of 4 million photographs from its 55,000 users. In spite of desperate, last-minute attempt to raise funding, Everpix ran out of money and had to close down in 2013.

Lesson Learned: Though the aim is to develop a product that solves the problem of a user, you additionally require money to maintain your business. So, always keep an eye on cash flow and monetization. Also, if you need money from investors, show them that you can grow.

Wrapping Up

Startups fail all the time but one astounding thing that Everpix did was that it left behind a legacy. Yes, the story of Everpix was sad but there is a lot that it teaches entrepreneurs about making an app business successful. So, if you or your company is launching an app, look back and analyze what Everpix have done – to avoid the mistakes they made. Luckily, other companies committed these mistakes first so you don’t need to. Happy developing!