This is a bit absurd. When a company is floundering, everyone knows it, including investors. Shutting down is a very reasonable choice sometimes. The death is often just keeping the site running without updates, as in this case.<p>I don't advocate failure, but I don't think it makes sense to waste years on a product that doesn't have legs.<p>In this specific case, I wouldn't worry about reputations. Everyone who has worked with Ashwin knows he is awesome.<p>As for the general trend, this post by Jason Cohen is right on the money:
<a href="http://blog.asmartbear.com/rejecting-raising-vc-money.html" rel="nofollow">http://blog.asmartbear.com/rejecting-raising-vc-money.html</a>
This isn't an instance of founders giving up too early. They tried hard. In fact, it is more impressive that they continued to keep the site going after running out of money and having to get jobs than if they'd shut it down completely.
Arrington assumes that just because nobody told him about Buxfer's shutting down (which is probably all that really happened here), their investors don't know it either.<p>So then he speculates that the founders are scamming or making fools of their investors.<p>If he keeps posting like this, it is his own reputation which will suffer.
See previous discussion, when only one of them had left: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=399661" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=399661</a>
I use buxfer practically every day and would be sad to see it go. I notice the odd bug but its nothing really to fret over. As long as my data stays secure I don't really need any new features and am happy for the founders if they're successfully taking the hands-off approach. Thanks for providing a great service for free!
The investments came in in 1/07 and 4/07 - a total of $315,000.00 - which if you break it down leaves barely ramen money for two founders and business expenses.<p>The fact that co-founder Pandit spent a full two years on this start-up is nothing to be ashamed of.<p>Lots of us here know the acute pain of a start-up that fails to get traction, and considering that he kept beating the drum even after seeing his co-founder leave is a huge testament to his character.<p>This is a terrible example on TechCrunch's part to illustrate a point they want to support about young entrepreneurs taking advantage of angels.<p>Can't blame them for trying though right?
One thing I don't like is nothing on Buxfer's site tells you they are dead - I was considering signing up as a new customer, but suspicious due to the lack of blog activity and the questions if they are dead on GetSatisfaction.
They looked like a really decent web 2.0 style personal finance manager, with some really slick features. Way nicer than Mint.
I'm looking for a good personal finance tool that is not US-centric & actually considered giving buxfer a try. Not sure now with their ghost-town status. Anyone know good alternatives?