FWIW, I remember hanging out with numerous folks on LiveJournal and DeadJournal c. 2002, and a number of them had (or made fun of people who had) Xangas as well. So while his startup may have felt like a failure to him and may not have made any significant money, it had actual, mainstream, not-just-early-adopter users, which is more than the vast majority of startups ever get.