<p><pre><code> If the model sounds familiar, that’s because it was
kind of the idea behind Milk. But the world has
changed since then, according to Rose. “The biggest
thing that’s changed in the last three years is that
back then we spent a lot of time spent building out
the back end… But the scaling piece is a solved
problem,” Rose told me.
</code></pre>
They shipped one app, Oink. Oink didn't fail because of the amount of time required to build out the backend. It failed because it was a me-too product in a sea of me-too products, and didn't do anything to differentiate itself or provide meaningful value to its users.<p>Edit: On an unrelated note, it looks like Kevin must've been binging on Wes Anderson films recently. The North website looks like one of Anderson's film title cards. Compare
<a href="http://wesandersontitlecards.tumblr.com" rel="nofollow">http://wesandersontitlecards.tumblr.com</a> and <a href="http://www.n-o-r-t-h.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.n-o-r-t-h.com/</a><p>Edit 2: Yep, Futura. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futura_(typeface)#Usage" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futura_(typeface)#Usage</a> and check out the CSS on the North website.