Travel inspiration app Epiclist says it plans to close down its service and remove it from the servers on January 10, 2015.
The startup, built up over the past three years and claiming a spot as one of the "Best New Apps" on the App store, has informed users of its closure via an email from founders Olga Reimgen and Stan Bugaev.
A heartfelt blog post (worth reading in its entirety for lessons learned) from Bugaev talks about the many ups and downs along the way:
"...working many long nights through, pitching on dozens of conferences, moving from city to city across the planet, pitching hundreds of investors, being broke, burned out, winning many new friends, losing several old friends, thousands of emotional ups and downs..."
He goes on to describe the time as the "most challenging and rewarding 3 years", before moving to why things have not worked out for the startup.
Like so many travel startups Epiclist was not able to build a sustainable business model, ran out of money and could not obtain additional investment.
On the challenges of getting funding he says the company could not raise a new round because it did "not nail 3 things":
Not enough traction (lack in the product-market fit)
Lack of unique positioning in a highly competitive market
Difficult business model in a difficult market (B2B2C)."
Bugaev also talks about the very competitive travel market and "complicated market dynamics" and says the startup is now talking to companies about merging or potentially acquiring Epiclist.
The post contains much more detail about the startup's journey, building the app and pivots along the way.