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Baby Boomer Social Network TeeBeeDee Closes; Cites “Disappointing” Business Opportunity

TeeBeeDee.com—a social network aimed at baby boomers—is shutting down. In a note to members, founder Robin Wolaner said that the company had lacked the resources to continue developing the site: “Our business opportunity proved disappointing.” The site had raised more than $7.5 $9 million from Shasta Ventures and Monitor Ventures, as well as from a series of high-profile executives, including Jan Brandt, the former chief marketing officer of AOL (NYSE: TWX). Its board included Shelby Bonnie, the founder of CNET. Wolaner herself was the founder of Parenting magazine and a former executive vice president of CNET.

At the time of TeeBeeDee’s launch, Wolaner said she had started TeeBeeDee for much the same reason as Parenting: “I recognized that people my age were like our parents and needed an outlet that reflected that. Looking at social networks today, people my age are looking for information, not hanging out, so I saw a need there too.” But baby boomers apparently did not want to be categorized away by their age. According to Compete.com, TBD.com had only 70,000 unique visitors last month. Instead, they were quite content with heading over to open social networking sites like Facebook, which has seen its fastest growth in users over 55.

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Jun 30, 2009 3:14 PM ET

TeeBeeDee

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Posted In: Media & Publishing, Money, M&A & Venture Capital, Venture Capital, Social Media

  • Babette @BakeSpace

    Oh wow, this is disappointing on so many levels:

    1) female founder
    2) burned through a lot of cash
    3) willing to close their doors with 40K registered users even though they have a great demographic for advertisers (not everyone can or should be like facebook - it's a different kind of beast)
    4) had many connections to really push site far and wide

    It was a recipe for success.

    Regardless, I wish Robin Wolaner and her team much success in the future. With her track record and contacts she's probably already cooking up some great ideas.

  • Joseph Tartakoff

    Hi David,

    Thanks. I'll take a look.

    Joe Tartakoff, joe@paidcontent.org

  • David

    Joseph,

    I suggest you write about vertical social networks that thrive without spending a dime in marketing and without having raised any funds. Take a look at GoldMic.com, I'd be happy to tell you more.

    Regards

    David

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