Svpply

with Ben Pieratt, Allan Yu, and Zach Klein

“It’s as bad to be too early as it is to be too late.”
— Xenophon of Athens, 340 BCE

Can you imagine browsing Instagram, scanning ads for shoes, and thinking, “This would be so great if it weren’t for all these pictures of my friends. I’m trying to find some footwear, goddamnit.” We made that, and people loved it.

For years I had been trying to create some kind of “universal wishlist” site, where a person could create a wedding registry, wishlist, or just file a bunch of books they want to read someday, from any store in the world. The closest I got to making this work was a thing called “Opolist” (cringe), but it didn’t click.

Then Pieratt approached me and said “Hey, you know FFFFOUND!, that image bookmarking service that all the cool designers love? What if we made that, but it was just, like, stuff? That you could buy?” Disco.

So we did it. An odd little clique of friends glommed on, spread the word, and then startup folks started to pay attention. A year and change later, Svpply, Inc. was launched with $xxx funding from Sequoia Capital.

Unfortunately, Silicon Valley wants unicorns, and didn’t see mainstream potential in our hipster-ass social network. The product was at least highly valued enough for eBay to acquire our team for $yyy, but not enough to keep the servers warm.

I’m told that means it was a successful exit, but… well it’s ten years later and as tough as ever to find a great pair of shoes.