Flud co-founder and CEO Bobby Ghoshal sent an e-mail around to users and supporters yesterday announcing that the company had decided to “wind down” operations. Starting Aug. 8, Flud’s social news aggregation platform will no longer be in service.
In the e-mail, Ghoshal wrote, “Flud managed to capture the hearts of millions of you all around the world and we thank you for giving us the opportunity to work for you, everyday, for the past three years. We also want to thank our investors and advisors for believing in our team and our vision, they were instrumental in giving the Flud team a shot.”
He went on to say that he still believed in the potential of social news platforms, calling it a “wide open market.” Ghoshal also wrote that Flud will “move forward” by selling its technology and intellectual property.
The announcement comes as a bit of a surprise. Last September, we talked to Ghoshal about a business-to-business intranet component the company was in the middle of beta testing with 50 Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. and Europe. Ghoshal said at the time that he saw an opportunity for Flud to be a key part of the way employers and co-workers communicate and share news, whether it’s news items relevant to their industry or about the company itself.
In fact, Ghoshal intimated that one large tech company was interested in becoming a client. From our September article: “Ghoshal says Flud has already netted ‘quite a few’ commitments to its new, paid business platform. Although he can’t specifically name the companies until after the 60-day private launch has ended, he will say that one of Flud’s customers is his ‘favorite computer company’ with thousands of employees globally.”
Flud, which was co-headquartered in Detroit and San Diego, raised at least $1 million from Detroit Venture Partners, Ludlow Ventures, and other undisclosed investors—making it one of the better-funded tech companies in Detroit.
So what happened? We weren’t able to reach Ghoshal for comment by press time, but we’ll keep trying to follow up.
