I know that one of these startups targeting local markets will succeed eventually. But, because it's so tough to transfer success from one market to hundreds of others, I'm not holding my breath. Craig's List has had success here. Yelp is very popular in just a few cities. Judy's Book, Angie's List, Smalltown are still around. Insider Pages isn't.
So, when a new startup launches to offer a local social network to adults, if it weren't for the size of the market, it would be hard to take it seriously. Angel investors Bill Harris, former CEO of Intuit and PayPal, and Jeff Drazan, a former venture capitalist at Sierra Ventures, certainly did.
If someone can figure out how to translate success in one unique market like San Francisco and apply it to Chicago, Miami and other locales, then there is a large reward that awaits them. It's not obvious to me what that looks like.
Fatdoor thinks it includes taking a Zillow approach by listing every residence in the United States and asking people to register their addresses before someone else does. The mapping component could be powerful if you believe that people really want to open their virtual doors to their neighbors. My experience suggests the offline equivalent of the 'Block Sender' function would be more useful when dealing with neighbors. So, after many failures targeting the local market, I'll wait to see some traction before believing.
To read reviews of Fatdoor's service, see:
Greg Sterling
Cristina Ledesman
Peter Krasilovsky
Technorati tags: fatdoor, vc, venture+capital
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