Tech

A Classy Way To Admit Your Startup Is Dead

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Chris Poole
Chris Poole  BI

Chris Poole created the insanely popular and infamous message board site 4chan way back when he was only 15. 

Since then, he's launched a company called Canvas, which he pivoted into a drawing-based art community called DrawQuest.

Unfortunately, he officially announced today that DrawQuest has failed. 

Despite more than 1.4 million downloads and about 25,000 daily active users, DrawQuest couldn't figure out monetization and the company ran out of money.  

Poole writes that he isn't itching to start a new company anytime soon and that we can expect to see more posts about his rollercoaster-ride of a startup experience on his blog

Meanwhile, DrawQuest users are being emailed about how to download and save all their artwork, as it's only a matter of time before the app stops working: 

"I’m terribly saddened that this may spell the end for our wonderful community, but it’s my goal to use what little money we’ll have left after the wind-down to keep the service alive for another few months. However as of today the team has gone their separate ways, and our doors are effectively closed."

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Jillian was most recently an enterprise technology editor based in San Francisco.  She started at Insider as an intern on the technology desk in 2013 and rose to a senior reporter position, covering Alphabet, Facebook, and ecommerce. After three years at the site, she left to spend time freelance writing abroad, before taking reporting positions at CNBC and then at Forbes, where she covered Alphabet, Silicon Valley culture, and artificial intelligence. She returned to Insider in March 2020 and worked on the enterprise technology desk until August 2021.  Jillian graduated from Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications with a degree in magazine journalism and information management and technology.