TeeBeeDee

What did it do?

TeeBeeDee was a social network where adults aged 40 to 60 shared their experiences, asked and answered questions and got to know one another. Running at tbd.com, the site offered forums, Q&A sections and guides to difficult conversations on midlife topics such as relationships, working life and parenting.

Why did it shut down?

The site drew interest at launch, but its user base did not grow fast enough to survive. Traffic peaked at 200,000 unique visitors and 9 million page views a month, far below the level successful social networks reached. Sales of virtual goods, tried as a source of revenue, did not bring in enough money. Its target audience increasingly preferred established platforms such as Facebook. Unable to find further venture capital, the company announced in July 2009 that it would shut down.

The story

Robin Wolaner was an entrepreneur who had founded Parenting magazine and served as a senior executive at CNET. In 2007 she decided to build an online community that would bring together the over-40 generation in the way the magazine had brought parents together. The result, TeeBeeDee, aimed to occupy the gap between Facebook's young users and Eons, which targeted the over-50s.

The San Francisco-based company closed its first round of $4.8 million in August 2007, led by Shasta Ventures with participation from Monitor Ventures. Figures such as Ron Conway and former AOL marketing executive Jan Brandt had backed the company earlier. The site went live at tbd.com in September 2007. Users shared their experiences in forums, answered questions and read guides prepared for difficult conversations with teenage children or at work. Even the design used legible typefaces with ageing eyes in mind.

But growth did not come at the expected pace. At its best the site reached 200,000 unique visitors and 9 million page views a month, far behind successful social networks. Sales of virtual goods, tried as a revenue source, did not bring in enough money either. The targeted generation, meanwhile, was increasingly turning to platforms such as Facebook, where everyone already was.

In July 2009, in a note to members, Wolaner said the business opportunity had been disappointing and that they did not have the resources to keep developing the site. Unable to find new investment, TeeBeeDee closed within two weeks. Wolaner told VentureBeat that they had not found a way to get deeper into this generation's market. TeeBeeDee's story remains an early example showing that a demographic niche is not a business model in itself.

Lessons for founders

• Before building a separate platform for an age group, measure the need of that audience that general platforms fail to meet; age alone may not justify a separate network.
• Calculate from the outset the traffic threshold a social network needs to fund itself, and share openly with investors how long it will take to reach it.
• Scale up revenue experiments such as virtual goods only after confirming your audience's payment habits with small tests.

Sources

1. Baby boomer social network TeeBeeDee implodes (VentureBeat, 2009-07-06)
2. paidContent - Baby Boomer Social Network TeeBeeDee Closes; Cites "Disappointing" Business Opportunity (CBS News, 2009-07-01)
3. TeeBeeDee, the network for the 40+ generation (VentureBeat, 2007-08-06)
4. New Boomer Site Hits The Right Note (MediaPost, 2007-09-24)

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