[matheweis]

> And, do remember, the people who made all the money in the gold rush weren't the miners, it was the people who sold shovels and alcohol.

Ssssh, don't give away the secret. ;)

Actually, startups designed to sell to other startups will fail too when the whole thing collapses like a stack of cards...

Enter Mandrill, which recently found its conversion funnel so ineffective that they suddenly shut the entire system down.

[tim333]

> do remember, the people who made all the money in the gold rush weren't the miners

I was curious so I googled. Wikipedia: There were 300,000 gold-seekers and "On average, half the gold-seekers made a modest profit, after taking all expenses into account."

So probably better odds than the people doing startups. One person who made a lot of money was Levi Strauss who stated selling denim to the miners.

[tdaltonc]

Is that what happened to Mandrill? I've read a coherent explanation of what's going on there and why, but I'd love to.

[matheweis]

Well the official answer was "this change isn’t driven by profit–it’s about aligning our culture and core competencies with our core customers’ needs. There are many people who use Mandrill as a (free) utilitarian infrastructure service, who are not our core customers, and who deserve to use a company that’s better set up for that in the long run." https://blog.mailchimp.com/important-changes-to-mandrill/#co...