Talkr sold – new owners plan to make money from advertising
Talkr is just one of the features we’ve included on the blog. It basically allows you to listen to blog posts, rather than read them.
I’ve found out this morning from ReadWrite/Web that Talkr has just been purchased for $25k up-front plus $25k earn out for a 100% buy-out of Talkr.
The buyer is LiveOnTheNet, a Huntsville-based digital media company which is developing a new social networking VoIP product. They decided to buy Talkr because of its synergies with their new product.
Interestingly the buyer found out about Talkr being up for sale from ReadWrite/Web. That’s a blog making money and for someone else!
Richard believes the low price indicates Talkr was more of a ‘feature than a business. I agree. That’s why I call such companies ‘widget companies’.
Richard went on to say
We discussed in our previous post about how Talkr struggled to get a revenue stream going, a common affliction of ‘web 2.0′ startups. And Chris admitted to me after the sale: “I’ve come away from this experience with a new respect for the importance of focusing first and foremost on revenue generation!”
This is something I agree with wholeheartedly. Segala’s revenue was €2.2m in year 1 (2002) and was profitable within in months. This allowed us to reinvest in the company so we could demonstrate real potential before going to external investors, which is about to happen any day.
I would like to advise all business owners to do the same. That is, focus on making money unless you’re in it to save the planet. There’s nothing wrong with selling something for $25k here and there if you want to renew a car each year. But if you want to provide your family with all the options they desire, you must build a sustainable business model based on generating revenue as soon as possible. Don’t count on a sale to Google unless you’ve got 10 such potential companies and lots of other people’s money to play with 
5 Responses to “Talkr sold – new owners plan to make money from advertising”
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I agree that Talkr was probably more a service and than a full business. However, £25,000 (approx) is still rather cheap for a live service that already has some traction and brand value.
I agree Matthew. Perhaps it reflects the world we now live in where it’s cheaper to snap up a company instead of hiring new staff?
I got talkr installed on my blog. WordPress theme refuses to accept my id – so I ended up deleting it.
Funny you should say that Manoj, one of the developers is writing a post about it and will explain how to get it working with some tips
delighted to see it’s worth it…
[...] Paul covered the recent sale of Talkr earlier this morning and it got me thinking about all the plugins, code tweaks, scripts and general tips that I’m going to publish to help other bloggers benefit from our experience in building an entire corporate Web site and blog using WordPress. So, where better to start than with Talkr. [...]