Sonar

Sonar Media

Sonar provided commercial micro-blogging services for companies to communicate internally.

  Software
  2010 – 2013
   Jacksonville, FL
  Founded by Brett Martin, Daniel Klaus
  Raised $200k in 2 rounds
  Backed by 4 investors

Reasons for Failure

Struggled to find market fit through user feedback. For example, users asked for LinkedIn integration but there was no net effect when integration was added, they also asked for a map like feature for check-ins and they stopped sharing updates from Sonar when the feature was not implemented.

Spent too much time on trying to acquire customers through methods that did not work, including events, requests from big brands, side projects, and worrying about competitors.

Structural issues at the incubator created diffusion of responsibility, ambiguity, confusion and tension, ultimately leading to a lack of funding.

Competitors