// startup autopsy

Branch

Structured public discussion with curated participants — Facebook acquired the 10-person team and shut the product within months

platform dependencyAcqui-hired

Fatal mistake: Branch built structured threaded conversations — reply trees for public discussions with curated guest lists. Raised $5M from Google Ventures, First Round, 500 Startups. Featured on NYT editorial board discussions. Facebook acquired Branch in January 2014 for undisclosed amount (acqui-hire). Branch shut within months. The 10-person team joined Facebook to work on Facebook Groups.

Founded	2012
Closed	2014
Country	USA
Sector	Social

50%

Key Events Timeline

2012

FOUNDING

2013

FUNDING

2014

SHUTDOWN

2020-06

LAYOFF

Laid off 3 employees (27% of workforce) (Seed)

Full Analysis

Analyst plan

Documented cause

Branch raised $5M. 10-person team. Facebook acquired January 2014 (acqui-hire). Branch shut within months. Team joined Facebook Groups. Product concept incorporated into Facebook Groups....

Verified lesson

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€12.5M

Peak valuation

HypeCycle · MoatType · ResearchTags

Branch raised €5M before branch built structured threaded conversations — reply trees for public discussions with curated guest lists. raised $5m from google ventures, first round, 500 startups. featured on nyt editorial board discussions. facebook acquired branch in january 2014 for undisclosed amount (acqui-hire). branch shut within months. the 10-person team joined facebook to work on facebook groups. ended it. See the documented cause, verified lesson and all failure signals.

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