// startup autopsy

StackMob

StackMob was a platform-as-a-service company for mobile developers to build payment-friendly applications.

marketfitacquisition_distress

Fatal mistake: Entered the mBaaS market without a durable competitive moat, leaving it exposed when Firebase launched an aggressive free tier backed by Google's distribution.

Founded	2010
Closed	2014
Country	USA
Sector	Developer tools

50%

Key Events Timeline

2010-01-01

FOUNDING

StackMob founded to simplify mobile backend development with a comprehensive BaaS platform.

2011-09-01

FUNDING

Raised $7.5M to grow engineering team and expand developer adoption of the mBaaS platform.

2012-07-01

PRODUCT LAUNCH

Launched major platform update competing head-to-head with Parse; Firebase's free tier launch began eroding StackMob's developer base.

2013-12-01

ACQUISITION ATTEMPT

PayPal acqui-hired StackMob team; platform announced shutdown timeline for existing customers.

2014-05-01

SHUTDOWN

StackMob platform officially shut down; all customer data and services terminated as team integrated into PayPal.

Full Analysis

Analyst plan

Documented cause

StackMob was acquired by PayPal in December 2013 and subsequently shut down in May 2014 so the team could focus entirely on PayPal's mobile payment platform. The acquisition was a talent/team acquisition rather...

than a product integration.

Verified lesson

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€13.5M

Peak valuation

HypeCycle · MoatType · ResearchTags

StackMob raised €7.5M before entered the mbaas market without a durable competitive moat, leaving it exposed when firebase launched an aggressive free tier backed by google's distribution. ended it. See the documented cause, verified lesson and all failure signals.

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