What made Diaspora technically different from Facebook?

Diaspora used a federated model with user-controlled "pods" (servers) that communicated with each other. Users owned their data on their pod, but this created a fragmented, technically complex experience.

Is Diaspora still running?

Diaspora continues as a community-maintained open-source project with a small but dedicated user base, though it never achieved mainstream scale and the original founding team all moved on.

← All autopsies

// HALL OF FLAME · STARTUP AUTOPSY

Founded	2010
Closed	2014
Country	USA
Sector	Social
Total raised	0.2
Collapse type	Silent Shutdown
Founder	Daniel Grippi

Diaspora

"The crowdfunded privacy-first social network — a beautiful idea that the mainstream never adopted."

$0.2M

RAISED

—

EMPLOYEES

MONTHS

marketfitSilent Shutdown

Quiet closure with no public announcement

// Fatal mistake: Decentralized architecture made user experience too fragmented to compete with centralized platforms

Key Events Timeline

2010-01

FOUNDING

Diaspora founded as a NYU student project to create a privacy-respecting alternative to Facebook.

2010-05

FUNDING

Diaspora raises $200,000 on Kickstarter, months before mainstream crowdfunding success became routine.

2011

CEO CHANGE

Co-founder Ilya Zhitomirskiy dies, creating leadership vacuum and community shock.

2012-09

PIVOT

Original founding team hands project to open-source community, transitioning from startup to community-driven platform.

2013

PRODUCT LAUNCH

Diaspora's federated architecture proves technically difficult to use, with fragmented visual experience limiting user discovery across pods.

2014-06

SHUTDOWN

Silent Shutdown: Diaspora ceases operations after years of declining adoption as a decentralized platform.

🔥 Hall of Flame 50%🏆 Hall of Fame 45%

Diaspora was a NYU student project that raised $200,000 on Kickstarter in 2010 — months before raising $1M on Kickstarter was routine — by pitching itself as a privacy-respecting, user-owned alternative to Facebook.

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More Social →More from USA →More marketfit failures →Raised: 0.2

// YOUR STARTUP DOESN'T HAVE TO END LIKE THIS

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// THE SOCIAL GRAVEYARD DOESN'T END HERE

Diaspora followed a documented pattern. Identify the same signals in any company before they reach the point of no return.

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