Sonar
Sonar was a "social discovery" app that used location data and social network profiles (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) to show you how you were connected to the people physically near you. It won the "Battle of the Apps" at SXSW 2011 and was hailed as the future of networking. However, it shuttered after failing to overcome the "creepiness factor," battery drain issues, and the struggle to turn a "cool demo" into a daily habit for millions of users.
The Autopsy
| Section | Details |
|---|---|
| Startup Profile | Founders: Brett Martin, and others Funding: ~$2M (Investors: Bing Gordon, Lerer Hippeau, SoftBank Capital, and others) |
| Cause of Death | |
| The Critical Mistake | Failing to Solve a Frequent Problem: Sonar was incredible at a conference (like SXSW), but it lacked a "reason to exist" on a Tuesday afternoon in a suburban office. It was a "high-utility, low-frequency" tool that tried to survive on a "social network" (high-frequency) venture capital model. |
| Key Lessons |
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Deep Dive
In the reflective post-mortem "The Best Thing I Found Online Today: Sonar's Death," founder Brett Martin provided a masterclass in the "Ambient Social" category's failure. The Privacy-Convenience Tradeoff Sonar arrived at a time when users were becoming hyper-aware of data privacy. The app required "Always On" location and access to multiple social graphs. Every time a major platform (like Facebook) changed its privacy settings or API access, Sonar's core functionality would break, forcing the team into a constant "defensive" development cycle. The Platform Squeeze As Sonar began to gain traction, the "Platforms" (Apple and Google) began to integrate location-aware features directly into the OS. Furthermore, Facebook and LinkedIn began to restrict how much data third-party apps could pull, essentially "starving" Sonar of the data it needed to show those "hidden connections" between strangers. The Legacy Sonar is remembered as one of the most promising "misses" of the early mobile era. It pioneered the concept of the "Social X-Ray"—the ability to see the digital layer on top of the physical world. While the standalone business failed, its DNA lives on in apps like Tinder (which uses location for discovery) and the "People You May Know" algorithms on major networks. After the shutdown, Brett Martin became an investor and a professor at Columbia University, using the "Sonar Scar Tissue" to mentor a new generation of founders on the dangers of high-churn social apps.
Key Lessons
Context is Everything: Knowing that a stranger likes the same indie band as you is "cool" at a bar, but "distracting" or "scary" on a subway.
The Battery is the Gatekeeper: For mobile startups, your app isn't just competing for screen time; it's competing for "milliamps." If your power consumption is high, your retention will be low.
Demo-Market Fit vs. Product-Market Fit: Winning a startup competition (like SXSW) proves you can build a great demo. It does not prove you have a business that can scale to 100 million people.