Zookoda for Sale - More to the story

It's now been about 36 hours since the story of us putting Zookoda up for sale broke - wow it's been a wirlwind of activity, emails and interest. Thank You everyone for all your kind words about the service - we will post some of your comments (incognito of course) in a day or so. A lot has been said in the blogosphere about why we are selling - I thought I would add a little texture to that answer right now...

Q1 So why are you guys really selling?

Since we launched Zookoda back in March we have had numerous conversations about what the right business model was for Zookoda. Do we have a free entry level product and then offer premium services (a la Feedblitz) or do we offer the service for free supported by advertising? Our first goal was to gain traction and build a base of users - we feel we did that reasonably effectively. Both options for monetizing Zookoda require more time and resource - we decided there were other organisations better equipped to take Zookoda to the next level.

Q2 Do you consider Zookoda a success?

It depends how you define "success" - if you define it as building a web app that is embraced by thousands of users who are passionate about the product and are very vocal about their love of its great design or functional richness then Zookoda is a great success - it depends what your definition is.

Q3. Have you learnt anything through this process?

Definitely - This has been the best education a web entrepreneur can possibly have. Even though Zookoda was free we sustained ourselves through our full-service email marketing work for companies like FedEx, Subaru, Kinko's, Bang & Olufsen, RSA Security etc. - it gave us the luxury of trialling stuff with Zookoda. To gain true wisdom you have to take a journey - the Zookoda journey has been truly enlightening

Q4. What are you going to do next?

Quivalent still owns and markets Quivamail our commercial email marketing application - it continues to pay the bills and keeps the lights on. We expect to spend time transitioning Zookoda before we think about anything else.

Q5. Do you see a lot of similarities between the decision you came to and that of the team @ Kiko?

Sure - we really respect those guys for realising when time is up. It's so important to understand where you sit in the food chain and what you can and can't control. It's a sign of great maturity and wisdom to accept a different approach is needed and act on it.

Q6. Do you think you made a difference to the blogosphere?

Yes - progress is made by entrepreneurs like us listening to thought leaders and building products and services that didn't exist before or making a better version of the mousetrap. Today there are a small number of quality services that focus on RSS-to-Email or blog marketing via email. We would like to think Zookoda has inspired our competitors to improve their own products and services and raise the bar on offerings in our space.