Honestly, I've been waiting for someone to ask before breaking the news, but unfortunately we had to close up shop in May.
Two main issues did us in:
1) Trying to RUN a site and BUILD a site at the same time proved too much. I stopped updating The Projection List in 2015 because I couldn't run a company and keep updating that site simultaneously, but for the site I partnered with, we not only kept that one going, we increased the writing staff and added a few other positions as well. It was a relatively popular site with great traffic and a decent size social media following (60K+ followers), and we wanted to keep that momentum/following while building the new site. We thought it wouldn't be as hard as it ended up being, and boy were we wrong. Running a site and building a new one - each with a decent size staff - just became overwhelming, and far too expensive. 100%, we should have shut down the other site and then focused ALL of our attention and efforts on the new one, and then built a new audience from scratch at launch.
2) If anyone out there is ever thinking of building a massive new site/platform, DO NOT hire your own in-house tech team. We made that mistake, and that is ultimately what did us is in, more so than the issue above. It was a catch-22 because the platform was so detailed, complex, and specific, that we needed programmers and developers basically at our beck and call 24/7, sorting out ideas with us, telling us what could and couldn't be done, etc., but the problem was that A) we were a start-up and could barely afford competitive salaries (and those f*ckers get paid A LOT for working basically 11 AM to 5 PM, if that, five days a week), and B) because of that, they essentially had the power to "hold us hostage," so to speak, in not meeting certain deadlines, saying "no" to certain features, etc. They had us over the barrel and they knew it. Admittedly, we probably asked for too much, and the relationship became contentious. In hindsight, what we should have done is hire an outside company to build the site for us, one that had to meet deadlines, couldn't say no to us (based on previously agreed upon parameters/features), etc.
Anyway, long story short, we had as many as 30 employees at one point, and I wouldn't wish having to let go of that many people, one by one, on my worst enemy (though, again, some of them I admittedly despised, and did get a certain amount satisfaction in doing so). And all of this isn't to say we won't try to raise more money and give this another shot down the road. I think if we were to give it another try, the play would be to do a stripped down version at first - i.e. not trying to go head-to-head with IMDB out of the gate - but build to an IMDB competitor over the course of a few years. In order to make a splash, we thought we had to do the latter, along with having a fully functional news/articles component, job board, etc., and it was all just too much in the end.
There's still a giant hole on the web for a Projection List-like site, and trust me, I still have any itchy finger to do it, and do it right this time, but for the time being my focus is 100% on my production company. As obsessive as I am about release dates and trailers and what not, my passion still lies far more in writing/producing, and it feels incredible to be back writing everyday. We optioned a
Texas Monthly article, which I'm currently adapting as a feature, and I could not be more fired up about the story we're telling with that, and the interest it's already garnering. Then we have another movie and three shows we're developing, with some big names attached or circling, each right on the verge of happening, but this town moves slower than molasses, so we'll see. Either way, it's all super exciting stuff, and after a terribly sh*tty first half of the year, being forced to let one dream die (at least for the time being), I haven't been as satisfied in years as I am right now, and am beyond stoked for where the other company is heading.
