Thank You and Farewell from Oooh

After nearly six years of dreaming extra, extra big, taking risks, and building something truly unique and special, we’ve made the difficult decision to shut down Oooh.

We told everyone from the start that we were on a moonshot mission: to create a better "social media" community platform that could change the way people connect online—one for the better. We knew it would be ambitious. We knew it would be hard. And we knew that success wasn’t guaranteed—but the vision was worth it.

What an incredible ride it’s been. We reached millions of people, broke into the top 100 in the App Store, secured a patent and along the way, our team and our users created countless unforgettable moments. We tried things no one else dared to try and we built something we are all very proud of.

On a personal note, running Oooh with this team was an especially unique source of positivity during an unimaginably challenging time:

I went from leaving Twitch after 5+ years, to founding Oooh and shortly thereafter my wife became pregnant with our first child. I was piecing this company together and fundraising for our first round when I received news just days before we had our son my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. Supporting her through her battle and being present to our newborn, and raising another round from her hospital bedside when Covid first started, then losing my wife within that year, and into raising a series A a few months later as a single, widowed dad with a 1yo…

I can't help but occasionally think if there weren't so many challenges for me personally, if things would have ended up differently. I don't think so. But more importantly, I can’t thank the team enough, especially my cofounder Paco Viciana and brother Sean Carrier who picked up the extra load some days. And to the investors for your unwavering love and support along the way. Somehow, magically, I feel grateful for all of it.

So to those of you who believed in me and us and Oooh thank you! You made a big bet, and I hope you feel proud of putting your money into this dream and into us. You placed your trust in a team that wasn’t afraid to take on the giants of this space, and you gave us the fuel to boldly chase this dream. While we didn’t get to the finish line, this mission mattered. It still matters, and I wish anyone luck to figure out how to make the world a better place in this space.

Consumer tech is tough. The market is afraid to bet against the incumbents, and the winners lately have been small and, understandably, aimed at very different outcomes than we were. We pivoted many times to find our wedge in—from a kids-focused interactive media app to one for streamers, to building interest groups and communities, and even finding meaningful traction at the end with moms(!). But ultimately it was my leadership, our execution, and maybe it was simply the timing, that wasn’t right. We couldn’t secure the additional capital we needed to keep going despite finding our best traction ever in recent months. And so the Oooh product is now sunset.

Our team of 14, with 12 incredibly talented engineers, product minds, and designers, and 2 in business and partnerships, are world-class and all stuck around til the very end. Most of which were with us from the very beginning. They are seasoned veterans in #Gaming, #Social, #Video, and #AI.

The technology we built is robust, and I've begun conversations with potential acquirers about next steps. To any company looking for a senior, passionate and loyal team and tech stack—there’s something here, and it’s worth exploring! Please reach out.

This is not the end of the story just yet, we’ll see where things end up in the coming weeks. But, thank you to every single person who helped us along the way. Your belief in us fueled a determination in us like I’ve never seen before.

If you’d like to discuss the sale of the company, feel free to DM me or email me at [email protected].

Sincerely,

Colin Carrier

Founder & CEO, Oooh

????: Paco Viciana Sean Carrier Nicholas Shim Allan Bush Derek Hilder Keely Portsmouth Roger Braunstein Simon Roscoe Danielle Tilley James Hall Tyler Venables Matt Delorme Dylan A. Marcelo Garcia Garza Marko Glavincevski @joseph da silva

- thank you!

and also: Connor Hussey Brooke Van Dusen ?? GDC Renata Duque Christopher Adamson Dan Lavender Karina Daniluck Charlie Helman Spencer Stanley Timothy Cham Amy Thiessen Patrick Dumont Isabella Fawcett-Jones Charlotte Madelon Marisa Van De Walle Jay Shanks Zack Dupont Wuilbert Jaramillo Mason Macklem Jason Donnalley, ACPM Russ Horton

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Here's some of our latest app shots, after we doubled-down to focus on 'moms' whose DAU mix became 75% of our platform and W1-W8 retention was 60-30% (excellent by industry standard!)