Lauren Leto, founder of startup Banters, has announced that the service will no longer be actively developed beginning June 1. Leto explains the decision in the Banters blog:
Unfortunately while our community has been incredibly passionate (and often hilarious), it hasn’t grown as much as we’d hoped. In light of this, on June 1st, we will no longer be actively working on Banters. We’re not outright closing the site down any time in the foreseeable future, but, for the sake of prudence, we’re encouraging our users to export their data here.
Leto will become the General Manager at Findings, a Betaworks company that “offers a straightforward, intuitive way to share and discuss quotes from books and the web,” as Leto puts it – an appropriate place for someone with a known affinity for the written word. Leto’s cofounder Patrick Moberg will also be joining Betaworks as a “Hacker-in-Residence.”
Banters started out as a site to help people share their IM, text, and chat conversations with the world, and raised funding from investors like Chris Dixon, High Line Capital, and Khosla Ventures. The service launched in late 2010 as bnter, but upgraded its name to Banters in January of this year. One interesting note: If you’re curious about the dynamic between founders and VCs, check out this amazing 2011 TechCrunch story of Spark Capital, Lauren Leto, and the disappearing term sheet.
