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Comment by earllee | Hacker News Reader

I remember reading about Color from the get-go and being astounded by the inordinate amount of money invested in this idea. Not surprised to see how it turned out.

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What was the idea, again?

Pick an unsearchable name for your product, then don't make a product. I think it was performance art.

This was my thought too, and set when I searched on un-logged in Google, they are number 1 for "color".

Now we know what they needed $42 million for!

Something like live mobile streaming? http://color.com/about :

    At Color, we believe in the opportunity that the new mobile era presents and are excited about developing products that transform the way people share the stories of their lives.

    We work collaboratively, iterate often, and enjoy problem solving. Color is a company of entrepreneurs and innovators, highly skilled in their respective specialties, constantly striving to learn and grow.

    We’ve cultivated a very relaxed and informal culture and enjoy our extra curricular activities, which include but are not limited to: ping pong tournaments, ball pit acrobatics and impromptu poker nights.

I really have no idea

It seems like someone with a modicum of jargon, zero ethics, and balls of brass would be able to suck a nearly unlimited amount of cash out of the herd mentality that rules VC. Perhaps there's a startup idea in there.

> Perhaps there's a startup idea in there.

Bill Nguyen, Inc. for the last two-odd years...

It was a geolocation social network w/ pictures that are tied to locations. Then it pivoted extremely quickly to live video streaming.

Neither had they.

Double stealth mode then.

Initially, Color was for photo sharing around a place and time. For example, if you and I are using the Color app at the same party we would see each others photos even if we aren't "friends". It's a little abstract, but a very interesting take social sharing.

Didn't it used to listen through your microphone and match signatures of the sounds up with data from other people's phones to figure out if you were in the same room?

That and a number of other clever things. The tech and talent acquisition was likely a good one. As a product, Color was launched so clumsily, and squandered its one good shot at a relaunch.

Google Plus has a similar functionality that is pretty neat, however it requires people to "Attend" an event.

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