Nick Sullivan, CEO and Founder, explained in his Reddit post how the firm has been struggling to find a viable business model, after the ChangeTip's development team was acquired by Airbnb:
“In the spring of 2016, ChangeTip’s employees were acqui-hired by Airbnb, where most of us work today. Since then, we’ve been searching for the best outcome for ChangeTip, and unfortunately the only remaining option is to shut it down.”According to Sullivan's post, tipping on ChangeTip will be turned off at the end of November, and existing users will only be allowed to withdraw funds. Alternatively, users can opt to donate their BTC balances to several charities.
While the innovative startup kicked off with a $750,000 capital infusion via a partnership between Blockchain Capital & Flight.vc, in May of 2014, and a $3.5 million seed funding round in December of 2014, which saw participation from prominent VC firms like Pantera Capital and 500 Startups, management has been unable to find a way to monetize the practice of BTC tipping.
Since launching, ChangeTip has acquired more than 100,000 active users. Mr. Sullivan mentioned in his closing letter that more than 350,000 tips have been sent by its users over the last two years.
