I'm suprised they're shutting down because of a lack of a buyer/investor rather than making it and keeping it as a successful business. Are the goals these days for a big buy out?
Once you take seed funding you're locked into a raise and re-raise treadmill until you grow sufficiently to find an exit. VCs/seed shops aren't there to help you build a lifestyle business. They're trying to either fail fast or get a 10x multiple and move on, which means either an IPO or (far more likely these days) an acquisition.
Maybe I'm a rarity in this, but I actually prefer paying for services that are not VC funded. That way I feel like I am less likely to have the rug pulled out from under me.
Geckoboard is an interesting opposite example of this. They took a seed round more than ten years ago and have been slowly and steadily maintaining the business, resisting further rounds. I don't know their finances but they seem to continue to be doing well.
The subtext is: it wasn't a successful business, so the only option for survival was to try to find a buyer/investor to fund it on the promise of future success
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