10 Hot Tech Startups: Where Are They Now?

1. Turntable.fm

When Turntable.fm launched in mid-2011, the social music website was widely hailed as one of the most exciting music startups of the year. Turntable hit 140,000 users in its first month and reportedly raised as much as $7.5 million in funding at a valuation of $37.5 million. The service, which lets users pick avatars and gather in virtual DJ rooms to spin tracks and discover music, was often described as "addictive." After a few months, though, the addiction seemed to wear off.Turntable's monthly active users gradually declined from 130,000 in November 2011 to 80,000 in September, according to numbers provided to Mashable by AppData, a firm that tracks user metrics for applications connected to Facebook. In that time, Turntable's team has continued to advance the product by pushing into mobile with apps for iPhone and Android, but this hasn't done much to reverse the trend of declining traffic. More recently, the company's co-founder Seth Goldstein turned his attention to a new music startup called DJZ.Despite these setbacks, the folks at Turntable are still singing an optimistic tune. "We've actually been working on a lot of new stuff that is coming soon," Billy Chasen, Turntable's co-founder, told Mashable. Chasen wouldn't comment on the specifics of these new features, or how they play into the long-term strategy of the company.

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Just because a startup is showered with press and venture funding early on doesn't necessarily mean it's guaranteed to succeed in the long run.

All that extra hype can help a tech startup attract users quickly after its launch, which is key for any tech company just starting out, but it can also put too much pressure on a young company that may not have all the kinks figured out.

SEE ALSO: 5 Hot Startups You Need to Watch

In the past few years, countless tech startups have earned plenty of buzz at first, only to fade from the spotlight. Some of these companies have since gone bust, while others are still chugging along and tinkering with their business models. Occasionally, a startu…
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