WhichBus, a mobile application that helped people find bus route around Seattle, has ceased operations.
“After over a year and a half operating WhichBus, we’ve made the tough decision to shut down the service to focus on other projects,” the company wrote in an email message to users.
WhichBus formed at a StartupWeekend event in the Seattle area in January 12th, and it operated very much as a side project by its contributors.
“Our mission was to make riding the bus simple and we are glad to have helped do so for nearly 10,000 people. It has been wonderful journey and we thank you for your support,” the creators wrote in the email message.
Dave Rigotti, one of the original creators of the app, said that they decided to pull the plug after the two key developers moved away to London and Australia, and the other three contributors took new jobs. (Rigotti, as we reported earlier this month, just started at Seattle startup Bizible).
“Users demand that transit apps work flawlessly, so we ultimately decided to shut down the service because we just couldn’t monitor it closely enough to ensure it was always operating properly,” said Rigotti. “We did learn a lot though and would do it again.”
Rigotti specifically pointed to the power of Startup Weekend as an accelerant for those who were intrigued by the startup process.
“When we first started, four of the five team members worked at big companies. Now four of the five work at startups,” he said.
WhichBus is recommending that folks who used the app turn to OneBusAway, the popular mobile app which also offers bus and transportation information for the Seattle area.
“It was a great experience — we had blast,” said Rigotti. “We’d just like to thank everyone who used WhichBus. We loved reading your comments and it was your comments of love that kept it going this long.”
