The Shelby team hard at work on... something? (Photo: Reece Pacheco, Artwork c/o http://sirmikeofmitchell.com/ )
Apparently something's up over at Techstars alum Shelby.TV. Cofounder Reece Pacheco just emailed Betabeat to say that the team would be shutting down the current iteration of Shelby in order to focus on rebuilding the product.
"It's no secret that we're building a new version of Shelby, rebuilt from the ground up, but we're going to shut down the current version in the interim," he wrote. "No big deal really, just a matter of focusing on one product at a time."
According to a blog post published on Shelby.TV's site, the team is working on rebuilding the backend entirely. "To be clear, this isn’t just an update. This is an entirely new build, freshly coded from the ground up," it reads.
The rebuild will help make room for the following features:
- Speed. Shelby’s faster every step of the way.
- Discovery. Better processing power means more videos.
- Community. More ways to connect, share, and curate.
Shelby.TV has seen its fair share of pivots. Reigning King of the Internet Mr. Pacheco entered the TechStars 2011 program with a different idea altogether: a sports-focused app named Homefield which TechStars mentors suggested he scrap in order to begin anew with a concept that was more scalable. That decision led e and his partner Dan Spinosa to Shelby.TV, a video sharing and discovery platform that includes integration with iPhone and iPad.
Shelby has garnered Mr. Pacheco and Mr. Spinosa a fair amount of attention in Startupland. It was named one of the Top Buzziest Brands at SXSW and the duo has raised a total of $1.725 million from investors like Avalon Ventures and Tim Draper.
This move doesn't sound like a complete pivot for Shelby, but instead a move to build a new iteration with better functionality based on user feedback.
Shelby is set to go dark this weekend. "The Chrome Extension, iOS apps, bookmarklet, and weekly emails will also be shut off soon," reads the blog post.