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Holder Software Inc., a blockchain-focused marketing tech firm that launched out of Indianapolis-based venture studio High Alpha two years ago, has called it quits.
The company quietly shut down in mid-April, although co-founder and CEO Drew Beechler did not announce the news until this week.
“The company’s been dissolved and it has already wound down,” Beechler told IBJ.
The main reason Holder failed, Beechler said, was that that blockchain technology has not gained traction as quickly as he had anticipated it would.
“I’d ultimately just chalk it up to timing,” Beechler said. “We were just too early in this really, really emerging market.”
Beechler said the company, which launched in June 2022, had been earning revenue since mid-2023 but had not yet achieved positive cash flow and was not gaining the traction that he had hoped for. At its peak the company had a staff of seven, Beechler said, but by the time the company shut down it was down to three employees.
Beechler said the company had a little money left in the bank when it decided to shut down, and it has returned that money to its investors.
Holder was High Alpha’s first startup to focus on the emerging third generation of the internet, also known as Web 3.0 or Web3. Definitions of Web 3.0 vary, but in general it refers to the use of blockchain technology—the same technology that enables things like cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens, or NFTs.
For years, marketers have connected with customers via email. But Holder’s underlying thesis was that, in Web 3.0, the new means of connection will be via digital wallets. A digital wallet is a place to store cryptocurrency and other digital assets. Third parties can see the assets and activity associated with a particular digital wallet, but they don’t know the identity of the wallet-holder.
Holder offered a way that marketers could connect with digital wallets’ owners, even if the marketers didn’t know who the owners were.
Beechler said he’s taking some time off to figure out his next move, and has interest in launching another company.
Despite the outcome, Beechler said he doesn’t regret launching Holder. “I still loved every bit of it.”
During its brief life span, Holder did draw local notice.
Holder was among the 2024 nominees for TechPoint’s Mira Award in the Startup of the Year category, though the company did not end up winning the award. Likewise, Holder was nominated in the Product Launch of the Year and Startup of the Year categories in last year’s Mira Awards. Beechler was also a nominee for the Mira Awards Rising Entrepreneur Award in 2023.
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