Don’t Call It A PivotPlz: PicPlz Spun Off As Mixed Media Labs Prepares Their Next Product

When Mixed Media Labs raised a $5 million round last November, it raised quite a few eyebrows. After all, the money came from Andreessen Horowitz, the VC firm which had backed Instagram . To be fair, they backed Instagram when it was still known as Burbn — before it became what is now a massively popular mobile photo-sharing app. Still, there's no question that Mixed Media Labs' PicPlz product was a direct competitor. And Andreessen Horowitz sided with them, while Instagram found other investors . But as Sarah noted at the time , Andreessen's bet wasn't so much against Instagram, as it was a bet on Mixed Media Lab founder Dalton Caldwell . Caldwell, who had previously founded imeem, was said to have a broad vision for a company beyond photo-sharing. PicPlz was just the first product to leverage what they were creating. And while it has achieved moderate success, it has not seen the success Instagram has in terms of users . And now Mixed Media Labs has moved on to their next product, we've learned.