Sqoop, site used by biz reporters, is shutting down

Sqoop, a site used by business journalists to track Securities and Exchange Commission filings, as well as U.S. Patent and Trademark filings and federal lawsuits, is shutting.

Founder Bill Hankes sent out the following on Friday:

Hi everyone, I’m writing to share the disappointing news that I will be shutting down Sqoop.

As most of you know, we’ve had a series outages and technical setbacks over the course of the last six months. At times, it seemed like my development team was taking one step forward and two backwards. I brought on a trusted expert to help me assess our code base and determine what it would take to relaunch the service.

Sadly, the answer is too far out of reach, and I can no longer afford to solely fund the company’s operations as I have been.

This is devastating for me, and not just because it’s an effort I’ve worked so hard on for the better part of a decade. I know from the hundreds of kind notes over the years how much Sqoop has meant to the journalism community, a profession that I truly love.

We launched Sqoop with a simple idea: create a journalist-first news discovery experience. Sadly, I’ve been unable to turn that vision into a sustainable business.

I have enjoyed getting to know so many of you over the years from when we first launched at IRE in Philly, to meeting up at NICAR, SABEW and Hackathons. I wish you all the best. Keep fighting the good fight!

With much admiration and respect,

Bill Hankes