(Disclaimer: I have been part of the journey of this company in 2006 until early 2007 as a bizdev consultant so this serves as a healthy self-criticism.) Sources familiar with the matter today reported that Sonopia has practically ceased operations and laid off all its US staff at the end of March. The company has also reached an amicable resolution with existing marketing partners to transition subscribers it had acquired.

Sonopia was one of the high-flying start-ups of 2007, launching a year ago a service which provided organizations and community an easy way to launch their branded mobile service and to earn an affiliate revenue share while doing so. The model proved to be too ambitious and perhaps ahead of its time on the US market. Boy, don’t these US carriers make things difficult for innovative companies - in this case it was Verizon who was at the critical time just learning the baby-steps of ‘open’…

The idea of micro-segmented and community-driven mobile ‘micro-MVNOs’ was a smart one: people would feel high affinity to a common cause such as a non-profit, political or religious organization. They would rather compromise on fancy phone functionalities and take a subscription that would bring them closer to their favorite affiliation, something they really care about. However, critics warned that the approach was too ‘involving’ and too ambitious, offering targeted services and campaigns for segmented groups would often suffice and be less risky for the partner organization which often lacked skills in running even a marketing program, let alone a mobile service.

Sonopia’s rise and fall is also a story of a brave viking by the name of Juha Christensen who so far had pretty much never failed and who did not feel vulnerable in any way. The company’s commercial presentations highlighted the CEO’s glorious past to a point that did not seem to match the prevalence of personality cults in an otherwise democratic Denmark. Yet the success of the company was dependent on the execution of the plan (as always) and particularly on the recognition that one should build on the strength of early partners to build a strong organic foundation. It was a miss of too much bravery and forward-leaning optimism but it surely proved that Juha - a new entrant among Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial elite - will be worth his second and third chance by the VCs.