Otherbranch is closed down.
On Febuary 20, I made the decision to close Otherbranch's doors.
Our business model worked fine. We were (very) profitable throughout our existence, with margins >80% and plenty of revenue at our best. In almost any sane world, we would continue to operate that way, and if someone asked me if they could run the same model, I would tell them "yes".
Unfortunately, even though you can't avoid the "bus factor" as a founder, the bus can still hit you.
In fall of 2025, two things happened at once. The first was that our previously-reliable sourcing channels collapsed for reasons still unclear (it seems to be at least partially a market shift, but evidence for that is inconsistent). This would be a normal enough business problem, if an existential one, taken alone.
But around the same time, for reasons I don't want to get into in a public announcement, my attention and energy became severely taxed by problems outside of my work. A small startup can't survive when its founder can't bring their A-game, and as much as I wish I could, it's become clear in the months since that I cannot. So it's time to quit while we're ahead.
If you're looking for content from our blog, you can still find it here until the site goes down (but I would suggest archiving any content you really want to keep).
Thanks for working with us these past couple of years, and good luck to all of you.
— Rachel, founder/CEO
Otherbranch is
closed down.
On Febuary 20, I made the decision to close Otherbranch's doors.
Our business model worked fine. We were (very) profitable throughout our existence, with margins >80% and plenty of revenue at our best. In almost any sane world, we would continue to operate that way, and if someone asked me if they could run the same model, I would tell them "yes".
Unfortunately, even though you can't avoid the "bus factor" as a founder, the bus can still hit you.
In fall of 2025, two things happened at once. The first was that our previously-reliable sourcing channels collapsed for reasons still unclear (it seems to be at least partially a market shift, but evidence for that is inconsistent). This would be a normal enough business problem, if an existential one, taken alone.
But around the same time, for reasons I don't want to get into in a public announcement, my attention and energy became severely taxed by problems outside of my work. A small startup can't survive when its founder can't bring their A-game, and as much as I wish I could, it's become clear in the months since that I cannot. So it's time to quit while we're ahead.
If you're looking for content from our blog, you can still find it here until the site goes down (but I would suggest archiving any content you really want to keep).
Thanks for working with us these past couple of years, and good luck to all of you.
— Rachel, founder/CEO
Otherbranch is closed down.
On Febuary 20, I made the decision to close Otherbranch's doors.
Our business model worked fine. We were (very) profitable throughout our existence, with margins >80% and plenty of revenue at our best. In almost any sane world, we would continue to operate that way, and if someone asked me if they could run the same model, I would tell them "yes".
Unfortunately, even though you can't avoid the "bus factor" as a founder, the bus can still hit you.
In fall of 2025, two things happened at once. The first was that our previously-reliable sourcing channels collapsed for reasons still unclear (it seems to be at least partially a market shift, but evidence for that is inconsistent). This would be a normal enough business problem, if an existential one, taken alone.
But around the same time, for reasons I don't want to get into in a public announcement, my attention and energy became severely taxed by problems outside of my work. A small startup can't survive when its founder can't bring their A-game, and as much as I wish I could, it's become clear in the months since that I cannot. So it's time to quit while we're ahead.
If you're looking for content from our blog, you can still find it here until the site goes down (but I would suggest archiving any content you really want to keep).
Thanks for working with us these past couple of years, and good luck to all of you.
— Rachel, founder/CEO