Hashable, a startup that promised to make exchanging contact information painless and business card-free, has died.



Founder Mike Yavonditte plans to create a new mobile advertising company instead.

"There's nothing next for Hashable. We're heads down building something new in ad tech, new company, slightly different team," Yavonditte tells us via email. He'll begin talking about the new company in September.

"We're building a very unique mobile ad system, one that honors both publishers and advertisers," he says via Twitter. "We are going to help publishers with significant mobile traffic monetize --- but with ad formats and targeting that make normal people click."

Yavonditte has been building the mobile ad network for the past month. He knows the space well; Yavonditte was formerly the CEO of Quigo, which sold to AOL for $363 million.

Now he's an angel investor and puts money into 8-10 startups per year. His investments include Lover.ly, Klout, Meetup, Yipit, and Flurry.

Hashable was a pivot from another startup called Tracked. Tracked raised $11.5 million before closing its doors. Hashable raised $4 million.

Yavonditte says Hashable is folding because the team "simply couldn't make it good enough" and ad networks are in his wheelhouse.

But do we really need another ad network? Yavonditte thinks so.

"Mary Meeker's report was way too compelling to ignore for a team like ours," he tells us. "The opportunity is akin to the modern day gold rush."