The trouble with that, of course, is that even though tipjoy pleased users they just didn't have enough of them or enough transaction volume since the market wasn't ready.
What does one do in that case? Keep going (bleeding money) or give up? Lots of startup ideas are so bold that they're clearly early for their time.
I think tipjoys major problem was simply not being integrated in the platforms they were targeting, not that they did not please their users enough. You have to go through all the gates to score, not a subset of them.
And not having enough users is just as much a reason for failure as having dissatisfied ones.
The market is ready alright, it's just that as a third party add on offering a payment service you have to cross one more hurdle.
I'm pretty sure if the tipjoy principle would be implemented from within the network that it would be an instant smash hit.
"If you start a startup, don't design your product to please VCs or potential acquirers. Design your product to please the users. If you win the users, everything else will follow. And if you don't, no one will care how comfortingly orthodox your technology choices were."
at about 2/3rd into the essay.