Many people say the holidays are depressing because they don’t have friends and family with whom to celebrate.  Then there are those who dread the fact that they will have to celebrate with friends and family, and all the inevitable drama.

For me, it’s the business aspects of year end that tend to make me verklempt.  December is the time entrepreneurs tend to throw in the towel.

In a note from NewsBasis founder Darryl Siry, the former Tesla Motors media relations chief explained that options for funding and acquisition failed to materialize, so he is shutting down and taking a CMO position for ProSight Specialty.

NewsBasis came on the scene after Peter Shankman’s success in creating Help a Reporter Out, an ad-supported clone of PR Newswire’s subscription service ProfNet.  Once HARO was acquired by Vocus, some reasoned there was an opening for another platform to connect the media and PR professionals.  New York Times reporter Claire Cain Miller wrote a glowing pre-launch piece about NewsBasis in August 2010.

Another shutdown notice involved VisualCV, a site that aimed to provide jobseekers a video resume so they could differentiate themselves from those analog shmucks who only send text-based CVs.  The recruitment firm Heidrich & Struggles provided funding, along with Valhalla Partners and iNovia Capital.

I’m not sure what went wrong with VisualCV. but it is quite revealing that the company’s final post was done as text rather than video.

All is not gloom and doom in startup land.  My childhood friend Bob Ertischek will be launching Profology, a social network limited to those who work in higher education.  The founder of Techrigy, Aaron Newman, also just filed papers in Delaware for his new technology startup.  I’m truly excited for these guys as they enter 2012 with fresh ideas.