Looking for office space on Capitol Hill, or perhaps a few software developers with Ruby on Rails expertise?

ClayValet is shutting down, liquidating assets and returning all of its cash to its angel investor, founder Mikhail Seregine said today.

"I'd love to blame it on the economy but really this has been in the works for quite awhile,'' he said, explaining that the company spent several months trying to be acquired but the company doesn't have much traction or a sustainable business model.

ClayValet provided an online shopping assistance service. Visitors could describe items they were looking for, and the site would analyze customer reviews, prices and other information about products and report back within a day. The four-person company launched its service in November 2007.

The site used Amazon.com Web Services, particularly Mechanical Turk, an online task service that Seregine worked on at Amazon.

Seregine is hoping to help his two employees find work in Seattle. He'll probably look for work at another startup, and eventually would like to try starting another company.