Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

Post by samstave » Tue, Nov 17, 2015, 5:16 AM UTC

thrownaway2424 wrote: post #169

samstave wrote: post #90

Pandora: Rags to riches poster child of SV: CEO cant make payroll; begs employees to stay and they do.... Pays $75,000,000 for assets of a competitor a few years later.

What did the employees get out of it?

Post by mavelikara » Tue, Nov 17, 2015, 5:32 AM UTC

rekoros wrote: post #191

trustfundbaby wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I realized that Rdio will never succeed due to lack of fanatical leadership—you can't have a company with absent founders, that's just not how it works—and left Can you elaborate on this? How was the leadership absent? and why do you think that was?

Rdio co-founders sold Skype (twice). When they co-founded Rdio, they weren't hoping to build their life's work, they just wanted to try something new (I guess), in the US. Rdio was run by VPs. That's OK when things are going great and there's lots of money in the bank. It's not OK when the ship needs some founder-inspired steering in a storm. It's not OK when the ship is taking on water. It's not OK if there are sign…

Post by rekoros » Tue, Nov 17, 2015, 5:42 AM UTC

mavelikara wrote: post #194

rekoros wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rdio co-founders sold Skype (twice). When they co-founded Rdio, they weren't hoping to build their life's work, they just wanted to try something new (I guess), in the US. Rdio was run by VPs. That's OK when things are going great and there's lots of money in the bank. It's not OK when the ship needs some founder-inspired steering in a storm. It's not OK when the ship is taking on water. It's not OK if there are sign…

Did you have trouble hiring, given the bad rep the founders got when they fired some employees at Skype and pulled back their vested options? [1] [1]: http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/26/skypes-worthless-employee-s...

Post by michaelchisari » Tue, Nov 17, 2015, 5:46 AM UTC

mbesto wrote: post #159

rekoros wrote: post #151

I was one of Rdio's first employees (3rd) and have been a happy subscriber since Craig got billing to work. After FB employees got free Rdio, they gave Rdio employees free Rdio as well, but I kept paying—to retain the right to bitch. (I got a free account for my wife though.) My entire extended family have been paying for and swearing by Rdio for years. I was introduced to Erlang at Rdio (this shaped the future of my…

> "Are we really going to start using Spotify after so many years of hating on it?" —our 15-year-old. Genuinely curious here - why are so many techies desperately passionate (both positive and negative) about choice of unseemly unnecessary tech products? I feel like there is this peculiar subculture of tech-minded folk who defend at odds their tech choices. "Slack is the best" "Hell no, IRC has been around for years!…

Post by douche » Tue, Nov 17, 2015, 5:53 AM UTC

lemevi wrote: post #195

epa wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tech generation grew up in a 'free' culture of internet: illegal downloads, open source, pro bono collaboration. Paying for something that is equally equivalent to something that was free for decades usually is a tough sell. This doesnt apply to all people.

This probably also explains why it's so hard to find a good editor. So many devs are totally unwilling to pay a decent amount for anything. Maybe the exception being hosting. Outside of hosting a server and dns and an SSL cert, it's hard to get engineers making 6 figures to spend more than $50 on a tool they use every day of their working life. Intellij recently switched to a new plan that adds up to like $15 to $10…