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IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

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Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#131

Post by Keegs »

andsoitis wrote: post #121
Keegs wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rightsizing [for what] is the question. GP assumes the goal is to do just enough to keep the product alive. This usually means a degraded customer experience.

> GP assumes the goal is to do just enough to keep the product alive. They wrote "mature and don’t need a lot of work". Why would anyone put lots of people on a product that is mature and doesn't need a lot of work? > This usually means a degraded customer experience. Why? If the product is mature, works well, then surely you need fewer people to keep it in good shape and support customers?

Of course you can maintain mature products with a smaller workforce.

I’m pointing out that intent makes a difference. If Bending Spoons plans to put the apps on life support and squeeze out revenue - a fair assumption - then user experience will suffer.

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#132

Post by w0m »

AlwaysRock wrote: post #128
Sakos wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh wow, they even acquired Evernote and fired the entire staff. I hadn't heard about that.

Evernote finally pushed me over the edge when they limited free plans to 50 notes last month. They had made so many changes to the ui and price increases that it was becoming a worse and worse product. Apples free notes app replaced it and other than being SLIGHTLY annoying that I have to log into the web app on windows machines... I dont miss evernote at all.

similarly; I got fed up with an earlier change and migrated to One Note. Generally happy with it; and apps on every platform (including linux)

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#133

Post by csours »

bdcravens wrote: post #118

20 employees per app? I'll never minimize the amount of work it takes to create software, but even so, that seems like a lot. Moreso when you consider how many employees' skills could be applied to multiple apps.

Comparing a working app to a product running in the market is like comparing a peacefully sleeping baby to a person actively competing in a triathlon.

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#134

Post by blamarvt »

andsoitis wrote: post #121
Keegs wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rightsizing [for what] is the question. GP assumes the goal is to do just enough to keep the product alive. This usually means a degraded customer experience.

> GP assumes the goal is to do just enough to keep the product alive. They wrote "mature and don’t need a lot of work". Why would anyone put lots of people on a product that is mature and doesn't need a lot of work? > This usually means a degraded customer experience. Why? If the product is mature, works well, then surely you need fewer people to keep it in good shape and support customers?

> Why would anyone put lots of people on a product that is mature and doesn't need a lot of work?

Nobody is suggesting anyone put 'lots of people' on a mature product. However, there are always things that need to be done.

Apps need to be updated for new devices, OS/library/security updates, and general bug reports to name a few. That's just on the app side, the same is true for any build pipelines/hosting infrastructure.

These apps don't run themselves regardless of how mature they are.

You're right in that fewer people are needed and I'm all for optimizing but what I feel like you're missing is that it's quite easy to over-optimize for cost at the expense of users.

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#135

Post by curiouscats »

Is there an app that monitors your apps to see if any have been sold to such unethical companies to alert you to delete your accounts with those apps?

That would seem like a useful app.

Frankly Apple and Alphabet should offer such a service but I don't have much confidence that they will.

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#136

Post by badosu »

mariusmg wrote: post #93
cs702 wrote: post #85

Investors in Bending Spoons include musician The Weekend, tennis player Andre Agassi, movie star Bradley Cooper, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and director/actor Taika Waititi, among many other famous people: https://bendingspoons.com/people (scroll to the bottom to see all names). I wonder if any of these illustrious backers are aware of the true business model of Bending Spoons, which can only be described as sca…

Wow, even that /people page screams "douchebags".....

"Creator of product topping Hacker News"

I can't help but find this funny

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#137

Post by stuartjohnson12 »

dylan604 wrote: post #115
stuartjohnson12 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The great thing about Wikipedia is that anyone can edit. Don't mind if I do...

So that's what they want you to believe, but unless you are part of the accepted editor cabal, any changes you make will be reverted by someone actually part of the cabal

Do you think I'm part of the editor cabal? If so, what qualified me? If not, do you expect my changes to this article to be reverted?

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#139

Post by [deleted] »

epolanski wrote: post #55
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> people that apply there have quite low moral/ethical ones Out of curiosity, why? It doesn’t seem like these apps are either critical nor need those developers anymore.

You're not really joining a company whose mission is to make the world a better place, or at least just create a nice product. You're joining a team of jackals trying to squeeze any money out of users that depend/love a specific product while putting these applications on minimal support. I just think that at the end of the day it's nicer if you can think you contributed to the world, or even just one user making his…

[deleted]

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#140

Post by dylan604 »

stuartjohnson12 wrote: post #137
dylan604 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So that's what they want you to believe, but unless you are part of the accepted editor cabal, any changes you make will be reverted by someone actually part of the cabal

Do you think I'm part of the editor cabal? If so, what qualified me? If not, do you expect my changes to this article to be reverted?

I have no idea if you are or not. I'm challenging your claim about anyone being able to make edits as that's what Wiki wants people to think since most people will take that at face value. The reality is, that if you are not an accepted member of the cabal, then your edits will be reverted.

So yes, if you are not part of the cabal, I would expect your edits to be reverted...at some point in time. I have very little faith in the system.

If you are part of the cabal, how long did it take to learn the handshake? /s

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