41–50 of 146 posts
Long term though, I'd prefer "talent collaborations" to acquisitions. Did Nike "acquire" Michael Jordan? Sponsoring and supporting, not acquisition.
I'm the author of the popular Mac Instagram Client "InstaDesk" ( http://www.instadesk-app.com ) and I can only confirm this. The reason why I started this whole thing was because I was fed up with working in corporations and not being able to control my life. Now I can enjoy the sun during the day, outside, sitting at a lake, and work late into the evening - or vice versa work at the lake. Even if a huge corporation…
Love this attitude, and I also checked out your app.. Good job! Beautiful and looks awesome. Makes me wish I was more of an Instagram user than I am.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I didn't get that from Marco's post at all . I heard a developer saying "stop blaming indie developers for accepting generous offers from companies and start supporting their products instead".
I got a similar vibe. Also I DID support sparrow. I told absolutely every person I know with a mac that they should use sparrow. Every computer I setup at work and for friends I installed sparrow by default. I have tweeted about loving sparrow. I'm really not sure what more I could have done other than wear a sandwich board around with their logo on it. That STILL didn't stop them from being bought out...
I wonder how the poo-pooing of anything that isn't a $10m+ funding or $1bn+ market cap business on sites like HN encourages people to think "well, hey, perhaps I should go join a business like that if mine can't be."
I'm the author of the popular Mac Instagram Client "InstaDesk" ( http://www.instadesk-app.com ) and I can only confirm this. The reason why I started this whole thing was because I was fed up with working in corporations and not being able to control my life. Now I can enjoy the sun during the day, outside, sitting at a lake, and work late into the evening - or vice versa work at the lake. Even if a huge corporation…
As someone who sold his company last year and is now experiencing life as a salaried employee again, amen to this... Freedom > money in the vast majority of cases.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I didn't get that from Marco's post at all . I heard a developer saying "stop blaming indie developers for accepting generous offers from companies and start supporting their products instead".
I got a similar vibe. Also I DID support sparrow. I told absolutely every person I know with a mac that they should use sparrow. Every computer I setup at work and for friends I installed sparrow by default. I have tweeted about loving sparrow. I'm really not sure what more I could have done other than wear a sandwich board around with their logo on it. That STILL didn't stop them from being bought out...
>I don’t want Instapaper to shut down, I don’t want to move my family across the country, and they didn’t want to pay enough So if Marco was paid enough, would he let big companies shut down Instapaper by acquiring it?
Would I sell my business for $100m tomorrow even if the whole thing got destroyed in the process? I sure would (though I'd use the money to start a new one ;-)).
Yeah it's just a tough situation. Even as a developer, I'm pretty sure I'd have trouble turning down a huge paycheck to go work for a reputable company. I've never built anything that's had a huge fan base though. What are ways to show appreciation for a company/product you like aside from buying their product, tweeting an occasional praise, and liking their FB content? Is that enough?
The situation when you have built a big fan base or other sort of "attention" asset is that taking a job is surprisingly risky.
I had this situation with a potential acquirer. The job was awesome, the company was great, but the goodwill and potential I've built up is too valuable to part with lightly. Why? The worst case is you get bought out at too low a cost and then, for whatever reason, you're out of a job a month later. Now you have a little pile of money in the bank and.. back to square one. That's a risk regular employed folks don't have.
This is why most talent acquisitions are in the 7 or 8 figures. It's enough money to eradicate the risk of taking on a full time job and losing one's hard-built business assets for most people (even low 7 figures each is enough to pay off mortgages, cars, and have healthy savings).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I didn't get that from Marco's post at all . I heard a developer saying "stop blaming indie developers for accepting generous offers from companies and start supporting their products instead".
I got a similar vibe. Also I DID support sparrow. I told absolutely every person I know with a mac that they should use sparrow. Every computer I setup at work and for friends I installed sparrow by default. I have tweeted about loving sparrow. I'm really not sure what more I could have done other than wear a sandwich board around with their logo on it. That STILL didn't stop them from being bought out...
I am glad Google bought it because maybe they will fix it and also produce an iPad app