Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Sold just got acquired by Dropbox and closed their company

usesold.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 81 posts

Re: Sold just got acquired by Dropbox and closed their company

#11

Post by chadwickthebold »

alexeichemenda wrote: post #8
reustle wrote: post #5

I get a google products vibe from these sorts of acquisitions. Don't get too comfortable with that little startup! It could disappear tomorrow...

I'm sorry, but I do not fully understand your comment. "It could disappear tomorrow" ? Sold has written on their blog that they are shutting down their company..

I think they meant that they are uncomfortable with the idea of trying to use a lot of the apps and startups that are popping up nowadays, as they could leave their customers / userbase as soon as the acquisition is finalized. How much value can I really get out of a product if they are only in it for the exit?

I wonder if startups are starting to see a reluctance in users to fully buy in to trying new products. This reminds me of one S13 YC startup that got bought by Pinterest a few weeks ago..

Re: Sold just got acquired by Dropbox and closed their company

#12

Post by berberous »

tonydev wrote: post #3
DigitalJack wrote: post #2

I used it once and liked it. But they came across as dorky snobs in there marketing.

Glad you enjoyed using Sold. We are definitely dorks, hopefully not snobs, and had a ton of fun making our marketing in house :)

Congrats on joining Dropbox! As someone who has a ton of stuff that I'm too lazy to sell, I'm curious if you could speak at all about why the business was not working. Do you think Shyp [http://www.shyp.com/] is a better business model?

Re: Sold just got acquired by Dropbox and closed their company

#13

Post by hkmurakami »

alexeichemenda wrote: post #8
reustle wrote: post #5

I get a google products vibe from these sorts of acquisitions. Don't get too comfortable with that little startup! It could disappear tomorrow...

I'm sorry, but I do not fully understand your comment. "It could disappear tomorrow" ? Sold has written on their blog that they are shutting down their company..

As in, reading about ever increasing numbers of these sorts of acquisitions makes us weary of using products from these small starups since they can get acquired and shut down their service suddenly, much like how we need to be wary of using Google products and APIs these days since they could be shut down suddenly.

Re: Sold just got acquired by Dropbox and closed their company

#16

Post by lsc »

reustle wrote: post #5

I get a google products vibe from these sorts of acquisitions. Don't get too comfortable with that little startup! It could disappear tomorrow...

>Don't get too comfortable with that little startup! It could disappear tomorrow...

But that is true of all services. This is why savvy businesses try to stick with services that have competition; that way they have somewhere to go if their provider of choice goes under for whatever reason.

Re: Sold just got acquired by Dropbox and closed their company

#17

Post by RafiqM »

itafroma wrote: post #7

As someone unfamiliar with Sold, I really appreciated the "What was Sold?" section: I rarely, if ever, see that on shutdown/acquisition placeholder pages and always wished more companies would do that.

Also unfamiliar with it till now, just watched the video and wow... it looked like an awesome service. I wouldn't have been able to use it, as I'm in Ireland, but if selling was that simple it could really disrupt the likes of Craigslist.

I guess as its an acquihire maybe the vision couldn't become a reality though :(

Re: Sold just got acquired by Dropbox and closed their company

#18

Post by yefim »

zedpm wrote: post #9

Can anyone comment on the motivation for Dropbox to acquire a company that apparently helped people sell things? Is Dropbox interested in working in that domain or are they just picking up devs for their own product?

I think they jump on anything to do with boxes /s

Re: Sold just got acquired by Dropbox and closed their company

#19

Post by chrisacky »

The opening line follows the boilerplate trend of acquisition posts. Being acqui-hired is not something that you should be celebrating with your users... PERIOD. (On a side note, I'm genuinely happy for you all. Getting paid isn't a negative. It's a huge opportunity, but don't patronise your users).

"Yey us. :D We're super excited to announce we got acquired. High-five... too slow... Now go f* yourselves."

It's incredibly condescending to assume that any of your users share your happiness and are apart of this experience...

"We’re really excited..."

You use "we" so many times as if your users are apart of your acqui-hire, yet only mention "you" (your users who made this possible) in the closing statement.

Be honest and graceful, but asking your users for a high five on the way out isn't the way to do it.

PS. I hate posting negative comments. I'm a Brit, and like to be polite all the time....

EDIT: Call me out on this if you think I'm wrong. Other people who have read it think I'm just reading into it way too much. I tend to agree that I'm particular, and it could easily be chalked down to me being overly zealous to criticize another successful acqui-hire. :)

Re: Sold just got acquired by Dropbox and closed their company

#20

Post by greenlakejake »

zedpm wrote: post #9

Can anyone comment on the motivation for Dropbox to acquire a company that apparently helped people sell things? Is Dropbox interested in working in that domain or are they just picking up devs for their own product?

Picking up devs.
Post reply on HN