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Dropbox acquires Loom (YC W12)

blog.loom.com

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Re: Dropbox acquires Loom (YC W12)

#121

Post by ukd1 »

slaven wrote: post #83
kylec wrote: post #44

This is really disappointing. I have been a paying Loom member since shortly after the service was released, it's too bad it wasn't enough to keep it an independent company. After DivvyShot, Everpix, Snapjoy, and now Loom, I don't think I can trust another photo management startup again.

And the on-boarding process was so painful - it took me weeks to load up ALL my photos onto Everpix. After they failed, I signed up with Loom and again it took over a month for it all to upload. I feel sad as I don't envy the next startup that tries to "solve" this very real problem.

I think they're going to migrate you seamlessly to dropbox, so no worries there.

Re: Dropbox acquires Loom (YC W12)

#122

Post by ryandrake »

m3rc wrote: post #77
calinet6 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm tired of this "they worked hard for that" BS with acqui-hires and shutdowns. Yeah, sure, they worked hard, but in the end they get a big fat F for the end result. Services don't last forever, but I'm not gonna congratulate someone who runs around in circles for 3 years purporting to deliver a product of value, and then gives up when offered a better deal for themselves. They didn't build a product, they built a n…

Yeah this is my main problem with the way "startup culture" seems to work. There's a lot of people in my university really pushing people to start their own businesses, but the general reasoning just seems to be "come up with something, advertise so that you get bought out, take the money". There's no emphasis on actually making anything, just on drumming up hype for an idea and selling that.

Well, if hype and vapor is what's getting bought, you might as well try to produce and sell it.

Re: Dropbox acquires Loom (YC W12)

#123

Post by ryandrake »

jmathai wrote: post #107
bambam12897 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely! I'm just being realistic - These press releases are basically the tea ceremony everyone is expected to perform. If you just made several mil I honestly doubt you're thinking about making the "transition as smooth as possible". You're thinking "should I buy a Lambo or a Ferrari?" They probably got a memo from Dropbox saying "now that we own your ass, here is a press release that you'll publish asap"

For something like this it's more like " perhaps i can put a down payment on a house after my stocks vest and i pay taxes ".

A down payment on a house in the Peninsula is going to likely cost more than a Ferrari or Lamborghini

Re: Dropbox acquires Loom (YC W12)

#125

Post by tsunamifury »

funkyy wrote: post #97
0161 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"We couldn't be happier." "We look forward to this transition as the next step." "As of today, we are no longer enrolling new users. " "Existing users can continue to use our service until ..." "We want to do whatever it takes to make any transition as smooth as possible." "We have worked hard on our product and feel that our vision aligns perfectly with ..."

"We didnt expected that being a startup is so hard. We worked for 2-3 years 10 hours a day 6 days a week and it brought us to barely breaking even. We just cant do this anymore, living in uncertainty is killing us. We have failed to pursue our dream but we hope that we can just shut down this part of our lives, move onwards to working for large company that will care for us and hopefully our skills, pain and experien…

This is a painful truth for those of us not being bought out.

Re: Dropbox acquires Loom (YC W12)

#126

Post by deciplex »

For those who missed it, this is a company that also acquired Condoleeza Rice on its board recently. Yes, Dropbox, aka 'next' according to a few NSA slides that have been making the rounds, is now taking advice from Condoleeza 'Warrantless Wiretapping' Rice. Run away. Sprint.

Re: Dropbox acquires Loom (YC W12)

#127

Post by rkuykendall-com »

mathattack wrote: post #69
subpixel wrote: post #38

Crap. I bought a year of Loom for precisely the reason that I do not want my photos taking up space on my drive. Now I have to explain to my extended family why all the confusion they put up with setting things up was for naught.

This is a real risk, and why large companies don't like working with startups.

Of course, the opposite is companies like Google, who run services as experiments and discontinue them because they have better things to do. It's hard to reach that middle ground of stability.

Re: Dropbox acquires Loom (YC W12)

#128

Post by m3rc »

ryandrake wrote: post #122
m3rc wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah this is my main problem with the way "startup culture" seems to work. There's a lot of people in my university really pushing people to start their own businesses, but the general reasoning just seems to be "come up with something, advertise so that you get bought out, take the money". There's no emphasis on actually making anything, just on drumming up hype for an idea and selling that.

Well, if hype and vapor is what's getting bought, you might as well try to produce and sell it.

And yeah, that'd be what I don't like about startup culture. I went into software development, not marketing.

Re: Dropbox acquires Loom (YC W12)

#129

Post by jebblue »

rattray wrote: post #26
bambam12897 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"We are sooooo filthy rich now. So long suckers!" I'd be more honest =)

Except they're probably not... Not all the acquisitions of this sort are "you're filthy rich now", especially after dilution, taxes, and plain old time.

This is very true, the new Silicon Valley show Episode 1 is free on YouTube (son clued me in) but that isn't how acquisitions always work out, the word dilution rings loudly.

Re: Dropbox acquires Loom (YC W12)

#130

Post by zzzmarcus »

innonate wrote: post #113
enjo wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I'm the CEO of Picturelife and I wouldn't dream of rolling over like this so easily." I'm sorry, but I don't believe you. If someone waves $10M in front of you, you're going to take it. I think that's ok and I don't think it's (exactly) giving anyone a "bad name" (in the moral sense). It does mean that I'm going to be hesitant to put my photos into a startup again. Are you willing to put out a guarantee? Are you wil…

Hi @enjo, see the reply I gave @pnathan to answer some of this. But in general I can tell you that we really are driven by much more than money here. A few times we've gotten to consider the idea of having a small financial outcome, and we keep coming back to the same thing: if we all became millionaires and then went out to start another company, what would we do? If we're being truthful with ourselves, it's still d…

As a Picturelife customer with over 200gb of pictures backed up, and as an Everpix refugee, I really hope this turns out to be the case. If Picturelife disappears, I'm not going to start over somewhere else.
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