I bought back my acquihired startup

What a nice story, I wonder if they negotiated much on offers or if it was really a simple low ball for duolingo to get rid of. Generous if the latter!

To be that attached to your idea after all this time is also very impressive. Most people would have just abandoned it and moved on, even if it was making decent money.

Re: I bought back my acquihired startup

#6

Post by iLoveOncall » Thu, Mar 23, 2023, 10:21 PM UTC

waboremo wrote: post #5

What a nice story, I wonder if they negotiated much on offers or if it was really a simple low ball for duolingo to get rid of. Generous if the latter! To be that attached to your idea after all this time is also very impressive. Most people would have just abandoned it and moved on, even if it was making decent money.

> if it was really a simple low ball for duolingo to get rid of

At 4K MMR it was probably a pain in the ass for Duolingo to maintain and the reason for acquisition was hiring the developer and avoiding a potential concurrent (which in the end never realized) so I'd imagine it was a very easy buy.

And I'm not saying that as a criticism of ReadLang, I think it's a great tool actually.

Re: I bought back my acquihired startup

#7

Post by steveridout » Thu, Mar 23, 2023, 10:23 PM UTC

williamstein wrote: post #4

Great post! (However, I just read the entire post and I still have no idea what readlang is.)

Good point! I just made the first mention of Readlang into a link to the website: https://readlang.com

It's a web-app and browser extension to help people learn languages by reading texts or websites in the language they are learning, get helpful translation hints and definitions to aid comprehension, and then to practice the new vocab with flashcards.

Re: I bought back my acquihired startup

#8

Post by ewalk153 » Thu, Mar 23, 2023, 10:26 PM UTC

Warms my heart to see a big company make this deal with the author rather than just shut it down. Bravo Duolingo.

Re: I bought back my acquihired startup

#9

Post by steveridout » Thu, Mar 23, 2023, 10:26 PM UTC

Hi! Steve here. Happy to hang around here for a while if anyone wants to ask anything! :-)

Re: I bought back my acquihired startup

#10

Post by steveridout » Thu, Mar 23, 2023, 10:29 PM UTC

iLoveOncall wrote: post #6

waboremo wrote: post #5

What a nice story, I wonder if they negotiated much on offers or if it was really a simple low ball for duolingo to get rid of. Generous if the latter! To be that attached to your idea after all this time is also very impressive. Most people would have just abandoned it and moved on, even if it was making decent money.

> if it was really a simple low ball for duolingo to get rid of At 4K MMR it was probably a pain in the ass for Duolingo to maintain and the reason for acquisition was hiring the developer and avoiding a potential concurrent (which in the end never realized) so I'd imagine it was a very easy buy. And I'm not saying that as a criticism of ReadLang, I think it's a great tool actually.

Yeah, it was pretty easy. Relatively low offer and not much negotiating. From their point of view it wasn't worth maintaining. I'm just very happy they offered it back to me instead of shutting it down.