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AOL to be sold to Bending Spoons for $1.5B

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Re: AOL to be sold to Bending Spoons for $1.5B

#201

Post by daveidol »

7tythr33 wrote: post #149
godzillabrennus wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They've kept the product alive but I don't know that it's terribly improved... I've been a paid user since 2008. Switching would be painful for me given how familiar I am with it but I came close this last year when it stopped letting me stay logged in on multiple Mac computers at the same time...

I was with Evernote since 07, and found it a doddle to ditch. Export the lot, bring into Apple Notes or Bear. Or a combination of the two. Sorted.

Is there an option to export in Evernote?

Re: AOL to be sold to Bending Spoons for $1.5B

#202

Post by jimnotgym »

mtgentry wrote: post #196
sentientslug wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What the value prop of continuing to use Evernote versus other newer solutions like Notion? Interested to hear from someone still using the product

Notion is more than I need. 99% of the time I just need to write something down for later.

I have tried them all, and ended up with a fileofax rip off, and a box of index cards!

Re: AOL to be sold to Bending Spoons for $1.5B

#203

Post by Copenjin »

dancc wrote: post #34
neom wrote: post #2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bending_Spoons Interesting comment from last year: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38968476

Someone wrote about Bending Spoons' history and playbook: https://www.colinkeeley.com/blog/bending-spoons-operating-ma... I enjoyed this part: No On-Call Rotations: Bending Spoons aims to build systems so reliable that they eliminate the need for on-call rotations. This is unusual in the tech industry, where on-call duties are standard to promptly address system issues. For most of their products, they have no on-cal…

Is anyone surprised that you can build stuff that require no support for years? I do, know people that do. Thinking about robustness is the default path.

Re: AOL to be sold to Bending Spoons for $1.5B

#204

Post by mobilemidget »

zaptheimpaler wrote: post #75
jrochkind1 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like Bending Spoons is where old tech products go to die? I guess that's private equity for you.

Understandably people don't like Bending Spoons - they fired the whole dev team on Evernote, and the price has gone way up too.. but as a user I have to say Evernote the product has gotten better and better since the acquisition. They've improved performance and have great new features every month.

From what i remember they did the same at wetransfer. Doubling pricings without notification.

Re: AOL to be sold to Bending Spoons for $1.5B

#206

Post by MangoToupe »

Mistletoe wrote: post #197
BryantD wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vimeo is the really interesting case for me, because they are the white label hosting providers for a large number of niche streaming services -- Criterion Channel comes to mind, for example. Evernote failing is sad but lower on indirect effects. Vimeo going down would leave a noticeable hole in the streaming world.

Is this why Criterion streaming quality is so poor? It’s completely unacceptable for a service that is supposed to pride itself on loving movies and preserving them. Sometimes the scene will be dark and I will descend into some sort of weird 8 bit pixel world.

Is there any streaming option with non dogshit quality?

Re: AOL to be sold to Bending Spoons for $1.5B

#207

Post by jimnotgym »

JohnClark1337 wrote: post #6
neom wrote: post #2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bending_Spoons Interesting comment from last year: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38968476

So companies go there to die

Another way to look at it: When a companies bubble bursts, when people realise that it is just a note taking app (or whatever), and that its never going to grow 10x again, VC investors want shot of it.

Without a constant stream of new investment, the company simply can't afford to be loaded up with SV staff producing features that nobody will pay for. Bending Spoons change the business model to 'normal business'. They move to much cheaper European staff, stop work on nonsense 'features', concentrate instead on servicing their existing customers with a stable platform and well thought out incremental advances.

So they take businesses that are dying because nobody will give them free money any more, and make them into real sustainable businesses that can stand on their own two feet?

Re: AOL to be sold to Bending Spoons for $1.5B

#208

Post by jimnotgym »

jlarocco wrote: post #174

I had never heard of Bending Spoons before. Their Wikipedia article makes them sound like kind of a failure, but the entire second half of the page is talking about all of their acquisitions, more than one of which cost over $1 billion. So what am I missing? How did this company get so much money?

I guess by offering consistent long term cashflows you can attract classic institutional investors, and banks. Europe is much better at that than it is at finding VC cash for a moonshot

Re: AOL to be sold to Bending Spoons for $1.5B

#209

Post by jimnotgym »

NumberCruncher wrote: post #125
stabbles wrote: post #46

They bought Komoot, laid off 80% of the staff, but they still did a major redesign of the app and website afterwards. I expected outages, but so far it works like before.

> They bought Komoot, laid off 80% of the staff, but they still did a major redesign This sounds like "doing a major redesign" would be something positive. I'm a paying customer since ages and use the app on daily basis. The new design adds nothing except confusion, at the same time they broke the app on my smartwatch. I'm pretty much thinking about switching apps because I don't see myself buying a new watch just be…

>Some companies would be better off with less bored designers.

The comment you are replying to says they laid off 80% of them!

Re: AOL to be sold to Bending Spoons for $1.5B

#210

Post by jimnotgym »

elAhmo wrote: post #117

Not sure how actively AOL is used, probably not really, but anything Bending Spoon touches is entshitified soon after. They most recently bought Komoot, and have already made questionable choices with a lot of firings and promoting paid plans. Same has happened to Meetup. It is a sad reality that this company keeps buying good products and making it hostile for users who made it good, such as in the Komoot's or Meetu…

>promoting paid plans

You might say, however, that a business that wants you to actually for a product is a real sustainable business.

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