Optimizely to be acquired by Episerver • Hacker News Board

Re: Optimizely to be acquired by Episerver

#91

Post by twmahna » Thu, Sep 03, 2020, 8:52 PM UTC

worldsoup wrote: post #80

I interviewed for a marketing role at Optimizely back in 2013...I passed all the interviews with the team and then had a final, short interview with the CEO. He asked me a few basic questions and then asked 'if you only had 3 years to live, would you work at Optimizely?'. I responded honestly and said no. Said that I'd love to work here to help and grow the business, learn, and further my own career but if I had only…

Huh, I don't know if I know one person who would honestly answer that question with a yes.

Re: Optimizely to be acquired by Episerver

#92

Post by alexhutcheson » Thu, Sep 03, 2020, 9:00 PM UTC

Are there any good open source alternatives to Optimizely that can be self hosted?

I'm aware of Wasabi[1], but I believe it's abandonware at this point.

[1] https://github.com/intuit/wasabi

Re: Optimizely to be acquired by Episerver

#93

Post by igmor » Thu, Sep 03, 2020, 9:00 PM UTC

twmahna wrote: post #91

worldsoup wrote: post #80

I interviewed for a marketing role at Optimizely back in 2013...I passed all the interviews with the team and then had a final, short interview with the CEO. He asked me a few basic questions and then asked 'if you only had 3 years to live, would you work at Optimizely?'. I responded honestly and said no. Said that I'd love to work here to help and grow the business, learn, and further my own career but if I had only…

Huh, I don't know if I know one person who would honestly answer that question with a yes.

that was a test for a particular type of person that OP failed to pass. He could not lie to a simple question.

Re: Optimizely to be acquired by Episerver

#94

Post by the_washout » Thu, Sep 03, 2020, 9:02 PM UTC

dsiroker wrote: post #31

(co-founder of Optimizely here) HUGE thank you to YC and the entire HN community for all their support over the years. It was almost ten years ago that we launched here on HN. [1] [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1788634

It was great working with you, Dan.

Re: Optimizely to be acquired by Episerver

#95

Post by the_washout » Thu, Sep 03, 2020, 9:04 PM UTC

mrnobody_67 wrote: post #58

Another proof point that once the founder-CEO is replaced by a professional CEO, it's game over more often than not. This happened in 2017 at Optimizely.

Yuuuuuuuuup.

Re: Optimizely to be acquired by Episerver

#96

Post by madboston » Thu, Sep 03, 2020, 9:06 PM UTC

igmor wrote: post #93

twmahna wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh, I don't know if I know one person who would honestly answer that question with a yes.

that was a test for a particular type of person that OP failed to pass. He could not lie to a simple question.

So I guess lying was one of the skill he really wanted in a marketing guy?

Re: Optimizely to be acquired by Episerver

#97

Post by chundicus » Thu, Sep 03, 2020, 9:07 PM UTC

andrewingram wrote: post #48

chundicus wrote: post #7

As someone not too familiar with the ins and outs of acquisitions or IPOs... is it unusual to get acquired after laying off a big chunk of your staff? Is that an indicator that they probably accepted a lower valuation than they would have before that layoff?

I worked for a startup that basically let 90% of its engineering team quit due to low morale over the course of a year without making any effort to (a) stop the exodus, or (b) replace them. When they exited about 6 months later, it became pretty clear that it was intentional.

Sorry for my daftness, but what is the incentive behind intentionally losing a bunch of staff before 'exiting'? Just to reduce your cash burn?

Re: Optimizely to be acquired by Episerver

#98

Post by js4ever » Thu, Sep 03, 2020, 9:09 PM UTC

gingerlime wrote: post #24

jakemcgraw wrote: post #6

Just kicked the tires on Optimizely for a site with less than a million MAU. They wanted $50K upfront for one year. No monthly or quarterly billing available. Went with Google Optimize instead, works fine for free. In the face of that, very surprised Optimizely doesn't do month to month to get folks started.

It's worse. They essentially kicked-out their existing self-serve customers in the process. We were on the (at the time) silver plan, but when we were ready to upgrade to gold, there was no gold, no silver, nothing... Just some super-expensive and vague enterprise plan. But there's a silver lining: we created and open-sourced Alephbet[0] - a simple A/B testing platform together with a couple of backend options with A…

Thanks for this, also I love the name :p

Re: Optimizely to be acquired by Episerver

#99

Post by smallgovt » Thu, Sep 03, 2020, 9:15 PM UTC

igmor wrote: post #93

twmahna wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh, I don't know if I know one person who would honestly answer that question with a yes.

that was a test for a particular type of person that OP failed to pass. He could not lie to a simple question.

Ah, I hadn't considered that the interviewer was testing the applicant's ability to lie. Interesting, if true.

Re: Optimizely to be acquired by Episerver

#100

Post by teej » Thu, Sep 03, 2020, 9:18 PM UTC

worldsoup wrote: post #80

I interviewed for a marketing role at Optimizely back in 2013...I passed all the interviews with the team and then had a final, short interview with the CEO. He asked me a few basic questions and then asked 'if you only had 3 years to live, would you work at Optimizely?'. I responded honestly and said no. Said that I'd love to work here to help and grow the business, learn, and further my own career but if I had only…

That question is psychotic.