The end of Airplane.dev
yolken.net
The end of Airplane.dev
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Re: The end of Airplane.dev
#2Very interesting. I didn't know the cofounder quit earlier. That's rough.
Re: The end of Airplane.dev
#3"On January 3, the acquisition and product shutdown was publicly announced. As expected, customers were shocked and upset. Many had been using Airplane for critical workflows within their organizations, and they now had to replace huge chunks of internal tooling before the final shutoff on March 1."
Building things on an early-stage no-code platform like this without at least an open source escape hatch feels like a huge risk to me.
Re: The end of Airplane.dev
#4"On January 3, the acquisition and product shutdown was publicly announced. As expected, customers were shocked and upset. Many had been using Airplane for critical workflows within their organizations, and they now had to replace huge chunks of internal tooling before the final shutoff on March 1." Building things on an early-stage no-code platform like this without at least an open source escape hatch feels like a…
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Re: The end of Airplane.dev
#5> These colleagues had all been at the company for a while and all had legitimate reasons for resigning unrelated to the revenue slowdown
Obviously not familiar with the particulars, but people don't always say why they are moving on. There is not much of an upside to revealing any negative issues, so it's usually presented as "really wanted to stay, but just found a new exciting opportunity". If all of the sudden 4 people in a few month period "really liked the position, but just found new and exciting opportunities", something else is going on.
Re: The end of Airplane.dev
#6I love posts like this. I wish more employees would share tales like this.
Re: The end of Airplane.dev
#7"On January 3, the acquisition and product shutdown was publicly announced. As expected, customers were shocked and upset. Many had been using Airplane for critical workflows within their organizations, and they now had to replace huge chunks of internal tooling before the final shutoff on March 1." Building things on an early-stage no-code platform like this without at least an open source escape hatch feels like a…
It's a danger of all SaaS. If you can't run it yourself, you can't fully prevent this from happening.
Of course, the benefits of taking on this risk may often be worth it. Smart bets don't always pay out.
Re: The end of Airplane.dev
#8Very clear and well-written article. I think that the author is likely to be correct that the CEO was overwhelmed by going alone. One thing not mentioned at all, though, is what the investors in Airplane might have wanted to happen. Seriously, ctrl-f for "investor", it doesn't show up even once. In addition to the CEO being overwhelmed and tired, it's very important to realize that:
- Airplane raised a $32mm series B in September of 2022 [crunchbase]
- Tech company valuations fell off a cliff over the course of 2021-2023 [memory]
- By 2023, with slowing growth, it's likely that Airtable was no longer able to raise additional funding. Best case was likely a down-round.
- The investors probably exerted significant pressure, particularly given the departure of the other founder and several key employees, to wind down the venture.
- An acquihire is a reasonable way to end the company, return money to investors, and give employees some sort of payout and a high likelihood of remaining employed.
Just my opinion, but if I were the author I would consider that maybe the remaining founder actually did a decent job of looking out for their team. Signing bonuses of $50-75k is not life changing money, but a job and a signing bonus is a hell of a lot better than nothing.
Re: The end of Airplane.dev
#9Was a former employee at Airplane.
We were quite disappointed and surprised by the sudden choice to shut the company down. In many ways, we had good metrics, customers that liked us, a lot of runway, and a great team.
In the end, the decision came to our CEO. While he never gave a clear reason why, it was pretty clear that he burned out and tossed in the towel.
Re: The end of Airplane.dev
#10The title made me think this was an announcement by the company and it took me a minute to realize it was someone's personal experience there. I suspect the context of HN and the title confused me a little.
I do find commentary on the level of "interest" and behavior of various individuals interesting when it never mentions the actual fundamentals of the business (making any money?).