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Here's my question off the bat: Facebook is known for using Onavo to find networks that take off and then buying them (I forget names - tbh was it?). I know of

Here's my question off the bat: Facebook is known for using Onavo to find networks that take off and then buying them (I forget names - tbh was it?). I know of course this early in the process you don't know what the future holds, but are you open to acquisition by Facebook? I place a very high value on using the product depending on that answer.

Aeolun 8y ago
Everyone is not open to being aquired by Facebook until they get a $10B offer. Even if they say no now, that’s no guarantee for the future.
- jsherwani 8y ago
  I replied to the parent comment, but here's my response to your particular number. Thanks to my previous company's acquisition, we are financially set. More money at this point won't mean much to us. Instead, being able to have a positive impact on the world is what really drives us. Hopefully, this is visible from what we've written, and what we've built (there are no growth-hack-y, spam-your-friends "features" in our app). And in the coming months, we'll continue to expand on this vision in our product. We hope you'll use the product so you can see this for yourself.
- kshatrea 8y ago
  To be clear, I am not saying they shouldn’t be acquired - if they get acquired by Twitter/Microsoft/AANG I am totally going to be a supportive user. It is the F word I consider unworthy.
  - jsherwani 8y ago
    On acquisition, we would cease to be in charge of our destiny, whether by FB or by Twitter/MSFT/AANG [1]. If we're successful in our product & business strategy, we'll stay independent forever, and will monetize through restaurant reservations at local businesses when we help you make a plan to meet up with your friend. Glad to hear you'd be a supportive user even if we were acquired, but we'd like to keep a direct relationship with you ourselves and never be acquired :) [1] https://stratechery.com/2018/instagrams-ceo/ https://stratechery.com/2018/instagrams-ceo/
jsherwani 8y ago
Great question! Prior to Millow, I built Screenhero, which was then acquired by Slack (my team and I built Slack voice/video/screen sharing). Working at Slack was a great experience, and I love the company and the product (and use it with all my current projects, I have 14 Slack workspaces in my sidebar!). Why is this relevant to your question? For two reasons: 1) Financially, we (we're a husband & wife team) have a very long runway. We own 100% of the company, and have no plans to take on venture capital. Our financial situation means we're also under no pressure to monetize, and we are doing what we're doing because we believe in the mission of our company and product. We want to have stronger connections to our friends and family, and we want that for society at large. Of the 10,000 other things we could have chosen to do, we chose this, because we believe it is the most important thing for us to do. 2) Acquisition is neither a goal nor an option for us. We want to stay independent, build what we want to build, with our users being our only North Star. If Facebook did acquire us, we would a) no longer be independent, b) no longer own the destiny of our product, c) be slightly more financially well off, but (c) is not worth (a) and (b) to us. After a certain point, money ceases to add value to one's life — it's in the study we quoted in our "learn more" section! We're building Millow because we believe in the mission, not because we wanted to make $$$ (if we did, I'd have done another SaaS B2B company like Screenhero). Also, Millow is in many ways the antithesis of Facebook. Facebook believes connecting people is inherently a good thing — and the more connections, the better. We disagree! Too many low-value connections make it harder for us to focus on those that really matter. This fundamental mismatch in vision makes us believe that the only way for us to get the impact we want is to stay independent forever. Happy to chat more. This is a topic I have strong opinions on :)
- kshatrea 8y ago
  Thank you for the great and detailed answer. I feel very strongly about using Facebook and since this app would focus on people I am close to, a future FB acquisition would mean more of my info in FB’s hands. I support acquisitions, just that my personal trust matrix has an FB exclusion zone.

Aeolun 8y ago

Everyone is not open to being aquired by Facebook until they get a $10B offer. Even if they say no now, that’s no guarantee for the future.

jsherwani 8y ago
I replied to the parent comment, but here's my response to your particular number. Thanks to my previous company's acquisition, we are financially set. More money at this point won't mean much to us. Instead, being able to have a positive impact on the world is what really drives us. Hopefully, this is visible from what we've written, and what we've built (there are no growth-hack-y, spam-your-friends "features" in our app). And in the coming months, we'll continue to expand on this vision in our product. We hope you'll use the product so you can see this for yourself.
kshatrea 8y ago
To be clear, I am not saying they shouldn’t be acquired - if they get acquired by Twitter/Microsoft/AANG I am totally going to be a supportive user. It is the F word I consider unworthy.
- jsherwani 8y ago
  On acquisition, we would cease to be in charge of our destiny, whether by FB or by Twitter/MSFT/AANG [1]. If we're successful in our product & business strategy, we'll stay independent forever, and will monetize through restaurant reservations at local businesses when we help you make a plan to meet up with your friend. Glad to hear you'd be a supportive user even if we were acquired, but we'd like to keep a direct relationship with you ourselves and never be acquired :) [1] https://stratechery.com/2018/instagrams-ceo/ https://stratechery.com/2018/instagrams-ceo/

jsherwani 8y ago

Great question! Prior to Millow, I built Screenhero, which was then acquired by Slack (my team and I built Slack voice/video/screen sharing). Working at Slack was a great experience, and I love the company and the product (and use it with all my current projects, I have 14 Slack workspaces in my sidebar!). Why is this relevant to your question? For two reasons: 1) Financially, we (we're a husband & wife team) have a very long runway. We own 100% of the company, and have no plans to take on venture capital. Our financial situation means we're also under no pressure to monetize, and we are doing what we're doing because we believe in the mission of our company and product. We want to have stronger connections to our friends and family, and we want that for society at large. Of the 10,000 other things we could have chosen to do, we chose this, because we believe it is the most important thing for us to do. 2) Acquisition is neither a goal nor an option for us. We want to stay independent, build what we want to build, with our users being our only North Star. If Facebook did acquire us, we would a) no longer be independent, b) no longer own the destiny of our product, c) be slightly more financially well off, but (c) is not worth (a) and (b) to us. After a certain point, money ceases to add value to one's life — it's in the study we quoted in our "learn more" section! We're building Millow because we believe in the mission, not because we wanted to make $$$ (if we did, I'd have done another SaaS B2B company like Screenhero). Also, Millow is in many ways the antithesis of Facebook. Facebook believes connecting people is inherently a good thing — and the more connections, the better. We disagree! Too many low-value connections make it harder for us to focus on those that really matter. This fundamental mismatch in vision makes us believe that the only way for us to get the impact we want is to stay independent forever. Happy to chat more. This is a topic I have strong opinions on :)

kshatrea 8y ago
Thank you for the great and detailed answer. I feel very strongly about using Facebook and since this app would focus on people I am close to, a future FB acquisition would mean more of my info in FB’s hands. I support acquisitions, just that my personal trust matrix has an FB exclusion zone.