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Is there any reason you can't just leave current the product as-is and keep running it on autopilot, with the only expenses being hosting and the occasional sec

Is there any reason you can't just leave current the product as-is and keep running it on autopilot, with the only expenses being hosting and the occasional security vulnerability mitigations? You mention you had 100K users - I'm assuming those are paying users. Could they not keep using the product (especially if they've already onboarded)? Or are there significant ongoing costs beyond hosting?

paxys 5y ago
> You mention you had 100K users - I'm assuming those are paying users Definitely not. A company of that size with 100K paying users (so like $10M+ ARR) would be considered wildly successful. In their case it was probably a tiny tiny fraction of that.
- jonnytran 5y ago
  Did you try asking users to pay? I.e. tell your users, you're shutting down unless everyone starts paying. It could be Kickstarter style in that X number of users have to put in their payment information by some date, or you still shut down. That way, there's no chance that some people start paying, but you still shut down.
  - anyfactor 5y ago
    I believe couple of days ago Wordpress made some changes to their pricing and some people immediately reached for their pitchforks. We all have an inherent tendency to associate greed to any business asking for more or any(!) money. I believe for that reason, for some founders it is, "you either die a hero or...."
  - cupofpython 5y ago
    isnt that kind of implied by every service? If you use something for free, dont be surprised if it isnt there tomorrow.
  - gnicholas 5y ago
    Great question. I wish Pebble had done this before shutting down. I would have paid double for my pre-ordered Time Steel 2. Wyze did this recently with their subscription, which they let you pay as little as $0 for. They forced anyone who didn't subscribe onto a lower tier, which only stored still images instead of videos in the cloud.
kansface 5y ago
Products don't run themselves. Software must be upgraded because of security patches; if you don't keep up, after a while you can't because of skew. Customers require support when stuff goes wrong. Infrastructure changes from underneath you. SDKs change all the time. The law itself changes what is allowed or what is required.
- Kiro 5y ago
  Depends on what kind of product. I've built an app that I haven't touched in many years with about $1M in monthly revenue (extremely low margin) and it's all good. Yes, it hasn't had any security patches in years and it's just a matter of time before it gets hacked but no big deal. If shit really hits the fan I will just shut it down. Not offering any support. Customers know I don't add anything. Not sure what law would affect anything.
  - white_dragon88 5y ago
    [dead]
  - cupofpython 5y ago
    > $1M in monthly revenue (extremely low margin) taking a guess that your app is an API wrapper of some kind? the $ you move is basically through your account from customer to service provider on each call and you charge some low flat rate per month for access?
  - PragmaticPulp 5y ago
    > I've built an app that I haven't touched in many years with about $1M in monthly revenue (extremely low margin) and it's all good. Yes, it hasn't had any security patches in years You have a product bringing in $12 million per year (EDIT: I misread the profit remark originally, apologies to Kiro), and you can’t be bothered to do basic security updates? > it's just a matter of time before it gets hacked but no big deal. If shit really hits the fan I will just shut it down. You’re basically waiting to get hacked and your response plan is to just shut it down? And turn off $12 million in annual revenue because you didn’t feel like applying security updates? Are you sure you mean $1 million per month in revenue? Because this doesn’t make any sense at all. If this is true and accurate, you can at least see why this wouldn't apply to virtually anyone else running a high-profit software app, right? Especially not something like Friday.app which includes customer data.
eps 5y ago
Perhaps they just want to move on? Not needing to tend to a project you no longer find interesting (or view as a failure) is very liberating.

paxys 5y ago

> You mention you had 100K users - I'm assuming those are paying users Definitely not. A company of that size with 100K paying users (so like $10M+ ARR) would be considered wildly successful. In their case it was probably a tiny tiny fraction of that.

jonnytran 5y ago
Did you try asking users to pay? I.e. tell your users, you're shutting down unless everyone starts paying. It could be Kickstarter style in that X number of users have to put in their payment information by some date, or you still shut down. That way, there's no chance that some people start paying, but you still shut down.
- anyfactor 5y ago
  I believe couple of days ago Wordpress made some changes to their pricing and some people immediately reached for their pitchforks. We all have an inherent tendency to associate greed to any business asking for more or any(!) money. I believe for that reason, for some founders it is, "you either die a hero or...."
- cupofpython 5y ago
  isnt that kind of implied by every service? If you use something for free, dont be surprised if it isnt there tomorrow.
- gnicholas 5y ago
  Great question. I wish Pebble had done this before shutting down. I would have paid double for my pre-ordered Time Steel 2. Wyze did this recently with their subscription, which they let you pay as little as $0 for. They forced anyone who didn't subscribe onto a lower tier, which only stored still images instead of videos in the cloud.

kansface 5y ago

Products don't run themselves. Software must be upgraded because of security patches; if you don't keep up, after a while you can't because of skew. Customers require support when stuff goes wrong. Infrastructure changes from underneath you. SDKs change all the time. The law itself changes what is allowed or what is required.

Kiro 5y ago
Depends on what kind of product. I've built an app that I haven't touched in many years with about $1M in monthly revenue (extremely low margin) and it's all good. Yes, it hasn't had any security patches in years and it's just a matter of time before it gets hacked but no big deal. If shit really hits the fan I will just shut it down. Not offering any support. Customers know I don't add anything. Not sure what law would affect anything.
- white_dragon88 5y ago
  [dead]
- cupofpython 5y ago
  > $1M in monthly revenue (extremely low margin) taking a guess that your app is an API wrapper of some kind? the $ you move is basically through your account from customer to service provider on each call and you charge some low flat rate per month for access?
- PragmaticPulp 5y ago
  > I've built an app that I haven't touched in many years with about $1M in monthly revenue (extremely low margin) and it's all good. Yes, it hasn't had any security patches in years You have a product bringing in $12 million per year (EDIT: I misread the profit remark originally, apologies to Kiro), and you can’t be bothered to do basic security updates? > it's just a matter of time before it gets hacked but no big deal. If shit really hits the fan I will just shut it down. You’re basically waiting to get hacked and your response plan is to just shut it down? And turn off $12 million in annual revenue because you didn’t feel like applying security updates? Are you sure you mean $1 million per month in revenue? Because this doesn’t make any sense at all. If this is true and accurate, you can at least see why this wouldn't apply to virtually anyone else running a high-profit software app, right? Especially not something like Friday.app which includes customer data.

eps 5y ago

Perhaps they just want to move on? Not needing to tend to a project you no longer find interesting (or view as a failure) is very liberating.