3 ms·

Who are you selling yourself to?

17 points by ezxs 15y ago

compumike 15y ago
As far as the Redbeacon / Home Depot situation goes, don't forget that the big-picture missions of both organizations aren't so different (help you maintain and improve your home), and there's a strategic advantage for both partners. Redbeacon presumably gets free in-store promotion to homeowners doing home improvement, and Home Depot gets a bigger slice in the lifecycle for home improvement projects that aren't their typical homeowner-DIY market. Whether a nimble entrepreneurial / internet-based group can survive within the corporate structure of a retail giant is still an open question.
badclient 15y ago
on starting a great company that got great traction While redbeacon may have sold the Valley with their story, my sources tell me they were actually struggling with getting traction.
jasonshen 15y ago
I find these types of comments and posts unfair. Redbeacon started a business and worked hard on it for 2.5 years. While they probably had larger ambitions than to be bought by Home Depot, they likely spent a great deal of time thinking about this decision before making it. You ask why they sold and admit that financial reward might play a role. But then you spend the rest of the post basically saying how it was a bad idea because they will be subsumed by this giant corporation. You don't think they heard this exact advice from many of their startup friends/advisors/investors? I'm sure they knew what they were getting themselves into. Doing a startup is super hard and super stressful - most fail. I would hope our community would be more understanding of the decision to be acquired.
awolf 15y ago
Meta: Using my iPad, I first see: "Dynamic Views in Blogger require the use of a modern browser, and are not currently supported on mobile devices. You can visit a non-dynamic version of this blog, continue unsupported, or upgrade your browser by clicking on one of the links below." This is bullshit. I am running the latest version of the best mobile browser on the market. Don't treat me like I'm running IE6. Just show me the simple version; which, for a blog, I's sure is way better anyway.

17 points by ezxs 15y ago

As far as the Redbeacon / Home Depot situation goes, don't forget that the big-picture missions of both organizations aren't so different (help you maintain and improve your home), and there's a strategic advantage for both partners. Redbeacon presumably gets free in-store promotion to homeowners doing home improvement, and Home Depot gets a bigger slice in the lifecycle for home improvement projects that aren't their typical homeowner-DIY market. Whether a nimble entrepreneurial / internet-based group can survive within the corporate structure of a retail giant is still an open question.

badclient 15y ago

on starting a great company that got great traction While redbeacon may have sold the Valley with their story, my sources tell me they were actually struggling with getting traction.

jasonshen 15y ago

I find these types of comments and posts unfair. Redbeacon started a business and worked hard on it for 2.5 years. While they probably had larger ambitions than to be bought by Home Depot, they likely spent a great deal of time thinking about this decision before making it. You ask why they sold and admit that financial reward might play a role. But then you spend the rest of the post basically saying how it was a bad idea because they will be subsumed by this giant corporation. You don't think they heard this exact advice from many of their startup friends/advisors/investors? I'm sure they knew what they were getting themselves into. Doing a startup is super hard and super stressful - most fail. I would hope our community would be more understanding of the decision to be acquired.

awolf 15y ago

Meta: Using my iPad, I first see: "Dynamic Views in Blogger require the use of a modern browser, and are not currently supported on mobile devices. You can visit a non-dynamic version of this blog, continue unsupported, or upgrade your browser by clicking on one of the links below." This is bullshit. I am running the latest version of the best mobile browser on the market. Don't treat me like I'm running IE6. Just show me the simple version; which, for a blog, I's sure is way better anyway.