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I have a hard time feeling sorry for Stack Overflow. They had most developers in the world visiting frequently. They have detailed information on exactly which

I have a hard time feeling sorry for Stack Overflow. They had most developers in the world visiting frequently. They have detailed information on exactly which languages, libraries, toolchains, and platforms those developers use and their pain points. All of their content is given to them for free by volunteers. All of their moderation is done for them for free by volunteers. The only thing they have to serve is text. How can you fail to build a sustainable business on top of that‽

jonplackett 3y ago
Was coming here to comment the same. It's not like they're serving high bandwidth content here. What are they spending their money on?
- nicholassmith 3y ago
  Given they were bought by an investment firm for quite a frothy amount of money I'd assume it was at least partially debt leveraged and they're suffering from interest payments.
chx 3y ago
Having a lean and mean company doesn't make for happy investors. The company was finished in 2020 when they raised $85M in a Series E. The fall after that is inevitable. Even the $40M they took in 2015 is a questionable decision for the very reasons you detail. What did they need tens of millions in investments for?
- stingraycharles 3y ago
  This happens so, so often; companies raising too much money at too high a valuation, based on unrealistic “moonshot” expectations, which then fails and they’ll have to pivot and refocus and they’ll be a mere shell of their former self. Raising at too high a valuation is not a position you want to be in. Unless you’re planning to cash in sooner than the ship will start burning.
  - alecco 3y ago
    Silicon Valley HBO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZgfTarNxdY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZgfTarNxdY And further explanation on revenue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzAdXyPYKQo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzAdXyPYKQo
- lawgimenez 3y ago
  So they could send a single keycap halfway around the world. I still don’t understand why they insisted to send me one. https://law.gmnz.xyz/2023/06/08/stackoverflow-keycap-reward.html https://law.gmnz.xyz/2023/06/08/stackoverflow-keycap-reward....
  - preommr 3y ago
    Sending a small item like that as a prize for a contest seems reasonable. The design of that keycap on the other hand is ridiculous.
    - lawgimenez 3y ago
      It does not make any sense, I have no use for it. I work only on a MacBook.
      - mcdonje 3y ago
        Pretty much nobody would use that on a standalone keyboard either. They had to know the design isn't practical for the stated purpose. However, it does make a nice little trophy/trinket. It's merit based, so getting one could become a goal for contributors. It's branded. It fits on a desk. If they made it twice as big and called it a trophy, it'd probably make more sense. But then costs would be higher and it'd be more formal.
        nerdponx 3y ago
        Look up "artisan keycaps". Not only do people use them, they collect them, and certain specific rare and desirable artisan keycaps can be worth a lot of money. The high quality ones tend to be cast out of resin in small batches (sometimes literally just 1 in a given color/sculpt combination) and sold in short-duration raffles. People tend to put them on less-used keys.
- ecf 3y ago
  > Series E A company needing that many rounds deserves to die. Sorry to have known you SO.
luckystarr 3y ago
I'm a senior dev. The only thing I found useful in the last years was the job market on SO. They closed that down recently. Now I don't even go there at all.
- stingraycharles 3y ago
  Why.. why did they closed this down? I remember this was my single most successful place to find good software developers / run job ads. We spent thousands and thousands on these ads, and I always felt this was their chicken that laid golden eggs.
  - jkukul 3y ago
    Here's the post explaining their decision: https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/415293/sunsetting-jobs-developer-story https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/415293/sunsetting-j... The main reason being stated as: > Exiting this space allows us to refocus on products that build on our core strengths: knowledge reuse and building communities at scale. A year has passed and I'm not sure what progress have we seen on the "knowledge reuse" and "building communities" front. The post has this quote from the CEO: > We are realigning the Talent business to focus more on customer employer branding and company awareness needs, and moving away from job slots and direct hiring. This will tie the product closer to what we offer through Stack Overflow Advertising [...] The article linked by OP (related to generative AI) has this quoute, on the other hand: > There's definitely a question around how we leverage [generative AI] technology to deliver on our mission of helping build technology through collective knowledge. This intersection between the power of community on one side and AI on the other side—from my standpoint, human-generated community content has taken us to this level, we have a large impact, but there are also so many problems we can solve by leveraging this technology. Reading these CEO's quotes filled with words like "realigning" and "leveraging" makes him sound like a typical MBA executive (yes, he's a Harvard MBA) who thinks that the same rules can be applied to a business in any industry. All while completely ignoring the feedback of a business's users/customers.
  - Someone 3y ago
    > I always felt this was their chicken that laid golden eggs. But was it? Did they ever report on whether it brought them any profits? Potentially, its pricing was too low to make a good profit, but increasing it to reach profits or even just break even would have turned too many customers away.

jonplackett 3y ago

Was coming here to comment the same. It's not like they're serving high bandwidth content here. What are they spending their money on?

nicholassmith 3y ago
Given they were bought by an investment firm for quite a frothy amount of money I'd assume it was at least partially debt leveraged and they're suffering from interest payments.

chx 3y ago

Having a lean and mean company doesn't make for happy investors. The company was finished in 2020 when they raised $85M in a Series E. The fall after that is inevitable. Even the $40M they took in 2015 is a questionable decision for the very reasons you detail. What did they need tens of millions in investments for?

stingraycharles 3y ago
This happens so, so often; companies raising too much money at too high a valuation, based on unrealistic “moonshot” expectations, which then fails and they’ll have to pivot and refocus and they’ll be a mere shell of their former self. Raising at too high a valuation is not a position you want to be in. Unless you’re planning to cash in sooner than the ship will start burning.
- alecco 3y ago
  Silicon Valley HBO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZgfTarNxdY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZgfTarNxdY And further explanation on revenue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzAdXyPYKQo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzAdXyPYKQo
lawgimenez 3y ago
So they could send a single keycap halfway around the world. I still don’t understand why they insisted to send me one. https://law.gmnz.xyz/2023/06/08/stackoverflow-keycap-reward.html https://law.gmnz.xyz/2023/06/08/stackoverflow-keycap-reward....
- preommr 3y ago
  Sending a small item like that as a prize for a contest seems reasonable. The design of that keycap on the other hand is ridiculous.
  - lawgimenez 3y ago
    It does not make any sense, I have no use for it. I work only on a MacBook.
    - mcdonje 3y ago
      Pretty much nobody would use that on a standalone keyboard either. They had to know the design isn't practical for the stated purpose. However, it does make a nice little trophy/trinket. It's merit based, so getting one could become a goal for contributors. It's branded. It fits on a desk. If they made it twice as big and called it a trophy, it'd probably make more sense. But then costs would be higher and it'd be more formal.
      - nerdponx 3y ago
        Look up "artisan keycaps". Not only do people use them, they collect them, and certain specific rare and desirable artisan keycaps can be worth a lot of money. The high quality ones tend to be cast out of resin in small batches (sometimes literally just 1 in a given color/sculpt combination) and sold in short-duration raffles. People tend to put them on less-used keys.
ecf 3y ago
> Series E A company needing that many rounds deserves to die. Sorry to have known you SO.

luckystarr 3y ago

I'm a senior dev. The only thing I found useful in the last years was the job market on SO. They closed that down recently. Now I don't even go there at all.

stingraycharles 3y ago
Why.. why did they closed this down? I remember this was my single most successful place to find good software developers / run job ads. We spent thousands and thousands on these ads, and I always felt this was their chicken that laid golden eggs.
- jkukul 3y ago
  Here's the post explaining their decision: https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/415293/sunsetting-jobs-developer-story https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/415293/sunsetting-j... The main reason being stated as: > Exiting this space allows us to refocus on products that build on our core strengths: knowledge reuse and building communities at scale. A year has passed and I'm not sure what progress have we seen on the "knowledge reuse" and "building communities" front. The post has this quote from the CEO: > We are realigning the Talent business to focus more on customer employer branding and company awareness needs, and moving away from job slots and direct hiring. This will tie the product closer to what we offer through Stack Overflow Advertising [...] The article linked by OP (related to generative AI) has this quoute, on the other hand: > There's definitely a question around how we leverage [generative AI] technology to deliver on our mission of helping build technology through collective knowledge. This intersection between the power of community on one side and AI on the other side—from my standpoint, human-generated community content has taken us to this level, we have a large impact, but there are also so many problems we can solve by leveraging this technology. Reading these CEO's quotes filled with words like "realigning" and "leveraging" makes him sound like a typical MBA executive (yes, he's a Harvard MBA) who thinks that the same rules can be applied to a business in any industry. All while completely ignoring the feedback of a business's users/customers.
- Someone 3y ago
  > I always felt this was their chicken that laid golden eggs. But was it? Did they ever report on whether it brought them any profits? Potentially, its pricing was too low to make a good profit, but increasing it to reach profits or even just break even would have turned too many customers away.