4 ms·

When I started working on Posterous in 2008, I intended to work on it forever. It didn't work out that way, and I left in January of 2011. It was a venture-fund

by garry 14y ago

When I started working on Posterous in 2008, I intended to work on it forever. It didn't work out that way, and I left in January of 2011. It was a venture-funded company by then and we were committed to super-growth, not sustainability. We never started charging for the product. Posthaven is the result of my experience with that. I know the world needs a simple, clean, well-lit, easy place to post. One that doesn't force us to make the same kind of product decisions that we had to before. I promise you we are focused on making this a long term project. It's not a startup and Brett and I are committed to making it work over the long haul.

8ig8 14y ago
What about making this a non-profit, run by a board? Different idea, but, for example Matt M. created the WordPress Foundation to independently carry out the things he believed in. http://wordpressfoundation.org/ http://wordpressfoundation.org/
- garry 14y ago
  Yes. I love this idea. Right now I have to focus on coding, but this will be necessary down the road.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - prawn 14y ago
    Might help in the event that something happens to both of you and users are left on a ghost ship of sorts.
- ingve 14y ago
  Apparently, that "independent" WordPress Foundation is still just Matt: "From an ultimate decision-making point of view, the Foundation is mainly just me. [...] It’s worth noting that the Foundation was created purely to be a trademark and IP holding entity that Automattic could transfer its ownership of the WordPress trademark to. There are no “members.”" [0] [0] http://wpkrauts.com/2013/leaders-and-the-greater-good/#comment-881 http://wpkrauts.com/2013/leaders-and-the-greater-good/#comme...
  - rickcolosimo 14y ago
    Without digging into the specifics of the matter,if the Foundation is indeed a 501(c)(3), the IRS should/will almost certainly have required it to have three independent board members. In addition, having counseled clients on this structure, the benefit of creating a nonprofit and giving it IP is that it creates a public check on anything to do with that IP. For example, while a startup's founders can sell the company, they can't unilaterally agree to sell off the IP in the nonprofit, and the public can challenge any such sales by recourse to a state attorney general's office. It's not perfect, but it helps protect the IP in the way founders want to. In many ways, it's a one-way decision, which is why it works. (Yes, IAAL.)
jbail 14y ago
On the one hand, you have street cred for building an awesome product which inspires confidence that your next product will be awesome too. I don't doubt it will be awesome. But on the other hand, you did accept VC funding for Posterous (I'm assuming nobody was holding a gun to your head and forced you to do it), and for whatever reason you then left and moved onto other projects. Now you are saying you will never sell out, will never lose focus and will stick around forever. Isn't that like a politician promising they won't ever raise taxes? "Ever" is just a really strong word. Life happens. Priorities change. Heck, most marriages don't even last forever. That said... I believe you. I think you're telling the truth about how you actually feel right now and what your plans for the business are right now. It's just that right now only lasts an instant.
- ajasmin 14y ago
  > and you then left and moved onto other projects And now he wants to work on something like Posterous again. His priorities don't seem so shifty.
- garry 14y ago
  Thanks jbail -- I don't want to dig up the past, but the truth of the matter was I didn't agree with my cofounder on the direction of Posterous, but I also wanted to support him in his pursuit of the direction he believed in. It was one of the most painful experiences to have to walk away from my baby. I think we're put on this earth to create things of great lasting value that are good for others around us. Many things in our lives will change, but I believe this one is a constant guiding light.
  - tferris 14y ago
    > I also wanted to support him in his pursuit of the direction he believed in Support him? By bailing out? Was it easy for your cofounder to replace your skillset? Would love to hear the whole story if you don't mind, it could help help others who are in similar situations. It's sad that cofounders who once created something together are not able to find a common understanding in later stages. Sad that both parties reached that point where they have to utter the threat either my way or I leave. WTF. I know this is common and probably the reason why most startups fail but just leaving (or maybe the true story was different) sounds a bit strange. However, maybe it was the best decision for the organization.
rubyrescue 14y ago
since you're posting here, you have a grocer's apostrophe on the home page... it's "URLs", not "URL's". second, can we auto-migrate somehow from a posterous backup - my wife runs a blog on posterous and is really worried that she needs to migrate. if i could tell her that she just now needs to pay $5/month and not rely on me to hack something together w/octopress and github she will be so excited.
- tedunangst 14y ago
  Depends on your style guide. Sometimes the apostrophe is preferred for abbreviations because it separates the s. ie, it's not something I'd correct somebody for unless we had specifically and previously agreed to a particular style guide.
  - Cushman 14y ago
    You might as well use the unambiguous form, though. (And what do you do with possessives, as in "CDs' sizes"?)
  - Terretta 14y ago
    Because many people using HN are learning English as a second language, one should avoid dispensing bad writing advice. The apostrophe is for possessives and contractions. Pluralization is neither. Wrong: Greatest Hits of the 90's / The 90's' Greatest Hits / 1990's' Greatest Hits Right: Greatest Hits of the 90s / The 90s' Greatest Hits / 1990's Greatest Hits It's easy if you think of the difference between the plural and possessive "s" using the unabbreviated word: Television's favorite stars are always on our televisions. TV's favorite stars are always on our TVs. Any style guide that writes that sentence a different way is simply wrong.
    - Bill_Dimm 14y ago
      ...one should avoid dispensing bad writing advice I think you are being a bit hard on tedunangst since his statement "Sometimes the apostrophe is preferred..." applies in situations different from your examples. For example: "The Times (and some other publications, including the Chicago Manual of Style) do call for using an apostrophe in the plural of abbreviations that include periods." http://afterdeadline.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/faqs-on-style/ http://afterdeadline.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/faqs-on-st... You can find more discussion here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronym#Representing_plurals_and_possessives http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronym#Representing_plurals_an...
a4agarwal 14y ago
We both wanted hyper growth. We both wanted venture funding. We both wanted a lasting company. It's not easy and I didn't quit. I built a team. Accountability and execution in the company. It's not as easy as it sounds. We made mistakes and learned. I think everyone did well and are on to great things.
- jarek 14y ago
  Out of curiosity, where will you be moving the blog hosted at http://sachin.posterous.com/ http://sachin.posterous.com/?
tferris 14y ago
> When I started working on Posterous in 2008 .. Just wondering: how can somebody start again something he worked already years on? I understand that you might learned a lot with Posterous and now you'd like to just employ that knowledge in a new blog project. But is it not a bit dangerous to stick to the same thing over years? You could loose time and after ten years looking back and you pity that you just worked only on blog systems. I don't want to talk blogs down, they are a very interesting use case and I still think there's room for improvement but in terms of spreading the bets and just the need to start something totally new I am a bit confused that you do the same thing over and over again (and I didn't see any disruptive feature or new angle with Posthaven).
- jwwest 14y ago
  It worked for Foursquare. If I recall correctly, they had sold Dodgeball to Google then turned around and created the exact same product.
- prawn 14y ago
  Can I propose (not too seriously) that a fifth hour each week be set aside for proof reading? ;)
- coldtea 14y ago
  >But is it not a bit dangerous to stick to the same thing over years? Hhh? Most people work on the same thing their whole life. And it's not like this will be the exact same thing as Posterous was.

by garry 14y ago

8ig8 14y ago

What about making this a non-profit, run by a board? Different idea, but, for example Matt M. created the WordPress Foundation to independently carry out the things he believed in. http://wordpressfoundation.org/ http://wordpressfoundation.org/

garry 14y ago
Yes. I love this idea. Right now I have to focus on coding, but this will be necessary down the road.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- prawn 14y ago
  Might help in the event that something happens to both of you and users are left on a ghost ship of sorts.
ingve 14y ago
Apparently, that "independent" WordPress Foundation is still just Matt: "From an ultimate decision-making point of view, the Foundation is mainly just me. [...] It’s worth noting that the Foundation was created purely to be a trademark and IP holding entity that Automattic could transfer its ownership of the WordPress trademark to. There are no “members.”" [0] [0] http://wpkrauts.com/2013/leaders-and-the-greater-good/#comment-881 http://wpkrauts.com/2013/leaders-and-the-greater-good/#comme...
- rickcolosimo 14y ago
  Without digging into the specifics of the matter,if the Foundation is indeed a 501(c)(3), the IRS should/will almost certainly have required it to have three independent board members. In addition, having counseled clients on this structure, the benefit of creating a nonprofit and giving it IP is that it creates a public check on anything to do with that IP. For example, while a startup's founders can sell the company, they can't unilaterally agree to sell off the IP in the nonprofit, and the public can challenge any such sales by recourse to a state attorney general's office. It's not perfect, but it helps protect the IP in the way founders want to. In many ways, it's a one-way decision, which is why it works. (Yes, IAAL.)

jbail 14y ago

On the one hand, you have street cred for building an awesome product which inspires confidence that your next product will be awesome too. I don't doubt it will be awesome. But on the other hand, you did accept VC funding for Posterous (I'm assuming nobody was holding a gun to your head and forced you to do it), and for whatever reason you then left and moved onto other projects. Now you are saying you will never sell out, will never lose focus and will stick around forever. Isn't that like a politician promising they won't ever raise taxes? "Ever" is just a really strong word. Life happens. Priorities change. Heck, most marriages don't even last forever. That said... I believe you. I think you're telling the truth about how you actually feel right now and what your plans for the business are right now. It's just that right now only lasts an instant.

ajasmin 14y ago
> and you then left and moved onto other projects And now he wants to work on something like Posterous again. His priorities don't seem so shifty.
garry 14y ago
Thanks jbail -- I don't want to dig up the past, but the truth of the matter was I didn't agree with my cofounder on the direction of Posterous, but I also wanted to support him in his pursuit of the direction he believed in. It was one of the most painful experiences to have to walk away from my baby. I think we're put on this earth to create things of great lasting value that are good for others around us. Many things in our lives will change, but I believe this one is a constant guiding light.
- tferris 14y ago
  > I also wanted to support him in his pursuit of the direction he believed in Support him? By bailing out? Was it easy for your cofounder to replace your skillset? Would love to hear the whole story if you don't mind, it could help help others who are in similar situations. It's sad that cofounders who once created something together are not able to find a common understanding in later stages. Sad that both parties reached that point where they have to utter the threat either my way or I leave. WTF. I know this is common and probably the reason why most startups fail but just leaving (or maybe the true story was different) sounds a bit strange. However, maybe it was the best decision for the organization.

rubyrescue 14y ago

since you're posting here, you have a grocer's apostrophe on the home page... it's "URLs", not "URL's". second, can we auto-migrate somehow from a posterous backup - my wife runs a blog on posterous and is really worried that she needs to migrate. if i could tell her that she just now needs to pay $5/month and not rely on me to hack something together w/octopress and github she will be so excited.

tedunangst 14y ago
Depends on your style guide. Sometimes the apostrophe is preferred for abbreviations because it separates the s. ie, it's not something I'd correct somebody for unless we had specifically and previously agreed to a particular style guide.
- Cushman 14y ago
  You might as well use the unambiguous form, though. (And what do you do with possessives, as in "CDs' sizes"?)
- Terretta 14y ago
  Because many people using HN are learning English as a second language, one should avoid dispensing bad writing advice. The apostrophe is for possessives and contractions. Pluralization is neither. Wrong: Greatest Hits of the 90's / The 90's' Greatest Hits / 1990's' Greatest Hits Right: Greatest Hits of the 90s / The 90s' Greatest Hits / 1990's Greatest Hits It's easy if you think of the difference between the plural and possessive "s" using the unabbreviated word: Television's favorite stars are always on our televisions. TV's favorite stars are always on our TVs. Any style guide that writes that sentence a different way is simply wrong.
  - Bill_Dimm 14y ago
    ...one should avoid dispensing bad writing advice I think you are being a bit hard on tedunangst since his statement "Sometimes the apostrophe is preferred..." applies in situations different from your examples. For example: "The Times (and some other publications, including the Chicago Manual of Style) do call for using an apostrophe in the plural of abbreviations that include periods." http://afterdeadline.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/faqs-on-style/ http://afterdeadline.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/faqs-on-st... You can find more discussion here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronym#Representing_plurals_and_possessives http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronym#Representing_plurals_an...

a4agarwal 14y ago

We both wanted hyper growth. We both wanted venture funding. We both wanted a lasting company. It's not easy and I didn't quit. I built a team. Accountability and execution in the company. It's not as easy as it sounds. We made mistakes and learned. I think everyone did well and are on to great things.

jarek 14y ago
Out of curiosity, where will you be moving the blog hosted at http://sachin.posterous.com/ http://sachin.posterous.com/?

tferris 14y ago

> When I started working on Posterous in 2008 .. Just wondering: how can somebody start again something he worked already years on? I understand that you might learned a lot with Posterous and now you'd like to just employ that knowledge in a new blog project. But is it not a bit dangerous to stick to the same thing over years? You could loose time and after ten years looking back and you pity that you just worked only on blog systems. I don't want to talk blogs down, they are a very interesting use case and I still think there's room for improvement but in terms of spreading the bets and just the need to start something totally new I am a bit confused that you do the same thing over and over again (and I didn't see any disruptive feature or new angle with Posthaven).

jwwest 14y ago
It worked for Foursquare. If I recall correctly, they had sold Dodgeball to Google then turned around and created the exact same product.
prawn 14y ago
Can I propose (not too seriously) that a fifth hour each week be set aside for proof reading? ;)
coldtea 14y ago
>But is it not a bit dangerous to stick to the same thing over years? Hhh? Most people work on the same thing their whole life. And it's not like this will be the exact same thing as Posterous was.