3 ms·
I’m saddened by this announcement. I’m an early Instapaper paying subscriber, a The Magazine paying subscriber of the first hour, I’ve read every article on his
by Samuel_Michon 14y ago
I’m saddened by this announcement. I’m an early Instapaper paying subscriber, a The Magazine paying subscriber of the first hour, I’ve read every article on his blog, I’ve listened to all the episodes of Build & Analyze, Accidental Tech and the Neutral podcasts — I’ve spread the word every way I could and engaged with the sponsors of the shows. I became a Tumblr member because of him.
Marco has always talked about how important he felt it was to be independent and to offer a paid service in order not to be acquired. Given how he handled the Android release, I believed he would never sell Instapaper.
Last week, Loren Brichter announced he would be moving to Facebook. I’m still shell-shocked about that announcement as a very active Letterpress player, now this. I’m worried.
I will continue to pay for Marco’s products and services, but I am worried what will happen to Instapaper, which is an important tool for how I acquire information and do business.
- tomkarlo 14y agoCreating a service shouldn't be a lifetime commitment to running it. There needs to be a way for Marco to continue inventing new products without dedicating an increasing percentage of his time to supporting existing ones, and this seems like a reasonable way to allow that.
- Samuel_Michon 14y agoSure, I completely understand why he would do it, and he sold the service to the best party he could think of, but still, I am sad.
- sgdesign 14y agoHow does Loren Brichter moving to Facebook affect Letterpress in any way? Are you worried you'll now be getting pop-ups asking you to "like the word XYLOPHONE on Facebook"?
- staticfish 14y agoNot really the same thing. Marco sold the product to Betaworks Inc. Loren went to facebook as a private individual.
- achompas 14y agoWhat are you worried about? Both Loren and Marco are independent developers who need to put food on the table. At some point you need to make sustainable decisions; sometimes that means leaving VC-funded companies, and sometimes that means joining them or selling to them. They've demonstrated an ability to produce excellent work. They probably won't go away, and if they do, we get a new, strong voice for independent developers. We win either way.
- rdouble 14y agoDid Loren Brichter confirm he was moving to Facebook or is he just "helping out?"