3 ms·
Ask HN: Does the acqui-hire-shutdown trend limit your use of startups?
Another startup has been acquired and scheduled for shutdown (Moped), and this seems to be a regular occurrence of late.
While I understand in some cases there is not a financial interest in keeping some products running, especially if there is no revenue to offset costs, it makes me hesitant to base any business functions on new products when I have no control over their longevity.
There are a lot of great tools out there, but for those with no premise option, a "cloud only" option controlled by the vendor seems less and less attractive. Even with data export options, lacking a local backup service does not lessen the risk much.
Does anyone have a counter-view that makes inventing time, effort, or money in tenuous startups attractive?
- tptacek 13y agoMost startups do not get acqui-hired, even if they have users. So shouldn't you instead be asking, "does the fact that most startups fail limit your use of startups?" That's a valid question. But it's also one of the oldest questions in technology marketing; it is among the top 3 objections to sales new enterprise companies face. There's a billion dollar business (escrow) built around the problem.
- bsg75 13y ago> So shouldn't you instead be asking, "does the fact that most startups fail limit your use of startups?" Valid point. I think there is something more frustrating to "We were bought, so our customers need to go away" vs "We tried but it did not work out."