11 ms·

Facebook Acquires Branch

106 points by alex1 13y ago

mpk 13y ago
Needs an active FB session to read.
- nicholassmith 13y ago
  "After two years building Branch and Potluck, I am thrilled to announce that we will be continuing our mission at Facebook! We will be forming Facebook's Conversations group, based in New York City, with the goal of helping people connect with others around their interests. Their pitch to us was: "Build Branch at Facebook scale!" Although the products we build will be reminiscent of Branch and Potluck, those services will live on outside of Facebook. A more thoughtful note and details to come soon but I am writing this haphazardly from a mountain in Japan (I was tipped that the story was going to leak while on vacation). In the meantime, a huge "thank you" to our investors. Especially, Jason Goldman, Evan Williams, Biz Stone, Ryan Freitas, John Borthwick, and Jonah Peretti, who all spent an extraordinary amount of time with us. Most importantly though, a big congrats to my eight teammates who have worked tirelessly, often behind the scenes. So much and admiration: http://branch.com/company#team http://branch.com/company#team - on we go!"
  - lmartel 13y ago
    > Their pitch to us was: "Build Branch at Facebook scale!" Or was it closer to: "Want $15M?"
    - rhizome 13y ago
      "Keep your startup culture inside of Facebook!"
scotthtaylor 13y ago
Makes sense, I love the Branch product but seems they never really got enough traction to make it a buzzing place of conversation & interaction. Will be interesting to see what happens with the product within FB.. will it be largely a talent acquisition or does FB really believe in what Josh and the team were building.
aditya 13y ago
The Verge reports an acquisition price of around $15mm. http://mobile.theverge.com/2014/1/13/5303702/facebook-acquires-link-sharing-app-branch-for-15-million http://mobile.theverge.com/2014/1/13/5303702/facebook-acquir...
- rfnslyr 13y ago
  My goal in life is to get bought out of acquihired.
  - hnnnnng 13y ago
    Thats silly. You never start out trying to get acquihired unless you know exactly what the company you want to get acquihired by, wants. You aim super high for an ipo but if stuff goes south, you can always get acquihired.
    - pedalpete 13y ago
      I don't think you can 'always' get acquihired. You've got to play your cards right, get just the right team, and have people that the acquihiring company wants. I'm wondering if the acquihire is as easy as most believe it is.
      - hnnnnng 13y ago
        Nope. As long as your idea is reasonable(which is a high chance assuming you have your head on straight which is clearly not the case if you're doing stuff like developing an 'elixir for immortality' or building a 'google killer'), you have some semblance of a product and at-least a seed round in funding, getting acquihired is not at all a problem. Trust me, I've already gotten offers for acquisitions and I've barely begun fundraising.
        rahimnathwani 13y ago
        May I ask where (country/city) you and the team are based?
emmett9001 13y ago
Congrats to the whole team!
GBKS 13y ago
I always got the impression that Branch had a very talented team, but that the products were very over-engineered. By that, I mean that the interface was very polished, but also very confusing. So I'm sure it's a good deal for Facebook to add this very focused talent to their stable.
jeffehobbs 13y ago
Welp, glad I didn't invest too much time or interest in Branch or Potluck.
- cllns 13y ago
  I liked Potluck a lot before the pivot into bite-sized news discussions. For those who don't know, it used to be a place to share links and discuss them with friends.
  - untog 13y ago
    Agreed. It was a daily go-to until they totally redesigned the thing around those cards. I never got the UI so I gave up.
mindotus 13y ago
Congrats to everyone at Branch. Can't wait to see what's to come from them over at FB!
waylandsmithers 13y ago
This is why I could never be a tech start up investor. Every new app like this that I see, I dismiss as useless/nothing new/why would anyone use that. Then it gets bought by one of the big guys for millions a year later.
- spullara 13y ago
  These are not great outcomes for the investors.
- jt2190 13y ago
  > This is why I could never be a tech start up investor. > Every new app like this that I see, I dismiss as > useless/nothing new/why would anyone use that. Seasoned investors don't even try to decide whether the app is good or not. After all, who cares what the investor thinks? The only thing that matters is what the market thinks. Instead, they "place many small bets", and hope that one of them pays off big. (edit: This is why there seem to be so many "bad ideas" that get funded.)
  - jiggy2011 13y ago
    But by that logic every startup has an equal chance of investments, so the optimal tactic is to pump out nonsensical bad apps until somebody funds one.
    - rpicard 13y ago
      That assumes your end-goal is to get an app funded. It's my understanding that funding is really just the start of the journey to having something that is successful and will make you rich (if that's your goal).
    - yid 13y ago
      "many small bets" does not mean you're picking them at random.
  - curmudgeoned 13y ago
    This model of investment is one tactic. But in my opinion, it's not the one at play here. Another majorly significant tactic of investment is to buy your potential competitors early and often. Find the upstarts that pose a threat to your business and make them an offer.
techaddict009 13y ago
Even I felt the same while using it!! #Irritated
webwanderings 13y ago
The analogy Branch used in the earlier days of its launch (which isn't too long ago) was, in my words: consider Branch as a high school cafeteria, where each table has people of different taste and stripe discussing things. So I guess the school was private after all and it got bought out by another private school. You know, those students are eventually going to grow up and they're going to realize that private corporations are using (abusing?) their time and conversations to their own advantage.
Omnipresent 13y ago
Branch looks like a good app. In some way it is kind of similar to Pinterest. Would be interesting to find out why they didn't gain enough traction? Could it be because they weren't targeting a niche audience compared to Pinterest targeting niche users at the initial stages.
acjohnson55 13y ago
I just discovered Branch today, and I think the problem it tries to solve is one that hits me quite frequently. I consume content nonstop online, but I'm lacking a good medium to share content I like with friends and have semi-private conversations around it. I like Pocket a lot for the first piece of that puzzle, but it lacks discussion capabilities. Facebook is my de facto solution for the second part, but it's not good for letting people bring in their friends who aren't my friends. So I suppose my dreams may come true if Facebook really is interested in letting the Branch team continue to pursue the problem.
- prostoalex 13y ago
  > Facebook is my de facto solution for the second part, but it's not good for letting people bring in their friends who aren't my friends. Reddit?

106 points by alex1 13y ago

mpk 13y ago

Needs an active FB session to read.

nicholassmith 13y ago
"After two years building Branch and Potluck, I am thrilled to announce that we will be continuing our mission at Facebook! We will be forming Facebook's Conversations group, based in New York City, with the goal of helping people connect with others around their interests. Their pitch to us was: "Build Branch at Facebook scale!" Although the products we build will be reminiscent of Branch and Potluck, those services will live on outside of Facebook. A more thoughtful note and details to come soon but I am writing this haphazardly from a mountain in Japan (I was tipped that the story was going to leak while on vacation). In the meantime, a huge "thank you" to our investors. Especially, Jason Goldman, Evan Williams, Biz Stone, Ryan Freitas, John Borthwick, and Jonah Peretti, who all spent an extraordinary amount of time with us. Most importantly though, a big congrats to my eight teammates who have worked tirelessly, often behind the scenes. So much and admiration: http://branch.com/company#team http://branch.com/company#team - on we go!"
- lmartel 13y ago
  > Their pitch to us was: "Build Branch at Facebook scale!" Or was it closer to: "Want $15M?"
  - rhizome 13y ago
    "Keep your startup culture inside of Facebook!"

scotthtaylor 13y ago

Makes sense, I love the Branch product but seems they never really got enough traction to make it a buzzing place of conversation & interaction. Will be interesting to see what happens with the product within FB.. will it be largely a talent acquisition or does FB really believe in what Josh and the team were building.

aditya 13y ago

The Verge reports an acquisition price of around $15mm. http://mobile.theverge.com/2014/1/13/5303702/facebook-acquires-link-sharing-app-branch-for-15-million http://mobile.theverge.com/2014/1/13/5303702/facebook-acquir...

rfnslyr 13y ago
My goal in life is to get bought out of acquihired.
- hnnnnng 13y ago
  Thats silly. You never start out trying to get acquihired unless you know exactly what the company you want to get acquihired by, wants. You aim super high for an ipo but if stuff goes south, you can always get acquihired.
  - pedalpete 13y ago
    I don't think you can 'always' get acquihired. You've got to play your cards right, get just the right team, and have people that the acquihiring company wants. I'm wondering if the acquihire is as easy as most believe it is.
    - hnnnnng 13y ago
      Nope. As long as your idea is reasonable(which is a high chance assuming you have your head on straight which is clearly not the case if you're doing stuff like developing an 'elixir for immortality' or building a 'google killer'), you have some semblance of a product and at-least a seed round in funding, getting acquihired is not at all a problem. Trust me, I've already gotten offers for acquisitions and I've barely begun fundraising.
      - rahimnathwani 13y ago
        May I ask where (country/city) you and the team are based?

emmett9001 13y ago

Congrats to the whole team!

GBKS 13y ago

I always got the impression that Branch had a very talented team, but that the products were very over-engineered. By that, I mean that the interface was very polished, but also very confusing. So I'm sure it's a good deal for Facebook to add this very focused talent to their stable.

jeffehobbs 13y ago

Welp, glad I didn't invest too much time or interest in Branch or Potluck.

cllns 13y ago
I liked Potluck a lot before the pivot into bite-sized news discussions. For those who don't know, it used to be a place to share links and discuss them with friends.
- untog 13y ago
  Agreed. It was a daily go-to until they totally redesigned the thing around those cards. I never got the UI so I gave up.

mindotus 13y ago

Congrats to everyone at Branch. Can't wait to see what's to come from them over at FB!

waylandsmithers 13y ago

This is why I could never be a tech start up investor. Every new app like this that I see, I dismiss as useless/nothing new/why would anyone use that. Then it gets bought by one of the big guys for millions a year later.

spullara 13y ago
These are not great outcomes for the investors.
jt2190 13y ago
> This is why I could never be a tech start up investor. > Every new app like this that I see, I dismiss as > useless/nothing new/why would anyone use that. Seasoned investors don't even try to decide whether the app is good or not. After all, who cares what the investor thinks? The only thing that matters is what the market thinks. Instead, they "place many small bets", and hope that one of them pays off big. (edit: This is why there seem to be so many "bad ideas" that get funded.)
- jiggy2011 13y ago
  But by that logic every startup has an equal chance of investments, so the optimal tactic is to pump out nonsensical bad apps until somebody funds one.
  - rpicard 13y ago
    That assumes your end-goal is to get an app funded. It's my understanding that funding is really just the start of the journey to having something that is successful and will make you rich (if that's your goal).
  - yid 13y ago
    "many small bets" does not mean you're picking them at random.
- curmudgeoned 13y ago
  This model of investment is one tactic. But in my opinion, it's not the one at play here. Another majorly significant tactic of investment is to buy your potential competitors early and often. Find the upstarts that pose a threat to your business and make them an offer.

techaddict009 13y ago

Even I felt the same while using it!! #Irritated

webwanderings 13y ago

The analogy Branch used in the earlier days of its launch (which isn't too long ago) was, in my words: consider Branch as a high school cafeteria, where each table has people of different taste and stripe discussing things. So I guess the school was private after all and it got bought out by another private school. You know, those students are eventually going to grow up and they're going to realize that private corporations are using (abusing?) their time and conversations to their own advantage.

Omnipresent 13y ago

Branch looks like a good app. In some way it is kind of similar to Pinterest. Would be interesting to find out why they didn't gain enough traction? Could it be because they weren't targeting a niche audience compared to Pinterest targeting niche users at the initial stages.

acjohnson55 13y ago

I just discovered Branch today, and I think the problem it tries to solve is one that hits me quite frequently. I consume content nonstop online, but I'm lacking a good medium to share content I like with friends and have semi-private conversations around it. I like Pocket a lot for the first piece of that puzzle, but it lacks discussion capabilities. Facebook is my de facto solution for the second part, but it's not good for letting people bring in their friends who aren't my friends. So I suppose my dreams may come true if Facebook really is interested in letting the Branch team continue to pursue the problem.

prostoalex 13y ago
> Facebook is my de facto solution for the second part, but it's not good for letting people bring in their friends who aren't my friends. Reddit?