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As a co-founder of Picnik, I was surprised by this article. It contained several errors which is pretty astonishing given its brevity. Here are a few correction

by mikehar 13y ago

As a co-founder of Picnik, I was surprised by this article. It contained several errors which is pretty astonishing given its brevity. Here are a few corrections: 1) Sposato was not a founder of Picnik. He was hired by the two founders, myself and Darrin Massena. 2) Sposato did not decide to sell Picnik. Naturally he was very involved in the process, but the decision was ultimately made by the board (which Sposato was not on). I can tell you that it was not an easy choice. 3) Picnik was not a "photo-sharing" site, it was a photo editing site with very limited photo sharing. 4) "One-third of our 25-person team, including my two business partners, quit right off the bat”. Both co-founders worked at Google for slightly more than a year. Sposato was there for about two years. Most of the people who left were marketing support or office management. We did lose our lead designer to Apple, but I don't recall any other product related departures in the first year. Picnik was amazing. Great team, we had a lot of fun and millions of amazing customers. It was very rewarding to work on a product that your customers love. Selling was a tough choice. Picnik was very healthy, profitable and growing. We felt like we were able to capture much of that value in the sale price and also have the opportunity to work on a product at Google that we felt would have a huge impact. Unfortunately for us, within our first six months Google decided to focus on Google+ and there wasn't room for any other photo product outside of Google+. I completely understood at the time why Google+ was important to Google, it just wasn't important to me. So I left. I don't know how we could have been able to predict the shift in focus to Google+ even with perfect visibility into Google. From what I gather, such a large shift in focus and investment was a unprecedented in Google before Google+. I think Google is a great company, I have a super high opinion of the people that I met there. Perhaps this wasn't the optimal exit for the Picnik team, but it was pretty damn good. -mike harrington

pinaceae 13y ago
i like how nobody here talks about the real losers - the picnik user/customers. these exits practically always kill your original product, which is the ultimate fuck you to the user base that got you there to begin with. that's why it's amazing to see companies like dropbox, box, etc to stick to their guns (so far) and not throw away everything they worked for. the whole web startup concept seems broken. it's not about real solutions and sustainable businesses, but rather a giant get rich quick scheme. just need some suckers to fall for it.
- mikehar 13y ago
  This doesn't really apply to Picnik. It was a real and sustainable business. We felt like we could make the product better by joining with Google. Our users were constantly on our mind. Picnik continued to grow dramatically while we were at google. It was closed down at its peak. FWIW we tried to buy Picnik back from Google once we heard that it was going to be shuttered. They wouldn't sell. It was gut wrenching to see Picnik go dark.
  - dalanmiller 13y ago
    The hard part is didn't they realize they were taking away one thing and not replacing it with another? That part is the most frustrating of all.
    - tempestn 13y ago
      I'm experiencing exactly this frustration with their acquisition of SageTV now. (Well, the acquisition was a while ago, but the pain is starting now.) MythTV is theoretically an alternative, but requires quite a bit more time investment it seems.
  - 27182818284 13y ago
    > It was closed down at its peak. What the heck was the reason behind that? I'm so curious. I know Google likes to headshot different products, but typically aren't they the unsuccessful ones like Google Wave?
    - Oculus 13y ago
      The likely logic behind shutting down Picnik would have been to lessen the competition to Google+.
  - Jormundir 13y ago
    I don't really see this as valid justification. This is the same explanation given every time, and every time the users are the ones completely screwed over. I think this is a justification to yourself rather than the underlying truth. > Our users were constantly on our mind. If that were true, you wouldn't have sold the company to Google, as the outcome is not out of the ordinary by any means. So though they may have been on your mind, your users were ultimately not your priority. > It was a real and sustainable business. Then why sell it? Which leads to: > We felt like we could make the product better by joining with Google. and > Picnik continued to grow dramatically while we were at google. Which means you prioritized growth over ensuring service and supporting your customers for the long term. This isn't bad, it's how you expand the business, but it does show your priority was not the customers you already had. Which brings us back to the original point: > This doesn't really apply to Picnik. I think you're deluding yourself, not in a way that implies any sort of insanity, but more of a coping mechanism so you don't have to confront the fact that your biggest priority was money and not your users. In the end, you (really your board, which I think includes you) sold to Google, relinquishing control over the long term care of your users. That is the action, and that is what is ultimately true. I don't think you're a bad person by any means. I would have made the same decision. Lets just be honest about outcomes. I think it's easy to be tricked in these acquisition offers, mainly because your personal outcome is ensured. You are getting lots of money, and you get the opportunity to see if you're business can get really big. The problem is, this actually puts a make or break ultimatum on your business. If you don't get the rapid growth you were hoping for, or your business doesn't align with the parent company down the road, then your business is broken (shut down by the parent) and your customers lose. So this is the gamble you face, and either way your future is positive, but you're betting with your customers, and when it doesn't work out they lose, but you don't.
SmileyKeith 13y ago
This account was created 2 minutes before this post. Just FYI
- mikehar 13y ago
  Long time reader, first time caller. :)
- GigabyteCoin 13y ago
  I don't think HNs timestamps are all that accurate from what I have noticed. User pages are certainly not updated instantly. That much I am sure of.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
dalanmiller 13y ago
Picnik was an amazing product that I happily paid for the premium account. I was hopeful when you sold to Google for bigger and better things but was devastated when I found out that I couldn't use the browser editor anymore. I still don't have anything in my toolkit that can compare to the simplicity and convenience of editing the browser. I've tried others but find them lacking. Thank you for such a great product. @dalanmiller
ilamont 13y ago
Crunchbase data (1) shows the following: Jonathan Sposato - CEO Darrin Massena - Co-founder, CTO Mike Harrington - Co-founder, COO 1. http://www.crunchbase.com/company/picnik http://www.crunchbase.com/company/picnik
- FactChecker 13y ago
  Here's the story: http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/techflash/2010/03/looking_back_the_email_that_spawned_picnik_googles_latest_buy.html?page=all http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/techflash/2010/03/lo...
notlisted 13y ago
Of course you'd know better, and it wouldn't be the first time someone overestimated their (J's) role in the process, but in this video Darrin specifically mentions "wouldn't it be fun if we started something together" which in my book could be understood as co-founder... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdpwzJgKcY0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdpwzJgKcY0 Anyhow, I really like what you guys (however many) created and was sad to see it go. It was definitely more powerful than the snapseed stuff they integrated later.
higherpurpose 13y ago
Maybe you didn't know they would integrate it into Google+, but why would you assume they would keep picnik.com? Even then when it got bought I immediately assumed it would at best be integrated into the Picasa web app and perhaps program, too. But keeping picnik.com wouldn't have made any sense for Google's vision, even before Google+. One more thing, when Google bought Snapseed, I immediately thought "wow, I guess Google thought the picnik.com guys weren't that good, if they need to buy Snapseed, too". And then a while later they integrated Snapseed into Google+, too, and it does look/work much better. I do expect them to kill the Snapseed app, soon, too, and just integrate many of its features in the Photos or Gallery Android apps.
yuhong 13y ago
I wonder if Vic Gundotra was involved. Reminds me of this BTW: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3134609 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3134609
frik 13y ago
Thanks for the information. My girlfriend and I used Picnik a lot, back then in 2011. Its photo effect filters were way better than what Instagram, Photoshop CS 5, etc. provided. A Picnik photo app for iOS/Android would have been great. But sadly, Google shut it down. And G+ is a ghost town, only Youtube comments appear there (by accident).

by mikehar 13y ago

pinaceae 13y ago

i like how nobody here talks about the real losers - the picnik user/customers. these exits practically always kill your original product, which is the ultimate fuck you to the user base that got you there to begin with. that's why it's amazing to see companies like dropbox, box, etc to stick to their guns (so far) and not throw away everything they worked for. the whole web startup concept seems broken. it's not about real solutions and sustainable businesses, but rather a giant get rich quick scheme. just need some suckers to fall for it.

mikehar 13y ago
This doesn't really apply to Picnik. It was a real and sustainable business. We felt like we could make the product better by joining with Google. Our users were constantly on our mind. Picnik continued to grow dramatically while we were at google. It was closed down at its peak. FWIW we tried to buy Picnik back from Google once we heard that it was going to be shuttered. They wouldn't sell. It was gut wrenching to see Picnik go dark.
- dalanmiller 13y ago
  The hard part is didn't they realize they were taking away one thing and not replacing it with another? That part is the most frustrating of all.
  - tempestn 13y ago
    I'm experiencing exactly this frustration with their acquisition of SageTV now. (Well, the acquisition was a while ago, but the pain is starting now.) MythTV is theoretically an alternative, but requires quite a bit more time investment it seems.
- 27182818284 13y ago
  > It was closed down at its peak. What the heck was the reason behind that? I'm so curious. I know Google likes to headshot different products, but typically aren't they the unsuccessful ones like Google Wave?
  - Oculus 13y ago
    The likely logic behind shutting down Picnik would have been to lessen the competition to Google+.
- Jormundir 13y ago
  I don't really see this as valid justification. This is the same explanation given every time, and every time the users are the ones completely screwed over. I think this is a justification to yourself rather than the underlying truth. > Our users were constantly on our mind. If that were true, you wouldn't have sold the company to Google, as the outcome is not out of the ordinary by any means. So though they may have been on your mind, your users were ultimately not your priority. > It was a real and sustainable business. Then why sell it? Which leads to: > We felt like we could make the product better by joining with Google. and > Picnik continued to grow dramatically while we were at google. Which means you prioritized growth over ensuring service and supporting your customers for the long term. This isn't bad, it's how you expand the business, but it does show your priority was not the customers you already had. Which brings us back to the original point: > This doesn't really apply to Picnik. I think you're deluding yourself, not in a way that implies any sort of insanity, but more of a coping mechanism so you don't have to confront the fact that your biggest priority was money and not your users. In the end, you (really your board, which I think includes you) sold to Google, relinquishing control over the long term care of your users. That is the action, and that is what is ultimately true. I don't think you're a bad person by any means. I would have made the same decision. Lets just be honest about outcomes. I think it's easy to be tricked in these acquisition offers, mainly because your personal outcome is ensured. You are getting lots of money, and you get the opportunity to see if you're business can get really big. The problem is, this actually puts a make or break ultimatum on your business. If you don't get the rapid growth you were hoping for, or your business doesn't align with the parent company down the road, then your business is broken (shut down by the parent) and your customers lose. So this is the gamble you face, and either way your future is positive, but you're betting with your customers, and when it doesn't work out they lose, but you don't.

SmileyKeith 13y ago

This account was created 2 minutes before this post. Just FYI

mikehar 13y ago
Long time reader, first time caller. :)
GigabyteCoin 13y ago
I don't think HNs timestamps are all that accurate from what I have noticed. User pages are certainly not updated instantly. That much I am sure of.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

dalanmiller 13y ago

Picnik was an amazing product that I happily paid for the premium account. I was hopeful when you sold to Google for bigger and better things but was devastated when I found out that I couldn't use the browser editor anymore. I still don't have anything in my toolkit that can compare to the simplicity and convenience of editing the browser. I've tried others but find them lacking. Thank you for such a great product. @dalanmiller

ilamont 13y ago

Crunchbase data (1) shows the following: Jonathan Sposato - CEO Darrin Massena - Co-founder, CTO Mike Harrington - Co-founder, COO 1. http://www.crunchbase.com/company/picnik http://www.crunchbase.com/company/picnik

FactChecker 13y ago
Here's the story: http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/techflash/2010/03/looking_back_the_email_that_spawned_picnik_googles_latest_buy.html?page=all http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/techflash/2010/03/lo...

notlisted 13y ago

Of course you'd know better, and it wouldn't be the first time someone overestimated their (J's) role in the process, but in this video Darrin specifically mentions "wouldn't it be fun if we started something together" which in my book could be understood as co-founder... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdpwzJgKcY0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdpwzJgKcY0 Anyhow, I really like what you guys (however many) created and was sad to see it go. It was definitely more powerful than the snapseed stuff they integrated later.

higherpurpose 13y ago

Maybe you didn't know they would integrate it into Google+, but why would you assume they would keep picnik.com? Even then when it got bought I immediately assumed it would at best be integrated into the Picasa web app and perhaps program, too. But keeping picnik.com wouldn't have made any sense for Google's vision, even before Google+. One more thing, when Google bought Snapseed, I immediately thought "wow, I guess Google thought the picnik.com guys weren't that good, if they need to buy Snapseed, too". And then a while later they integrated Snapseed into Google+, too, and it does look/work much better. I do expect them to kill the Snapseed app, soon, too, and just integrate many of its features in the Photos or Gallery Android apps.

yuhong 13y ago

I wonder if Vic Gundotra was involved. Reminds me of this BTW: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3134609 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3134609

frik 13y ago

Thanks for the information. My girlfriend and I used Picnik a lot, back then in 2011. Its photo effect filters were way better than what Instagram, Photoshop CS 5, etc. provided. A Picnik photo app for iOS/Android would have been great. But sadly, Google shut it down. And G+ is a ghost town, only Youtube comments appear there (by accident).