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Diary of a Corporate Sellout
- templeos2 12y agoWhen God talks to you and you are an atheist, you do the opposite of everything you believe. You dumb fuck nigger. A computer person says, "Whoa, the Amish must be correct." A Reagan Republican says, "Whoa, corps must be bad." You understand, dumb fuck nigger? Fuck you, nigger.
- dkarapetyan 12y agoAcqui-hire by Google in 3... 2... 1...
- yuhong 12y agoLuckily, I think even Yahoo has improved since these days, thanks to Marissa Mayer.
- devnonymous 12y agoI wonder if we'll see more 'resurrections' of good ideas that were acquired and killed simply due to bad business rather than bad ideas. Is there a list of companies/ideas somewhere that went down the acquisition path only to be killed ?
- arthurcolle 12y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Yahoo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio...! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Microsoft https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Google https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Facebook https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio... This page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Amazon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio...) doesn't exist though interestingly enough
- mtmail 12y agoAmazon's list isn't long enough (yet) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com#Acquisitions_and_investments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com#Acquisitions_and_in...
- oblio 12y agoFrom the friendly article: http://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/ http://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/
- anon4 12y agoOne of the saddest: https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/477095755564318720 https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/477095755564318720
- no_future 12y agoAnyone know how much Upcoming was originally acquired for?
- Mandatum 12y agoNo one involved ever released details about the acquisition, I know it was for cash - but they likely didn't allow disclosure of the actual price.
- leoncrutchley 12y agoWow what a story!i was an avid upcoming user in London back in 2007 and inspired my own startup back then.. Insane to learn now it was a side project! The first refusal idea should be part of a startup code or guidelines that all adhere to..
- nowarninglabel 12y agoThe author is right that no one really scratched that itch, at least up until recently. I spent a few years building something in my spare time to try to scratch the itch (and did a fair amount of research on the space) after Upcoming fell into disrepair but couldn't get enough momentum on it. That said, Sosh seems to now be finally scratching that itch, just as Upcoming is trying to make a comeback.
- dangoldin 12y agoSame. Learned a lot doing it but the events space is very difficult to grow a business in.
- brandonmenc 12y agoHere's a great podcast hosted by R.U. Sirius (of Mondo 2000) with the author, Andy Baio, as a guest - mere months after he sold Upcoming. Lots of discussion about his foray into copyright infringement. http://mondoglobo.net/neofiles/shows/neofiles-034.mp3 http://mondoglobo.net/neofiles/shows/neofiles-034.mp3
- idlewords 12y agoI worked on Upcoming briefly as a contractor in 2006, and it was a strange thing to witness. At the time Yahoo was acquiring a bunch of small sites but seemed to have no idea what to do with them. They just hung there suspended, like raisins in a jello mold, waiting for something to come along and digest them. Eventually Yahoo solved the dillema by wrapping these projects in successive layers of management, like a bureaucratic oyster reacting to some irritant it doesn't understand but can't get rid of. Vast amounts of time would be spent on things like requiring integrated login, rather then stepping back and figuring out how to really fit Upcoming or Flickr or Delicious into a vision of what Yahoo was for. I'm really happy Andy got the domain back. I'm still holding out for Joshua to reclaim Delicious!
- michaelgrafl 12y agoExcuse me for being off-topic and awkward. But whenever I read something like They just hung there suspended, like raisins in a jello mold, waiting for something to come along and digest them. I pause and take a look at who wrote this. And almost always it was written by that Pinboard guy.
- freehunter 12y agoAgreed, it was one of the best comments I've read in a long time. Well-chosen words and imagery, great metaphors.
- DigitalJack 12y agoSecond metaphor about the oyster seemed perfect. Can't say I have had raisins in jello before, but it was easy to imagine and understand what he was getting at. Really like the oyster pearl one though, gonna have to steal that one. I'm sure I could use it daily at work.
- jonnathanson 12y agoI actually preferred the second metaphor, about the oyster. :) Perfectly captures my experience of corporate M&A, and the way it actually handles what is commonly termed the "digestion" process.
- pjc50 12y ago"My hope was that I could use a social network to solve other first-world problems" I like this piece of self-awareness.
- rurounijones 12y agoI am rather shocked that people are paying for it to come back. I mean, the original was done as a side-project by the owner who did not have the money that, I assume, said post-acquisition owner now has.
- netcan 12y agoThis article is a candid perspective on making things, making money, integrity and other nuanced topics. Crying 'You're rich, do it out of pocket.' is the opposite. People donate to projects like this on kickstarter because they want a project to go ahead exist and they want to be a part of that. The writer is getting (reasonably modest) resources with which to make it happen, perhaps even some compensation. He gets the support of 1000 true fans who put $40 where their mouth is. That knits together some valuable forms of validation, encouragement, responsibility and other small nuanced things. Why would you inject your negativity into this mix?
- waylandsmithers 12y agoSo, I had a similar thought and I think there is more here than just hating on people who supposedly have access to resources. It goes more into the question about why people support Kickstarter projects that are more business than art. When you contribute money to a business venture, it is reasonable to expect either ownership in the company or interest payments plus your original principal down the road. In this case you get neither. While a $75 t-shirt is nice, it's probably not going to turn into a $100 t-shirt. That being said, it looks like people have pledged over $100K so far, so as they say, "the market has spoken."
- rurounijones 12y agoI didn't consider my comment negative, nor am I hating on the writer. I was just expressing shock because I literally cannot understand the mindset of the backers in this case. On a sidenote: Even if I did want to be negative about the whole thing, that is my prerogative, there is no rule on HN "only be positive". The up / down arrows are on the left of my post if you think it has no value.
- netcan 12y agoThis guy really has a shrewd mind for nuance. I'd never heard of upcoming, but I will definitely check it out in the future.
- conradfr 12y agoGreat post. It seems quite similar to French http://www.sortiraparis.com/ http://www.sortiraparis.com/ that exists for more than 10 years I think.
- coldcode 12y agoGood ideas should survive. What technology are they going to use to build the new site?
- mathattack 12y ago“So… Yahoo bought my website.” “I don’t think I can counteroffer that.” That put a smile on my face. Thank you for sharing!
- coob 12y agoAndy, any reason this is on Medium and not waxy.org ?
- midnightmonster 12y agoThis was a great story to read, and the ending hit me like a surprise twist, so much the better for being a real event. Thanks for sharing it.
- wodenokoto 12y agoThis was back when every new websites monetization strategy was to be acquired by Yahoo.