5 ms·

Refresh is acquired by LinkedIn

57 points by zachlatta 12y ago

Elepsis 12y ago
They're giving a whole two days of notice to their customers before shutting down--customers who might be on precisely the kind of trip right now where they're relying on their service. I think that might be an impressive new low.
- tkmcc 12y ago
  The post is timestamped "2 April 2015," but it still makes me wonder why they only gave two weeks notice.
- crypt1d 12y ago
  As far as I can see this was posted on 2nd of April, so its actually almost 2 weeks notice. Thats not much either, but still a lot better than 2 days.
  - Elepsis 12y ago
    Yep, totally missed that. Thanks for the catch.
- gtirloni 12y ago
  Keep your lows updated! http://web.archive.org/web/20150401223153/https://www.nebula.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/20150401223153/https://www.nebula...
  - eCa 12y ago
    There is a difference though between shutting down as in 'no more money' and shutting down as in 'I just got a boatload of cash, bu-bye!'. (Shutting down a serious service zero-day is of course inexcusable no matter the circumstance.)
    - gtirloni 12y ago
      For customers that difference approaches zero.
      - hobarrera 12y ago
        No, there's a big difference. The company that got bought intends to keep customers (and even gain more). They new parent company probably wants to keep a good image. The company that ran out of money doesn't really care about such things any more. It's dead. A customer might understand the second case, while it'll definitely hold a grudge for the first one.
        gtirloni 12y ago
        This is a very myopic startup view of the world. In both cases the customer is left behind. Refresh.io: "We’ve decided that as of today we’ll no longer accept new users, and the Refresh app will be shut down on April 15" Nebula: "It is with an extremely heavy heart that we announce that today, April 1, 2015, Nebula is ceasing operations." On both cases there is no "expect great things from us!" message for the customers. Are you a Nebula or Refresh.io customer? Sorry, not anymore. You paid something? Awww, sorry. You depended on Nebula? Too bad, their management team cannot plan a day ahead and warn customers that it's running low on resources and will close in the near future. A 1-day notice is what you get. A 3-month notice would be much better but I guess that wouldn't play well with their possible buyers (they would lose all their leverage in the negotiations). You depended on Refresh.io? Too bad, got a few days to find a replacement. Their management team did not have the decency to keep the service up a bit longer. Both situations are game overs. I don't understand what you mean with "A customer might understand the second case, while it'll definitely hold a grudge for the first one.". So a company is stupid enough to decide a day ago that it cannot keep running anymore and the customer might understand that? Like "oh darn! sorry for you guys.. don't worry about the money I already spent.. take some time off, you deserve it! what a cruel world". There is no difference. In both cases the customer is screwed. If the founders got money or not does not matter a single bit (unless that, in case Refresh.io case, you didn't care much in the first place and can _hope_ that LinkedIn will, who knows, offer something similar).
shah_s 12y ago
LinkedIn has been making a lot of acquisitions lately. Do they feel that their revenue source from their main product is drying up?
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- eli 12y ago
  I don't see why one would follow from the other.
  - vonklaus 12y ago
    The recently announced acq. of Lynda seems to indicate LinkedIn trying to penetrate other markets. If the revenue source from the main product is waning, they could diversify revenue streams or purchase a value-add company making their overall offering more competitive. Maybe they are trying to reposition as a credentialing institution, where people can network, build skills, and manage their professional calendars. I am not sure if this is the case here, but numerous acquisitions outside of core competencies could point to a strategic shift in positioning, possibly in an effort to shore up declining revenue and relevancy in the core business.
    - explosion 12y ago
      Or perhaps they're just trying to diversify their portfolio. Perhaps similar to how while Google acquires all sorts of interesting startups, it doesn't mean they're shifting away from search/ads.
    - eli 12y ago
      Isn't another perfectly plausible explanation that the revenue from the main product is so robust it is fueling an expansion into related markets?
      - vonklaus 12y ago
        Sure. However, there are two things that seem to support this: 1. Social networks seem to decline over time as newer alternatives or substitutes arise. Specifically, it seems LinkedIn is not as strong as it once was, and growth can no longer be sustained on the percentage basis. 2. Generally, a company that has amazing product market fit and strong growth in an offering would reinvest the lion-share of capital back into the business. I don't purport to know what is the case here, just providing the counterpoint.
biot 12y ago
I'm only seeing a blog post from 2013. Site is busted on mobile? Chrome/iPad. Edit: Upon reloading, I briefly see an article about LinkedIn which gets quickly replaced by successively older blog posts. Scrolling doesn't seem to work. Permalink for those experiencing the same: http://blog.refresh.io/post/115300546551/announcement http://blog.refresh.io/post/115300546551/announcement
- sctb 12y ago
  Thanks, we updated the link.
vosper 12y ago
> Good things happen when you treat your colleagues, vendors, partners, and customers like your family. All of us want to thank our customers for supporting us and providing invaluable feedback. This acquisition might be great for the staff at Refresh, and the short shutdown window lets LinkedIn get value from the team quickly, but if you really treat your customers like family I think there should be more than 2 weeks notice of shutdown. This amounts to "so long, and thanks for all the fish".
- ocdtrekkie 12y ago
  Welcome to the startup world: http://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/ http://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/
  - untog 12y ago
    The term "surfaced insights" does need to be permanently memorialized, after all.
phesse14 12y ago
Anybody knows the terms? I wonder why all this secrecy about the numbers...
jtwebman 12y ago
This sounds like a great opening for another startup to steal their customers! Starting it today!

57 points by zachlatta 12y ago

They're giving a whole two days of notice to their customers before shutting down--customers who might be on precisely the kind of trip right now where they're relying on their service. I think that might be an impressive new low.

tkmcc 12y ago
The post is timestamped "2 April 2015," but it still makes me wonder why they only gave two weeks notice.
crypt1d 12y ago
As far as I can see this was posted on 2nd of April, so its actually almost 2 weeks notice. Thats not much either, but still a lot better than 2 days.
- Elepsis 12y ago
  Yep, totally missed that. Thanks for the catch.
gtirloni 12y ago
Keep your lows updated! http://web.archive.org/web/20150401223153/https://www.nebula.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/20150401223153/https://www.nebula...
- eCa 12y ago
  There is a difference though between shutting down as in 'no more money' and shutting down as in 'I just got a boatload of cash, bu-bye!'. (Shutting down a serious service zero-day is of course inexcusable no matter the circumstance.)
  - gtirloni 12y ago
    For customers that difference approaches zero.
    - hobarrera 12y ago
      No, there's a big difference. The company that got bought intends to keep customers (and even gain more). They new parent company probably wants to keep a good image. The company that ran out of money doesn't really care about such things any more. It's dead. A customer might understand the second case, while it'll definitely hold a grudge for the first one.
      - gtirloni 12y ago
        This is a very myopic startup view of the world. In both cases the customer is left behind. Refresh.io: "We’ve decided that as of today we’ll no longer accept new users, and the Refresh app will be shut down on April 15" Nebula: "It is with an extremely heavy heart that we announce that today, April 1, 2015, Nebula is ceasing operations." On both cases there is no "expect great things from us!" message for the customers. Are you a Nebula or Refresh.io customer? Sorry, not anymore. You paid something? Awww, sorry. You depended on Nebula? Too bad, their management team cannot plan a day ahead and warn customers that it's running low on resources and will close in the near future. A 1-day notice is what you get. A 3-month notice would be much better but I guess that wouldn't play well with their possible buyers (they would lose all their leverage in the negotiations). You depended on Refresh.io? Too bad, got a few days to find a replacement. Their management team did not have the decency to keep the service up a bit longer. Both situations are game overs. I don't understand what you mean with "A customer might understand the second case, while it'll definitely hold a grudge for the first one.". So a company is stupid enough to decide a day ago that it cannot keep running anymore and the customer might understand that? Like "oh darn! sorry for you guys.. don't worry about the money I already spent.. take some time off, you deserve it! what a cruel world". There is no difference. In both cases the customer is screwed. If the founders got money or not does not matter a single bit (unless that, in case Refresh.io case, you didn't care much in the first place and can _hope_ that LinkedIn will, who knows, offer something similar).

shah_s 12y ago

LinkedIn has been making a lot of acquisitions lately. Do they feel that their revenue source from their main product is drying up?

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
eli 12y ago
I don't see why one would follow from the other.
- vonklaus 12y ago
  The recently announced acq. of Lynda seems to indicate LinkedIn trying to penetrate other markets. If the revenue source from the main product is waning, they could diversify revenue streams or purchase a value-add company making their overall offering more competitive. Maybe they are trying to reposition as a credentialing institution, where people can network, build skills, and manage their professional calendars. I am not sure if this is the case here, but numerous acquisitions outside of core competencies could point to a strategic shift in positioning, possibly in an effort to shore up declining revenue and relevancy in the core business.
  - explosion 12y ago
    Or perhaps they're just trying to diversify their portfolio. Perhaps similar to how while Google acquires all sorts of interesting startups, it doesn't mean they're shifting away from search/ads.
  - eli 12y ago
    Isn't another perfectly plausible explanation that the revenue from the main product is so robust it is fueling an expansion into related markets?
    - vonklaus 12y ago
      Sure. However, there are two things that seem to support this: 1. Social networks seem to decline over time as newer alternatives or substitutes arise. Specifically, it seems LinkedIn is not as strong as it once was, and growth can no longer be sustained on the percentage basis. 2. Generally, a company that has amazing product market fit and strong growth in an offering would reinvest the lion-share of capital back into the business. I don't purport to know what is the case here, just providing the counterpoint.

biot 12y ago

I'm only seeing a blog post from 2013. Site is busted on mobile? Chrome/iPad. Edit: Upon reloading, I briefly see an article about LinkedIn which gets quickly replaced by successively older blog posts. Scrolling doesn't seem to work. Permalink for those experiencing the same: http://blog.refresh.io/post/115300546551/announcement http://blog.refresh.io/post/115300546551/announcement

sctb 12y ago
Thanks, we updated the link.

vosper 12y ago

> Good things happen when you treat your colleagues, vendors, partners, and customers like your family. All of us want to thank our customers for supporting us and providing invaluable feedback. This acquisition might be great for the staff at Refresh, and the short shutdown window lets LinkedIn get value from the team quickly, but if you really treat your customers like family I think there should be more than 2 weeks notice of shutdown. This amounts to "so long, and thanks for all the fish".

ocdtrekkie 12y ago
Welcome to the startup world: http://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/ http://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/
- untog 12y ago
  The term "surfaced insights" does need to be permanently memorialized, after all.

phesse14 12y ago

Anybody knows the terms? I wonder why all this secrecy about the numbers...

jtwebman 12y ago

This sounds like a great opening for another startup to steal their customers! Starting it today!