

Ziptr to Discontinue Services - notwhyships
http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/Ziptr-to-Discontinue-Services-68123-1.html

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tptacek
_“It is with great regret that I am writing to inform you of the closing of
Ziptr, Inc. and the discontinuation of all Ziptr products,” said Bhathena.
“Your sense of innovation and willingness to believe in a solution that
offered both security and ease of use was a source of energy and inspiration
for our company. For that, we are immensely grateful.”_

 _Bhathena and other Ziptr staff did not immediately respond to requests for
comment._

This doesn't sound a whole lot different from any other un-graceful startup
shutdowns. Did this service have a lot of users?

Also, is the characterization of Ziptr as an "encryption provider" accurate?
Or were they just a secure document storage company? There are a _lot_ of
companies that do "document encryption" and "email encryption" for enterprises
that are not, as HN privacy enthusiasts understand the term, really crypto
products.

~~~
notwhyships
"You need to export all of your data from your Ziptr account by 12:00 noon
Eastern on Friday, September 27, 2013. After this time, we cannot guarantee
access to your data." [http://www.ziptr.com/ziptr-
closing-92713](http://www.ziptr.com/ziptr-closing-92713)

That though from Ziptr's 9/24 blog post is unusual: both the ridiculously
short time period of 3 days, and the phrase "cannot guarantee."

Also, I find it hard to believe that such a serious serial entrepreneur with
such significant backing (approx. $7M) would close up shop so suddenly and
unprofessionally. Why burn bridges like this?

~~~
tptacek
That's also what you'd write if your enterprise software company was betting
on last minute hail-marys to keep the lights on, didn't want to admit the bind
they were in, and literally ran completely out of money.

Also, if they were concerned about complying with an NSL, why would they offer
even 3 days? During those three days, their users would all be surveilled as
they pulled their data off the site.

------
pdknsk
HN upvoting can be a mystery sometimes.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6440367](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6440367)

~~~
tikhonj
It's not entirely mysterious: because of the way votes are weighted, the
timing of the first two or three _really_ matters. If you manage to get them
while you're still on the new page, you have a good chance of getting on the
front page which is the only way to get much exposure. If you fall off the new
page without that, your article is essentially forgotten.

This means the success of your article falls down to the whims of the few
people browsing `new' at any given moment. If you're lucky, there are people
interested in your topic there; if not, your article might easily fall through
the cracks. Moreover, since `new' has a _very_ bad signal to noise ratio, most
people do not spend very much time there. I certainly don't! So this means
it's even more likely for an article to fall through the cracks there.

For better or worse, this means HN misses out on good articles as they fall
through `new' without getting votes. To get anywhere your article needs to be
both good _and_ lucky.

~~~
ars
Or have friends. The first few votes matter a LOT. So as soon as you submit
you ask 3 friends to vote it up (make sure they vote within a few minutes of
each other).

That gives a chance. If the community doesn't like it it won't stay up, but it
gives you at least a chance.

~~~
sillysaurus2
Actually, you're describing a voting ring, which is against the rules and is
bannable. Luckily the software is intelligent enough that it detects people
who do such things and automatically nullifies the effect of those votes.

~~~
ars
I guess so. I should clarify I've never actually done this, just seen other
people [say they] did it. And watching the vote patterns correlated with
homepage position on my few submissions tells me it would work.

BTW I don't see any mention of this in the rules.

------
rdl
I wonder if this is governmental pressure or merely "ran out of money"/normal
commercial concerns.

~~~
runn1ng
"ran out of money" wouldn't have this "we can't say anything, we are closing
it now" odor.

~~~
dsl
Current "encryption" related concerns provide save-face cover for ran of money
quite nicely.

~~~
rdl
This company also seems pretty low risk, unlike, say, a consumer privacy
messaging or VPN service.

Consumer privacy services have very low revenue per customer, so if you
attract a few customers with huge attached legal costs, you probably just shut
down. I think if you're not a dick, you shut down and offer to pay your
existing customers to use an equivalent (if available) service elsewhere for
some transition period, since you can't continue operating your service
directly.

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umsm
The only way we will solve secure email is by implementing an open-sourced
solution. Period.

It appears like this may be a space where we can't make money from the core
service.

------
andyhmltn
Covering a page in a 'please wait this page is loading' with an advert for 10
seconds is a sure fire way to make me leave instantly.

------
AsymetricCom
> Ziptr, the secure communications service predominantly targeting legal and
> accounting professionals, appears to be closing its doors as a ...

