
Sold just got acquired by Dropbox and closed their company - alexeichemenda
http://usesold.com/
======
chrisacky
The opening line follows the boilerplate trend of acquisition posts. Being
acqui-hired is not something that you should be celebrating with your users...
PERIOD. (On a side note, I'm genuinely happy for you all. Getting paid isn't a
negative. It's a huge opportunity, but don't patronise your users).

"Yey us. :D We're super excited to announce we got acquired. High-five... too
slow... Now go f* yourselves."

It's incredibly condescending to assume that any of your users share your
happiness and are apart of this experience...

"We’re really excited..."

You use "we" so many times as if your users are apart of your acqui-hire, yet
only mention "you" (your users who made this possible) in the closing
statement.

Be honest and graceful, but asking your users for a high five on the way out
isn't the way to do it.

PS. I hate posting negative comments. I'm a Brit, and like to be polite all
the time....

EDIT: Call me out on this if you think I'm wrong. Other people who have read
it think I'm just reading into it way too much. I tend to agree that I'm
particular, and it could easily be chalked down to me being overly zealous to
criticize another successful acqui-hire. :)

~~~
jcampbell1
They don't have "users" in the same way a free blog site has users. I see no
reason to be negative in this case.

If your favorite taco stand owner sells out to taco bell, the owner should be
free to celebrate. You won't be able to get his tacos in the future, but it is
not like he broke some implicit promise to always sell you tacos, nor are the
tacos he sold you in the past somehow tainted now.

Shutdowns are only a problem when users make an investment in the platform.

~~~
toomuchtodo
I'm making an investment in the platform by using the platform. You don't
think people have a right to complain? See: World coming to an end when Google
discontinued Reader, a FREE PLATFORM.

------
itafroma
As someone unfamiliar with Sold, I really appreciated the "What was Sold?"
section: I rarely, if ever, see that on shutdown/acquisition placeholder pages
and always wished more companies would do that.

~~~
RafiqM
Also unfamiliar with it till now, just watched the video and wow... it looked
like an awesome service. I wouldn't have been able to use it, as I'm in
Ireland, but if selling was that simple it could really disrupt the likes of
Craigslist.

I guess as its an acquihire maybe the vision couldn't become a reality though
:(

~~~
minor_nitwit
it's an opportunity for someone to start their own, a big hole just opened up.

~~~
Jsarokin
shameless plug, but check out our startup
[http://sellsimple.com](http://sellsimple.com) \- we're tackling the same
problem.

~~~
RafiqM
I looked through the site and watched the video - I think you don't handle the
logistics of it?

One of the things that most appealed about Sold is that they send you a box,
you put the thing in it, and that's it. For me, that's the biggest pain point.

Is that something you're looking to do?

~~~
Jsarokin
We have a different system - but yes, we do help with that.

Instead of sending a box, we automatically purchase a shipping label for your
item using the shipment method of your choice (USPS, UPS, FedEx). The shipping
label already has the address of the buyer and everything filled out.

All you need to do is drop off the package (we'll show you the closest
shipping locations).

From there we automatically track the package and show both the buyer & seller
realtime updates of the package location & delivery.

We're calling this service "ShipSimple" and it's bundled into the overarching
SellSimple platform.

The ShipSimple feature will be released in version 1.4 (coming very soon).

~~~
annnnd
Nice! But I didn't get that information by looking at your site (as apparently
parent didn't either), so you might want to look into that. And while you are
at it, where do I find more information about the process, about the company
behind it, the provisions,...? Other than that, nice concept.

US only I guess?

------
zimbatm
This is how this letter reads to me:

Woohoo, we got acquired.

Thanks a lot for bringing our valuation up buy trusting us. We started
$service to solve a problem that matters to you. Because of that we're joining
$totally_unrelated_product.

Thanks for all the fish.

~~~
hga
Let me add:

" _Because of that we 're joining $totally_unrelated_product._ And damaging
the ecosystem that allowed us to get to this point."

It bears repeating that every time one of the acquire shutdowns occurs it
makes users that much less willing to take a chance on a small startup. Even a
shutdown like this that isn't screwing over existing users reminds everyone of
the pattern.

Hmmm, maybe I should start ending this, or every message, with "Sarbox delenda
est".

(Sarbox must be destroyed
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carthago_delenda_est](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carthago_delenda_est))
; more specifically, this last nail and quite a few others need to be removed
for the casket that the normal IPO was interred into.)

~~~
TeMPOraL
Let me fix the previous sentence:

 _We started $service pretending to care about solving problem that matters to
you so that we could extract from you as much money as possible quickly._

I don't believe what startups say anymore. They don't want to _solve_
anything. They want to make something that looks like a solution for long
enough that they get piles of money.

Maybe it's understandable, but I'd like they'd be more up-front about this.

~~~
hga
" _They don 't want to_ solve _anything. They want to make something that
looks like a solution for long enough that they get piles of money._ "

But if they don't offer value to their customers, how are they going to "get
piles of money" in the first place?

------
pinaceae
funny, in the old school economy this would be a failure.

oh crap, i couldn't run my company, the business i have built. i have failed
my employees, my vision, my customers. all for naught, i got swallowed and now
i am an employee.

but in web/tech bubble? hooray, i flipped this shit for cash. so long suckas.

~~~
hga
One caveat to this is with the closing of the IPO exit, one either has to be
_very_ successful or get acquired to exit. And your investors could be
demanding _some_ sort of exit, they're generally not in the game for your
employees, vision or customers.

Arranging and exit for investors or founders can be _extremely_ hard; I
watched my father do that several times in the period when IPOs were still
possible.

------
PhasmaFelis
Build popular service, attract loyal user base, sell popular service to bigger
company so they can gut it and screw your users; business as usual in the
startup world, judging by 5 years of HN and Slashdot.

Every time I suggest this might not be a cool thing, people tell me I just
don't understand the business model, or something. Same thing yesterday when
Microsoft announced they were ripping out Skype's API. It's weird.

------
zedpm
Can anyone comment on the motivation for Dropbox to acquire a company that
apparently helped people sell things? Is Dropbox interested in working in that
domain or are they just picking up devs for their own product?

~~~
yefim
I think they jump on anything to do with boxes /s

~~~
kiwibulldog
Mildly correct.

------
reustle
I get a google products vibe from these sorts of acquisitions. Don't get too
comfortable with that little startup! It could disappear tomorrow...

~~~
alexeichemenda
I'm sorry, but I do not fully understand your comment. "It could disappear
tomorrow" ? Sold has written on their blog that they are shutting down their
company..

~~~
hkmurakami
As in, reading about ever increasing numbers of these sorts of acquisitions
makes us weary of using products from these small starups since they can get
acquired and shut down their service suddenly, much like how we need to be
wary of using Google products and APIs these days since they could be shut
down suddenly.

~~~
outworlder
That was always true, even before the startup craze. This is specially true
for small companies, but sometimes, they are the ones who can provide the most
value.

Also, it's not like if Microsoft was shutting down. You'll be deprived of a
couple of products, at most.

------
7Figures2Commas
I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise that a company named "Sold" sold
itself when it got the chance.

Maybe more startups should choose M&A-friendly names. Acquired.io, which is
available for registration, is a sure winner.

------
Kenan
Here's the submission (and accompanying discussion) that introduced Sold to
HN:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5801340](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5801340)

------
muratmutlu
Sounds like another one for
[http://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/](http://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/)

------
Technologix
I really don't get why Dropbox has acquired during the past two years Snapjoy,
Mailbox, Endorse and Sold. Their product didn't change at all...

------
ivanca
I think there is a space for an disruptive _accelerator_ that completely
prohibits this kind of behavior (a.k.a. acquihires), like a make-it-a-big-or-
sink-with-it kind of thing, so users (and potential users) would trust more
their start-ups knowing that this luxury-garage-sales-of-engineers is not the
goal.

------
jordanthoms
This is a bit of a shame, Sold seemed like a good idea - I have some stuff I'd
like to get rid of, but don't want to spend much time setting up the listing
etc.

I didn't actually use them because they hadn't branched out into the product
category (PC Hardware) that I would have used them for.

------
DigitalJack
I used it once and liked it. But they came across as dorky snobs in there
marketing.

~~~
tonydev
Glad you enjoyed using Sold. We are definitely dorks, hopefully not snobs, and
had a ton of fun making our marketing in house :)

~~~
berberous
Congrats on joining Dropbox! As someone who has a ton of stuff that I'm too
lazy to sell, I'm curious if you could speak at all about why the business was
not working. Do you think Shyp [[http://www.shyp.com/](http://www.shyp.com/)]
is a better business model?

------
lukenyc
Hey Sold team... do you have any lessons learned to share with the community?

~~~
AsymetricCom
I don't work for Sold, but I think the #1 thing you should consider is how you
brand your company to make it attractive for acquisition. A good name can go a
long way.

------
t0
So they were acquihired?

------
vdaniuk
First post I've read on HN today and here are the summarized talking points of
commenters:

1\. Oh noes, they are celebrating their acquisition with users. That jerks!

2\. Small startups are like Google products -- prone to be discontinued or
acquired and closed. Beware!

3\. They failed their users and their business model is a failure. Failue!

4\. "What is sold?", "meh", "puns".

I love HN technical discussions but startup or business threads? So much
negativity... Thats enogh HN for me for today.

Congratulations to Sold team!

------
renownedmedia
I guess you could say they were...

(puts on sunglasses)

Sold?

------
kehers
Sold sold. Nice pun :)

~~~
callum85
Sold sold Sold.

------
gtallen1187
i'm really interested to see what dropbox plans on doing by acquiring a
service like this. Any ideas?

~~~
joemaller1
I'm starting to wish we'd see anything Dropbox was doing with all the
acquisitions.

Dropbox has hired some really smart people (and shuttered some great services)
over the past year or two, but I haven't yet seen that intellectual capitol
reflected in their services.

------
jackhulsom
Congrats !

