Ian Landsman is Starting From Scratch, August 29, 2007:
Did Nick Sell Out?
If you're in the market for a powerful and user friendly Help Desk solution, please take a look at my company's flagship product HelpSpot.
Nick Bradbury asks if he sold out? My vote is no way. To be honest he’s gone way farther than most developers would in not selling out. Usually when a software product gets sold the founder/developer hangs out for a year (usually because they’ve agreed to as part of the sale) and then they bail out as soon as contractually possible. In fact I personally think that’s a good thing. Having been an employee at a company that was acquired, it’s a horrible process for the company getting acquired especially for the founder. Everyone comes in and tells you what to do and changes the product and so on. It’s too personal to the founder and staying around usually just makes everything unpleasant for everyone.
In this case Nick has hung in with the products, they seem to be moving forward, and he seems to have maintained control of the product for the most part. Certainly not a sell out, in fact it’s a rather masterful handling of the situation if you ask me.
Discussion
Yeah, no way did Nick sell out. That sale was totally legit, as were his plans and execution before and since. Anyone accusing him of selling out probably needs to step back, think, and re-phrase to "you're not doing what *I* think you should do".
That's all these kind of accusations amount to anyway. I'm surprised you're not taking any flak for mentioning that HelpSpot profits helped you pay for your house, Ian. The world is full of jealousy and haters.
Created by Christopher Hawkins on 08.29.2007 7:36 pm
Thank you, Ian - I really appreciate your thoughtful post.
Created by Nick Bradbury on 08.29.2007 10:25 pm
NP Nick, keep up the good work.
Christopher, I think I haven't take much flak because my blog readers are the best (really!). The blog has a good loyal following and isn't so big as to attract a lot of passers by who'll just post anything to be jerks. It's the perfect size really, I'd hate to be Scoble or Winer or any of those big names that have to deal with so much negativity all the time.
Created by Ian on 08.29.2007 11:35 pm