Hacker News Reader

Comment by bluedino | Hacker News Reader

When they asked the question, Is there nothing we can do for you that would compensate you for the hassle of changing the name?, what was a reasonable response?

>> Yeah, you can buy it for $30.000 for the hassle of giving up with my pet project for bunch of corporate dicks

Obviously that wasn't the correct response. What should he have asked for, that Kik would have complied with?

"Send me a loaded MacBook Pro"

"I'll take $250 Starbucks gift card"

View on HN

Kik has over $100mil in funding and what, 100+ employees? the $30k response seemed intentionally pointed to highlight the kind of two-faced nature of the situation.

Kik will apparently throw around their perceived worth and size to threaten someone with legal action, but it's all "hey buddy do us a favor — don't be unreasonable" when it might cost them something?

probably leaving the "corporate dicks" part off would have been enough. Maybe the don't fork over the $30k but they'd probably have made an offer at least. Calling them "a bunch of corporate dicks" at the end makes it clear you're just throwing out what you think is a high enough number to tell them to fuck off.

That's a negotiating strategy. Not calling them dicks, but when someone pressures you to make the first offer and you don't know what ballpark you're in, toss out a really high number and see what happens. In this case the response was thinly-veiled legal threats.

but...

MacBook == corporate. Starbucks == corporate.

(p.s. that was sarcasm)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com