TellHN : Go Test It is closing down on 22nd March | Hacker News Reader

TellHN : Go Test It is closing down on 22nd March

27 pointsdan_sim14 comments

This is a mail I received from Amir Chaudhry (amir@go-test.it) :

Hello,

As a registered user of Go Test It, I'm writing to inform you that Go Test It is shutting down. The service will cease sometime after 5pm on Monday the 22nd of March and we encourage you to back-up your test scripts as soon as possible. We sincerely apologise for any disruption this may cause you.

A lot has happened over the last few weeks and this decision has been a difficult one. We have every intention to work alongside our users to minimise the impact and have included a brief list of other automated testing services you might find useful. If you need help with backing up your scripts, please email us on support@go-test.it

We really appreciate your support and patience at this time. If you have questions, please direct them to the email address above.

Best wishes, Amir

- Alternative Services - Some alternative services you may wish to consider are CloudTesting, SauceLabs and Gomez Reality View XF. Please understand that these are simply suggestions and this list is not intended to be a recommendation nor comprehensive. As with Go Test It, these services are based on Selenium so you should find the scripting familiar.

It was a very very hard decision. I was working on Rapportive (rapportive.com) as a side-project, when suddenly a few big blogs got hold of it and we found ourselves with 10,000 users in 24 hours (and continuing to grow). It became clear that Rapportive is a huge opportunity. Go Test It is a good product, but Rapportive is just in a completely different category. And dividing my attention between the two looked like it would just be harmful to both.

It's hard to kill off something you love, but sometimes it's the right decision. I am very sorry though.

Martin (Founder of Go Test It)

Wow, harsh. So, if something else makes you busy is Rapportive going to die too?

You've never had to choose one unexpected opportunity over another? It's never easy, but I think you should probably cut them a little slack.

That said, I'd probably see if I could figure out how to pay someone else to run Go Test It. I have no idea how well the service was doing, though. It seems like maybe not that well if it's worth dropping. :)

--edit-- Oh, I had no idea Go Test It was a Red Gate product. Now I'd like to 2x my first paragraph up there. Quitting a job because something you own is gaining momentum is (a) exceedingly normal for this group and (b) what any rational person should do.

I tried to find someone else to hand it over to, but it's hard. It's more than just understanding the code. A large part is also the vision, the gut feeling for the right thing to do, the personal contacts to early users etc. Those things can't so easily be passed on to another person.

I think that's unfair. It may not be obvious from the outside but we spent a while discussing this internally.

What's happened is unfortunate for Go Test It, but from what I've seen from the rapportive team, they are fully committed to it (they sit within 5 meters of where I do).

Unfortunate for Go Test It? You mean unfortunate for the users don't you?

I cannot believe I'm being down-voted for my comment. If I wrote a letter to my users tomorrow and said, sorry, something else grabbed my interest, and it's better for me but sucks for you, I'd be ripped a new one.

If this is really how people on HN feel, I think I need to be done around here.

Hey folks, I didn't realise this made it to Hacker News (I guess I should have been on top of that).

The reason we're shutting down Go Test It is because the founder is moving full-time to Rapportive (rapportive.com). They've had some amazing growth there and it needed him full-time. It was a really difficult decision but ultimately the guys at Red Gate decided that GTI couldn't succeed without him, hence the closure.

I hope that helps explain it.

Why not sell it? You have a service that there is clearly some demand for it must have some value on the open market.

We've considered it but the truth is we can't keep running it in the mean-time. We'll have to wait until the dust settles and then see where we stand.

This is surprising, I remember meeting the founder and the Red Gate guys out at Business of Software 2009. They seemed very passionate and committed (I kept hoping they would use a marketing idea I suggested).

One thought might be that they are going to add it to one of the other Red Gate tools and sell it more in the way that Red Gate is used to selling tools. (not SaaS)

Interesting HN Posts:

Original Review My App for Got Test It: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=883049

My First Exit (post on selling to Red Gate): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=968118

At first, I thought that it was closing for a "bad" reason but what you say is logical. But, why would they list alternative services if they would eventually come back?

We've got a few hundred people signed up to Go Test It and it just felt rude to turn the service off without any info as to what a user might do next.

The other services I mentioned in the email are Selenium based so hopefully users can transition. Even if GTI comes back later, we felt it was right to offer users some alternative.

Edit: Just to clarify, there are no plans to include GTI with any of Red Gate's other products. Forgot to mention that when I first replied.

I got this too.

They were bought up last year by Red Gate [1] so Im guessing lack of market traction or lack of revenue is causing the close. Just speculating though.

1. http://go-test.it/blog/2009/11/30/red-gate-acquires-go-test-...

Yeah I just got it too. He didn't mention any reason and their website doesn't say anything either.

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