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Comment by martinkl | Hacker News Reader

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)

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

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.

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.

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