Rapportive (YC S10) Has Been Acquired By LinkedIn | Hacker News Reader

Rapportive (YC S10) Has Been Acquired By LinkedIn

blog.rapportive.com

222 pointsrahulvohra36 comments

Rapporative is such a fundamental part of how I get work done that I often forget that it isn't just part of GMail.

While I am really excited that these guys had an exit -- founders who make really great products deserve to get paid -- I hope that this doesn't mean that Rapporative will eventually be shut down or merged with LinkedIn in some horrible way that removes it from my inbox. I'm not sure if I can keep people straight without it.

Care to share how you use Rapportive to get work done?

When I go to startup events I frequently encounter people who know me that I can't remember ever meeting. When that happens, if my wife is with me she will discreetly remind me, "She's the technical founder of such-and-such." You see, I'm terrible with both faces AND names.

Rapporative does the same thing, but in my inbox.

It's also great for figuring out someone's email address. Open up a new draft and start typing iterations (e.g., first.last@domain.com, first@domain, etc.). You'll know you've reached the right email when a profile pops up.

Congratulations to Rahul, Martin, Sam and all the others. As expressed by others I hope Rapportive continues independently in terms of account creation.

I really liked when Conrad from the support them explained an issue I had regarding merged accounts by providing the following graph, I did mention that I was a CS Major (hope the spacing lines up):

  email1@gmail.com (user, merged) <--.
   |                                         \
    `-> email2@anotherdomain.tld (user, merged) \
         |                                    |
          `-> email3@domainexample.tld (user, merged)
               |
                `-> email4@finaldomain.tld (user)
                     |
                     |`-> alias1@finaldomain.tld
                     |
                     |`-> alias2@finaldomain.tld
                     |
                      `-> alias3@finaldomain.tld

Smart tree design. Good character choices for branches.

First time I remember seeing that style. Now I wanna read more text-tree graphing everywhere.

man tree :)

Previous discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3563828

edit: Admittedly, the tense of the headline was different.

This is probably the sweet spot exit that most entrepreneurs dream of ...

$1 million raised, 2 years of work and $15 million cash exit. The founders have obviously done very well in this exit.

Great story. Great product. Well done!

+ n years of lockup.

Its cash.

So what? You can have a cash payout that takes time.

I find myself talking about Rapportive a lot as one of the better executed examples of the contextual delivery of relevant content. Glad these pioneers got rewarded for their work.

Will Rapportive to continue to operate separately or become a specifically LinkedIn product?

Not sure I understand what you mean by the difference?

Often acquisitions are done for talent more than product. Other times its because the company being acquired fills out a need for the parent company that they can't or don't want to fill internally. i.e. Why spend resources developing a competing product internally when you can add another company that does it better. So its a legitimate question that deserves an answer to Rapportive customers.

I think he means: Will we have to create a LinkedIn account to continue to use Rapportive?

Personally, I have no intention of doing that, and I will miss your functionality.

Welcome to LinkedIn guys! Looking forward to meeting in person.

thanks Diego! looking forward to it, to put it mildly :)

I double the welcome! Love the product and glad to have you as part of the team

Hello Luke, and thank you! Can't wait to be there :)

Congrats Rahul, Martin, Sam and team! Do your Rapportive profiles reflect this news? ;)

Thank goodness it's going to continue to exist!

But will it continue to be updated?

Congrats, this is a great tool which has often surprised me with the results it comes up with.

I'm very envious of your success. Looking forward to running into you guys one day, like you said, its a small world.

Congratulations, Rahul, Martin, and Sam! This is great news. :)

and Lee!

and Conrad, while we're at it. :)

Congrats Rahul, Martin! I've always been impressed by your quick responses to any issues via email.

What are your next steps?

Make you brilliant with people — as simple as ;)

Congrats! It's a great product and Rahul is a really smart guy (as I'm sure the rest of the team is)

Very cool. Rapportive is a great product. Well done to the team for a well-deserved acquisition.

Rahul, Martin, Conrad, and others, Many Congrats! Rapportive is a really great product.

Great product! I happened to install it over the weekend, and am a believer.

Nice work guys! Congratulations.

Congrats guys!

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