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Comment by handsclean | Hacker News Reader

We need to stop writing “X buys Y”, and start writing “Y sold to X”. Big co’s aren’t some boogeyman that can buy whatever they want, individuals and small companies are selling out, and by pretending they’re blameless we normalize it. This extension wasn’t taken over, it sold out. Like LastPass, Private Internet Access, WhatsApp, Figma, Dark Sky, Wunderlist, the list goes on. All decided that, actually, they care less about their mission, users’ experience, and users’ trust than they do a pile of cash. And that’s not necessarily horrible or even wrong, but what is wrong is for us to not even withdraw our trust from people who have sold it. Or for us to withdraw equally from those who don’t.

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Nearly every startup I worked at had a slide deck as early as day one that included "get bought" as their primary exit strategy.

The only startup as was in didn't. They ran short of money and laid me off, but 20 years later the company is still around doing the same thing they always have and I assume making money. Just before they laid me off they rejected a buy out offer from a big company.

I think that is actually normal overall, but the real fast riches are of course in the big buyout.

> they care less about their mission, users’ experience, and users’ trust than they do a pile of cash

It's called "being a for-profit company."

Also known as "trying to earn a living"

Neither working in a for profit company nor having to earn a living are valid excuses for ignoring your morals. This kind of attitude is another thing we should not normalize.

There's a lot of sell outs, not just someone who sells their app.

Many people work for places and sell their soul to them, accepting the evil they push - e.g. Google

It's not unique to solo devs. Unless you work for a morally sound employer, and only interact with morally sound companies, throwing shade like that just means the boot will fit on you too.

And? The proper action here is to improve yoursef not to let others get away with immoral behavior.

There seems to be a lot of edtech startups being sold to big companies right now. I’m guessing these are distressed companies that need to raise tons of money or find a buyer. Since the VC landscape has changed in light of the end of free money, they’re disproportionately being sold off.

I don’t blame the companies, though I’ve taken a bootstrapped strategy because I didn’t want to get stuck on the VC treadmill.

Because the overall mission is to make money. The stated mission is just how they plan to do so.

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