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yolo2122

Founder/Former CEO Ian Crosby's post about the Bench closure:

https://x.com/ianwcrosby/status/1872724231999381790

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Is there a version readable for people without twitter accounts?

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1872724231999381790.html

Swap the domain of the URL with nitter.poast.org

https://nitter.poast.org/ianwcrosby/status/18727242319993817...

More about nitter: https://github.com/zedeus/nitter

Nitter's been dead for about a year at this point. I'm pretty sure any Nitter instance still running is using some abstract method and not the actual Nitter system.

Yea I don't think there's an alternative after Elon made changes to Twitter's API

I don’t know how they do it but xcancel works pretty good

https://xcancel.com/ianwcrosby/status/1872724231999381790

It's the same Nitter, but using real accounts instead of the "guest accounts" that were used previously.

"Guest accounts" were accounts you could generate to access Twitter without actually signing up, but then Elon Musk killed them so then Nitter was basically declared dead because most people don't want to spend time making tons of actual accounts to run a Nitter instance and then Elon Musk also made the ratelimits stricter so you needed even more accounts.

Some of the bigger Nitter instances used thousands of guest accounts.

https://xcancel.com/ianwcrosby/status/1872724231999381790

I used to use a site called Nitter for the same reason, but it stopped working. I think X/Twitter changed something.

https://unlace.app/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fx.com%2Fianwcrosby%2Fs...

With all due respect to the founder, it's impossible to know, even in hindsight, whether things in a startup would have been similar, better, or worse. This is not an endorsement to firing the CEO or saying that the board was capable in any way. This founder or CEO trap is more common that we think about. It is not only a Steve Jobs story. Founders know that giving equity and power to others include risks.

I advise caution in believing his statements to be true, particularly about Bench’s board and investors. The truth will live in their financial statements, which no doubt will be revealed in bankruptcy proceedings in the coming months.

Ian Crosby here. If you don't believe me, believe the CEO of Shopify who was an investor and partner: https://x.com/tobi/status/1872753436116332994

Hi Ian. Sorry to see this happen to the company you founded. Can you say what the board's strategy was that conflicted with your vision?

Ian, I emailed you a couple years ago when I felt Bench had become worse and worse for customers. I was sad to discover that you’d left and I felt the difference was definitely attributable to your departure. I switched providers shortly thereafter.

So, speaking as a former customer, the tragedy and timeline you mention pass the sniff test for me. So glad your next venture has been going well for you!

Thanks Marc. Wishing you the best in your ventures too!

I’d like to clarify - and ought to have done above - that I’m not saying you’re lying in your Tweets. Just that the story of any business failure is often more nuanced than “investors are bad”. And that story may be revealed in court filings as I’m sure creditors will be going to court to get their money back in the coming months.

I agree that the financial statements will be a key artifact of truth + I cannot speak to the validity of the statements made by Ian as I have no context or knowledge of Bench outside of my experience of being a long time customer.

However I can, albeit anecdotally from my perspective, say that I felt there was a marked difference in Bench's quality/service/responsiveness/performance/etc about 3yrs ago. This aligns with the timeline given by the former CEO in his post for his departure.

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