[exogeny]

Why are we applauding Ryan again?

This is a saving face bailout from one of their own investors and a particularly embarrassing one at that given his statements of "I wouldn't consider anything under $100mm" and the pedigree of his investors.

They raised a shit ton of money and built nothing. No real technology, no significant additions to their platform, no development of community. And now the result is an all-stock acquihire from AL, which will amount of a purchase of their users and a one year rental of the same engineers and team that failed to build anything worthwhile.

Raising money at a $22m val from A16Z and selling for less than that - all stock no less - is a failure, and we need to stop lauding it as if it's somehow notable or impressive to take money and waste it.

[brentm]

I think that's being a little harsh. If you started something and A16Z offered you 7M you'd probably take it on the spot regardless of what it was you built. I'm sure when Ryan launched this thing he never thought it would be more than fun. It ended up spiraling into something much more than that. He was offered an investment from a grade A firm who was willing to let him to try and figure it out so he took it like any of us would have.

Good for them, let them have their moment.

[exogeny]

While I agree that I would also take the money, I disagree with the implicit argument that raising money in and of itself is a milestone with applauding. I also disagree that I'd end up taking that much - hindsight of course being 20/20 - since it obviously proved to be a difficult hurdle for them.

A large fundraise that doesn't have a very specific purpose or product milestone attached to it is a time bomb, and in many cases (Secret, YikYak, etc.) a bear hug that they can't possibly escape.

If you want to make the argument that Ryan didn't necessarily know how much runway he needed to build the vision he had, fine, but again, I don't think that excuses him from the consequences of that decision.