[ccamrobertson]

> I’m sure the founder realized early on that the prospects of this becoming a valuable company on its own merits were slim

If you actually knew Eric and the history of Beeper you would understand how hilariously false, absurd and revisionist such a statement is. Eric only started Beeper after validating massive interest from Hacker News for a paid app that would unify disparate communication channels.

[jnovek]

On Hacker News and Reddit especially I am always flabbergasted by the tendency to ascribe some sort of wisdom and intent to the actions of early-stage founders.

If my experiences as an early-stage founder have taught me anything I can assure you that we don’t know our asses from a hole in the ground. Founding a company is a game where you throw shit at the wall as quickly as you possibly can until something sticks and then you desperately try to figure out why it stuck. If you can figure that out, you might just have product-market fit.

This is especially true for a first time founder. You learn as you go.

[clay_the_ripper]

True that you learn as you go. Also true that motives change - the world in 2024 looks very different to the world in 2020. Founders adapt, bring on new investors, find new ways to create value.

In regards to intent, I am not suggesting that he founded the company to do this. I am suggesting that the motives for their recent actions are driven by something other than finding product market fit.

[gnicholas]

> Eric only started Beeper after validating massive interest from Hacker News for a paid app that would unify disparate communication channels.

This may be true with regard to the general concept, but how does it relate to the decision to try to skirt the iMessage rules? Validating that people want a feature is different from (and somewhat orthogonal to) ensuring you can actually deliver it.

[jauntywundrkind]

People had found all sorts of paths that semi work, & Beeper tried to use this well known path. It was working. It still is working. But only to a point.

It seems silly to me to condemn Beeper, when Apple doesn't have any published followed enforced rules. It has a term of service, and it has behaviors others get away with, but it's unclear and undefined from Apple what actually will cause a problem & get your registration data cancelled.

There s almost no part of me that considers such a small narrow stance where it's on Beeper to be 100% exactly how the future is going to go before they make any moves.

[clay_the_ripper]

I have no personal information on this matter, this is pure speculation.

I agree that the original intent was to do as you say. But the recent actions suggest that new motives may be in play.

Clearly Eric is a very intelligent person. I find it hard to believe that he believed that reverse engineering such an elaborate workaround would work after Apple had already proven that they were willing to shut him down.

If Eric is as smart as you say, then obviously he did not expect this latest iteration to work. Which leads me to conclude there is value (for him, for his investors) in taking these actions to force Apple’s hand.

Then again, maybe he just wants to prove a point and use the exposure to promote their next app. Whether the app will succeed is unknown but the PR strategy so far is crushing it.

[jnovek]

Early stage is sort of a long string of Hail Marys. Critical problems that create new critical problems not far down the road.

I’m guessing that Eric knew that he had days before Apple patched whatever exploit he found. I’m guessing he was hoping to find another move he could make before that happened.

Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t. Big risk for big reward — imagine what a big deal it would’ve been if Beeper Mini actually found a sustainable way to make iMessage work outside of Apple?

[voakbasda]

I would not be surprised if it comes out that he has some backing from other companies that want to disrupt Apples monopoly on their service endpoints.

Collectively, there are many businesses that just need some precedent to give them ammunition to open up the App Store, iCloud, and more. It would not cost them much to back this kind of effort.