[manmal]

What do you mean? I don't grasp your intention. Rebuilding from scratch is not always bad. While Joel (on Software) said that it's the worst idea ever, there surely are situations where it makes sense. E.g. if your codebase is so rotten (from too many quick fixes on the initial MVP) that it's quicker to just rinse and repeat.

[louniks]

If situations where it makes sense to do a full rebuild come up 6 times in the space of a few years, to me that indicates a deeper problem.

[mrzor]

As they were previously running client jobs, I can see an attractive side to building up the team experience on new tech using their in-house project rather than on client projects.

Put otherwise, in their previous line of business, it matters to be current with regards to state-of-the-art application development. Where's the harm in experimenting with your 'on the side' app?

[nathanperetic]

Exactly. Pixelworkers was always a playground for us. Cotton Bureau was explicitly started with the intention of it becoming a business.

[jtbigwoo]

It might be more an exercise in keeping current on new technologies rather than fixing a broken codebase. I have friends who keep rebuilding the same hobby site as different technologies pop up. It sounds as if they treated it as a side project previously.

[logn]

With all the SDKs and APIs these days, I don't think a rewrite is what it used to be.