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A comment on The golden era of being an open startup is gone. Parent comment

Re:The golden era of being an open startup is gone by isthisthingon99 on Friday February 03, 2023 @02:00PM (#34646205)
Peldi (Balsamiq) did this well, but in reality it was all pretend. He pretended like had this massive groundswell of people who loved his app but it was an incredibly well-executed PR campaign and he deserves mad props for it. He didn't make it clear at the time, but eventually it came out. Of course, people did love his app but he engineered that incredibly well.

So if being open makes sense for PR, do it, but learn from people who have done it successfully.

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Re:The golden era of being an open startup is gone by pcthrowaway on Friday February 03, 2023 @02:36PM (#34646669)
Was there a twitter thread about this or something? I'd love to read more. I actually don't think I've heard the name Balsamiq in 10 years
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Re:The golden era of being an open startup is gone by isthisthingon99 on Friday February 03, 2023 @03:32PM (#34647322)
No, I was just obsessed with how he did it, so I swallowed every piece of info I could've until it was clear. It was manufactured, which is the best approach.
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Re:The golden era of being an open startup is gone by tomcam on Friday February 03, 2023 @08:12PM (#34650209)
What is the product its self just not as popular as he claimed, or what? I actually don’t understand what he got out of the ruse.
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Re:The golden era of being an open startup is gone by isthisthingon99 on Saturday February 04, 2023 @05:49AM (#34653454)
It wasn't a ruse. People genuinely liked the app BUT he had a manufactured pr push. It wasn't organic.
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Re:The golden era of being an open startup is gone by tomcam on Saturday February 04, 2023 @02:01PM (#34657051)
Then I say more power to him. It was masterfully done, and I ended up becoming a paying customer
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Re:The golden era of being an open startup is gone by isthisthingon99 on Saturday February 04, 2023 @02:47PM (#34657487)
Same. If it wasn't clear I wasn't saying it's a bad thing just that people should understand being open solely in the context of beneficial pr.
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Re:The golden era of being an open startup is gone by nickfromseattle on Saturday February 04, 2023 @05:35AM (#34653392)
I was caught up in this and ended up purchasing. Links verifying your claim?
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Re:The golden era of being an open startup is gone by isthisthingon99 on Saturday February 04, 2023 @05:48AM (#34653451)
Very sparse. You'll have to piece it together through interviews he gave around that time. His opsec is good but not good enough.
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