"We couldn't be happier."

"We look forward to this transition as the next step."

"As of today, we are no longer enrolling new users. "

"Existing users can continue to use our service until ..."

"We want to do whatever it takes to make any transition as smooth as possible."

"We have worked hard on our product and feel that our vision aligns perfectly with ..."

"We didnt expected that being a startup is so hard. We worked for 2-3 years 10 hours a day 6 days a week and it brought us to barely breaking even. We just cant do this anymore, living in uncertainty is killing us. We have failed to pursue our dream but we hope that we can just shut down this part of our lives, move onwards to working for large company that will care for us and hopefully our skills, pain and experiences will help us to achieve something that we couldn't do alone - create revolutionary product or feature, but under bigger brand."

This is a painful truth for those of us not being bought out.

If this startup hadn't panned out, I don't know what I was going to do. Thinking about having a staged breakdown so I could live off my parents money while still raging in Mission and eating burritos and Thai. Longer term goal, channel that startup burnout into something more meaning-full like opening some profitable franchise, like yogurt or cookies and doing rails gigs on the side.

god I feel sorry for the poor saps still in the grind.

Also see http://www.reddit.com/r/shutdown/

Honestly, what else are you going to write?

"We are sooooo filthy rich now. So long suckers!"

I'd be more honest =)

Except they're probably not... Not all the acquisitions of this sort are "you're filthy rich now", especially after dilution, taxes, and plain old time.

This is very true, the new Silicon Valley show Episode 1 is free on YouTube (son clued me in) but that isn't how acquisitions always work out, the word dilution rings loudly.

They worked hard for that, didn't they?

I'm tired of this "they worked hard for that" BS with acqui-hires and shutdowns.

Yeah, sure, they worked hard, but in the end they get a big fat F for the end result.

Services don't last forever, but I'm not gonna congratulate someone who runs around in circles for 3 years purporting to deliver a product of value, and then gives up when offered a better deal for themselves.

They didn't build a product, they built a nothing. It's like reverse vaporware, and I won't respect it.

Yeah this is my main problem with the way "startup culture" seems to work. There's a lot of people in my university really pushing people to start their own businesses, but the general reasoning just seems to be "come up with something, advertise so that you get bought out, take the money". There's no emphasis on actually making anything, just on drumming up hype for an idea and selling that.

Well, if hype and vapor is what's getting bought, you might as well try to produce and sell it.

And yeah, that'd be what I don't like about startup culture. I went into software development, not marketing.

They proved that they can build products. That makes them very valuable to companies with more money than time. It's a significant career success, if perhaps not quite a business success. And we can congratulate them for that.

sure, if the product they made wasn't depended on by people. these kind of acquisitions seem to always leave the product customers in a lurch. and for that we don't have to congratulate them.

Assuming this was a smart acquisition by Dropbox, they'll be able to create more value now than they were before the acquisition. Unless you're arguing that the acquisition is actually wealth-destroying, it seems pretty selfish to oppose it.

unless I was one of the customers who's out a service I depended on.

I fully agree, may be the HackPad team wanted an exit and wanted to retire and spend all their earned money to live a hedonistic life. What's wrong with that?

It's like you worked hard, and then somebody pays you to stop trying.

Agreed 100% It's like selling someone a rubber balloon. We're buying services and products, not party favors. We expect balloons to pop.

Yes, may be this project/product was a step towards a bigger aim they had. May be they wanted to build a SpaceX and started small to gain experience, capital and contacts.

Yes!

Definitely! I'm just being realistic - These press releases are basically the tea ceremony everyone is expected to perform.

If you just made several mil I honestly doubt you're thinking about making the "transition as smooth as possible". You're thinking "should I buy a Lambo or a Ferrari?"

They probably got a memo from Dropbox saying "now that we own your ass, here is a press release that you'll publish asap"

For something like this it's more like "perhaps i can put a down payment on a house after my stocks vest and i pay taxes".

A down payment on a house in the Peninsula is going to likely cost more than a Ferrari or Lamborghini

Your assumption is not very realistic.

I don't know what Whatsapp, Instagram and the like their hourly rates are, but I doubt it adds up to the billions the got.

If oculus would have done this i would have had a way more respect for them.

"We finally convinced some sucker to buy our worthless revenue-less startup for a trillion dollars. See you in vegas!"

Right, this observation amounts to "people who are all in similar situations say similar things". Whoop-de-doo.

Yeah. I've never heard a wedding speech that wasn't a mishmash of cliches, but I've also never heard one that wasn't sincere.

"Look for us on episode 6 of Silicon Valley, with Kid Rock guest-starring."

"We gotta play 'em one day at a time." "I'm just happy to be here. Hope I can help the ball club." "I just want to give it my best shot, and the good Lord willing, things will work out."