I don't think that's the issue.

The issue is that the founders were pushed out. Lane indicates that business tanked ever since they left, which is what presumably led to a fire sale.

It's one thing if the business tanks when founders are in-charge. You can blame them for failure and say it's fair that they din't get a dime. But why did the VCs take over the reigns? It's criminal to take over from founders and then run the business into the ground, like it seems to have happened here.

Of course, that Series B happened looooooong back. There was no Series C in the following year or two years after that, which might be why investors got jittery. The timing matters - did the founders get pushed out after a decent amount of time after the Series B? Or was it right after the investment? That would tell whether the VC had some reasonable cause to get desperate or they were just trying to "screw" the founders.

I can speak in 4 languages and just about manage to converse in a fifth. There are definitely advantages to knowing more languages than one:

1. People love you if you can speak their language without forcing to search for a common language; you can build a rapport much more quickly. If you love to travel, this will definitely help!

2. Different languages force you to think in different ways. Different languages have different constructs and vocabularies/concepts not even present in English. For e.g. in Marathi/Hindi, the word "sit" can be translated in 2 different ways depending on the respect you show to the other person.

3. If you have any interest in cultural history, learning the local language will help a great deal.

Plus I think being able to think in different languages is just wonderful! I can't describe how boring it would be if I could think in only one language.

Do these translate to monetary gains? Hard to tell. Does it help me lead a more fulfilling life? Yes, I definitely think so!

Having said that, I definitely want to learn more languages. 4 is really less in India, there are plenty of people who can speak more.

Wow, 78% from Steam!

Does anyone know if there is enough demand for educational games on Steam? Worth porting from mobile?

Wow. This is just insane.

I was a bit confused initially as to how a mechanical problem can be solved by a software update, but then someone explained in one of the comments that it's about fuel-injection tables and stuff.

Incredible, but just a bit scary too.

I really hope they test that software to the hilt - I mean like NASA style, slow but steady kind of stuff. I wouldn't want to go 1 feet near the car if the quality is in the same quality vicinity as 99% other software (and that includes software that we generally consider "good quality").

Anyone knows what their software development process is to get that kind of confidence?

I think the title could have been rephrased.

It's definitely a good idea to build some financial sense from young age, helping kids figure out how budgeting works, where the money gets spent, how it all works, etc. It also works if they are able to learn why someone pays you that money in the first place - how a business makes profit because of your work, which justifies the salary (or some other value gained if it's a non-profit organisation). Finally it also makes sense to let them understand money as a means of exchanging value, rather than some magical paper that just helps buy stuff.

The earlier they learn about stuff like interest rates, debt, investments, etc. the better prepared they are to take on their life.

However, just telling kids that "hey kids, I make $xxxx" and doing nothing after that is never a great idea!

12000 defects fixed?!

OMG! One Herculean effort this must have been.

As a slack user, I think this is awesome. This is one thing that we do miss currently, a video calling facility.

I mean we can log into skype or google hangouts something else, but having it in slack would be totally cool!

I've never used Screenhero before, but going by the comments here, I wish I had!

What does "same idea" mean?

- Same problem being solved

- Same solution to the problem being solved

- Same solution to the problem with exactly same target audience and brand positioning

etc..

I hope you see what I'm getting at.

You need to look at your target customers and see if they are going to disappear - if no, then just keep working on the idea, and serve your customers well. If the space is such that the customers will use both products great. If you feel they are targeting the same segment and have already started eating your customers (and you can't offer anything to them that will take them away from that product), cut your losses and pivot - see whether you can solve the same problem differently, more elegantly, or identify a different target audience (for e.g. move from consumer market to Enterprise, or target different geographies).

Think about it as a business - wanting to survive. Don't compete for competitions sake - try to contribute the best you can. If someone else is doing a much better job than you at something, take a step back and see whether you can outdo them or it's easier to do something slightly differently.

But won't it be same if you look at percentages?

Unless you hypothise that porn users not having flash installed is somehow a larger percentage compared to average web user not having flash installed?!

"Meh!"? Really?

Apple has a product portfolio. I agree iPhones are doing much better right now in terms of growth, but I have no doubt that the completeness of their portfolio (from macs to ipads to iphones) is what keeps sales for all product categories going just a bit more.

I bought an ipad first, and then bought a macbook. The next phone I buy might be an iPhone - which I never would have, if I had not bought the iPad.

And amongst tablets, I don't understand which other tablet is better than an iPad.

For a category defining product that still sells millions of units per year, I think calling it "Meh" is just passing an opinion for journalism.

Wait - so youtube is behind the porn industry by only 4.5 years?

http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/flash_takes_a_blow_as...

Flurry. Another acquisition that continues to lose money.

> I completely suck at typing on a mobile phone

So do I. That's why we still use Slack. But one of my co-founders is into sales and constantly on the go, and while travelling, sometimes the signal is flaky on his smart phone. Thats when he really cribs and tries to get us to go back to whatsapp :)

Of course, we won't move until whatsapp improves desktop experience and bridges at least some integrations, but I think it's highly possible for them to do it if they want to.

Slack is definitely an experience, if you compare it with something like hipchat.

A few of the small things I've noticed -

- Sounds are just beautiful. The pings and the clings are selected very thoughtfully. Sound is the invisible thing that generally makes a good game, great.

- The slack loading message - there are a bunch of different welcome messages that just bring a smile to your face. And they cycle through it, so you don't see the same message every time.

- The loading animation is just beautiful. I saw an update where all they did was improve the resolution for this icon on retina display

- The channels thing is awesome - it's like the IRCs. They even went ahead and added the "#" even though it's unnecessary.

- The details - the colors chosen, the fonts, even the minimalistic design in general - it's just done very, very nicely.

- The search is just awesome.

You might go "meh" on this, but these are things that the competitors are ignoring. These are things that made me fall in love with Slack when we started using it an year back. Yes administration is simple, yes they have amazing documentation. Yes, they have segmented their users well. But I think the core product is just beautiful, and that gives them a huge leg-up over their competitors even without the other places they are doing well.