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Sad to hear. In an alternate timeline they would have accepted the $4B+ Twitter offer and had a nice exit along the way. https://techcrunch.com/2021/04/07/twit

by bkm 3y ago

Sad to hear. In an alternate timeline they would have accepted the $4B+ Twitter offer and had a nice exit along the way. https://techcrunch.com/2021/04/07/twitter-said-to-have-held-acquisition-talks-with-clubhouse-on-potential-4b-deal/ https://techcrunch.com/2021/04/07/twitter-said-to-have-held-... The hard truth is software can't be patented and Twitter could copy the concept verbatim without paying them a penny.

sosodev 3y ago
The owners would have gotten a nice exit. The employees would have probably ended up laid off anyway, right? edit: actually looking at some posted salaries it seems some employees were given quite a lot of equity
- dylan604 3y ago
  Definitely under the new management team
- gkoberger 3y ago
  At that time, I don't think so. It was an incredibly small team back then, and the CEO of Twitter at the time was Jack. It likely would have remained (somewhat) independent, at least in the short term, similar to Vine and Instagram. And given equity, I assume almost all employees would have become millionaires.
  - yellowapple 3y ago
    > It likely would have remained (somewhat) independent, at least in the short term, similar to Vine and Instagram. And then get shut down a few years later in the medium-term, similar to Vine.
    - trilobyte 3y ago
      That may have been better than what inevitably happens anyway.
matthewdgreen 3y ago
Hard to believe that Twitter was willing to offer $4B for a service they managed to recreate themselves for (presumably) a tiny fraction of that cost. Makes you wonder if all the AI panic right now is going to end up going the same way.
- gkoberger 3y ago
  They weren't buying the technology, they were buying the community + creators on the platform. This has nothing to do with AI at all. Clubhouse was a kinda cool social network that came out at exactly the right time during COVID. AI is something we've been working towards since the 50s, and over the next few years will change absolutely everything.
  - matthewdgreen 3y ago
    Twitter already had a large community and set of creators while Clubhouse really didn't. Moreover, most of the Clubhouse users already had Twitter accounts and just switched their audio conversations to Twitter Spaces once that product became available. I think at this point it's obvious that Clubhouse was not worth $4B (10% of Twitter's final sale price!), so no point in arguing about that. The interesting question is: what combination of bad judgement and groupthink made anyone think it was in the first place.
    - adra 3y ago
      In a world of fast and loose cash, people find justifications for spending fast and loose. I don't think it requires too much more than that. Crypto firms running on good will and hype managed to get billions of $ (in crypo-bucks) to dump their money, much of which is completely gone. You could argue overvalued, but in the world of pets.com, this is far from the worst example of outsized speculation.
  - gowld 3y ago
    > Clubhouse was a kinda cool social network that came out at exactly the right time during COVID. Alternatively, is was a COVID-specific fad with a doomed user experience / network model that never expanded beyond the SV cultural bubble.
xwdv 3y ago
Every time I hear of another founder passing on a multi-billion dollar offer, I think back to Tom from MySpace and how he sold MySpace off for a lot of money and went on to live happily ever after. Smartest guy in the social media game.
- sixQuarks 3y ago
  Mark Cuban did even better with broadcast.com. sold it for billions right at the beginning of the dotcom boom, bought a basketball team. there was also a guy who sold a browser to Apple for over $100 million.
- boeingUH60 3y ago
  Wait till you hear about Jan Koum, who took over $10 billion from selling WhatsApp to Facebook and has become a prominent collector of mansions, superyachts, and rare Porsches [3]. 1- https://www.dirt.com/gallery/moguls/tech/jan-koum-house-beverly-hills-whatsapp-1203604615/ https://www.dirt.com/gallery/moguls/tech/jan-koum-house-beve... 2- https://www.superyachtfan.com/yacht/moonrise/owner/ https://www.superyachtfan.com/yacht/moonrise/owner/ 3- https://www.thedrive.com/news/26322/these-are-the-10-drool-worthy-porsches-whatsapp-co-founder-jan-koum-is-selling https://www.thedrive.com/news/26322/these-are-the-10-drool-w...
  - jonny_eh 3y ago
    Those are some pricey dopamine hits.
  - skinkestek 3y ago
    He has to live the rest of his life as someone who sold of millions of enthusiastic users to exactly the company we paid them not to become. Well. I guess he is happy with it. What's worse is I guess most people would take that deal at some point.
    - urbandw311er 3y ago
      What do you mean by “paid them”? I thought WhatsApp was a free service.
rvz 3y ago
There was no chance that Twitter (who already had periscope) would accept a $4B+ deal to buy Clubhouse. In fact, it was very predictable as I said here before the acquisition talks that Twitter would push on with using Spaces instead of buying Clubhouse. [0] The hard truth was that Clubhouse launched too slowly and even Twitter Spaces launched faster than Clubhouse to release their Android app. [1] The invite system, slow release of the Android app caused them to lose steam to Twitter and Discord during the social audio race of 2021 at the time. [2] [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26044382 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26044382 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26705535 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26705535 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26659374 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26659374
- Prbeek 3y ago
  Who launches an IOS first app in 2023? You are telling android users that they are not important
  - nikanj 3y ago
    They are plenty important, but they're not rich. iPhones are not the majority of the market by any stretch, but they do form a majority of the phones well-off people use. I know you and your coder friends use Android despite having plenty of money, but the general public sees Androids as the budget option.
    - travem 3y ago
      > iPhones are not the majority of the market by any stretch It depends on which market you are looking at. In the US market Apple apparently has a 57% share according to https://www.statista.com/statistics/620805/smartphone-sales-market-share-in-the-us-by-vendor/#:~:text=Manufacturers'%20market%20share%20of%20smartphone,the%20second%20quarter%20of%202022 https://www.statista.com/statistics/620805/smartphone-sales-....
  - saddd 3y ago
    I don't have links to back this up, but I believe the following two statements are true in US markets, based on my anecdotal industry experiences: - The majority of mobile apps that only launch on one native platform (but are eventually available on both Android and iOS) launch on iOS first. - The majority of mobile apps that are only available on one native platform are only available on iOS.
nemo44x 3y ago
Never say no to your first billion. It's the hardest billion to make.
nprateem 3y ago
Greed

by bkm 3y ago

sosodev 3y ago

The owners would have gotten a nice exit. The employees would have probably ended up laid off anyway, right? edit: actually looking at some posted salaries it seems some employees were given quite a lot of equity

dylan604 3y ago
Definitely under the new management team
gkoberger 3y ago
At that time, I don't think so. It was an incredibly small team back then, and the CEO of Twitter at the time was Jack. It likely would have remained (somewhat) independent, at least in the short term, similar to Vine and Instagram. And given equity, I assume almost all employees would have become millionaires.
- yellowapple 3y ago
  > It likely would have remained (somewhat) independent, at least in the short term, similar to Vine and Instagram. And then get shut down a few years later in the medium-term, similar to Vine.
  - trilobyte 3y ago
    That may have been better than what inevitably happens anyway.

matthewdgreen 3y ago

Hard to believe that Twitter was willing to offer $4B for a service they managed to recreate themselves for (presumably) a tiny fraction of that cost. Makes you wonder if all the AI panic right now is going to end up going the same way.

gkoberger 3y ago
They weren't buying the technology, they were buying the community + creators on the platform. This has nothing to do with AI at all. Clubhouse was a kinda cool social network that came out at exactly the right time during COVID. AI is something we've been working towards since the 50s, and over the next few years will change absolutely everything.
- matthewdgreen 3y ago
  Twitter already had a large community and set of creators while Clubhouse really didn't. Moreover, most of the Clubhouse users already had Twitter accounts and just switched their audio conversations to Twitter Spaces once that product became available. I think at this point it's obvious that Clubhouse was not worth $4B (10% of Twitter's final sale price!), so no point in arguing about that. The interesting question is: what combination of bad judgement and groupthink made anyone think it was in the first place.
  - adra 3y ago
    In a world of fast and loose cash, people find justifications for spending fast and loose. I don't think it requires too much more than that. Crypto firms running on good will and hype managed to get billions of $ (in crypo-bucks) to dump their money, much of which is completely gone. You could argue overvalued, but in the world of pets.com, this is far from the worst example of outsized speculation.
- gowld 3y ago
  > Clubhouse was a kinda cool social network that came out at exactly the right time during COVID. Alternatively, is was a COVID-specific fad with a doomed user experience / network model that never expanded beyond the SV cultural bubble.

xwdv 3y ago

Every time I hear of another founder passing on a multi-billion dollar offer, I think back to Tom from MySpace and how he sold MySpace off for a lot of money and went on to live happily ever after. Smartest guy in the social media game.

sixQuarks 3y ago
Mark Cuban did even better with broadcast.com. sold it for billions right at the beginning of the dotcom boom, bought a basketball team. there was also a guy who sold a browser to Apple for over $100 million.
boeingUH60 3y ago
Wait till you hear about Jan Koum, who took over $10 billion from selling WhatsApp to Facebook and has become a prominent collector of mansions, superyachts, and rare Porsches [3]. 1- https://www.dirt.com/gallery/moguls/tech/jan-koum-house-beverly-hills-whatsapp-1203604615/ https://www.dirt.com/gallery/moguls/tech/jan-koum-house-beve... 2- https://www.superyachtfan.com/yacht/moonrise/owner/ https://www.superyachtfan.com/yacht/moonrise/owner/ 3- https://www.thedrive.com/news/26322/these-are-the-10-drool-worthy-porsches-whatsapp-co-founder-jan-koum-is-selling https://www.thedrive.com/news/26322/these-are-the-10-drool-w...
- jonny_eh 3y ago
  Those are some pricey dopamine hits.
- skinkestek 3y ago
  He has to live the rest of his life as someone who sold of millions of enthusiastic users to exactly the company we paid them not to become. Well. I guess he is happy with it. What's worse is I guess most people would take that deal at some point.
  - urbandw311er 3y ago
    What do you mean by “paid them”? I thought WhatsApp was a free service.

rvz 3y ago

There was no chance that Twitter (who already had periscope) would accept a $4B+ deal to buy Clubhouse. In fact, it was very predictable as I said here before the acquisition talks that Twitter would push on with using Spaces instead of buying Clubhouse. [0] The hard truth was that Clubhouse launched too slowly and even Twitter Spaces launched faster than Clubhouse to release their Android app. [1] The invite system, slow release of the Android app caused them to lose steam to Twitter and Discord during the social audio race of 2021 at the time. [2] [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26044382 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26044382 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26705535 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26705535 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26659374 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26659374

Prbeek 3y ago
Who launches an IOS first app in 2023? You are telling android users that they are not important
- nikanj 3y ago
  They are plenty important, but they're not rich. iPhones are not the majority of the market by any stretch, but they do form a majority of the phones well-off people use. I know you and your coder friends use Android despite having plenty of money, but the general public sees Androids as the budget option.
  - travem 3y ago
    > iPhones are not the majority of the market by any stretch It depends on which market you are looking at. In the US market Apple apparently has a 57% share according to https://www.statista.com/statistics/620805/smartphone-sales-market-share-in-the-us-by-vendor/#:~:text=Manufacturers'%20market%20share%20of%20smartphone,the%20second%20quarter%20of%202022 https://www.statista.com/statistics/620805/smartphone-sales-....
- saddd 3y ago
  I don't have links to back this up, but I believe the following two statements are true in US markets, based on my anecdotal industry experiences: - The majority of mobile apps that only launch on one native platform (but are eventually available on both Android and iOS) launch on iOS first. - The majority of mobile apps that are only available on one native platform are only available on iOS.

nemo44x 3y ago

Never say no to your first billion. It's the hardest billion to make.

nprateem 3y ago

Greed