That's exactly what they're doing. It's called "an exit strategy", and apparently any self-respecting startup ought to have one.
A lot of things about the products we see become clear when one realizes that the primary focus and goal of a exit-seeking, toilet-paper[0] startup is to get bought for a lot of money, period. The product itself is a lie, it doesn't matter what happens with it - its only task is to attract new users fast - i.e. be growing, which is a proxy for "we could be profitable in the future". If the startup maintains this growth long enough, there's an increasing chance that someone will come and buy the company. The product gets killed, founders write some audacious blog posts in which they thank their (former) users for giving them the opportunity to have those coctails at the acquihire party ("it was our journey, we couldn't make it without you..."). Everyone is happy, except the users, who get screwed. Again. Live. Die. Repeat.
Of course most of the toilet-paper startups won't sustain growth long enough and will just disappear somewhere along the way.
I sometimes wonder why we (as users) keep tolerating this. People lying in our faces that they care about us and our problems, that the product is really meant to help us. Fool me once, fool me twice... but we've been fooled since the dot-com and we still haven't learned.
A lot of things about the products we see become clear when one realizes that the primary focus and goal of a exit-seeking, toilet-paper[0] startup is to get bought for a lot of money, period. The product itself is a lie, it doesn't matter what happens with it - its only task is to attract new users fast - i.e. be growing, which is a proxy for "we could be profitable in the future". If the startup maintains this growth long enough, there's an increasing chance that someone will come and buy the company. The product gets killed, founders write some audacious blog posts in which they thank their (former) users for giving them the opportunity to have those coctails at the acquihire party ("it was our journey, we couldn't make it without you..."). Everyone is happy, except the users, who get screwed. Again. Live. Die. Repeat.
Of course most of the toilet-paper startups won't sustain growth long enough and will just disappear somewhere along the way.
I sometimes wonder why we (as users) keep tolerating this. People lying in our faces that they care about us and our problems, that the product is really meant to help us. Fool me once, fool me twice... but we've been fooled since the dot-com and we still haven't learned.
[0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8319102