Perhaps controversially—I believe the same could very easily happen to any VC-funded framework.
What happens when you have multiple FTE on payroll and you exhaust your runway without a viable strategy to monetize?
Zach Leatherman 4747 replies 3838 likes88 reposts Original on Mastodon47 replies
@zachleat "community stewardship" - always the ideal but almost impossible to find.
I feel for them, and hope they all land on their feet
@zachleat I don't see what's controversial about that. In fact, obvious, no? 😅
@jaredwhite @zachleat Doesn't the same apply to any project no matter where the funding is coming from? 🤔
@rijk @jaredwhite not really, no. They don’t just have to figure out monetization/profitability—they need to figure out hyper-monetization 😬
@zachleat @jaredwhite ah yeah if the goal is growth and profit no matter what then absolutely!
@zachleat @rijk @jaredwhite For those looking for the answer…this is it.
VCs expect 19 of 20 fundings to fail. Number 20 has to be a Google. You can't just succeed and have a nice steady customer base.
@pauleveritt @zachleat @rijk Exactly. The VC model quite honestly is based on "outrageous success" or undeniable failure. Plodding along, business as usual—not OK at all. Arguably the worst outcome in fact.
“We use React. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings.”—Ursula K. Le Guin, probably
@zachleat not just can. Likely will. Foundations and the concepts of open governance exist to fix real problems but we are enjoying a period of relearning the hard way for some fucked reason I can't decrypt.
@brianleroux @zachleat OSS is treated as marketing, and marketing works
@boneskull @zachleat wonder how folks who deployed it to production workloads feel. Probably not super great. (Assuming it has any production workloads..)
@brianleroux @zachleat they had it coming
@brianleroux @zachleat i know one thing though: it’ll get worse before it gets better. if it gets better
@boneskull @zachleat we all know the same fate in store for NextJS
@brianleroux @boneskull whether it happens pre-IPO or post-IPO is the only question 🫣
@brianleroux @zachleat like, it’s one thing if you buy some SaaS subscription that goes ass up. but once you build your shit on top of a framework, you’re hosed.
@brianleroux @zachleat your saving grace is that there might be enough dead frogs in the pot with you to fork into a community project
@brianleroux @zachleat how many of these projects remain ongoing concerns is unknown to me. it’s there in theory
@boneskull @zachleat personally think we explored transpiling dialects to the logical extremes and are only now in the "finding out" phase of how much of an evolutionary dead end that approach is.
@brianleroux @boneskull @zachleat This is my favorite takeaway. The reason to target JS was that it was "close to the metal" in terms of portable Web media; the entire cottage industry of "transpiler to JS" is built upon that requirement. I can't help but speculate that WASM is part of the picture; the overwhelming complexity had to collapse somehow, and shifting foundations would be a reasonable cause.
There was discussion about this recently, on Lobsters: https://lobste.rs/s/id9jet/transpiler_meaningless_word
@corbin @boneskull @zachleat text to text is pretty lossy and interpreted code always on a back foot wrt optimization so wasm def seems inevitable.
But I've been saying this for a decade at least now too. I have no issue with the techniques but question their assumed universal application.
@brianleroux @zachleat can’t imagine “surprise! need to commit resources to this new OSS project” goes over too well with mgmt though
@boneskull @zachleat mgmt def starts to raise eyebrows at rewrites that don't add new value. Partially why I'm skeptical a lot of these kinds of projects end up as part of production workloads. No business wants an annual rewrite for new HTML rendering modes.
@brianleroux @zachleat I mean, somebody was using gatsby for something important. they wouldn’t have survived as long as they did without at least some customers, right?
@boneskull @zachleat given their investors passed on us because 'github stars' I'm skeptical
@boneskull @brianleroux @zachleat i used it for a marketing website like~5yrs ago. important? idk 🤷♂️ last i heard it was still chugging along tho.
@busticated @boneskull @brianleroux (you may want to read at the beginning of the thread)
@zachleat @boneskull @brianleroux oh yeah i’m aware (check yr favs 😉). not great!
@zachleat I had no idea it was a VC backed project. So glad I didn't sink too much energy into it back when I was exploring it for a project.
@joshwayne this post might have helped you! https://www.zachleat.com/web/monetization/
@zachleat That certainly would have helped!
@zachleat As someone that had a VC-backed framework in 1999 (Python's first "killer app”), I can confirm this. I spoke about this effect on a recent podcast.
@pauleveritt I’d love to listen—got a link?
@zachleat Here’s the episode: https://pythonpeople.fm/episodes/paul-everitt
7:55 I talk about foundations. 8:57 about Python outliving Guido as BDFL. 13:22 gets into the VC culture, open source, and...milking cows.
@pauleveritt Thank you!!
@zachleat My pleasure. Thanks for bringing this topic up.
BTW...@khalidabuhakmeh and I (and others) are about to deploy our 11ty+esbuild+Vite+TSX+schema validation knowledge base thingy. The Gatsby replacement. Think there would be any interest if we did an explainer? Might you join us for a webinar showing it?
@zachleat I can confidently report that working for a VC -funded startup is almost always going to end in tears for the employees.
It was a Friday. The 23 FTEs who were fired that morning went on to other work, often unrelated to their jobs at the startup (for the love of the gods, don’t work for a VC startup as a career ladder step. I don’t even know where to start on that idea), but the leaders of the company have vanished into obscurity.
@VickieGray whew, it’s sounding more common the longer I’m in the game
