Startup Acquisition Announcement

“We’re super excited that we’ve been acquired by [Company X] — and nothing will happen to the app you love”. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen a note along those lines.

Here, for example, is the Sunrise founders’ letter to their users from February 11th, the day it was acquired by Microsoft:

To our friends and Sunrise users:

Today, we’re excited to announce that Sunrise is joining Microsoft. For Sunrise, this is just the beginning.

Sunrise started two years ago with a simple idea that by combining beautiful design and great engineering, we could reimagine your calendar.

Sunrise will remain free and available for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android and Desktop — we’re not going anywhere.

And here’s the acquisition notes from Microsoft:

Already downloaded by millions of users, the Sunrise app will remain in market and free after the acquisition.

Well. Wow. Nothing will happen. The app is not going anywhere. It will remain free. Blah blah blah. Amazing. And, of course, total bullshit.

Yesterday Microsoft announced that Sunrise will merge into Outlook. It took about 8 months.

The Sunrise team is now officially a part of the broader Outlook product team […] All of this means Outlook will eventually replace the current Sunrise app. We will leave Sunrise in market until its features are fully integrated into Outlook.

and the Sunrise founders wrote a follow-up note:

Now here comes the sad news. As the entire team is completely focused on the Outlook for iOS and Android apps, we won’t be updating the Sunrise apps anymore.

Oops. 8 month between nothing will happen and forget everything we said. Surprise!

Unfortunately this is a standard statement and procedure among startups. I get it, you don’t want to piss off the users who made it possible for you to be acquired in the first place.

Maybe they should have figured out that one business model for startups — or at least one possible outcome — is to be acquired. Which is fine. But don’t fool the users into believing nothing will change.

Both you, the buyer, and everyone in the business knows that‘s not the case. But most of your users don’t. They believe you and keep on using the app based on how much they loved it as well as your assuring statements. Until one day when it just doesn’t work anymore.

I loved, and still love Sunrise. It’s by far the best mobile calendar app I’ve ever used. And I’m sure the team will do as good job as they can to get the best of Sunrise into Outlook. But that’s not the point. What’s pissing me off is that users are lied to. Can’t we all please just stop this bullshit and be honest to our users on the way forward post-acquisition?!

Thanks to Aron Solomon and @bestham for the lightning speed editing help.