This sort of thing (a pivot) happens all of the time with services, so why is it not ok for pure software?
I backed Light Table and enjoy it (though it is nowhere near my daily editor) but I'm excited about the shift in focus. Sometimes great ideas do not pan out to great products for a variety of reasons, and it would be fiscal suicide for them to keep the focus on Light Table if the team truly does not believe they will be able to reach the product/market fit they were hoping for. This is business, not charity after all.
To put it another way, Eve sounds like a really interesting solution to a hard problem and I'm really excited that this team is trying to tackle it. Stoked to see what the future brings.
Afaik a pivot happens when there's a problem with the current product/strategy. If LT is truly used by "lots of other people" (I believe it is) it shouldn't be difficult to salvage it: just run another kickstarter.
I can understand having ran out of the original kickstarter money, but after enteing Ycombinator I'd expect them to still have resources to avoid being forced to pivot
(trivia/disclaimer: I'm a kickstarter backer and Light Table was my main editor for some months)
I backed Light Table too based on the promising demo video and a fair amount of irrational exuberance. Eventually, my expectations did come down.
And, while Light Table is a polished little editor, it's hard to call Light Table an IDE without offering an apology. Light Table certainly is not what was promised.
In fact, Light Table was my first experience really being burned by a Kickstarter project. Nice that Chris Granger wants to reimagine computing, but he should finish what he starts.
Who would gift his crew with $2.3M given their track record? Atom, which did not promise an IDE has done more work on it's editor in a shorter time than Chris and crew. Buyer beware!
If they don't think that Light Table is going to be profitable for them as a company long term then yes, that's a problem with the current product/strategy. You're making a lot of assumptions about what the company can or can't do when the writing seems to be on the wall - They didn't feel comfortable moving forward with Light Table as a business so they are moving into a space with similar goals but (hopefully) a much larger opportunity.
It's a company full of smart people backed by smart investors, if there was a way to make LT work at scale I'm sure they would still be working on it.
They didn't "feel comfortable"? Is that all? Stated so dispassionately, it would be breathlessly easy to say. But I know the expectation and the agita that belie.
I was taught that when someone gives you even one dollar in consideration of something that you've promised, that taking the money is tantamount to an oath.
Light Table essentially proves the lie, since it is pretty far from the video. From where I sit, Chris and his team broke their oath and I won't be burned twice.
If Andreesen Horowitz believe that computing can be revolutionized for $2.3M, it's their cash to burn. Not surprised at all that they didn't turn to Kickstarter for funding.
I backed Light Table and enjoy it (though it is nowhere near my daily editor) but I'm excited about the shift in focus. Sometimes great ideas do not pan out to great products for a variety of reasons, and it would be fiscal suicide for them to keep the focus on Light Table if the team truly does not believe they will be able to reach the product/market fit they were hoping for. This is business, not charity after all.
To put it another way, Eve sounds like a really interesting solution to a hard problem and I'm really excited that this team is trying to tackle it. Stoked to see what the future brings.