[lukethomas]

I bootstrapped the company for years before raising. I raised because I felt that I had to go after the bigger vision, which required resources ($$).

In short, I wanted to accelerate the pace of learning, because if I didn't, I would always kick myself for not stepping on the gas pedal.

I don't regret my decision either TBH.

[mhitza]

If you're shutting it down, why not offer the source code under an OSS license for your users to be able to migrate to self hosted?

[Kiro]

I get the same question every time I shut down something. No, I don't want people to see my embarrassing spaghetti code. With that said, I haven't shut down any critical products so it has been more like "would be nice if you made it open source" but my point is that there are many non-obvious reasons not to open source something.

Another is that I've randomly put credentials in the source code that I don't want leaked (again, my code is an ugly mess full of shortcuts and hacks). Yet another is that it would be impossible for someone to host themselves because I don't even understand it myself.

[kodah]

Someone in the business likely is in-scope for licensing decisions and on the facade this sort of decision probably looks noble and altruistic. To answer your question, "is it possible" - yes.

Ethically, however, it doesn't really check out for me. If the software is a core part of your business and the (or one of the) primary reasons an investor has joined your business then it's at the very least a bait and switch to make such a decision without their involvement. To a big VC or private equity firm this may infuriate some but have little monetary impact; at a much smaller firm this could be highly damaging.

I'm also fairly certain that whatever harm comes from this decision would put the CEO in personal liability, potentially all the way up the decision chain.

[paxys]

Even if the founder wants to do that, it would involve every single investor signing off on it, which seems like an uphill battle.

[sharps_xp]

It isn't unprecedented to ask the investors to write off their investments. Would it be too late to revert back to a private business?

[carimura]

It's already private, I presume you mean some form of restructuring the cap table so the founders/team have fresh ownership to work with.

A noble thought, but then what? skeleton crew the business at a snails pace while still being unclear how to actually make money?

[bspear]

Were you profitable before you raised? Just curious if you wanted a bigger outcome or the smaller scale wasn't sustainable either

[ttty]

I’d be interested to buy your website. I have some ideas on how to improve and I’d like to take a chance.