the exact period of time was not my concern - the perception of calm and orderly shutdown is. What matters is how the founders are seen to handle that last few moments. Doing nothing would be bad. Doing this is fine and decent. Even better would be to say "hey it did not work, but even so our last act is to <maintain high perceived value coz we are the good guys>." It might be download your contacts, it might be grab your dogs' friends circle. Whatever - if it was important enough for users to give it to you for safekeeping that should be treated with kid gloves.
This is sadly one of the more high profile moments a start up has - Handle it well, the founders will be seen as a safe pair of hands, do the equivalent of dropping the casket into the ground and walking off, maybe not so much.
It's not great that this is a metric, it's not great that more VCs will see how they shutdown than saw how they started up - but this is just another startup. The founders have 30+ year careers ahead. Good for them for making something, good for them for trying, and good for trying to land it at all. Many just told up tents and steal away.
We as a community are trying to learn the dos and donts of startup life cycles - seems to me this is one of the more high profile and often ignored donts.
This is sadly one of the more high profile moments a start up has - Handle it well, the founders will be seen as a safe pair of hands, do the equivalent of dropping the casket into the ground and walking off, maybe not so much.
It's not great that this is a metric, it's not great that more VCs will see how they shutdown than saw how they started up - but this is just another startup. The founders have 30+ year careers ahead. Good for them for making something, good for them for trying, and good for trying to land it at all. Many just told up tents and steal away.
We as a community are trying to learn the dos and donts of startup life cycles - seems to me this is one of the more high profile and often ignored donts.