Something about this narrative doesn't make sense though.
Why would Airtable go through all this trouble just to get a product owner for something unrelated?
Did Airtable even pay anything for Airplane.dev or was this just a face-saving maneuver? I don't understand how the Airtable board would sign-off on this if they are just tossing the tech AND all the users. Outside of those assets, acquihires happen with the aquirer wants the same tech built into their offerings. They are hiring a proven team with existing domain knowledge to reduce the risk of adding this tech. But none of that is happening.
Why not find a way to do right by their customers if Airtable truly isn't interested in the product? Open source it, or find a company willing to take the product and customers on?
As other comments pointed out Airtable and Airplane share an investor in Thrive Capital, which made negotiating a deal probably easier. But yeah, Airtable probably didn't pay a lot for Airplane.
It still makes sense for Airtable, as they do get someone with a proven track record of building tech products in general to build out an important division of their company. You say that it's for something "unrelated", but integrating AI capabilities (Airtable isn't looking to build new foundational models I assume), should definitely be in their ballpark. Though of course that's a gamble with a very low bus factor.
So it's a win-win-win for Airtable, the CEO/CTO and the investors. Airtable gets a capable leadership person to de-risk their AI endeavours (where IIRC they were lagging a bit behind competition like Notion). The CEO gets to work in a less stressful position, and maybe something that's a more interesting topic to him. The shared investor is happy as it strengthens their already strong unicorn company at the expense of a company that probably wouldn't be able to grow to notable size for them. Many of the other investors that are individuals I'd wager were happy that their money isn't tied up in Airplane anymore and that they can place new bets in a hot AI market (just a guess based on who is on that list).
> Why not find a way to do right by their customers if Airtable truly isn't interested in the product? Open source it
Presumably because the cost of that is significant for little to no gain for them, especially if you factor in the opportunity cost.
> or find a company willing to take the product and customers on?
I think the buyers that make most sense there would be e.g. Retool, which are too close of competitors to Airtable that they want to directly sell marketshare to them. It's probably better for Airtable to let the customers spread across all their competitors.
Why would Airtable go through all this trouble just to get a product owner for something unrelated?
Did Airtable even pay anything for Airplane.dev or was this just a face-saving maneuver? I don't understand how the Airtable board would sign-off on this if they are just tossing the tech AND all the users. Outside of those assets, acquihires happen with the aquirer wants the same tech built into their offerings. They are hiring a proven team with existing domain knowledge to reduce the risk of adding this tech. But none of that is happening.
Why not find a way to do right by their customers if Airtable truly isn't interested in the product? Open source it, or find a company willing to take the product and customers on?