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Macaw is joining InVision (macaw.co)
over 7 years ago from Henry Moran, Product Designer @ Badger Studios
50 comments
Shakti Dash, over 7 years ago
I am happy that invision owns it now. At least ensures a future for a promising idea. The kickstarter was an utter disappointment. Post release was utterly unfair to everyone who paid a good amount of money to see this come to life. Heck, even didn't update the menu bar since Mavericks! Macaw was at its best a prototyping tool and just generating fairly good html/css wasn't enough to appease any professional workflow. Looking forward to what's next.
Michael Aleo, over 7 years ago
I didn't think the Kickstarter was an utter disappointment at all, and people who said that after they shared the V1 beta were insane. They expected a polished, Adobe-level version 40 of a beta from a small independent team. Turns out developing software is hard, and bugs are always going to be an issue.
Thanks for your comment and I respect your opinion. However, I reserve my thoughts not based on some bias or community but from my very own experience. I was one of the backers that made the Kickstarter idea a reality. It was a load of money for supporting a 3 person team plus they had enough funding (in tens of millions after) to do something substantial. I guess it all went into making Scarlet and hopefully it finally moulds into a workflow that we all deserve for the trust and support. I never said anything about Adobe quality (heck, even giants like Adobe have bugs). Bugs will always be there, that is not the point at all here. Just make a comparison of Webflow and Macaw, two companies that started alike vs what they offered. Macaw team had enough funding but didn't meet the expectations from several backers, me included through the version 1 release. At the most the max I could do with Macaw was to build a prototype. It was never something that could be utilised for challenges of a production environment. An MVP of the future of web design tool should have been more than this, provided the time and money they had. I wish the team the best with invision and hope that there would be something worthwhile at the end of all of this :) Peace.
They never raised tens of millions in funding. I don't think they ever even raised money after the <$300k on Kickstarter.
Don't remember where I read something related to this morning but I might have the stats wrong :) Sorry if I had stats wrong, I'd have expected them to seek funding then. Anyway, to conclude in more clear words—the team promised a product and delivered a version and then moved to build a product that they promised at the first place. Good to know that Scarlet+invision will make lives easy in future but people will tend to feel betrayed.
They never raised millions of dollars. People tend to feel entitled.
Thomas Didrel, over 7 years ago
Well, there goes my money.
Nick Ciliak, over 7 years ago
Cool. Not sure what this will mean for either company, but I look forward to the results.
Gonna miss this beautiful landing page: http://scarlet.macaw.co/
Maxime Cescau, over 7 years ago (edited over 7 years ago )
Personally pretty excited about this one. I think Invision is a great tool, that's growing in all the right ways. I was disappointed that after announcing Motion back in September we hadn't heard anything. But hopefully this acquisition will bolster and improve the concept. Interesting space to watch for sure. Hopefully they won't make us wait even longer.
Yup - http://techcrunch.com/2016/01/26/prototyping-suite-invision-is-acquiring-design-tool-macaw/
Andrew Smith, over 7 years ago
To put it bluntly, Macaw was shit. They knew it was too after a while, hence the development of Scarlett Macaw – the concept was great, but pulling it off left you with a website that wasn't close to being production ready – even if the app itself was for designers to be able to get their designs into a living format, it was no better off than Dreamweaver.
Being bought by InVision means they've now got a team of more than 3 and they've got a wealth of experience to offer – With Invisions latest 'import your PSD' feature, I wouldn't be surprised if the macaw team get assigned to that area and have designs auto-built by invision from imported sketch / psd files
Daniel Sieradski, over 7 years ago
Macaw was buggy but it wasn't shit. And yes, it didn't give you production-ready code, but it gave you code close enough to production that it took only a half-hour to get it ready once it was output.
Luca Candela, over 7 years ago Building anything with it was an exercise in frustration, and it never supported flexbox which is criminal. Bugginess aside, it was a bad product.
This sucks. I didn't Kickstart this app for it to disappear before a single major update. I also hate SAAS, which forces you to pay in perpetuity for what you should be able to pay for and download once. I also HATE HATE HATE browser-based apps like Invision. I'm pretty ticked off right now.
Connor Norvell, over 7 years ago
Same, I want scarlet so bad. but hopefully invision will make it better than it ever could have been
Quintin Carlson, over 7 years ago Our Incredible Journey: http://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/image/138156216198
Jesse Haff, over 7 years ago (edited over 7 years ago )
To me, this is another indication that Adobe Comet was onto something by combining design and prototyping tools. I believe Marvel is also pursuing this path.
Delivering interactive prototypes has all but replaced sending out individual screenshots in our internal design process. Having one unified tool to reflect this shift will be a significant improvement. It makes me wonder where Sketch is on this front.
Hanu Man, over 7 years ago
Macaw was a very poor product!
dh ., over 7 years ago
So soon you will able to make websites with invision?
Norm Sheeran, over 7 years ago I always think it's a bit of a shame when we see a small indi dev team gobbled up by a big company and their product shelved.
Good luck to Tom and co on their new adventure!
tom giannattasio, over 7 years ago
Thanks Norm!
Abhijeet Wankhade, over 7 years ago
Wait, is this a goodbye?
Marcus Nunes, over 7 years ago Looks like it, yes
Some Designer, over 7 years ago
So what's going to happen all the funding they got from kickstarter? Do they even have the balls to return the money back to the backers?
Ian Goode, over 7 years ago
They have no obligation to do that at all. People backed them for v1 and they released it ages ago.
Jim Silverman, over 7 years ago
truth. the kickstarter campaign was in 2013, v1 released early 2014. it's completely unreasonable to expect a refund at this point (though people will anyway)
Yeah you do have point. Backing for the v1 would be reasonable but I remember the kickstarter was to creation of the Macaw software not just for the 1st stable version.
Let's assume that I personally hate invision and these guys sold an application which was created with my money to a company that I hate. They never explained that they'd sell their app to a bigger company if they fail. At least they could have charged extra refunds from InVision.
for the angry teenage fanboys; I do not hate invision. In fact I'm unable to have feelings towards computer softwares. Sorry for not being weird
Yeah you do have point. Backing for the v1 would be reasonable but I remember the kickstarter was to creation of the Macaw software not just for the 1st stable version.
It was pretty clearly a "back us so we can hire some more staff and get this v1 over the line" campaign, they literally said that. So their only obligation was to ship the v1 and give their backers early access like promised.
I totally get that it's annoying to put a tool into your daily workflow only to have it get acquired one day and fall out of existence. I'm tired of it as well.
Brian Hinton, over 7 years ago (edited over 7 years ago )
They never actually delivered all the promised features. Most of the dedicated backers held fast hoping that Macaw would deliver when they released Scarlet.
Now that Invision owns the tech (and staff?) will they care about the original promises Macaw made? Likely no. Macaw's tech will be bundled into a product that is only accessible behind a monthly subscription paywall.
Uhh, I must have missed that one. Then I take my words back on refunds.
You paid for a future license for software they were developing, you didn't invest in the company. I don't know why people always act like this about Kickstarter. You basically preordered. And they delivered. It's not open source software. You're not a shareholder. They didn't have to get your permission to take an exit. They don't owe you shit.
You seem really angry about all this, and it borders on being unprofessional.
TBH I don't own macaw, just trying to make a non hostile argument here man. Please do not try to "judge" me with false accusations. Also seems like you're the one who's on the edge.
If they didn't get my money at the first place they wouldn't able to release "shit" (trying to use your terms). In a way, every backer is a shareholder since they're credited in credits. And kickstarter is not just"preorder" :D Don't be funny man. You're literally funding the project. That's called micro-investment. Also think about like this, you buy something from market and it happens to be gone bad even the expiration date is not over. What would you do? Sit down and eat the rotten food?
Backers aren't shareholders. Everything is is already covered in my post above.
Ryan Murphy, over 7 years ago
Hey, have you heard about the Oculus Conspiracy? Only 2% of people believe it but the CIA are covering up what really happened to the Kickstarter money when Facebook gobbled them up.
If you're brave enough, Google it.
It's spent – you can't return a piece of software 3 years after it was released – the software still exists and you're able to use it until an OS update breaks it.
You were investing in the company to create the product, more than the product though
I'm pretty sure all the funding from Kickstarter went into paying the team a living wage while they you know, developed and released V1. I was a backer too, and you make it sound like they took the money and ran, which isn't even remotely close to the truth.
Hey there! I thought I'd chime in on this. Honestly, we can’t thank you enough for your support. We wanted to keep this with the community and Kickstarter gave us that ability. I personally left my job and worked without pay for a solid year before Kickstarting. The funds we received were used solely and sparingly to keep the lights on at home and food in our children’s mouthes. Without it, Macaw would have been nothing more than an idea because we had already spent our entire savings trying to build it. The wife was ready to kill me!
We were one of the few Kickstarter campaigns to actually deliver our product. We even did it on time, which is rare! We poured every piece of ourselves into what we were building and I’m quite proud of what we accomplished. Our very small team was able to build something that would have cost other teams millions of dollars and years of engineering. Not only that, we were dedicated to building more, so we started Scarlet. It's not done, but it has some amazing potential. We realized the best way to maximize that potential is with the help of someone. That someone is InVision.
Macaw only exists because we all came together to make it real. That’s awesome. This community is self-powering and we’re honored to play our part. We have a lot more coming. Thanks so much!
You're being really nice to this guy. You don't owe anyone an explanation for anything. You guys have been transparent since before day one, and I was more than pleased with what I got for my Kickstarter money. People think they own a piece/are owed something from a successful company when they backed it on Kickstarter.
Congrats on the acquisition, and I'm excited to see what you guys are doing with one of my favorite products.
Kris Kim, over 7 years ago
Hi. Can you give us at least a hint on what would happen to Scarlet? Will it be Invision Scarlet (it's jk..)? I just hope that it doesn't become a part of Invision app which is already becoming bloated..
Calvin Wilson, over 7 years ago
Henry!!!!
Henry Moran, over 7 years ago (edited over 7 years ago )
Waves Hand
Gilli Sigurdsson, over 7 years ago Unfortunately I guess this means that Scarlett will be a subscription based service. I'm getting kind of tired of them.
Duke Cavinski, over 7 years ago
Woah, what world do we live in when this is controversial?
Chris Gillis, over 7 years ago
Invision prototype to Working prototype in browser would solve a huge problem and help alot of people do proper user testing on their designs. I really hope this comes to fruition.
Thompson George, over 7 years ago
What's a Macaw?
Yasen Dimov, over 7 years ago
Can someone tell me if Macaw is worth it? I have absolutely no experience with it and eager to learn more, before I try and fail...
No. it really isn't, IMO. which is why scarlet looked so exciting, but macaw is only really good for prototyping quickly, but you could use adobe muse for the same thing essentially (minus the fluid layout)
I see, back to Atom and the good old HTML/CSS then...
Same, unfortunately
Luca Candela, over 7 years ago It was inevitable, the product in itself was not that good, I had hopes for them but they were not very receptive to feedback.
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