Kagi is one of the few products which actually provides great value for the money paid. It is a very useful tool, really nice to use, implements privacy friendly features, and has apparently a great philosophy in the background.
To me Kagi feels like excellent infrastructure.
It delivers on its promoted promises for a reasonable price and respects me as a customer/user. A rare thing these days.
What I wonder now is, what happens if a Meta/Google/Microsoft comes around and makes an offer with so much money that you folks seriously consider selling Kagi.
If you would accept the offer in such a theoretical scenario I'd understand it from a personal perspective of course. But the chance that Kagi would become yet another "forced to produce maximum revenue by any means necessary" thing, is very high then.
Or to put it more flowery, it would rob Kagi of its soul and no one could know what it will become.
Infrastructure like software (WhatsApp, social networks) getting sold and turned into addictive and/or surveillance tech is unfortunately a very common problem in our world. And I wonder what your plan is, if Kagi is targeted for this transformation as well?
Of course, I understand this is an internal business decision. And one which can't just be communicated publicly without thinking seriously about the perception of it.
But as a normal user I simply wonder:
- Do you consider Kagi a start-up which is sold, if a big enough offer comes around?
- Have you thought about what you will do, if such an offer comes up? If so, what are your considerations?
- Are there any (hard) guarantees (not just promises and marketing) you can give your customers that we won't be treated as "a product being sold" in the future?
Answering these questions publicly in detail and with different perspectives explored, would improve trust with your customer base.
It would also enhance transparency and, in case of hard guarantees, add a unique selling point compared to most other (or all?) Silicon Valley start-ups.
