One of the key features of the Appsumo offering was "All future Team Plan updates".

Yet according to Retable's latest email, anyone who purchased the LTD would be migrated to a separate server and be able to operate essentially as the platform exists today. To access any future product developments, users will have to subscribe separately. Developments I've been waiting for for a year that would make Retable competitive with AirTable (two-way linking across tables). Without this, the product is useless to me.

The value proposition to a company for using AppSumo is simple: Grow your user base (with preferential terms) while getting a small infusion of cash (for the value provided). These LTD users are then evangelists who can generate new cashflow on the full-rate plans you offer.

Yet, for too many companies (Retable included), it seems to be "a small infusion of cash now, and we'll screw those early adopters over when it becomes painfully obvious that we gave away the farm." It's not hard to calculate the ongoing costs of providing a deal on AppSumo over time. And it's not hard to determine what your existing cost-per-acquisition and monthly/annual recurring revenue per user are. Long-term feasibility can be estimated, and the AppSumo offering made to support that as an advertising cost.

These repeated deal failures can reflect badly on AppSumo, absolutely, however they mostly reflect the disappointing lack of foresight on the part of the product team, including their inability to project (with any reasonable degree of accuracy) the drain an LTD will place on their finances. AppSumo allows sellers to limit codes, if this is a volume problem that can be addressed.

I am very disappointed in the team behind Retable (and other failed products) for their almost complete lack of foresight and disappointed to lose yet another tool on AppSumo.