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I am so surprised why people buy into some SAAS software that does simple things instead of hiring 2 programmers from cheap location (somewhere between India an

I am so surprised why people buy into some SAAS software that does simple things instead of hiring 2 programmers from cheap location (somewhere between India and Poland western border), getting Hetzner VPS or dedicates server (even the second option is cheap, including a few administrator hours) and be done. It is not so hard to predict failure/buy out of some SAAS provider, it happened so many times. I am curious why Venture Capital investors are not looking at that problem closely.

stephenr 9y ago
> Venture Capital investors Nothing in the entire VC Funded startup scene makes sense when you try to apply basic logic, much less a sane way to operate a sustainable business. But that's just it: These companies are funded by people who are simply in it to make a profit, (as opposed to people who want to actually achieve something with their efforts). Users become dollar signs, and it's all about how quickly you can get enough new users to monetise the bejeezus out of their attention/personal information/etc, before they dump you for the next new flavour of the week.
bolololo1 9y ago
Still cheaper for a single dev starting a startup to hook up to Firebase/AWS/Azure than hiring 'cheap' devs from Poland.
- camus2 9y ago
  > Still cheaper for a single dev starting a startup to hook up to Firebase/AWS/Azure than hiring 'cheap' devs from Poland. Yes but you gotta be smart here. It's not like Firebase is the only database out there. And once your product grows, and you hit Firebase limits which forces you in the "pay as you go" plan, whatever cheapness you thought you bought into quickly becomes a huge expanse.
  - bradynapier 9y ago
    Precisely where we find ourselves and the inspiration for the article.
  - bolololo1 9y ago
    Of course it's not and I feel sorry for the author, but being smart doesn't mean that you know everything from dev to setting up servers. Most startups are just quickly glued up. What the author and team could do after they started growing is to start slowly moving to own infrastructure/backend. I'd advise any startup anyways to start with Saas and when money starts showing up then hire the remote guy to set up infrastucture.
- funkyy 9y ago
  tbh, a database, for example, for most startups is not hard on the beginning: -installing MySQL -Installing Apache -installing PHP MyAdmin -running some commands from shell and SQL -done. If you create a startup it is wise to know the basics as such and in case that you grow to hire people to pimp it up.
sigi45 9y ago
They have already 'issues' by paying 2k per month for firebase. I don't think you start at some provider for under 500 euros per month for support only. The initial setup is probably much higher. And than you don't have any control over your infrastructure as well because someone else has theknowledge not you. I don't see any advantages doing this as long as you are small. Those few hundred dollars are better investet in simple SAAS.
brianwawok 9y ago
You think 2 random 2nd world devs are going to write you your own database?

stephenr 9y ago

> Venture Capital investors Nothing in the entire VC Funded startup scene makes sense when you try to apply basic logic, much less a sane way to operate a sustainable business. But that's just it: These companies are funded by people who are simply in it to make a profit, (as opposed to people who want to actually achieve something with their efforts). Users become dollar signs, and it's all about how quickly you can get enough new users to monetise the bejeezus out of their attention/personal information/etc, before they dump you for the next new flavour of the week.

bolololo1 9y ago

Still cheaper for a single dev starting a startup to hook up to Firebase/AWS/Azure than hiring 'cheap' devs from Poland.

camus2 9y ago
> Still cheaper for a single dev starting a startup to hook up to Firebase/AWS/Azure than hiring 'cheap' devs from Poland. Yes but you gotta be smart here. It's not like Firebase is the only database out there. And once your product grows, and you hit Firebase limits which forces you in the "pay as you go" plan, whatever cheapness you thought you bought into quickly becomes a huge expanse.
- bradynapier 9y ago
  Precisely where we find ourselves and the inspiration for the article.
- bolololo1 9y ago
  Of course it's not and I feel sorry for the author, but being smart doesn't mean that you know everything from dev to setting up servers. Most startups are just quickly glued up. What the author and team could do after they started growing is to start slowly moving to own infrastructure/backend. I'd advise any startup anyways to start with Saas and when money starts showing up then hire the remote guy to set up infrastucture.
funkyy 9y ago
tbh, a database, for example, for most startups is not hard on the beginning: -installing MySQL -Installing Apache -installing PHP MyAdmin -running some commands from shell and SQL -done. If you create a startup it is wise to know the basics as such and in case that you grow to hire people to pimp it up.

sigi45 9y ago

They have already 'issues' by paying 2k per month for firebase. I don't think you start at some provider for under 500 euros per month for support only. The initial setup is probably much higher. And than you don't have any control over your infrastructure as well because someone else has theknowledge not you. I don't see any advantages doing this as long as you are small. Those few hundred dollars are better investet in simple SAAS.

brianwawok 9y ago

You think 2 random 2nd world devs are going to write you your own database?