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I think the biggest question here is what did Patreon even need that much money for.

by pcstl 8y ago

tjpnz 8y ago
Same old story. Hire a bunch of people, realize that they lack management so hire managers to manage them, splurge on a nice office, managers out of boredom or laziness hire a bunch more managers, devs start demanding better salaries or they'll walk..
- mcny 8y ago
  But then we turn around and crap all over Gitlab for trying to pay their engineers as little as possible saying everyone deserves silicon valley salary...
  - tjpnz 8y ago
    Depends on your business model, in the case of Patreon it would be impossible by definition. I don't think it applies as much to GitLab.
skrebbel 8y ago
I wonder about this too. The tweetstorm linked here only talks about technology, comparing Patreon to YouTube. Since Patreon handles payments, I can imagine their load on customer support, anti-fraud, abusive behavior etc is significantly higher than that of YouTube. The fact that the OP did not address this belies a simplistic view about what it's like to run a business (that and the fact that he thinks the Patreon founders could've gotten a bank loan). At the same time, $60M? How can a platform like Patreon even begin to spend that much money? On what? I didn't understand it when Medium raised so much and I didn't understand it when Patreon did. Basically my gist is that while this is a fun rant to read against getting VC funding, there's also a middle ground: raise reasonable amounts of VC funding. This might not always fit VC incentives perfectly, after all their business model depends on funding dozens of companies hoping that one is the next Facebook, but in the end it's your call. And hey, if you grow half speed you'll just be the next Facebook 5 years later, no man overboard. VCs can usually veto new sources of funding but if they can force you to raise followon rounds then you've been negotiating wrong.
- pcstl 8y ago
  I think finding what a “reasonable amount” looks like is the big issue, but nevertheless that is solid advice.
krzat 8y ago
Seriously. The community forum does not even have search.
- Kye 8y ago
  I found out about the forum second-hand. I don't think they even let you in before you make a certain amount.
mitchtbaum 8y ago
Their workspace looks modest to me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixPY2jD2gI0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixPY2jD2gI0

I think the biggest question here is what did Patreon even need that much money for.

by pcstl 8y ago

I think the biggest question here is what did Patreon even need that much money for.

Same old story. Hire a bunch of people, realize that they lack management so hire managers to manage them, splurge on a nice office, managers out of boredom or laziness hire a bunch more managers, devs start demanding better salaries or they'll walk..

mcny 8y ago
But then we turn around and crap all over Gitlab for trying to pay their engineers as little as possible saying everyone deserves silicon valley salary...
- tjpnz 8y ago
  Depends on your business model, in the case of Patreon it would be impossible by definition. I don't think it applies as much to GitLab.

skrebbel 8y ago

I wonder about this too. The tweetstorm linked here only talks about technology, comparing Patreon to YouTube. Since Patreon handles payments, I can imagine their load on customer support, anti-fraud, abusive behavior etc is significantly higher than that of YouTube. The fact that the OP did not address this belies a simplistic view about what it's like to run a business (that and the fact that he thinks the Patreon founders could've gotten a bank loan). At the same time, $60M? How can a platform like Patreon even begin to spend that much money? On what? I didn't understand it when Medium raised so much and I didn't understand it when Patreon did. Basically my gist is that while this is a fun rant to read against getting VC funding, there's also a middle ground: raise reasonable amounts of VC funding. This might not always fit VC incentives perfectly, after all their business model depends on funding dozens of companies hoping that one is the next Facebook, but in the end it's your call. And hey, if you grow half speed you'll just be the next Facebook 5 years later, no man overboard. VCs can usually veto new sources of funding but if they can force you to raise followon rounds then you've been negotiating wrong.

pcstl 8y ago
I think finding what a “reasonable amount” looks like is the big issue, but nevertheless that is solid advice.

krzat 8y ago

Seriously. The community forum does not even have search.

Kye 8y ago
I found out about the forum second-hand. I don't think they even let you in before you make a certain amount.

mitchtbaum 8y ago

Their workspace looks modest to me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixPY2jD2gI0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixPY2jD2gI0