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Being able to come to the decision that in-housing isn't good value, is of course possible. But they do it for everything. And they've been exhaustive enough in

Being able to come to the decision that in-housing isn't good value, is of course possible. But they do it for everything. And they've been exhaustive enough in their breakdown here that it's trivial to any experience developer that they're spaffing money away. They're not in an all-or-nothing situation. There are so many individual elements that they could improve efficiency on and they're just not. And I think cooking your own food vs going to a restaurant is a better analogy (because it focuses on a service provision, not resource gathering). They're currently eating out, seven days a week.

sudhirj 8y ago
Even if they are currently eating out, seven days a week, that was a decision to focus entirely on the product without any distractions. https://medium.com/unsplash/scaling-unsplash-with-a-small-team-fbdd55571906 https://medium.com/unsplash/scaling-unsplash-with-a-small-te... It's absolutely nothing for them to be ashamed of. We can all disagree with the decision and say that we wouldn't do the same, but we shouldn't call it a bad of shameful decision.
- oliwarner 8y ago
  I don't understand your stance in the context of HN. We're here to make money, celebrate people who can make money from the things they build, the services they provide... And most importantly to learn from it when it goes right and learn from the mistakes when it doesn't. Unsplash is eating out seven days a week. But they don't have anything to show for it. They're burning through cash. The product is basic. There's no magic, nothing clever. It just is. They're saying everything is great! I think it's a shambles; simultaneously mediocre at both making money and being an excellent example of engineering. Why is anybody here celebrating or defending this result? I maintain what I said. Unsplash should be ashamed. They shouldn't trot out numbers like this label them a success. It's a record of successive failures.
tschellenbach 7y ago
Actually they stopped using Keen since it didn't work out well for them. They do build some stuff in-house, just prefer not to.

sudhirj 8y ago

Even if they are currently eating out, seven days a week, that was a decision to focus entirely on the product without any distractions. https://medium.com/unsplash/scaling-unsplash-with-a-small-team-fbdd55571906 https://medium.com/unsplash/scaling-unsplash-with-a-small-te... It's absolutely nothing for them to be ashamed of. We can all disagree with the decision and say that we wouldn't do the same, but we shouldn't call it a bad of shameful decision.

oliwarner 8y ago
I don't understand your stance in the context of HN. We're here to make money, celebrate people who can make money from the things they build, the services they provide... And most importantly to learn from it when it goes right and learn from the mistakes when it doesn't. Unsplash is eating out seven days a week. But they don't have anything to show for it. They're burning through cash. The product is basic. There's no magic, nothing clever. It just is. They're saying everything is great! I think it's a shambles; simultaneously mediocre at both making money and being an excellent example of engineering. Why is anybody here celebrating or defending this result? I maintain what I said. Unsplash should be ashamed. They shouldn't trot out numbers like this label them a success. It's a record of successive failures.

tschellenbach 7y ago

Actually they stopped using Keen since it didn't work out well for them. They do build some stuff in-house, just prefer not to.