4 ms·

Fundamentally, your customers want you to make money because when you do, you stay in business and stay happy, healthy, and able to hire great people and innova

Fundamentally, your customers want you to make money because when you do, you stay in business and stay happy, healthy, and able to hire great people and innovate. Please don't apologize (much) or be timid about applying changes that protect the service, customer experience, and business as a whole.

el_dev_hell 7y ago
Theoretcally, that's 100% true. Realistically, a large pool of users don't think about the long-term viability of a business (all they want is the world for $22 per month).
- Kye 7y ago
  That's quite a bit for this world. How about $1 for a nice island?
scarface74 7y ago
Unfortunately, in today’s world and even right here on HN, the emphasis on growth and valuation and ignoring profitability. I’m glad to see any company whose business model is to charge enough for a product to (hopefully) be profitable.
- atYevP 7y ago
  Yev here -> we HAVE to be cash-flow positive since we're not VC-funded. When we started the company it was bootstrapped, so "making enough money to survive" has always been a part of the equation!
  - scarface74 7y ago
    That's good to hear... But that means you are an unhip "lifestyle business" and obviously if you're profitable, you must be doing something wrong. How do you ever expect to have an enormous exit and make your investors rich?
    - atYevP 7y ago
      Yev here -> Ah, that's a very good question. Staying in business > being hip in most cases ;-) The nice thing about being bootstrapped is that we don't have that many investors, and they're chill with just seeing how this goes. We actually do have on "traditional VC" that invested, but they are very relaxed about the whole thing and don't have a board seat, just an observer role - so they're like, if you eventually are profitable enough, just pay us back at some multiplayer and we're good - otherwise we'll wait for an exit. Nice folks! :D
      - scarface74 7y ago
        I was really being facetious toward the startup culture and praising BackBlaze. I didn’t expect a serious response... But your response was quite informative. Backblaze is one of the few smaller tech companies I admire from a business side along with Fog Creek, JetBrains and Base Camp.
        caseysoftware 7y ago
        FogCreek sold a while back and is run by an outsourcing firm: https://www.fogbugz.com/About-Us https://www.fogbugz.com/About-Us and background: https://www.think3.com/about https://www.think3.com/about (I only noticed it a few weeks ago when I was surprised to see their address was Austin, TX)
Klinky 7y ago
There is a sizable contingent of customers who don't care if you make money and want bottom barrel prices or are just around for promos. This group can often be quite demanding without any real justification for being as such.
- xmprt 7y ago
  I don't know about you but I'd prefer that the company that's keeping all my data backed up stays in business and if that means paying an extra dollar a month, then so be it.
- cstejerean 7y ago
  So let them go and be a drain on your competitors. Those are not the customers you want.
- Bombthecat 7y ago
  The famous ten times customers. They demand ten times more attention and want only to pay a tenth of the price. Raise the price and get rid of them. Rather have 1 customer who pays 10 times the price then 10 and 9 complaining and bitching..

el_dev_hell 7y ago

Theoretcally, that's 100% true. Realistically, a large pool of users don't think about the long-term viability of a business (all they want is the world for $22 per month).

Kye 7y ago
That's quite a bit for this world. How about $1 for a nice island?

scarface74 7y ago

Unfortunately, in today’s world and even right here on HN, the emphasis on growth and valuation and ignoring profitability. I’m glad to see any company whose business model is to charge enough for a product to (hopefully) be profitable.

atYevP 7y ago
Yev here -> we HAVE to be cash-flow positive since we're not VC-funded. When we started the company it was bootstrapped, so "making enough money to survive" has always been a part of the equation!
- scarface74 7y ago
  That's good to hear... But that means you are an unhip "lifestyle business" and obviously if you're profitable, you must be doing something wrong. How do you ever expect to have an enormous exit and make your investors rich?
  - atYevP 7y ago
    Yev here -> Ah, that's a very good question. Staying in business > being hip in most cases ;-) The nice thing about being bootstrapped is that we don't have that many investors, and they're chill with just seeing how this goes. We actually do have on "traditional VC" that invested, but they are very relaxed about the whole thing and don't have a board seat, just an observer role - so they're like, if you eventually are profitable enough, just pay us back at some multiplayer and we're good - otherwise we'll wait for an exit. Nice folks! :D
    - scarface74 7y ago
      I was really being facetious toward the startup culture and praising BackBlaze. I didn’t expect a serious response... But your response was quite informative. Backblaze is one of the few smaller tech companies I admire from a business side along with Fog Creek, JetBrains and Base Camp.
      - caseysoftware 7y ago
        FogCreek sold a while back and is run by an outsourcing firm: https://www.fogbugz.com/About-Us https://www.fogbugz.com/About-Us and background: https://www.think3.com/about https://www.think3.com/about (I only noticed it a few weeks ago when I was surprised to see their address was Austin, TX)

Klinky 7y ago

There is a sizable contingent of customers who don't care if you make money and want bottom barrel prices or are just around for promos. This group can often be quite demanding without any real justification for being as such.

xmprt 7y ago
I don't know about you but I'd prefer that the company that's keeping all my data backed up stays in business and if that means paying an extra dollar a month, then so be it.
cstejerean 7y ago
So let them go and be a drain on your competitors. Those are not the customers you want.
Bombthecat 7y ago
The famous ten times customers. They demand ten times more attention and want only to pay a tenth of the price. Raise the price and get rid of them. Rather have 1 customer who pays 10 times the price then 10 and 9 complaining and bitching..