4 ms·

> Unfortunately, we're kind of hostage to it. The day you decided to go with Stripe you started being hostage of them, but this is not a bad thing, this is bus

by polote 6y ago

> Unfortunately, we're kind of hostage to it. The day you decided to go with Stripe you started being hostage of them, but this is not a bad thing, this is business, you choose a partner, they are allowed to change the terms if the contract permit it. People on HN always think they deserve to be treated better than others

troughway 6y ago
>People on HN always think they deserve to be treated better than others Y..you mean we won't all be millionaires when we grow up?
- arghwhat 6y ago
  No no, we will all be millionaires. Just not you specifically. Sorry.
Loughla 6y ago
>People on HN always think they deserve to be treated better than others I have noticed a significant attitude of, "I originally signed up for this product with 'x' cost and 'x' features, and you have zero right to change anything about that." It seems like a basic contract negotiation process would ferret that out - I thought that was a business thing to do. I work in higher ed, and we absolutely have to have contracts for all third-party vendors; any changes are negotiated with the start of new contracts. If we can figure it out, surely startups can - we're not really all that good at efficiency.
- ericd 6y ago
  I think trust in your providers treating you well is required for low-touch SaaS sales for key infrastructure to work well. If you don't trust your counterparties, then you get long contract negotiations and minimum viable contract sizes balloon, as many potential buyers just won't be willing to be dependent on your company without assurances.
  - robertlagrant 6y ago
    Exactly. Certain SAAS companies (cough Datadog cough) seem to have very old school sales processes in place. I don't love the larger cloud providers, but at least they lay out their standard prices, supply a price calculator, and I can figure out if I want to use them without hearing someone tell me they'll have to "clear it with their director".
    - cloudpundit 6y ago
      I imagine anytime someone says the have to "clear it with their director", you're talking about discounted or private pricing not the list pricing they have on their website. Every SaaS company has that, including the cloud providers.
      - robertlagrant 6y ago
        Well yes, one wouldn't be talking to them in the first place if it were on the website. For many companies though "Enterprise" plans are always non-website prices, so there's nothing special about negotiating them, and the salespeople pretty much always are just saying that stuff to have a chance to go away, recalculate their monthly commission chances and figure out the price to try with you rather than actually seeking permission.
wakatime 6y ago
That's why we integrated with 4 payment providers. We use a common Quote object that knows how to "apply" itself to subscriptions on all 3 (GitHub is inverse) providers. 1. Stripe 2. Braintree 3. Coinbase Commerce 4. GitHub Marketplace https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22177088 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22177088
- jerrod 6y ago
  This is smart, Alan. I like it.

by polote 6y ago

troughway 6y ago

>People on HN always think they deserve to be treated better than others Y..you mean we won't all be millionaires when we grow up?

arghwhat 6y ago
No no, we will all be millionaires. Just not you specifically. Sorry.

Loughla 6y ago

>People on HN always think they deserve to be treated better than others I have noticed a significant attitude of, "I originally signed up for this product with 'x' cost and 'x' features, and you have zero right to change anything about that." It seems like a basic contract negotiation process would ferret that out - I thought that was a business thing to do. I work in higher ed, and we absolutely have to have contracts for all third-party vendors; any changes are negotiated with the start of new contracts. If we can figure it out, surely startups can - we're not really all that good at efficiency.

ericd 6y ago
I think trust in your providers treating you well is required for low-touch SaaS sales for key infrastructure to work well. If you don't trust your counterparties, then you get long contract negotiations and minimum viable contract sizes balloon, as many potential buyers just won't be willing to be dependent on your company without assurances.
- robertlagrant 6y ago
  Exactly. Certain SAAS companies (cough Datadog cough) seem to have very old school sales processes in place. I don't love the larger cloud providers, but at least they lay out their standard prices, supply a price calculator, and I can figure out if I want to use them without hearing someone tell me they'll have to "clear it with their director".
  - cloudpundit 6y ago
    I imagine anytime someone says the have to "clear it with their director", you're talking about discounted or private pricing not the list pricing they have on their website. Every SaaS company has that, including the cloud providers.
    - robertlagrant 6y ago
      Well yes, one wouldn't be talking to them in the first place if it were on the website. For many companies though "Enterprise" plans are always non-website prices, so there's nothing special about negotiating them, and the salespeople pretty much always are just saying that stuff to have a chance to go away, recalculate their monthly commission chances and figure out the price to try with you rather than actually seeking permission.

wakatime 6y ago

That's why we integrated with 4 payment providers. We use a common Quote object that knows how to "apply" itself to subscriptions on all 3 (GitHub is inverse) providers. 1. Stripe 2. Braintree 3. Coinbase Commerce 4. GitHub Marketplace https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22177088 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22177088

jerrod 6y ago
This is smart, Alan. I like it.