5 ms·

It's a scary time in tech when end-users are literally seen as an unrealized capital asset to be speculatively sold directly to investors. There's something deh

It's a scary time in tech when end-users are literally seen as an unrealized capital asset to be speculatively sold directly to investors. There's something dehumanizing about this that I can't quite put my finger on.

nc 6y ago
Wait till you see how financial markets work.
echopom 6y ago
> scary time in tech when end-users are literally seen as an unrealized capital asset That's my conclusion after trying to raise capital. VC and Angels seemed disconnected from the reality and behave as pure financial analyst. No emotion or even interest on the idea just : "How much ARR ? Churn ?". Was really shocked how people behaved , but it's better to have a cold shower now than in ten years i guess. I feel like software industry is now tightly integrated with capital market , it's saddening to see that.
- WJW 6y ago
  Venture _capitalists_ and angel _investors_ are money focused? Who would've thought it. They want to buy a portion of your business because (they hope) it will make them richer, if they also think it's a good idea that is just a bonus.
- garmaine 6y ago
  When was that not the case?
  - zie 6y ago
    Just before the year 2000 tech bubble popped? :P So 20-ish years ago.
rkachowski 6y ago
when was it different?
EveYoung 6y ago
What else are customers of a for-profit company supposed to be?
jacurtis 6y ago
I'm sorry that the curtain has been pulled from your eyes this morning. But this has been the case for a very long time. I used to work in the home alarm industry. Nearly every company operates this way. They have big banks behind them (the one I had worked with used Blackstone Capital and Goldman Sachs) who would pay out a 5 year contract up front. So when they sold you a new alarm in your home for $30-$50 a month, they would take your contract to the bank and get a 5 year payout on that instantly. This is why it is so hard to get an alarm company to go away. If you cancel, they have to give back several years of your money that you haven't even paid them yet. Essentially the alarm company has already spent the money that you aren't even going to pay them for another 3-4 years. So when you cancel, they need to go sell another contract in order to pay the bank back for your cancellation. Now imagine if the guy who's contract they sold to cover your cancellation also cancels... yeah, its pretty darn close to a Ponzi scheme. I know a guy who operates a commercial water delivery company. It works the same way. He gets 24-36 month payouts on water delivery contracts. He gets paid upfront by a bank before the customer has even made their first payment. Car dealerships are selling credit notes and trading inventory that they don't even own. Home mortgage companies take your mortgage, bundle it up with a bunch of other people, some who have worse credit than you, and some who have more credit than you, and they sell it off to a bigger bank as a nice beautiful collage of mortgages called a mortgage bundle. Sometimes you don't want to know how the sausage is made. And in today's economy, banks are making sausages with some pretty nasty shit.
- jareklupinski 6y ago
  is this why it's so hard to switch away from a domain registrar?

nc 6y ago

Wait till you see how financial markets work.

echopom 6y ago

> scary time in tech when end-users are literally seen as an unrealized capital asset That's my conclusion after trying to raise capital. VC and Angels seemed disconnected from the reality and behave as pure financial analyst. No emotion or even interest on the idea just : "How much ARR ? Churn ?". Was really shocked how people behaved , but it's better to have a cold shower now than in ten years i guess. I feel like software industry is now tightly integrated with capital market , it's saddening to see that.

WJW 6y ago
Venture _capitalists_ and angel _investors_ are money focused? Who would've thought it. They want to buy a portion of your business because (they hope) it will make them richer, if they also think it's a good idea that is just a bonus.
garmaine 6y ago
When was that not the case?
- zie 6y ago
  Just before the year 2000 tech bubble popped? :P So 20-ish years ago.

rkachowski 6y ago

when was it different?

EveYoung 6y ago

What else are customers of a for-profit company supposed to be?

jacurtis 6y ago

I'm sorry that the curtain has been pulled from your eyes this morning. But this has been the case for a very long time. I used to work in the home alarm industry. Nearly every company operates this way. They have big banks behind them (the one I had worked with used Blackstone Capital and Goldman Sachs) who would pay out a 5 year contract up front. So when they sold you a new alarm in your home for $30-$50 a month, they would take your contract to the bank and get a 5 year payout on that instantly. This is why it is so hard to get an alarm company to go away. If you cancel, they have to give back several years of your money that you haven't even paid them yet. Essentially the alarm company has already spent the money that you aren't even going to pay them for another 3-4 years. So when you cancel, they need to go sell another contract in order to pay the bank back for your cancellation. Now imagine if the guy who's contract they sold to cover your cancellation also cancels... yeah, its pretty darn close to a Ponzi scheme. I know a guy who operates a commercial water delivery company. It works the same way. He gets 24-36 month payouts on water delivery contracts. He gets paid upfront by a bank before the customer has even made their first payment. Car dealerships are selling credit notes and trading inventory that they don't even own. Home mortgage companies take your mortgage, bundle it up with a bunch of other people, some who have worse credit than you, and some who have more credit than you, and they sell it off to a bigger bank as a nice beautiful collage of mortgages called a mortgage bundle. Sometimes you don't want to know how the sausage is made. And in today's economy, banks are making sausages with some pretty nasty shit.

jareklupinski 6y ago
is this why it's so hard to switch away from a domain registrar?