3 ms·

From a few months ago... Braintree: Bootstrapped, Profitable, & Proud "I think VC-funded companies are more inclined to throw money and people at opportunities

by pitdesi 15y ago

From a few months ago... Braintree: Bootstrapped, Profitable, & Proud "I think VC-funded companies are more inclined to throw money and people at opportunities and problems" http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2800-bootstrapped-profitable-proud-braintree http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2800-bootstrapped-profitable-... Congrats to them - this is another great win for Chicago. Based on the article it seems they did $4.5 mil in rev in 2010... curious to see how that led to such a high valuation, even given the growth numbers. In terms of future growth, we've had Braintree customers switch to other processors using FeeFighters and were blown away by how much money they saved. Customers love their service but get angry when they realize how much they have overpaid on their merchant account. I wonder if it's sustainable from that perspective. EDIT: In case it was not clear from what I said above, I work for FeeFighters. Also - Bryan has posted a response about why they raised on Braintree's blog. Valid points. http://www.braintreepayments.com/inside-braintree/braintrees-34-million-accel-investment-yesterday-today-tomorrow http://www.braintreepayments.com/inside-braintree/braintrees...

vrikhter 15y ago
Is their service a lot better? We noticed the same thing when pricing them out (via feefighters of course), but figured there had to have been some reason for the higher cost.
davepeck 15y ago
I'm using Braintree for my new app (https://www.getcloak.com/ https://www.getcloak.com/) and am extremely happy. They have incredibly responsive customer support, both business and technical. When I reported a unicode-related bug in their Python API, the technical team responded coherently within a few hours and released a new API revision within 48. Can't beat that... On the API front there are some minor issues. For example, their subscription API is excellent except when dealing with upgrades/downgrades. Upgrades can be prorated and billed immediately; downgrades (sensibly) must wait until the next billing cycle. Unfortunately, the downgrade is _recorded_ immediately -- you don't have a notion of a pending plan. Hence a user can downgrade/upgrade repeatedly during a _single_ billing cycle and end up spending an arbitrarily large amount of money.
dan_manges 15y ago
For a clear disclosure, you work for FeeFighters and as such your comments regarding our customers (I work for Braintree) may not be completely impartial. Edit: thanks for the edit.

by pitdesi 15y ago

vrikhter 15y ago

Is their service a lot better? We noticed the same thing when pricing them out (via feefighters of course), but figured there had to have been some reason for the higher cost.

davepeck 15y ago

I'm using Braintree for my new app (https://www.getcloak.com/ https://www.getcloak.com/) and am extremely happy. They have incredibly responsive customer support, both business and technical. When I reported a unicode-related bug in their Python API, the technical team responded coherently within a few hours and released a new API revision within 48. Can't beat that... On the API front there are some minor issues. For example, their subscription API is excellent except when dealing with upgrades/downgrades. Upgrades can be prorated and billed immediately; downgrades (sensibly) must wait until the next billing cycle. Unfortunately, the downgrade is _recorded_ immediately -- you don't have a notion of a pending plan. Hence a user can downgrade/upgrade repeatedly during a _single_ billing cycle and end up spending an arbitrarily large amount of money.

dan_manges 15y ago

For a clear disclosure, you work for FeeFighters and as such your comments regarding our customers (I work for Braintree) may not be completely impartial. Edit: thanks for the edit.