3 ms·
Underrated comment. A lot of “growth” is tricks. I have seen so many software companies sacrifice the fundamental health of the product in order to hit certain
by erikpukinskis 5y ago
Underrated comment. A lot of “growth” is tricks. I have seen so many software companies sacrifice the fundamental health of the product in order to hit certain “growth” numbers, on the assumption that they’ll just be able to keep doing it. But the more realistic outcome is either acquisition (pass the buck and reset the clock) or catastrophic failure.
- kdmccormick 5y agoSee: * Strongarming new user account creation even though most new users will immediately bounce. * Removing features from the free tier to "drive conversions" to premium, whilst ruining the quality of the free tier that drew users in the first place. * Filling the product with re-engagement nagware and notification bloat. etc.
- novok 5y agoTo be fair although, the entire existence of a free tier is to draw in people to premium, usually funded by VCs demanding an exponential growth curve. If they were bootstrapped, the free tier is pretty much non-existant in practice.
- imtringued 5y agoI think the vast majority of VC funded companies could make a profit if investors didn't demand exponential growth. Overfunding and shutting down companies is a choice they are willing to make. What our economy needs isn't the next billion dollar company. It needs lots of small companies to get away from corporate power. It's actually quite strange how VCs are trying to basically create monopolies. They are trying to find the business equivalent of real estate.
- BeFlatXIII 5y agoThis is the exact kind of behavior I criticized the other day [1] when I said that making products monetizable makes them worse. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28408862 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28408862