That doesn't square with my experiences at startups. A $1k/mo service would have been something a manager could sign off on themselves, and all it took to do th

That doesn't square with my experiences at startups. A $1k/mo service would have been something a manager could sign off on themselves, and all it took to do that was to get an engineer on the team be really excited about it. On the other hand, a $10K a month would have been a much harder conversation to have, falling outside the discretionary budget of a particular manager, and probably requiring meetings and demos with the head of the department to get approval.