4 ms·

(Render founder) I'd love to understand why you think this is the only outcome. Render has positive gross margin and a clear path to profitability based on both

by anurag 4y ago

(Render founder) I'd love to understand why you think this is the only outcome. Render has positive gross margin and a clear path to profitability based on both our growth so far and the tailwinds in this space. I'm also aware of other companies like ours that have grown all the way to IPO or are well on their way. I'm very explicit both internally and externally that an acquisition is a failure mode for Render. We're building this for the very long term and plan to keep it that way.

te_chris 4y ago
I guess I’m just default cynical these days seeing how much money’s still floating around and the scale of the cloud big 3. Apologies, it wasn’t personal. I admire your vision and hope it can work, money always seems to talk eventually though. We need more companies that have the nerve to hold on and develop on their own.
metadat 4y ago
I admire your sentiment, at the same time founding teams don't typically say no to US$XX,XXX,XXX,XXX acquisition offers that'd cash you out for at least a few billion to you personally. Are there any examples where the capitalism bottom line is ignored and a company keeps growing with extremely premium generous acquisition offers on the table? I can't think of any, but there could be a few. However, I expect it's pretty rare. For companies with such tremendous growth, the venture capitalist firms are primarily looking to make their <big-multiplier> return and push priorities accordingly (understandably). The only constant in life is change, it's best to focus on what you can do right now, today, and only put out promises or commitments that you have the necessary influence to follow through on. Some things are bigger than each of us. Best wishes and godspeed to you and fly.io!
Aeolun 4y ago
> I'd love to understand why you think this is the only outcome. I’m curious why you think it isn’t? On a long enough timescale all good things seem to be acquired by large megacorps for a fuckton of money. Slack, Linode, Minecraft, the list goes on. Eventually they all make the thing less than it was before under the founders’ vision. At least from my perspective. It won’t stop me from cheering them on, but I’m still very skeptical of them not being bought out in 10 years.
- onethought 4y ago
  Spotify, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter (kinda), Valve all have not been acquired and have existed for a long timescale...
  - fauigerzigerk 4y ago
    That's clearly survivorship bias. What you want to know is the probability of a small, independent, high quality provider remaining independent, high quality and not bankrupt. It does seem to be rare in the tech space, especially in the US. Becoming one of the largest public corporations on earth is one way to do it, as you suggested, but the odds of that happening are miniscule.
  - Aeolun 4y ago
    For obvious reasons I’m excluding the companies doing the acquiring. Except Valve I guess, but that was never a public company that could be acquired to satisfy investors in the first place.
- antupis 4y ago
  Times are now different money is not free anymore so those big acquisitions need to make real business sense.

by anurag 4y ago

te_chris 4y ago

I guess I’m just default cynical these days seeing how much money’s still floating around and the scale of the cloud big 3. Apologies, it wasn’t personal. I admire your vision and hope it can work, money always seems to talk eventually though. We need more companies that have the nerve to hold on and develop on their own.

metadat 4y ago

I admire your sentiment, at the same time founding teams don't typically say no to US$XX,XXX,XXX,XXX acquisition offers that'd cash you out for at least a few billion to you personally. Are there any examples where the capitalism bottom line is ignored and a company keeps growing with extremely premium generous acquisition offers on the table? I can't think of any, but there could be a few. However, I expect it's pretty rare. For companies with such tremendous growth, the venture capitalist firms are primarily looking to make their <big-multiplier> return and push priorities accordingly (understandably). The only constant in life is change, it's best to focus on what you can do right now, today, and only put out promises or commitments that you have the necessary influence to follow through on. Some things are bigger than each of us. Best wishes and godspeed to you and fly.io!

Aeolun 4y ago

> I'd love to understand why you think this is the only outcome. I’m curious why you think it isn’t? On a long enough timescale all good things seem to be acquired by large megacorps for a fuckton of money. Slack, Linode, Minecraft, the list goes on. Eventually they all make the thing less than it was before under the founders’ vision. At least from my perspective. It won’t stop me from cheering them on, but I’m still very skeptical of them not being bought out in 10 years.

onethought 4y ago
Spotify, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter (kinda), Valve all have not been acquired and have existed for a long timescale...
- fauigerzigerk 4y ago
  That's clearly survivorship bias. What you want to know is the probability of a small, independent, high quality provider remaining independent, high quality and not bankrupt. It does seem to be rare in the tech space, especially in the US. Becoming one of the largest public corporations on earth is one way to do it, as you suggested, but the odds of that happening are miniscule.
- Aeolun 4y ago
  For obvious reasons I’m excluding the companies doing the acquiring. Except Valve I guess, but that was never a public company that could be acquired to satisfy investors in the first place.
antupis 4y ago
Times are now different money is not free anymore so those big acquisitions need to make real business sense.