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The new CEO concerns me. I didn't know who the founder was but I always had the impression it was a lone hacker. They passed the baton. Now it's some old Web 1.

by 22289d 3y ago

The new CEO concerns me. I didn't know who the founder was but I always had the impression it was a lone hacker. They passed the baton. Now it's some old Web 1.0 guy who was the CEO of eFax in the 90's. That's not the type of service I thought I was using. I looked up their headquarters in Santa Barbara and it's a co-working space. That doesn't sound very secure. Though that could be their corp address and they're hiding where they work.

louthy 3y ago
> The new CEO concerns me. I didn't know who the founder was but I always had the impression it was a lone hacker. They passed the baton. Now it's some old Web 1.0 guy who was the CEO of eFax in the 90's. This sounds like ageism to me. I don't know if this guy is any good or not, but calling out someone as a 'concern' just because they were successful in the past isn't a good look. Is there anything more substantive behind your concern?
- oooyay 3y ago
  I've never heard "web 1.0 guy" as a pejorative, on top of what you said. For the curious, Michael Crandell is the CEO and he founded Right Scale in 2007 which exited in 2018 with 250 employees. He was EVP at eFax in the early aughts, which would have been somewhere in his twenties. He's a Stanford and Harvard graduate as well as a self-taught programmer in assembly. Here's an interview with him: https://medium.com/authority-magazine/michael-crandell-of-bitwarden-5-things-you-need-to-know-to-optimize-your-companys-approach-to-6844f97dd875 https://medium.com/authority-magazine/michael-crandell-of-bi... Kyle Spearrin is still at BitWarden and is listed as the Founder & CTO: https://bitwarden.com/about/ https://bitwarden.com/about/ It looks like he lives in Jacksonville, FL and has a lot of hobbies. Maybe this is some internalization, but thinking about another engineer referring to me, pejoratively, as a "web 1.0 engineer" would probably leave me confused. Am I supposed to be ashamed I played in the early days of the web?
  - mananaysiempre 3y ago
    > he founded Right Scale in 2007 which exited in 2018 with 250 employees. A strong negative signal as far as I am concerned. For a consumer-oriented software startup, an “exit” is most of the time a polite euphemism for selling the userbase to a juicing machine of some sort; the second place is taken by selling the product to an enterprise-oriented business which doesn’t want the userbase and eventually will, with more or less grace, show them the door. Therefore, when I see a consumer-oriented, VC-funded startup, I don’t see why I should consider trusting them for even a second. Dine on the free lunch while it lasts, yes; squirrel away every bit of software they’re willing to release, yes; trust, depend on, or invest even a tiniest bit of my time, no.
    - oooyay 3y ago
      Right Scale was a cost management platform; this is the product now: https://www.flexera.com/products/cloud-management-platform https://www.flexera.com/products/cloud-management-platform. I don't think I'd refer to it as consumer oriented. The exit seems to be motivated by an industry shift to containers, which building cost models for is a significantly different business: https://www.forbes.com/sites/janakirammsv/2018/09/26/flexera-acquires-rightscale-the-multi-cloud-management-platform-company/?sh=552078835433 https://www.forbes.com/sites/janakirammsv/2018/09/26/flexera... Based on the interview I linked BitWarden is going down a venture of trying to offer vault-like enterprise secrets management on top of BitWardens tech, which could mean they're trying to monetize the more enterprise side of their business.
  - kstrauser 3y ago
    I’m with you on all that. Web 1.0… so he has a fundamental understanding of how the Internet works? And was successful before blockchain nonsense came around? Sounds like good qualifications to me.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  - 22289d 3y ago
- 22289d 3y ago
  I like my software written by nerds, not business guys from the dotcom era. You can try to poke holes in that with whatever isms you want, it's still true. And I'm not alone.
  - nativeit 3y ago
    It’s a good thing you’re practicing what you preach and not pigeon holing anyone then.
xxkylexx 3y ago
The "new" CEO has been at the helm since 2019. Long before the mentioned funding in 2022. We don't really have a HQ since we are a 100% remote company. Source: I am the Bitwarden founder.
- junon 3y ago
  Can you maybe touch a bit on the intended relationship between you and the VC? Are there plans to do aggressive monetization of Bitwarden? As a long time user, I'm a bit concerned as well.
  - xxkylexx 3y ago
    Bitwarden has had VC investors for years, long before the mentioned 2022 funding. I think our track record to date shows how we operate in this relationship. We specifically choose partners that align with our vision, not just anyone that comes off the street wanting to throw money at us (though there are many). Our health as a company afford us this luxury. Bitwarden is and has been monetized since the beginning. There are no plans to change how we monetize our products. It's working well for us.
    - junon 3y ago
      Thanks, then this all seems to be much ado about nothing. Cheers!
      - sleepybrett 3y ago
        that or check back in a year when the founder will say, "... the realaties of the market..."
        nativeit 3y ago
        You could ask them, you’re replying to the founder right now, after all.

by 22289d 3y ago

louthy 3y ago

> The new CEO concerns me. I didn't know who the founder was but I always had the impression it was a lone hacker. They passed the baton. Now it's some old Web 1.0 guy who was the CEO of eFax in the 90's. This sounds like ageism to me. I don't know if this guy is any good or not, but calling out someone as a 'concern' just because they were successful in the past isn't a good look. Is there anything more substantive behind your concern?

oooyay 3y ago
I've never heard "web 1.0 guy" as a pejorative, on top of what you said. For the curious, Michael Crandell is the CEO and he founded Right Scale in 2007 which exited in 2018 with 250 employees. He was EVP at eFax in the early aughts, which would have been somewhere in his twenties. He's a Stanford and Harvard graduate as well as a self-taught programmer in assembly. Here's an interview with him: https://medium.com/authority-magazine/michael-crandell-of-bitwarden-5-things-you-need-to-know-to-optimize-your-companys-approach-to-6844f97dd875 https://medium.com/authority-magazine/michael-crandell-of-bi... Kyle Spearrin is still at BitWarden and is listed as the Founder & CTO: https://bitwarden.com/about/ https://bitwarden.com/about/ It looks like he lives in Jacksonville, FL and has a lot of hobbies. Maybe this is some internalization, but thinking about another engineer referring to me, pejoratively, as a "web 1.0 engineer" would probably leave me confused. Am I supposed to be ashamed I played in the early days of the web?
- mananaysiempre 3y ago
  > he founded Right Scale in 2007 which exited in 2018 with 250 employees. A strong negative signal as far as I am concerned. For a consumer-oriented software startup, an “exit” is most of the time a polite euphemism for selling the userbase to a juicing machine of some sort; the second place is taken by selling the product to an enterprise-oriented business which doesn’t want the userbase and eventually will, with more or less grace, show them the door. Therefore, when I see a consumer-oriented, VC-funded startup, I don’t see why I should consider trusting them for even a second. Dine on the free lunch while it lasts, yes; squirrel away every bit of software they’re willing to release, yes; trust, depend on, or invest even a tiniest bit of my time, no.
  - oooyay 3y ago
    Right Scale was a cost management platform; this is the product now: https://www.flexera.com/products/cloud-management-platform https://www.flexera.com/products/cloud-management-platform. I don't think I'd refer to it as consumer oriented. The exit seems to be motivated by an industry shift to containers, which building cost models for is a significantly different business: https://www.forbes.com/sites/janakirammsv/2018/09/26/flexera-acquires-rightscale-the-multi-cloud-management-platform-company/?sh=552078835433 https://www.forbes.com/sites/janakirammsv/2018/09/26/flexera... Based on the interview I linked BitWarden is going down a venture of trying to offer vault-like enterprise secrets management on top of BitWardens tech, which could mean they're trying to monetize the more enterprise side of their business.
- kstrauser 3y ago
  I’m with you on all that. Web 1.0… so he has a fundamental understanding of how the Internet works? And was successful before blockchain nonsense came around? Sounds like good qualifications to me.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- 22289d 3y ago
22289d 3y ago
I like my software written by nerds, not business guys from the dotcom era. You can try to poke holes in that with whatever isms you want, it's still true. And I'm not alone.
- nativeit 3y ago
  It’s a good thing you’re practicing what you preach and not pigeon holing anyone then.

xxkylexx 3y ago

The "new" CEO has been at the helm since 2019. Long before the mentioned funding in 2022. We don't really have a HQ since we are a 100% remote company. Source: I am the Bitwarden founder.

junon 3y ago
Can you maybe touch a bit on the intended relationship between you and the VC? Are there plans to do aggressive monetization of Bitwarden? As a long time user, I'm a bit concerned as well.
- xxkylexx 3y ago
  Bitwarden has had VC investors for years, long before the mentioned 2022 funding. I think our track record to date shows how we operate in this relationship. We specifically choose partners that align with our vision, not just anyone that comes off the street wanting to throw money at us (though there are many). Our health as a company afford us this luxury. Bitwarden is and has been monetized since the beginning. There are no plans to change how we monetize our products. It's working well for us.
  - junon 3y ago
    Thanks, then this all seems to be much ado about nothing. Cheers!
    - sleepybrett 3y ago
      that or check back in a year when the founder will say, "... the realaties of the market..."
      - nativeit 3y ago
        You could ask them, you’re replying to the founder right now, after all.