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> when there's a bottom line to answer to Having VC money doesn't mean that you can ignore finances. We are in a relatively capital-intensive business compared
by steveklabnik 2y ago
> when there's a bottom line to answer to
Having VC money doesn't mean that you can ignore finances. We are in a relatively capital-intensive business compared to a lot of the startups on HN.
> Support is typically low paid because it's a lot of effort for little reward,
Respectfully, I think this attitude is flat-out wrong. Because of this:
> there's only so much impact they can have on the bottom line.
Directly, sure. But that's the fundamental error. Good support is absolutely worth it, and do bring in value, only indirectly. That customer you kept because when they had an issue, it was resolved quickly and professionally? That's money, even if it's more difficult to quantify than sales. And it's not like support engineers aren't doing engineering as well.
- dapperdrake 2y agoLong-term growth really seems to come from keeping paying customers. Thank you, Steve.
- marcinzm 2y ago> We are in a relatively capital-intensive business compared to a lot of the startups on HN. Doesn't that just mean that employee compensation is an even smaller percentage of expenses versus other companies? So you can ignore that side of finances even more than other startups?
- steveklabnik 2y agoIt means we need to make every dollar count, because we need a lot of them.