5 ms·

hm. do you know where I can read more about them? or is this stuff you know personally? They did seem to grow... very quickly. My impression was that they g

by lsc 14y ago

hm. do you know where I can read more about them? or is this stuff you know personally? They did seem to grow... very quickly. My impression was that they grew much faster than linode or I. Of course, I have no numbers to back that up either way.

patio11 14y ago
It's public knowledge which I picked up in being an early customer and fan of the company. I think much of the story is summarized here: http://37signals.com/founderstories/slicehost http://37signals.com/founderstories/slicehost
- lsc 14y ago
  Interesting. thanks. I relate to "I have a limited shelf life in a big company" I mean, I'm literally 1/10th the size of slicehost when they were bought, but I have gotten a few companies courting me for a buyout... The thing is, at this point, they want the company for me, and it's pretty clear that I... well, I might stick around for a few years, but working for someone else just isn't what I want to do. I mean, I can be bought, like anyone, but I imagine that because I know this about myself? I kinda think that my attitude would scare off anyone that might buy us. I mean, to save time, I've actually come up with a formula for how much money I'd want; some lump sum dependent on the size of my company, plus another large sum for every year they want me to work for them, plus another (smaller) sum for every year they want me to avoid competing with them. I dono. This was mostly to save time; I was hit with two courtships within a relatively short period, and felt I was spending too much effort on it, but eh... I dono. I haven't gotten other nibbles for a while, so it's likely that it's rare enough that time spent on it isn't a huge deal. I've always taken Linode as the model for where I want to take my company; of course, I've gone off in kindof a different direction; I want to own a network, and a datacenter, while Linode has preferred to have multiple locations. (I mean, it's one or the other.)
- lsc 14y ago
  man, 0-20,000 users in less than 3 years? damn. I've been at it for what, seven now? eight? and I've achieved 1/10th that. Even if we only count from the time when I kinda figured out the hardware end of things, 2007 or so, that's still five years.
  - patio11 14y ago
    Congratulations on your success. The overwhelming majority of people will never run a hosting company. Of those that do, many of them will be unable to sustain it to 2k customers and run it profitably for half a decade. With regards to the new knowledge that 20k customers is possible, that just gives you something to shoot for next, right? There's something you can do that starts at 2k users today and gets you to 20k users. You know that is possible, because other people have done it. So work on that. (Knowing from previous conversations that you're rate limited on customer acquisition by processes other than marketing I'd suggest, as the Slicehost guys did, "automating the "%#)(% out of everything" and then focusing on customer acquisition as your primary job, if that is a huge priority for you.) More broadly: philosophically, if we consider ourselves failures for not doing things other people have done, then we'll all be failures essentially all of the time. That strikes me as an unhappy bit of philosophy to adopt then.
    - lsc 14y ago
      >With regards to the new knowledge that 20k customers is possible, that just gives you something to shoot for next, right? Well, yes. Mostly I'm just amazed how they did that so quickly. That is admirable. But, I guess most of my growth has been in mad dashes, too... mad dashes followed by lulls where subscriptions keep pace with cancellations. I can see how it'd be possible to keep up those mad dashes, if your automation was better to start with, and if your support was better, and the marketing. All these are things I can improve; but it's admirable how they absolutely nailed all those things in such a short period of time. >I'd suggest, as the Slicehost guys did, "automating the "%#)(% out of everything" and then focusing on customer acquisition as your primary job Yeah. This. I mean, I make the excuse that I'm too busy 'shooting alligators' but you really have to set aside time to drain the swamp (and let's be honest here, I've started a bunch of different projects... time that would have been better spent on draining the swamp by automating more of this stuff.) I did actually make a lot of progress automating the killing of old accounts the night you wrote that. (It's still a manual process, but I wrote some scripts that took it from being an all-day thing to clear out everyone to it being a 10 minute thing to clear out everyone.) >More broadly: philosophically, if we consider ourselves failures for not doing things other people have done, then we'll all be failures essentially all of the time. That strikes me as an unhappy bit of philosophy to adopt then. The balance between arrogance and considering oneself a failure is a tricky one. I mean, I know that the only thing that has come close to destroying me was that confidence. (Well, after getting out of school. That's a long story; but there certainly were plenty of strong voices saying that I can't do it then; they were all, of course, trying to get me to put in the effort to get into a reasonable college, the upshot, of course, being that nearly everyone told me I was going to work at 7-11 if I didn't go to college, and it was obvious that I wasn't going to do so. I think a lot of my arrogance is innate, but a lot of it also comes from just how easy the real world was for me, compared to school.) But yeah, PG wrote about confidence in a way that I related to, perhaps better than anyone else I've read: "But you should treat your optimism the way you'd treat the core of a nuclear reactor: as a source of power that's also very dangerous. You have to build a shield around it, or it will fry you." That line, really, is why I got interested in his writing and in this community. I've gotten burned badly, several times, by raising the control rods too much. I know that for most people I know, their big mistakes usually have to do with hitting the metaphorical SCRAM button before the reactor even gets warm, but for me? The big problems have always been that over-reach; the over confidence. Of course, Graham goes on to say: "The shielding of a reactor is not uniform; the reactor would be useless if it were. It's pierced in a few places to let pipes in. An optimism shield has to be pierced too. I think the place to draw the line is between what you expect of yourself, and what you expect of other people. It's ok to be optimistic about what you can do, but assume the worst about machines and other people." which, of course, I believe is Very Bad Advice if you are a flawed individual. Self-doubt is essential to survival. Personally, I like the control-rod metaphor. When things get too hot? you lower the rods and let things cool down. Need more power? raise the rods. But always be aware that while having no power is a problem, it's easier to clean up after a SCRAM than a meltdown. Of course, much like how it may be best for the military to select fighter pilots with irrational levels of confidence, I can see how it would be best for an investor to select founders with irrational levels of confidence. If they try hard and fail? eh, well, there's always another one waiting on the sidelines. And in both cases, there's a supervisor that tries to make sure they don't get in too much trouble. When it's just you, well, you've gotta consider the consequences of failure. And sometimes the consequences are small; if you have a corporation, and the credit is all in the corp's name? sure, take big risks and fold it if you screw up. But, make damn sure ahead of time that is possible. Those mistakes (of overconfidence in cases where the consequences of failure were non-zero) have cost me years. And nearly all of the strategic mistakes I make now are attributable to the same source. Most of my tactical mistakes are attributable to, well, my brain not functioning normally. whatever you want to call it; attention deficit disorder; being lazy, having difficulty focusing? whatever you want to call it. It does respond fairly well to a battery of only moderately unpleasant medications, so I can't complain too much. - but the thing is, I know that about myself. It had a lot to do with why I didn't do well in school. I should be able to include this margin for error in my planning; but no. that confidence takes what I can do on the days that everything is just right and plans using that; forgetting that even with medication, I get maybe three of those days a week, when I'm really paying attention to all the inputs, working out, eating right and sleeping well; Otherwise, three of those days a month is a more realistic estimate. And I really am effective on those days; even if I planned for three of those effective days a month, I seem to still meet bay area sysadmin standards, so with half a decade, I ought to be able to come up with what is maybe ten days of good solid work on this problem. I mean, I personally think that the biggest thing holding prgmr.com back the most right now is the automation, and I think the primary thing holding that back is that I've been spending my good days on other projects... that yeah, are interesting and might be worth something at some point in the future, but ultimately should take a backseat to the butter and guns.
dwynings 14y ago
http://mixergy.com/slicehost-how-a-goal-setting-bootstrapper-launch-sold-his-business-with-matt-tanase/ http://mixergy.com/slicehost-how-a-goal-setting-bootstrapper...

by lsc 14y ago

patio11 14y ago

It's public knowledge which I picked up in being an early customer and fan of the company. I think much of the story is summarized here: http://37signals.com/founderstories/slicehost http://37signals.com/founderstories/slicehost

lsc 14y ago
Interesting. thanks. I relate to "I have a limited shelf life in a big company" I mean, I'm literally 1/10th the size of slicehost when they were bought, but I have gotten a few companies courting me for a buyout... The thing is, at this point, they want the company for me, and it's pretty clear that I... well, I might stick around for a few years, but working for someone else just isn't what I want to do. I mean, I can be bought, like anyone, but I imagine that because I know this about myself? I kinda think that my attitude would scare off anyone that might buy us. I mean, to save time, I've actually come up with a formula for how much money I'd want; some lump sum dependent on the size of my company, plus another large sum for every year they want me to work for them, plus another (smaller) sum for every year they want me to avoid competing with them. I dono. This was mostly to save time; I was hit with two courtships within a relatively short period, and felt I was spending too much effort on it, but eh... I dono. I haven't gotten other nibbles for a while, so it's likely that it's rare enough that time spent on it isn't a huge deal. I've always taken Linode as the model for where I want to take my company; of course, I've gone off in kindof a different direction; I want to own a network, and a datacenter, while Linode has preferred to have multiple locations. (I mean, it's one or the other.)
lsc 14y ago
man, 0-20,000 users in less than 3 years? damn. I've been at it for what, seven now? eight? and I've achieved 1/10th that. Even if we only count from the time when I kinda figured out the hardware end of things, 2007 or so, that's still five years.
- patio11 14y ago
  Congratulations on your success. The overwhelming majority of people will never run a hosting company. Of those that do, many of them will be unable to sustain it to 2k customers and run it profitably for half a decade. With regards to the new knowledge that 20k customers is possible, that just gives you something to shoot for next, right? There's something you can do that starts at 2k users today and gets you to 20k users. You know that is possible, because other people have done it. So work on that. (Knowing from previous conversations that you're rate limited on customer acquisition by processes other than marketing I'd suggest, as the Slicehost guys did, "automating the "%#)(% out of everything" and then focusing on customer acquisition as your primary job, if that is a huge priority for you.) More broadly: philosophically, if we consider ourselves failures for not doing things other people have done, then we'll all be failures essentially all of the time. That strikes me as an unhappy bit of philosophy to adopt then.
  - lsc 14y ago
    >With regards to the new knowledge that 20k customers is possible, that just gives you something to shoot for next, right? Well, yes. Mostly I'm just amazed how they did that so quickly. That is admirable. But, I guess most of my growth has been in mad dashes, too... mad dashes followed by lulls where subscriptions keep pace with cancellations. I can see how it'd be possible to keep up those mad dashes, if your automation was better to start with, and if your support was better, and the marketing. All these are things I can improve; but it's admirable how they absolutely nailed all those things in such a short period of time. >I'd suggest, as the Slicehost guys did, "automating the "%#)(% out of everything" and then focusing on customer acquisition as your primary job Yeah. This. I mean, I make the excuse that I'm too busy 'shooting alligators' but you really have to set aside time to drain the swamp (and let's be honest here, I've started a bunch of different projects... time that would have been better spent on draining the swamp by automating more of this stuff.) I did actually make a lot of progress automating the killing of old accounts the night you wrote that. (It's still a manual process, but I wrote some scripts that took it from being an all-day thing to clear out everyone to it being a 10 minute thing to clear out everyone.) >More broadly: philosophically, if we consider ourselves failures for not doing things other people have done, then we'll all be failures essentially all of the time. That strikes me as an unhappy bit of philosophy to adopt then. The balance between arrogance and considering oneself a failure is a tricky one. I mean, I know that the only thing that has come close to destroying me was that confidence. (Well, after getting out of school. That's a long story; but there certainly were plenty of strong voices saying that I can't do it then; they were all, of course, trying to get me to put in the effort to get into a reasonable college, the upshot, of course, being that nearly everyone told me I was going to work at 7-11 if I didn't go to college, and it was obvious that I wasn't going to do so. I think a lot of my arrogance is innate, but a lot of it also comes from just how easy the real world was for me, compared to school.) But yeah, PG wrote about confidence in a way that I related to, perhaps better than anyone else I've read: "But you should treat your optimism the way you'd treat the core of a nuclear reactor: as a source of power that's also very dangerous. You have to build a shield around it, or it will fry you." That line, really, is why I got interested in his writing and in this community. I've gotten burned badly, several times, by raising the control rods too much. I know that for most people I know, their big mistakes usually have to do with hitting the metaphorical SCRAM button before the reactor even gets warm, but for me? The big problems have always been that over-reach; the over confidence. Of course, Graham goes on to say: "The shielding of a reactor is not uniform; the reactor would be useless if it were. It's pierced in a few places to let pipes in. An optimism shield has to be pierced too. I think the place to draw the line is between what you expect of yourself, and what you expect of other people. It's ok to be optimistic about what you can do, but assume the worst about machines and other people." which, of course, I believe is Very Bad Advice if you are a flawed individual. Self-doubt is essential to survival. Personally, I like the control-rod metaphor. When things get too hot? you lower the rods and let things cool down. Need more power? raise the rods. But always be aware that while having no power is a problem, it's easier to clean up after a SCRAM than a meltdown. Of course, much like how it may be best for the military to select fighter pilots with irrational levels of confidence, I can see how it would be best for an investor to select founders with irrational levels of confidence. If they try hard and fail? eh, well, there's always another one waiting on the sidelines. And in both cases, there's a supervisor that tries to make sure they don't get in too much trouble. When it's just you, well, you've gotta consider the consequences of failure. And sometimes the consequences are small; if you have a corporation, and the credit is all in the corp's name? sure, take big risks and fold it if you screw up. But, make damn sure ahead of time that is possible. Those mistakes (of overconfidence in cases where the consequences of failure were non-zero) have cost me years. And nearly all of the strategic mistakes I make now are attributable to the same source. Most of my tactical mistakes are attributable to, well, my brain not functioning normally. whatever you want to call it; attention deficit disorder; being lazy, having difficulty focusing? whatever you want to call it. It does respond fairly well to a battery of only moderately unpleasant medications, so I can't complain too much. - but the thing is, I know that about myself. It had a lot to do with why I didn't do well in school. I should be able to include this margin for error in my planning; but no. that confidence takes what I can do on the days that everything is just right and plans using that; forgetting that even with medication, I get maybe three of those days a week, when I'm really paying attention to all the inputs, working out, eating right and sleeping well; Otherwise, three of those days a month is a more realistic estimate. And I really am effective on those days; even if I planned for three of those effective days a month, I seem to still meet bay area sysadmin standards, so with half a decade, I ought to be able to come up with what is maybe ten days of good solid work on this problem. I mean, I personally think that the biggest thing holding prgmr.com back the most right now is the automation, and I think the primary thing holding that back is that I've been spending my good days on other projects... that yeah, are interesting and might be worth something at some point in the future, but ultimately should take a backseat to the butter and guns.

dwynings 14y ago

http://mixergy.com/slicehost-how-a-goal-setting-bootstrapper-launch-sold-his-business-with-matt-tanase/ http://mixergy.com/slicehost-how-a-goal-setting-bootstrapper...