I work at a startup. But I've got mixed feelings about this. My last gig was at a mid-sized manufacturer. We bought a reasonably expensive product from a sta

I work at a startup. But I've got mixed feelings about this. My last gig was at a mid-sized manufacturer. We bought a reasonably expensive product from a startup. We bought installation, and support. Worked for me: I didn't have to think about it much, except as a bit of hardware in a rack. 18 months later they folded. The day _after_ that I got a call from my boss: 'you now own X'. Go forth and support. It was a constant PITA from that point until we got rid of it, two years later. And it really soured the company on 'startups'.