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DigitalOcean S-1

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Re: DigitalOcean S-1

#251

Post by yte15 »

neom wrote: post #249
yte15 wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Negative. Slicehost launched in the middle of Linode pivoting virtualization stacks after proving out the business and running into limitations of their first stack (UML). Slicehost was ... 2006, if memory serves? Linode was a few years old by that point. For those keeping score, Linode then went to Xen and now KVM just like everyone else. Linode and Slicehost were very similar stories, though. Slicehost bootstrapped…

You do know that Jason Seats, the founder of Slicehost, was pivotal in the DigitalOcean story also?

Yes. What’s your point?

Re: DigitalOcean S-1

#253

Post by ivraatiems »

wakatime wrote: post #240
ivraatiems wrote: post #128

I might have mentioned this before, but DigitalOcean's support is (or was, before I stopped being their customer) absolutely abysmal. I had a default card set up for auto billing. That card expired. I went to remove the default card -- you cannot remove a default card. Okay. I added a new card and tried to set it as default. It didn't take. (Refreshing the browser reverted the change.) So I tried another browser, ano…

Maybe they have support tiers? Every time I created a support ticket I got a response within an hour from a technical person. Their support responds much faster than AWS in my experiences.

The responses were fast. They were just also nonsensical.

Re: DigitalOcean S-1

#254

Post by yte15 »

aantix wrote: post #179
yte14 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thesis of DigitalOcean was literally “this very established market needs a venture capital growth play because we saw Slicehost exit to Rackspace”. In the beginning the entirety of DO’s offering, tech for tech, was almost a direct lift of Linode and, as they scaled, made all the same technical mistakes and learning experiences that Linode did. I guess you could call that a fantastic product idea. I’d call it appl…

"An aggressive exit strategy" when they started in "2003"? Aggressive, as in two turtles fighting.

Linode was founded in 2003, not DigitalOcean.

Re: DigitalOcean S-1

#255

Post by ivraatiems »

oliverjudge wrote: post #129
ivraatiems wrote: post #128

I might have mentioned this before, but DigitalOcean's support is (or was, before I stopped being their customer) absolutely abysmal. I had a default card set up for auto billing. That card expired. I went to remove the default card -- you cannot remove a default card. Okay. I added a new card and tried to set it as default. It didn't take. (Refreshing the browser reverted the change.) So I tried another browser, ano…

Out of curiosity where did you move to?

I moved to BuyVM, https://buyvm.net/. I had already been using their services for a few years, I just expanded on what I already had.

They are not as large an enterprise as DigitalOcean, by a long shot, but the upside of that is you can speak with the owner and his small staff personally and get personal service. They made me a very good deal.

I also know from their Discord that they have some conservative political leanings, so if that's a thing that matters to you either way, it's there. I don't find it to be represented in their behavior towards customers or who they choose to host, so it was acceptable to me even though I feel differently.

Re: DigitalOcean S-1

#256

Post by 1f60c »

jtdev wrote: post #105

I was really considering moving from AWS to DO until I noticed this: https://www.digitalocean.com/company/contact/#abuse So anyone who's offended by content you might host on DO can report your site and some identity politics obsessed bureauocrat decides if you're cancelled or not...? The public cloud has turned into an Orwellian nightmare.

From your link:

> Report abuse:

>

> - DMCA Takedown

> - Trademark Infringement

> - Spam

> - Phishing

> - Malware

> - Botnet

> - Intrusion/exploit attempts (Bruteforce, Scans etc)

> - Child Abuse

> - Violent Threats and Harassment

> - Other

That seems like a reasonable list of stuff I wouldn't want to have my platform be used for, either. Though, one might reasonably take issue with that "Other" category, but note that--at least in the US--web hosts cannot be forced to host any content they don't want to.

Re: DigitalOcean S-1

#257

Post by CerealFounder »

neom wrote: post #62
yte14 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thesis of DigitalOcean was literally “this very established market needs a venture capital growth play because we saw Slicehost exit to Rackspace”. In the beginning the entirety of DO’s offering, tech for tech, was almost a direct lift of Linode and, as they scaled, made all the same technical mistakes and learning experiences that Linode did. I guess you could call that a fantastic product idea. I’d call it appl…

Actually, Ben and Moisey owned a managed hosting company that was coming under a lot of pressure from rackspace. DigitalOcean as a product was a direct response to that market pressure. I think if you ask any of the early executives, none of us loooovveed the venture component, it was a way to grow the business that was already growing rapidly with strong product market fit. Remember, a16z only invested once we were…

The real story is Ben and Moisey were running one of the largest hosting co's in porn and then there was a security problem via one of their upstream providers and it created a DISASTER. Thats how DO was born from what I understand.

Re: DigitalOcean S-1

#259

Post by mgfist »

firstfewshells wrote: post #167
breck wrote: post #44

Here are the problems I've had in my 7+ years as a DigitalOcean customer: . Those are the ones just off the top of my head. Love this company and it's made my life so much easier for the past near decade. Excited to see they are financially very healthy.

They've accrued up losses of $43M, $40M and $35M in the 3 preceding years. Funny how that's considered financially healthy in the world we're living right now.

Capital is cheap

Re: DigitalOcean S-1

#260

Post by gist »

kevinoconnor7 wrote: post #228
neom wrote: post #32

Interestingly it was very clear at around $10MM ARR that DO was on a trajectory to IPO. You can thank Moisey Uretsky for a fantastic product idea and his brother Ben for CEOing it for so long. Congratulations to everyone who was involved in building DigitalOcean, it was an INCREDIBLY wild ride in the early days, lots of chaos but through all the chaos and disfunction, I think everyone involved knew this day would com…

I remember interviewing with DO back in late 2014 and it was nuts! The entire interview process took ~3 months and it was clear that they were defining the process as they went. The entire process was basically: 1. initial call with recruiter 2. homework project 3. call with engineer to discuss said homework project 4. two phone screens with engineers 5. onsite interview with 6 engineers Finally I had was at the fina…

> 2. homework project > 3. call with engineer to discuss said homework project

How much time does it typically take (or should take) to complete a 'homework' project?

> 4. two phone screens with engineers > 5. onsite interview with 6 engineers

This seems very 'camel is a horse by committee' to me.

Reminds me a bit (know it's different) of dating where someone wants you to meet their family for approval. I immediately pass on those dates (and will add I am happily married to a woman who did not do that).

I wonder about situations where it takes so many inputs to make a decision to me that speaks a great deal about the decision making process being faulty.

Fwiw when I graduated college years ago I was rejected by a company (friend of the family no less) who said they couldn't hire me because 'yes you are smart but you don't know this business' (true I knew zero). So I started a company like theirs myself and now many years later they are gone and my company (which I sold) still survives. (Will add this was years before the internet and common practice for people who knew nothing to go into businesses they knew about).

Now yes I do understand programming is not the same but my point still stands why so many chefs in the kitchen? Does anyone ever go back and track the people who were rejected what happened to them?

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