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Bitwarden raises $100M

bitwarden.com

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Re: Bitwarden raises $100M

#131

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

I'm not referring to Bitwarden here but isn't this the standard M.O. of any SV startup?

1. Release great product for free

2. Attract as many free users as possible to signal growth to investors

3. Keep running the unprofitable free tier at a loss as long as possible using your massive VC war chest, while locking in your users with various gotchas

4. Once you reach critical scale and gained mass user adoption and you've obliterated your competition with your bigger war chest, start monetizing and rentseeking your locked in userbase and squeezing them so the VC investors can start getting their money back or cross your fingers for an exit from a FAANG with big pockets

5. Gain a lot of negative publicity, so now a lot of startups pop up like mushrooms after rain, to poach your disgruntled users and compete with you using the exact same M.O. you did. Rinse and repeat.

Did I miss anything?

Re: Bitwarden raises $100M

#132

Post by rvz »

MaKleSoft wrote: post #125

If you're a Bitwarden user and this doesn't worry you, you haven't been paying attention to the history of almost every company that has accepted VC funds. It doesn't matter how well intentioned the founders are - once you accept that kind of money, it's not your product anymore. You are now in the business of making money, nothing else, and those skewed incentives will start bleeding into their product and business…

They're right you know. This happened to Keybase a while back and some nasty stuff happened to it and it is now in someone else's hands.

Hope this won't happen to Bitwarden but we'll see. But anything is still possible.

Re: Bitwarden raises $100M

#133

Post by mcdan »

MaKleSoft wrote: post #125

If you're a Bitwarden user and this doesn't worry you, you haven't been paying attention to the history of almost every company that has accepted VC funds. It doesn't matter how well intentioned the founders are - once you accept that kind of money, it's not your product anymore. You are now in the business of making money, nothing else, and those skewed incentives will start bleeding into their product and business…

Isn't bitwarden[0] already open source and aren't you just asking people to trust you till you take VC money?

[0] - https://github.com/bitwarden/server

Re: Bitwarden raises $100M

#134

Post by jakswa »

kinnth wrote: post #97

Bitwarden replaced lastpass for me and really i'd never go back. My only gripe is filling in card details, there is never a floating icon to click to do it automatically, you need to go to the menu bar and select the card. Apart from that all perfect!

"My only gripe is filling in card details, there is never a floating icon to click to do it automatically, you need to go to the menu bar and select the card."

At one point I became convinced that this is actually a security feature. If I recall, an article demonstrated tricking users into entering their master password using those "in-browser" decorations. I could write some html/js to build your password manager icon/etc and trick you into thinking I'm your password manager? I now accept it as a necessary UX chore to leave the browser page, but would be interested in being wrong.

Re: Bitwarden raises $100M

#135

Post by Diris »

cmeacham98 wrote: post #31
michaelmior wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why would a password manager need so much money? The announcement suggests they are looking to also launch their own authentication service and tools for managing application secrets.

How did I have to scroll this far down to find someone who's actually read the post? Everybody seems to think the money is purely for expanding the password manager, while in the post they call out adjacent markets they want to expand to. I'm cautiously optimistic that this could mean we won't see the end of Bitwarden, as those are areas where companies will pay big money.

Now one hour later, the post is at the top! It probably just needed time : )

Re: Bitwarden raises $100M

#136

Post by PartiallyTyped »

michaelmior wrote: post #24
NickHoff wrote: post #10

Bitwarden already does one thing well. It's everything I'm looking for - open source, costs money but not much ($10/yr), 2FA, clean interface. I'm happy for the new investment, but I hope they don't start adding new things just for the sake of growing. Also - to the people who analyze funding rounds - $100M sounds like a huge amount to me. Why would a password manager need so much money?

> Why would a password manager need so much money? The announcement suggests they are looking to also launch their own authentication service and tools for managing application secrets.

Given apple's push for passwordless web in collaboration w/ Google and M$ [1], I was worried that BW will go out of business, but they have plans for this and I hope they succeed.

[1] https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/05/apple-google-and-micr...

Re: Bitwarden raises $100M

#137

Post by ensignavenger »

JshWright wrote: post #119
411111111111111 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't there already a standard for that: webauthn ? Hasn't really caught on, despite being several years in the making already

Sure, a standard exists, but that by itself isn't a great user experience. If you actually try to use something like a YubiKey you end up having to register multiple keys with each site to deal with lost key (assuming the site allows that in the first place). The you have to remember which keys correspond to which sites, and remember to get your backup key out each time you sign up somewhere new , etc. Google, Apple,…

I find that the essayist way to handle backup keys is with a printout of 10-20 pre-generated auth codes, which go in my safe. Much easier than having a backup hardware key I have to remove and then replace from my safe, each time I need to add a new service service.

Re: Bitwarden raises $100M

#138

Post by toastal »

scarface74 wrote: post #88
phpisthebest wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the number of businesses out there doing it I would venture to guess you are wrong. Also Bitwarden and other password managers are not just about storing the passwords. For example on a personal level I use bitwarden family to manage my Parents passwords and to assist them with issue on various service, this gives me away to setup accounts and securely share passwords with them for the services, and vice versa…

Why are large businesses “sharing passwords” between users? What happens when one user leaves? Isn’t sharing a password in a business context like “Things you shouldn’t do” 101?

Realistically? Many services charge by the seat, so for a service that doesn't get used to often, a lot of places will use a shared account as a cost-cutting measure. Subscriptions add up.

Re: Bitwarden raises $100M

#139

Post by elashri »

alberth wrote: post #69

Does vaultwarden have plans to reimplement everything Bitwarden does so that we another option?

Not everything, on their wiki page (1) they have a list of missing features. They alao state that some of them probably are not going to be implemented. At least unless someone contributed any of them. [1] https://github.com/dani-garcia/vaultwarden/wiki#wiki-pages-b...
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