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Bitwarden raises $100M

bitwarden.com

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Re: Bitwarden raises $100M

#251

Post by lotsofpulp »

metadaemon wrote: post #175
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #131

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'…

Ah, the lifecycle of a company. I think of the first rounds of funding as a sort of puberty. Going public is the mid-life crisis, signaling the downward spiral towards inevitable death. Of course, being bought out is like God taking Enoch directly to heaven, where who knows what happens. Those large companies with unnatural lifespans have somehow tapped into the deep, dark magic of the Elder Ones (usually government…

> Those large companies with unnatural lifespans have somehow tapped into the deep, dark magic of the Elder Ones (usually government contracts).

Or they are simply in businesses with enormous barriers to entry such as designing some of the most complex microchips, writing some of the most complex software, building huge facilities all over the world, and, of course, being prepared to take advantage of a new opportunity at the right place at the right time.

Re: Bitwarden raises $100M

#252

Post by wise0wl »

przemub wrote: post #141
nabaraz wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting approach. Any blogs you could point me to? I am also looking to self-host Bitwarden.

I think you don't need anything else by the README of vaultwarden. https://github.com/dani-garcia/vaultwarden It has worked for me great without any issues for over a year now.

I agree. I've been using Vaultwarden on ARM for over a year and it's been flawless. Just excellent execution and seamless integration with the iOS App Store version of the Bitwarden client.

Re: Bitwarden raises $100M

#253

Post by folkrav »

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…

Not gonna lie, I'm having a hard time justifying the 3-4x increase in cost for Padloc vs. Bitwarden. The pricing is only rivaled by 1Password, which makes it a hard sell to me...

Re: Bitwarden raises $100M

#254

Post by [deleted] »

burntalmonds wrote: post #197
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…

Yeah, that's why I have just stuck with Apple's keychain.

[deleted]

Re: Bitwarden raises $100M

#255

Post by blasphemers »

scarface74 wrote: post #104
jorvi wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and not enough people are willing to pay for it to be a profitable business. 1Password is doing just fine..

Now they are also raising rounds of funding “chasing after the enterprise”. Every single time a small bootstrapped company tries to “accelerate growth by going after the enterprise” the product gets worse for consumers. See also DropBox. 1Password’s desktop app is much worse than it use to be all while each platforms built in capabilities are getting better.

That's because they did a complete rewrite of it, something they talked about on a couple podcasts before they took on funding.

Re: Bitwarden raises $100M

#256

Post by _abox »

bborud wrote: post #152

I switched to Bitwarden when LastPass started using silly tactics to make customers pay. I didn't switch because of the price - the service pricing of Bitwarden was a pleasant surprise. I switched because I lost all trust in LastPass. Managing credentials and sensitive information is all about trust. The second I lose trust in that kind of service, I don't just stop using it, I will most likely never even consider co…

> What the VCs have to understand is that if their greed makes them push Bitwarden to engage in silly tactics, they risk driving away their customer base.

They don't care as long as they can extract their profit before that happens. This is VC, they will prioritize medium term gains over long term stability.

Re: Bitwarden raises $100M

#257

Post by WhyNotHugo »

yewenjie wrote: post #20

> The Bitwarden business model will not change Bitwarden remains committed to A fully featured free version, forever An open source architecture The ability to self-host Advanced business features This is great!

> A fully featured free version, forever

It doesn't say they won't have ads or sell your data. Hint: their privacy policy is already terrible. No mention of GDPR or of them complying with any privacy laws. Their privacy policy mentions "EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Frameworks" for exporting user data to the US, a framework which has been declared bogus by the EU courts years ago.

> An open source architecture

There's no many examples of "open core" calling itself "open source" that if they decide to switch to open core they'll just be another drop in the bucket.

They also require contributors to sign a CLA, which is always a huge red flag.

> Advanced business features

What happened to "fully featured free version" above? Are the business ones separate?

Re: Bitwarden raises $100M

#258

Post by purim »

pwpw wrote: post #155
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…

That’s a hell of a disclaimer after a decently alarmist comment. You may be correct, but I’m not sure it’s appropriate for you to raise that point given the conflict of interest.

The only conflict of interest here is the VC looking for a quick exit as rates are rising and your comment shooting down what appears to be a bootstrapped alternative/competition.

Althought I wonder how much it will take for this padloc fellow to turn around and announce that he decided to accept VC or even worse, issuing tokens on Ethereum.

We are almost at the Minsky moment and lot of founders are going to realize they no longer own the companies built.

Re: Bitwarden raises $100M

#259

Post by mrorbitman »

ndand wrote: post #248
javajosh wrote: post #144

That is a LOT of money. $100M. That's enough money for ~50 people to live on $100k/year for the rest of their lives. You could pick 50 thinkers, scientists, artists and say "hey you never have to work again, just do your thing". But instead you invest it in a startup that will almost certainly burn it up in a couple of years of 7 figure salaries for execs and fail. What a waste.

Not for the rest of their lives. 50 people can live on $100k/year for 20 years.

if you assume typical stock market returns, ~$2M is enough to retire on and live on $100k a year of interest gained alone.

Re: Bitwarden raises $100M

#260

Post by MaKleSoft »

Tijdreiziger wrote: post #242
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…

Have you undergone a security audit like Bitwarden? Why would I trust you instead? I'm (casually) looking to move off LastPass. Padloc looks pretty good, but I'm hesitant to go with an 'unproven' solution.

Yes. We've been around for quite a while actually, and have completed three independent audits. One just recently by Radically Open Security [0].

[0] https://padloc.app/blog/security-audit-ros/

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