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Launch HN: Lago (YC S21) – Open-source usage-based billing

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Launch HN: Lago (YC S21) – Open-source usage-based billing

#51

Post by throwaway744678 »

Rafsark wrote: post #47
Kiro wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a pretty obnoxious reply, especially considering they are your alumni. Be more humble.

Hi Kiro, I don't consider this an impudent response. We strive to base our answers on facts, from both the team and product perspectives. We tried to detail differences from a product point of view. We respect everyone in this space, including established vendors and newcomers. They all have a positive influence on our product, pushing us to deliver faster with higher quality.

Don't sweat it, your answer reads fine.

Re: Launch HN: Lago (YC S21) – Open-source usage-based billing

#52

Post by louis-lau »

Rafsark wrote: post #36
nylonstrung wrote: post #31

How do you guys differ from Lotus, the other YC open-source usage based billing company?

Hi, First of all, we launched our open source billing repository months before they did. In fact, they even reached out to us for inspiration. This could be related to the fact that our team has prior experience building billing engines, so we have a better understanding of the space. From a product perspective, our coverage is more extensive. We provide more advanced coupons, usage-based components and billing use-c…

I love your product, but this reply reads snarky and arrogant.

Re: Launch HN: Lago (YC S21) – Open-source usage-based billing

#53

Post by addandsubtract »

If I have a marketplace (something like RapidAPI or Shopify, for example), can I use Lago to allow my providers to create custom pricing plans for their customers? Skimming the Lago API, I see that I can create all the parts of custom pricing plans, but can I group/separate them as well? As in, can there be pricing plans for company A with coupons for A, but company B has their own plans and coupons? Is that something Lago supports, or at least something that I can accomplish with my business logic (ie. prefixing plans with A, B, etc) – or completely out of scope?

Re: Launch HN: Lago (YC S21) – Open-source usage-based billing

#54

Post by fragmede »

louis-lau wrote: post #52
Rafsark wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, First of all, we launched our open source billing repository months before they did. In fact, they even reached out to us for inspiration. This could be related to the fact that our team has prior experience building billing engines, so we have a better understanding of the space. From a product perspective, our coverage is more extensive. We provide more advanced coupons, usage-based components and billing use-c…

I love your product, but this reply reads snarky and arrogant.

If the underlying premise of the message is "mine is better", how would you phrase it without coming off as arrogant?

Re: Launch HN: Lago (YC S21) – Open-source usage-based billing

#55

Post by ezekg »

AnhTho_FR wrote: post #12
arnon wrote: post #3

Congrats Anh-Tho and Raffi! I think this will be big

Thanks Arnon! I often keep sharing your blog post on entitlements: https://arnon.dk/why-you-should-separate-your-billing-from-e... !

This is a great answer to a question I get asked a lot. Thanks for sharing!

Re: Launch HN: Lago (YC S21) – Open-source usage-based billing

#56

Post by louis-lau »

fragmede wrote: post #54
louis-lau wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love your product, but this reply reads snarky and arrogant.

If the underlying premise of the message is "mine is better", how would you phrase it without coming off as arrogant?

IMO starting with "first of all we were there first" kind of sets the tone for the whole message. Here's how I would have written the same message:

Hi! Lotus has a great product. We should know, as they reached out to us for inspiration before. Our team has prior experience building billing engines, so we have a very good understanding of the space.

From a product perspective, our coverage is more extensive. We provide more advanced coupons, usage-based components and billing use-cases. For example, we offer credit notes and refunds, small examples that are not listed in their API. Our product covers more billing edge-cases and deeper features.

While we don't know how many customers Lotus has in production, our top user is invoicing 5M customers a month!

Overall, we believe at this point that our product is more advanced. We wish them luck though, the more products in this space the better.

Re: Launch HN: Lago (YC S21) – Open-source usage-based billing

#57

Post by hummus_bae »

rapnie wrote: post #15

I submitted separately [0] your blogpost "Open-source licensing and why Lago chose AGPLv3" [1]. I find this a refreshing and good read that counters the usual FUD so many people raise when hearing about the AGPL. In the article is mentioned Plausible [2] who also managed to create a great business this way, and in direct competition to Google Analytics. Well done. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34773891 https:/…

Exactly. We’ve seen people go from “I don’t want to do this because I don’t want to force my users” to “Guys let’s do it AGPL it’s the way to go”.

Restricting your usage tracking to your users is fine until you start shouting to them directly on their phones.

Re: Launch HN: Lago (YC S21) – Open-source usage-based billing

#59

Post by AnhTho_FR »

louis-lau wrote: post #56
fragmede wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the underlying premise of the message is "mine is better", how would you phrase it without coming off as arrogant?

IMO starting with "first of all we were there first" kind of sets the tone for the whole message. Here's how I would have written the same message: Hi! Lotus has a great product. We should know, as they reached out to us for inspiration before. Our team has prior experience building billing engines, so we have a very good understanding of the space. From a product perspective, our coverage is more extensive. We provi…

(Lago co-founder here) Thanks for your message Louis, we always welcome genuine and actionable feedback and appreciate the time you invested into writing an example!
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