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What companies offer noteworthy discounts or startup programs for bootstrappers?

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Re: What companies offer noteworthy discounts or startup programs for bootstrappers?

#21

Post by hcks »

Nextgrid wrote: post #18
HatchedLake721 wrote: post #12

HubSpot startup program is weird. We saw it advertised as 90% off on a startup platform we're part of, applied, and we were told since we're a bootstrapped business and haven't raised any money, we can only get 30% off. It left a sour taste in my mouth. If you're bootstrapping a business counting every penny of your own money, you're at disadvantage, but if you raised $2 million, we're happy to save some of your VC m…

The whole VC startup/tech bubble needs external money to go into the system. They aren't very interested in taking VC-funded companies money because it will be like taking something out of your right pocket and putting it into the left one - it doesn't do anything to prevent the bubble from popping. External money (from outside the bubble) however is very important since it's the only thing that will stave off the ev…

There is no conspiracy here.

It makes a lot of sense to offer a service for free (as a customer acquisition tactic) to a VC funded company because the 2 options are either they go bankrupt or they can be charged 100 times more revenue in 2 years.

On the other hand what is the point of subsidising a bootstrapped business potentially forever?

Re: What companies offer noteworthy discounts or startup programs for bootstrappers?

#22

Post by icedchai »

HatchedLake721 wrote: post #12

HubSpot startup program is weird. We saw it advertised as 90% off on a startup platform we're part of, applied, and we were told since we're a bootstrapped business and haven't raised any money, we can only get 30% off. It left a sour taste in my mouth. If you're bootstrapping a business counting every penny of your own money, you're at disadvantage, but if you raised $2 million, we're happy to save some of your VC m…

If you had told them you raised X mil, would they verify it?

Re: What companies offer noteworthy discounts or startup programs for bootstrappers?

#24

Post by techdragon »

_fat_santa wrote: post #17
HatchedLake721 wrote: post #12

HubSpot startup program is weird. We saw it advertised as 90% off on a startup platform we're part of, applied, and we were told since we're a bootstrapped business and haven't raised any money, we can only get 30% off. It left a sour taste in my mouth. If you're bootstrapping a business counting every penny of your own money, you're at disadvantage, but if you raised $2 million, we're happy to save some of your VC m…

Same story with AWS. If you got VC money they give you up to $100k in credits, if you're bootstrapped they give you only around $1k

I always found this one rather insulting.

It basically means VC money is a get out of jail free card for a lot of early potential mistakes and miscalculations you can make while working out how much it will cost you to build your business on the back of AWS and how that affects your own pricing model… and the 100x ratio is just rubbing phosphorus into the wound and what elevates this to just insulting to me, it’s one thing to have a 50% or 100% difference in the amount of discount you get (like the already stated example where the VC funds mean you get 90% off, and the bootstrapped customer gets only 30%, that’s a 200% greater discount)

With the 100x on the free AWS credits that’s the equivalent of 10000% discount to the VC funded customer… and when I know that bullshit half baked ideas by people with good networking connections in California are getting a discount like that while I’m working hard to build some sort of legitimate business with my own money… it just feels like Amazon saying “fuck you we don’t want your real business we just want these idiots with their fake business”… it’s not a good vibe to give off.

Re: What companies offer noteworthy discounts or startup programs for bootstrappers?

#26

Post by VectaraStartups »

Vectara Startup Partnerships program empowers startups to infuse GenAI functionality into development of Startup solution/MVP offerings. The program offers exclusive access to Vectara’s GenAI enterprise features, financial incentive with discounts and up to $5K platform credits, and a tailored success journey to enable startup success. vectara.com/startups

Re: What companies offer noteworthy discounts or startup programs for bootstrappers?

#27

Post by hiatus »

icedchai wrote: post #22
HatchedLake721 wrote: post #12

HubSpot startup program is weird. We saw it advertised as 90% off on a startup platform we're part of, applied, and we were told since we're a bootstrapped business and haven't raised any money, we can only get 30% off. It left a sour taste in my mouth. If you're bootstrapping a business counting every penny of your own money, you're at disadvantage, but if you raised $2 million, we're happy to save some of your VC m…

If you had told them you raised X mil, would they verify it?

Are you really going to commit fraud for AWS credits? Lying for a monetary gain does not seem like the start of a good partnership.

Re: What companies offer noteworthy discounts or startup programs for bootstrappers?

#30

Post by spzb »

gabrielsroka wrote: post #28
p2hari wrote: post #3

This is a good one and would recommend the list to bootstappers. https://github.com/jixserver/free-for-dev

It looks good but it was last updated 6 years ago. They don't seem to be taking issues or PRs.

Try this one : https://free-for.dev/

Its associated Github repo shows updates as recently as yesterday

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