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Zoho is attracting the attention of African startup founders

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Re: Zoho is attracting the attention of African startup founders

#201

Post by freedomben »

azemetre wrote: post #165
freedomben wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh man, be very careful with that. I don't know about AWS specifically, but many of those big tech companies have powerful ways to get you, and they often use them. You may be silently blacklisting yourself from being an AWS customer in the future. As they are fond of saying, cancelling the card is not cancelling the service. You still owe the money!

These fears are why I never use AWS, GCP, Azure, etc and prefer something simple like DigitalOcean where I just add money to my funds via PayPal. If I exceed the limit, they shut down my account. Highly preferable than accidentally getting banned from say Google and losing my gmail where I access incredibly important things like healthcare, finances, utilities, etc.

Same, most of the time, although I don't use Digital Ocean much after a client of mine issued a charge back having forgotten what "Digital Ocean" was (even though I explained it several times). before talking to me, they locked my admin panel so I was completely unable to fix a production issue. Then when I discovered what had happened they took several business days to "unlock" my admin panel. I suffered a pretty big reputation hit with my clients and was put in a position I NEVER want to be in again: "sorry normally it would take me 5 minutes to get the site back up, but it's gonna be number of days until DO decides to unlock my account, long after I gave an updated credit card and paid the balance. I use Linode now, and hopefully Akamai won't mess that up.

Re: Zoho is attracting the attention of African startup founders

#202

Post by infecto »

alephnerd wrote: post #140
tiffanyh wrote: post #136

Zoho is hugely underrated. They have a massive suite of capabilities, so much so a SMB (most of the worlds businesses) could run their entire company off of Zoho. Because it isn't a Bay Area company, or making exciting products - makes them overlooked far too much. For those who use Zoho, they love it because it-just-works.

> it isn't a Bay Area company They started off in Pleasanton and still have a massive presence there. Zoho ads are very common on Bart as well.

But it still isn’t a Bay Area company.

Re: Zoho is attracting the attention of African startup founders

#203

Post by usrbinbash »

mantas wrote: post #181
usrbinbash wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Could you imagine EU doing to TikTok what US did? Since they seem to have no qualms picking fights with big US tech when they run afoul of their regulations...yes. Yes I can absolutely imagine that. Plus, establishing a homegrown market is not "protectionist politics". It's allowing for, and enabling, competition, which, according to every proponent of capitalism, is a good thing (which is funny, because capitalism…

> Since they seem to have no qualms picking fights with big US tech when they run afoul of their regulations...yes. Yes I can absolutely imagine that. Meh. It's just squeezing some cash. > Plus, establishing a homegrown market is not "protectionist politics". It's 100% protectionist politics once you start doing more interesting things :) > It's allowing for, and enabling, competition, which, according to every propo…

> It's 100% protectionist politics once you start doing more interesting things :)

So its aggressive economic politics now if country A buy less from country B, by making the stuff it needs itself? That doesn't compute.

> They can simply retaliate by forcing EU-related companies out.

Sure, they can do that. Only, given that the EU is their most important trading partner, and forcing companies out would probably spiral China into a recession, destroying decades worth of economic growth in the process, I somewhat doubt that China is willing to shoot itself in the foot just to throw a tantrum.

Re: Zoho is attracting the attention of African startup founders

#204

Post by chucke1992 »

Fogest wrote: post #196
chucke1992 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is that with India - for example - it is a relatively cheap market and those can afford expensive stuff, but western stuff anyway. Also regarding visa - well there are more indians in the visa queue than probably multiple countries combined. If they make it as fast as other countries - indians will just move in millions and millions simply due to sheer amount of people they have.

> Also regarding visa - well there are more indians in the visa queue than probably multiple countries combined. If they make it as fast as other countries - indians will just move in millions and millions simply due to sheer amount of people they have. This is already happening in Canada and it is destroying many governmental services like healthcare, education, and of course housing. There definitely need to be rea…

> I'm also surprised someone who is more well-off would want to leave their country to come to North America. I would think their money would go much further in their own country. But maybe there is more to it than I realize.

It really depends on how well off you are and the reasons for that. Let's take my home country as an example.

We have IT people earning like 3-5x times more than the regular people (like you get salary 2000$ while the rent will be 200$ at worst, with average salary being below 500$. New apartments cost 100k in the capital but outside the capital even 40k is considered an expensive apartment). And we have police and military earning similar (and more money. Not to mention corruption). Both IT and police can afford buying expensive goods and stuff, can afford apartments, good food and so on.

Both can live like kings, but at the same time people are limited to what they can get and find in their country. It is like to be a king of the village - you are the king, sure, but in the city you have more opportunities, more advancements, more access to resources.

When I was leaving the country we did not even have Spotify, for example. And I was earning like 5x times of the average. But there was no point in that. And that's just a software service - there are issues with medication, education etc. So even if you earn more, it might not be worth it.

However in case of IT, it is not a problem for me to get a relatively decent salary in a foreign country while as a military person or a police officer it will become close to impossible to reach the same level without a lot of things attached to that. So for people like this, being a king of a village is worth more than being an average in some foreign country. But, each and every time, they are trying to send their children to a foreign country to live or to study.

And that's without people who have no opportunities or cannot learn foreign language and thus cannot leave.

In India you have extremely rich and extremely poor, coming from various developed and underdeveloped countries and all know English most of the time and often has IT education - with their much bigger population just sheer amount of people leaving will be a lot. A lot.

Re: Zoho is attracting the attention of African startup founders

#206

Post by mantas »

usrbinbash wrote: post #203
mantas wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Since they seem to have no qualms picking fights with big US tech when they run afoul of their regulations...yes. Yes I can absolutely imagine that. Meh. It's just squeezing some cash. > Plus, establishing a homegrown market is not "protectionist politics". It's 100% protectionist politics once you start doing more interesting things :) > It's allowing for, and enabling, competition, which, according to every propo…

> It's 100% protectionist politics once you start doing more interesting things :) So its aggressive economic politics now if country A buy less from country B, by making the stuff it needs itself? That doesn't compute. > They can simply retaliate by forcing EU-related companies out. Sure, they can do that. Only, given that the EU is their most important trading partner, and forcing companies out would probably spira…

> So its aggressive economic politics now if country A buy less from country B, by making the stuff it needs itself? That doesn't compute.

Yes it is. The problem with modern manufacturing (and services to lesser extent) is not to build something, but find a market for it.

> Sure, they can do that. Only, given that the EU is their most important trading partner, and forcing companies out would probably spiral China into a recession, destroying decades worth of economic growth in the process, I somewhat doubt that China is willing to shoot itself in the foot just to throw a tantrum.

China is already doing all sort of protectionist practices. And West does not retaliate. Furthermore, it plays along to make a quick buck in massive Chinese market.

Do you want what would send China into a recession for sure? Chinese economy is export-driven. If West limited import from China (effectively capping Chinese export), that'd do a lot of damage to China. And China knows that very well.

Re: Zoho is attracting the attention of African startup founders

#207

Post by lobsterthief »

ganeshkrishnan wrote: post #176
beezlebroxxxxxx wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure you're aware, but you have to be careful with being very reliant on free-tier products. Once a magnitude of people are "locked in" then they'll start to do some of the pricing and licensing shenanigans where once common features or bundled products get hidden under a fee or broken up after an update. (Interesting project BTW, I'd just recommend having a screenshot or 2 of one of the resumes if you're explici…

This sentence gives me PTSD. We got the startup "90% discount" from Hubspot but what they don't tell you is that it's 5 users plan which you are locked in to. Then they lock you on to min 5 users for sales for the next two years where you are spending up to $500 per month which you cannot break out of. To cancel it you have to notify them ON THE DAY of renewal because it's yearly contract. We only had one sales perso…

Thanks for the warning! That’s super sketch.

Re: Zoho is attracting the attention of African startup founders

#208

Post by azemetre »

freedomben wrote: post #201
azemetre wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These fears are why I never use AWS, GCP, Azure, etc and prefer something simple like DigitalOcean where I just add money to my funds via PayPal. If I exceed the limit, they shut down my account. Highly preferable than accidentally getting banned from say Google and losing my gmail where I access incredibly important things like healthcare, finances, utilities, etc.

Same, most of the time, although I don't use Digital Ocean much after a client of mine issued a charge back having forgotten what "Digital Ocean" was (even though I explained it several times). before talking to me, they locked my admin panel so I was completely unable to fix a production issue. Then when I discovered what had happened they took several business days to "unlock" my admin panel. I suffered a pretty bi…

Ah that's a shame, I've never had much issues luckily and heard good things about Linode. I believe they are cheaper than DO now too.

Re: Zoho is attracting the attention of African startup founders

#209

Post by whalesalad »

sigzero wrote: post #191
whalesalad wrote: post #168

Definitely disgruntled by the way Google Apps went from being free for the last decade of my life to costing ~$120/mo for myself and my family. I don't think I can leave Google at this point, but if I was strapped for cash I would choose a different platform. Otherwise, I would still go with Google just due to their dominance in this space and integration with other companies. Calendar invites, meet etc being the pri…

$120/mo? What in the world are you doing? Or did you mean a year and not a month there?

Couple of domains, many users - mom, dad, two sisters, grandma, a cousin, myself, misc business accounts. It adds up quick.

Re: Zoho is attracting the attention of African startup founders

#210

Post by [deleted] »

beezlebroxxxxxx wrote: post #99
max_ wrote: post #88

I am an African based in Uganda and I am currently working on my project https://labour.quest I wanted to start by using Google Workplace. But then switched to Zoho for the generous free tier. I am so glad I did. Zoho has so many tools that a project needs to run "built in". For example I was thinking of signing up for the services below but Zoho already had these built in. SendGrid - Zepto Mail MailChimp - Zoho Camp…

I'm sure you're aware, but you have to be careful with being very reliant on free-tier products. Once a magnitude of people are "locked in" then they'll start to do some of the pricing and licensing shenanigans where once common features or bundled products get hidden under a fee or broken up after an update. (Interesting project BTW, I'd just recommend having a screenshot or 2 of one of the resumes if you're explici…

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