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An Email got us $5k in AWS Credits

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Re: An Email got us $5k in AWS Credits

#2
> Stripe monitored the developer community enough to see our initial posts

If I can't trust that I'll get the benefits promised by a service unless my complaint about not getting the benefits reaches a certain threshold of virality in the community, I have to assume I'm not getting them. I'm glad that they did. Maybe I'll get lucky as they did with "an email" and maybe I won't, but I certainly can't rely on it.

Re: An Email got us $5k in AWS Credits

#3
An important takeaway is to "send out any email at all".

Like the time with our first startup in YC W06. Our first client was the result of me just cold emailing a CEO of a startup I saw featured in Wired magazine. "Hey I like what you're doing. Maybe we can find something to do together." Short. Not expecting much. No pitch. Just genuine appreciation and interest in brainstorming a collaboration. And it unexpectedly lead to them signing a 5 figure deal with us which was everything to a tiny startup not making anything :)

Over and over in my career I was amazed at what happened when I just bothered showing up.

Re: An Email got us $5k in AWS Credits

#5
post #3

An important takeaway is to "send out any email at all". Like the time with our first startup in YC W06. Our first client was the result of me just cold emailing a CEO of a startup I saw featured in Wired magazine. "Hey I like what you're doing. Maybe we can find something to do together." Short. Not expecting much. No pitch. Just genuine appreciation and interest in brainstorming a collaboration. And it unexpectedly…

> Over and over in my career I was amazed at what happened when I just bothered showing up.

Just remember to acknowledge how exceedingly well this works for white guys and the uphill battle faced by others.

Re: An Email got us $5k in AWS Credits

#6
post #2

> Stripe monitored the developer community enough to see our initial posts If I can't trust that I'll get the benefits promised by a service unless my complaint about not getting the benefits reaches a certain threshold of virality in the community, I have to assume I'm not getting them. I'm glad that they did. Maybe I'll get lucky as they did with "an email" and maybe I won't, but I certainly can't rely on it.

I can't think of any other company that bends over backwards to please engineers who use their platform (and, by extension, the people who visit this site) more than Stripe. Back in 2013, when my co-founder and I started a company and later got into YC, my co-founder went thru every circle of hell in order to fix all the mistakes we made when we incorporated. If Stripe Atlas had existed back then and we'd used it, this would just be a non-issue. Unless you're an expert in the technicalities of startup incorporation/bylaws/etc, the value Stripe Atlas provides is huge and it just doesn't make sense to me why someone would pass on it.

Re: An Email got us $5k in AWS Credits

#7
post #5
post #3

An important takeaway is to "send out any email at all". Like the time with our first startup in YC W06. Our first client was the result of me just cold emailing a CEO of a startup I saw featured in Wired magazine. "Hey I like what you're doing. Maybe we can find something to do together." Short. Not expecting much. No pitch. Just genuine appreciation and interest in brainstorming a collaboration. And it unexpectedly…

> Over and over in my career I was amazed at what happened when I just bothered showing up. Just remember to acknowledge how exceedingly well this works for white guys and the uphill battle faced by others.

I think his point was that NOT showing up fails equally well for everyone

Re: An Email got us $5k in AWS Credits

#9

Wonder how much bitcoin an unscrupulous person could mine with that $5k of credits.

Less than $5k

But 5k in credits is worthless to someone who doesn't need them, so even if it's 1c, that's something. (Or really, so long as it's more than you can sell the account for.)
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