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kepano (kepano@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 11-Feb-2024 12:51:39 JST kepano
- Obsidian
Why @obsidian is 100% user-supported and not backed by VC investors
In conversation about 10 months ago from mastodon.social permalink
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1. Why Obsidian is 100% user-supported and not backed by VC investors: 1. We want to stay small, we don't need to hire lots of people 2. We follow strict principles that we do not want compromise 3. Our users are happy to support us, we don't need VC money Obsidian will not exist forever, no app will. However, the files you create in Obsidian are yours, and can hopefully last for generations. VCware is built with a five year horizon, it is not built to live on for decades. Many startup founders raise VC money because they need the upfront capital to build their product, or they see it as a shortcut to growth. For some products the capital truly is necessary, but too often it's fueled by impatience and the inertia of Silicon Valley. In the short term, VCware tends to subsidize pricing to acquire users. It's easier to grow if your product is cheap or free. But this generally comes at the cost of hoarding user data, and locking in customers. Once you're in you can't get out.
  https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/909/945/672/604/754/original/84487dae20cbe618.png
2. To keep raising money, VCware must paint an increasingly enormous vision of their future, which becomes impossible to live up to. This leads to increasingly disparate priorities that gradually make the product worse. What starts off as a useful app become burdened with crap. Eventually all VCware must exit. That means being acquired or going public to pay back investors. It's expected that 9 out 10 startups will fail. That's just part of the math in a VC portfolio. The startups that have big exits pay for the ones that fail. It is now possible for tiny teams to make principled software that millions of people use, unburdened by investors. Principled apps that put people in control of their data, their privacy, their wellbeing. These principles can be irrevocably built into the architecture of the app. Principled people have always been able to make principled software. The difference is that now you need far less money and far fewer employees to reach far more customers. That wave is only just beginning. If you have principles and enough patience, being 100% user-supported is by far the most fun way to build.
  https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/909/945/798/936/699/original/65c2e48e2895e28a.png
- Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: likes this.
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  Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Tuesday, 13-Feb-2024 23:10:47 JST Aral Balkan
  in reply to
  - Obsidian
  @kepano @obsidian Good on you :) This is why not taking VC is a core principle of #SmallTech
  https://small-tech.org/about/#small-technology
  In conversation about 9 months ago permalink
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  1. Domain not in remote thumbnail source whitelist: small-tech.org
    
    About
    
    from Small Technology Foundation
    
    We’re a tiny and independent two-person not-for-profit based in Ireland. We’re working on building the Small Web.

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