Hacker News Reader

Amazing.

Modern, innovative, service-oriented products and a business model based on customers giving the company money in return for services.

I hope that this is a reminder to startups out there that you don't have to trick customers into handing over their personal information all the while pretending to offer your services "for free", in order to gain market share and be profitable.

The "traditional" business model can be quite successful.

View on HN

I hope you're right but I fear that Fastmail isn't successful in a way that startup founders are going for. Advancing technology unfortunately isn't a priority for most founders.

We're fully owned by the staff, with no external funding. We've been nicely profitable since the beginning. Not huge profits but enough to pay for a nice office, decent salaries and few gadgets.

So yes, if your goal is to attract massive amounts of venture capital and then get bought out, don't copy us. If you want to have some fun doing something you love without having to worry about anything else then this is definitely the way to do it :)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com