What companies offer noteworthy discounts or startup programs for bootstrappers?
So far I found Google for Startups Cloud Program, AWS Activate, Zendesk, Freshdesk, HubSpot, Ganttpro, Notion, and Typeform
74 comments
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 money!
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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 money!
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Datadog did something similar to me at a previous company- they were miserable. We tried to use their credits from the AWS program, but then they kept adding more and more requirements to the program. They eventually wanted to go full MLM, telling us that if we want the credits we have to setup meetings with other startups we work with and that at least three (I believe) of the startups had to turn into customers.
It was absolutely ridiculous. I went from being eager to use their product to vowing never to recommend it again. They were just so condescending during the entire process too.
It was absolutely ridiculous. I went from being eager to use their product to vowing never to recommend it again. They were just so condescending during the entire process too.
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 eventual cascading failure of the industry as all these unsustainable companies (who mostly just pass their VC money back & forth) start falling like dominoes.
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 eventual cascading failure of the industry as all these unsustainable companies (who mostly just pass their VC money back & forth) start falling like dominoes.
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?
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?
https://www.hubspot.com/startups
90% off year 1
50% off year 2
25% off ongoing
HubSpot charges ~$1,200 p/m for their professional Marketing & Sales plans.
I assume 25% off almost $15k annual with pretty much zero CAC is not far off from what HubSpot sales would offer themselves to a multi-year deal.
90% off year 1
50% off year 2
25% off ongoing
HubSpot charges ~$1,200 p/m for their professional Marketing & Sales plans.
I assume 25% off almost $15k annual with pretty much zero CAC is not far off from what HubSpot sales would offer themselves to a multi-year deal.
Do you have any data to back that up claim?
My experience with bootstrapped companies is that they are just as subject to pressure to grow as startups, and probably have a higher success rate.
Atlassian, Github, Mailchimp and Shopify are all companies that initially started as bootstrapped companies and, in my mind, stand out as some of the most sustainably successful startups of recent history.
My experience with bootstrapped companies is that they are just as subject to pressure to grow as startups, and probably have a higher success rate.
Atlassian, Github, Mailchimp and Shopify are all companies that initially started as bootstrapped companies and, in my mind, stand out as some of the most sustainably successful startups of recent history.
Errr all these companies eventually took VC
But when they were early stage, which is when the discounts being discussed apply, they were bootstrapped companies.
Parent's argument is that bootstrapped companies are dramatically less likely to ever grow and that only VC backed early stage companies are, therefore it makes no economic sense to provide discounts to bootstrapped early stage companies.
My point is that I don't believe that this holds out in the data that expected long term value of a bootstrapped company is significantly lower than a VC invested on.
Personally, I find there is ample evidence that "VCs largely are just handing money around to each other to give the illusion of growth" is a solid hypothesis.
Parent's argument is that bootstrapped companies are dramatically less likely to ever grow and that only VC backed early stage companies are, therefore it makes no economic sense to provide discounts to bootstrapped early stage companies.
My point is that I don't believe that this holds out in the data that expected long term value of a bootstrapped company is significantly lower than a VC invested on.
Personally, I find there is ample evidence that "VCs largely are just handing money around to each other to give the illusion of growth" is a solid hypothesis.
I don't get this -- it's obvious -- boot strapped companies are lean and will likely stay lean and be at best a small business. VC companies burn to get big -- and will spend big to get there. And likely fail. But spend a lot to fail. The offering makes total sense if you understand the market -- I don't know why so many boostrappers are so stubbornly against just how reality works.
Heh, was kinda thinking the same, it's a circle of money.
"Look at our hockeystick! We got customers equivalent to a million MRR!" "Equivalent? How much are they actually paying?" "...nothing, they're all in our VC batch. But hey, we also get service X for free in return!"
"Look at our hockeystick! We got customers equivalent to a million MRR!" "Equivalent? How much are they actually paying?" "...nothing, they're all in our VC batch. But hey, we also get service X for free in return!"
I suppose it makes sense if you consider that the purpose of these programs is to acquire customers that will potentially scale dramatically in size (and usage of the platform) in upcoming years. Bootstrapped businesses may not look to them like the future cash cows they’re seeking. It’s unfortunate.
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.
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.
At a guess I expect its because the VC has vetted the business model and saves amazon from doing the same. e.g. if accel, a16z etc have stumped up seed money or an A-round it means the company would have a tested model, or at least one sufficient for them to throw serious amounts of money at. This saves amazon from having to do the same and allocate resources to vet the founders and startup themselves.
yeah vetting is big part of it. Like imagine the amount of applications they get from all over the world. This kind of things changes as the cloud providers get bigger and bigger too. If you use say Oracle now they kind of want to hear from earlier stage startups.
AWS will give you the extra money if you're bootstrapped, you just have to put a bit more effort into it.
Just be aware that some of these freebies might cost you more in the long run. I remember signing up to mongoHQ/Compose.io when we started, because they had a nice 1800USD credit.
Later on while using it, they just said emm you got enough out of it, time to charge you 18USD per GB per month, starting today.
It was quite painful to migrate down the line, but you could say we deserved it. We went "gotta catch them all" on all the free shit in the early days.
Later on while using it, they just said emm you got enough out of it, time to charge you 18USD per GB per month, starting today.
It was quite painful to migrate down the line, but you could say we deserved it. We went "gotta catch them all" on all the free shit in the early days.
Any one of those you didn't regret or that you were happy you got to use it?
True, but I think that's the point for many of the companies making these offers. An good upfront deal with a plan to secure a big customer in the future if the startup works out.
whoa. good to know.
Microsoft have for many years: https://startups.microsoft.com/
Lots of stuff in there outside of Azure. I think we got a $1500 credit with Miro which was pretty awesome.
There are a lot and even more if you join one of the many free Startup programs. StartupSchool is one to start.
- https://github.com/dakshshah96/awesome-startup-credits
- https://www.joinsecret.com
- https://startupstarterpack.com
- https://github.com/dakshshah96/awesome-startup-credits
- https://www.joinsecret.com
- https://startupstarterpack.com
On Google Cloud, the secret sauce seems to be:
(I'd avoid Cloud Functions because the cold starts are abysmal and you'll end up paying a small fee for warm instances for anything that is latency sensitive; proper Cloud Run at least has a CPU boost option that seems to help).
- Google Firebase Hosting for your static front-ends
- Google Cloud Run Services for your APIs
- Google Cloud Run Jobs for long running compute (more than doubles your Cloud Run monthly free compute grant if you can move some compute workloads into a Job)
- Google Firestore for anything that doesn't benefit from being relational
- Supabase for anything that benefits from being relational and/or you need a vector DB.
(I'd avoid Cloud Functions because the cold starts are abysmal and you'll end up paying a small fee for warm instances for anything that is latency sensitive; proper Cloud Run at least has a CPU boost option that seems to help).
> Google Cloud Run Services for your APIs
what about the cold start? i've worked on a project that uses cloud run to serve up a django app. has a terrible cold start. it gets a little better if you script a ping but it's still noticeable
what about the cold start? i've worked on a project that uses cloud run to serve up a django app. has a terrible cold start. it gets a little better if you script a ping but it's still noticeable
I use it with .NET 7 and cold starts are acceptable for me.
Part of that is enabling the CPU Boost since .NET and Java are both JIT runtimes. The CPU Boost seems like -- seat of the pants -- about a 50% reduction in cold start times.
You can give the CPU Boost a try and see if it makes a difference, but it may also be dependent on your framework's startup flow.
Part of that is enabling the CPU Boost since .NET and Java are both JIT runtimes. The CPU Boost seems like -- seat of the pants -- about a 50% reduction in cold start times.
You can give the CPU Boost a try and see if it makes a difference, but it may also be dependent on your framework's startup flow.
> Cloud Functions
I think I read somewhere that Cloud Functions are just Cloud Run under the hood anyways, so just use Cloud Run lol.
I think I read somewhere that Cloud Functions are just Cloud Run under the hood anyways, so just use Cloud Run lol.
Gen 2 Cloud Functions are deployed into Cloud Run.
But you end up with an abstraction layer (Functions) that adds to the startup cost and less control over the configuration.
There are some benefits like ease of local development and testing since it integrates really nicely into the emulator suite and also integrates handling of authz/authn into the pipeline. But otherwise, I'd recommend Cloud Run for more portability and better control over parameters that affect cost and performance.
But you end up with an abstraction layer (Functions) that adds to the startup cost and less control over the configuration.
There are some benefits like ease of local development and testing since it integrates really nicely into the emulator suite and also integrates handling of authz/authn into the pipeline. But otherwise, I'd recommend Cloud Run for more portability and better control over parameters that affect cost and performance.
Extreme vendor lockin! Great advice...
Not really; Cloud Run is just a container with port 8080 exposed; there's no special code or dependencies.
You can move it easily to AWS App Runner, Azure Container Apps, or your own K8s cluster.
I build for clients using Cloud Run (faster to deploy during testing), but then ship to AWS App Runner or ECS for customers.
You can move it easily to AWS App Runner, Azure Container Apps, or your own K8s cluster.
I build for clients using Cloud Run (faster to deploy during testing), but then ship to AWS App Runner or ECS for customers.
good summary. I've used a bunch of this stack.
AWS has exclusive discounts for those in their startup credits program (AWS activate).
Has anyone been able to get more than $25k without being associated with a VC/Incubator?
We're bootstrapped, all-in on AWS and have our $25k expiring soon.
We're bootstrapped, all-in on AWS and have our $25k expiring soon.
I didn't know it was possible to get $25k. Can you share how you got it?
To expand, you'll get either 100k credits that expire after 1 year or two chunks of 50k credits across 2 years. You also get a lot of support rep help, our rep pointed us to a few solutions that saved us thousands a month, for example.
I'm referring to credits for ISV solutions such-as DataDog, Splunk by being in the AWS Activate program.
Ah yes, that's also true and good to point out
YC startupschool has a huge package if I remember, maybe I should say a big pool instead, of internal and external offers and freebies. I think its only a few writing exercises and video meetings with other founders in terms of showing up
Silicon Valley Bank used to have a huge menu of credits or discounts for SaaSes etc, including a significant credit for AWS.
Have any other banks recreated that kind of program?
Have any other banks recreated that kind of program?
yeah they did before everything burned. mercury is their only real competition that is similar but they're all online only. no perks that i know of really.
Here's my current stack for our sales startup:
We split out cloud costs using the free tier for google cloud and aws. So all of us kind of pool our resources together so that we keep costs low across accounts.
https://cloud.google.com/free
https://aws.amazon.com/free
We're getting some stuff going with AI so we just use everything that's open source on huggingface:
https://huggingface.co/models
then the key thing is when we reach our for services that you would normally have to pay for we explicitly ask if they have a bootstrapped program. like we tell them we're bootstrapped and as what they can do for us:
We use this for customer outreach for example https://customer.io/startup-program/bootstrapped/
We split out cloud costs using the free tier for google cloud and aws. So all of us kind of pool our resources together so that we keep costs low across accounts.
https://cloud.google.com/free
https://aws.amazon.com/free
We're getting some stuff going with AI so we just use everything that's open source on huggingface:
https://huggingface.co/models
then the key thing is when we reach our for services that you would normally have to pay for we explicitly ask if they have a bootstrapped program. like we tell them we're bootstrapped and as what they can do for us:
We use this for customer outreach for example https://customer.io/startup-program/bootstrapped/
Pangea provides a comprehensive framework of essential API-based security services (think authN, authZ, audit logging and vaulting; as well as more advanced and/or use-case services like PII redaction; embargo; and threat intelligence functionalities) to add security to applications quickly.
We have a startup program which provides Seed to Series A startups with complimentary access to ourAPIs for the first year (or up to $5,000 USD whichever comes first) as well as mentoring and community support.
Check it out here: https://pangea.cloud/startup
Disclosure: Pangea employee, PM over AuthN & AuthZ
We have a startup program which provides Seed to Series A startups with complimentary access to ourAPIs for the first year (or up to $5,000 USD whichever comes first) as well as mentoring and community support.
Check it out here: https://pangea.cloud/startup
Disclosure: Pangea employee, PM over AuthN & AuthZ
Thank you for sparking this discussion. I'm with Gumlet, a platform dedicated to the optimized delivery of videos and images at scale. We're excited to introduce our startup deals program which grants a substantial 75% discount on your monthly bills for the first year, followed by a 50% discount during the second year. Discover more at https://www.gumlet.com/startups/.
PS: Mention that you discovered us through HN when chatting with our support team, and we'll ease the eligibility criteria for you.
PS: Mention that you discovered us through HN when chatting with our support team, and we'll ease the eligibility criteria for you.
Mux, a video API for developers, offers credits and other benefits for startups: https://www.mux.com/startups
Disclaimer, I work for Mux.
Disclaimer, I work for Mux.
JetBrains offers a startups discount for 50% off its tools:
https://www.jetbrains.com/store/startups/
https://www.jetbrains.com/store/startups/
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
Its associated Github repo shows updates as recently as yesterday
I strongly recommend the Microsoft for Startups [1] program. They’ve been providing us with hundreds of thousands of Azure credits and other Microsoft technologies (even OpenAI credits!)
They have a tiered system and you need to apply using LinkedIn but hey, it’s a lot of stuff after all and they’ve been adding stuff consistently for the past year or so.
[1] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/startups
[1] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/startups
Airtable offer about $2,000 and is handy as a dumping ground for data and running no/low code experiments depending on what your company does.
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
We offer an HN reader discount which, by some accounts, is analogous to a startup/founder discount.
It doesn’t change/expire if you hit it big.
Just email us.
It doesn’t change/expire if you hit it big.
Just email us.
f6s and founderpass are pretty good places to find all the startup programs/offers.
https://www.f6s.com/deals
https://www.founderpass.com/
We do at https:///www.fillout.com (online form builder).
Free plan includes 1000 submissions per month and then we offer discounted pricing plans for startups
Free plan includes 1000 submissions per month and then we offer discounted pricing plans for startups
Twilio has some good resources: https://www.twilio.com/en-us/solutions/startups-resources
If you created your company via Stripe Atlas, you can get 2K USD credit with OpenAI
Retable (an Airtable alternative) provides life time deals: https://www.retable.io/lifetime
Stream chat https://getstream.io/pricing/
Userlist offers 50% off for a year for early stage startups.
It's a great tool for email automation for PLG companies.
It's a great tool for email automation for PLG companies.
(Ask HN)
Stripe is an obvious one
Plus if you have any issues, you’re already on the Stripe technical support page.