[brianwski]

> the difference between building a billion dollar company > and building a 10 million dollar company is marginal. You > still need to constantly raise money...

Disclaimer: I work at Backblaze. The biggest difference I see is the expectations and control of investors. Most of our Backblaze team was involved with a startup called MailFrontier which raised $22.5 million over four years selling almost 90 percent of the company to the VCs. The VCs removed the founder CEO (my partner), installed a puppet CEO that did whatever they asked, and the VCs eventually forced us to sell in a way that basically returned them their original investment.

So Backblaze was a visceral reaction to that experience of losing that control. It's the same team, but we all agreed to go a year without salary to jump start it without selling control. To this day, the only people who sit and vote on the board of directors are Backblaze employees and founders.

The lack of cash meant slower growth, there is no doubt about it. But it is a profoundly different company, and a profoundly different experience. We make decisions that are good for our business and good for our employees, not to massage the egos of a bunch of spoiled VCs. And along the way, the Backblaze founders and employees own the vast majority of the company. Most importantly, nobody can force us to sell. I like my job and I like my coworkers, and I make a fine salary here. Why does everything have to be about the winning top score no matter how unpleasant and then ending the experience? I want to enjoy the ride and keep it going.