[bmh_ca]

As a non-YC startup, I feel it quite unfair to be subsidizing other startups with our fees to DO.

Which is a shame because I really appreciate and enjoy what the DO engineers have done.

Nonetheless, I feel slighted, and while I had been otherwise happy with the service I am now all of a sudden incentivized to explore places more ecumenical.

The feeling for me will probably pass, but I wonder how many other people have been similarly slighted.

[BinaryIdiot]

Reading the replies it seems you're getting a mixture of "I agree / understand" and "It's a business decision you feel wrong".

Humans have weird triggers for emotions. Seeing something that benefits a group that you are not a part of but fairly equivalent to is a typical trigger, even if it does make sense to a degree. When I first saw this, as a non-YC-member, I felt pretty similar. I'm sure it's simply a business relationship in which either digital ocean is making money due to the advertising or YC is subsidizing it (though the latter is unlikely).

So it makes perfect sense from a business standpoint but I think your feelings are equally valid. I would love to see digital ocean partner with other incubators or provider offers to any start-ups in general.

[andrewsomething]

Great response! I can totally understand the feeling.

We do work with a number of other incubators. DO itself is an alumni of TechStars. We have some stuff in the works with 500 Startups. We're definitely interested in working with other incubators as well. If you're involved with one, feel free to reach out to me at [e-mail] I'll make sure to get you to the right folks at DO.

If you're not in an incubator, check out the link I shared below. There's still a lot our customer success team can do for you.

[andrewsomething]

We're always looking for ways to help startups get up and running on our platform. If you're not a YC company, reach out to our customer success team. They can help you get started. If you're already a DO user, they can help you scale up.

https://www.digitalocean.com/company/contact/sales/

[shawnps]

Not a startup, but I was going to shut Go Report Card (http://goreportcard.com/) down because I didn't want to pay for it myself anymore, and I reached out to Digital Ocean and was given some credits to keep it running. Thanks.

[nxzero]

+1 Thanks for commenting, and the offer too!

[bmh_ca]

Many thanks for commenting, Andrew, and for the direction.

The underlying feeling remains – I feel DO ought to offer the terms of the YC deal to startups attached to other qualified incubators.

Whether that is practical or possible is a non-trivial discussion.

Nevertheless, I believe that outcome would feel fair, and it would right what feels wrong here.

(Incidentally, we are not at this time attached to any incubators.)

[hoodoof]

So just make the offer to all startups.

If your company employs less than three people then $X amount of service provided per month.

[volaski]

In some way these guys are "investing" in these YC companies' future, hoping that when they grow they will stick with DO. YC has good track record so it's relatively a good bet, whereas if they did it with any rando startup, they'll probably lose tons of money (statistically 99% of the startups die). Remember this is a company not a charity.

[nhangen]

nobody wants to talk to a sales guy...

[vecter]

Really? If I want to discuss pricing, a sales guy is exactly who I want to talk to.

[nhangen]

As a founder, I've got sales guys cold calling and emailing me all day long. They are usually new, and completely disconnected from the realities that a startup founder faces. They also generally lack the authority to make decisions, so the call always ends up as a waste of time.

[vecter]

Who do you want to talk to then? Unless you're a big customer, the founder or VP of the company selling to you is probably (understandably) too busy to talk to you. If they really want your business, the sales person will escalate it appropriately. If they don't want it bad enough ... they won't get it.

[schrodinger]

Don't wanna work for the company you're founding with that attitude

[nhangen]

I don't recall asking you to do so.

[harryh]

They aren't giving credits to YC companies out of charity. They're doing it because they (probably correctly) think that the gains from this marketing spend will be outweighed by future profits.

So you aren't subsidizing anyone.

[nitrogen]

Technically, all advertising and promotion is subsidized by the paying customers of the company. So increased promotional expenses still result in increased prices for customers, or reduced margin for the company (excepting an influx of customers that allows significant cost reduction due to scale).

But that's not always a bad thing.

[nhangen]

Absolutely. This reads like a big fuck you to anyone that chooses to go it alone and/or doesn't want to submit themselves to the YC complex.

[paulddraper]

You're exaggerating.

[rickycook]

also (and this applies to a very large number of other services too) this excludes anyone not willing to reside in Silicon Valley for their business

[whalesalad]

You've been paying them for hosting prior to this announcement. You apparently find the cost to be reasonable enough for the value they deliver. What's changed? Customer satisfaction withstanding, they can do whatever they want with their profits.

[jacquesm]

What's changed is that in the perception of the commenter he's not on a level playingfield to begin with and this announcement tilted it even further away from level. So in order to do what's in his power to re-adjust he takes away some of those profits.

[rorykoehler]

Anyone not living and working in SV is not on a level playing field when it comes to startups. Either the service you use does it's job at a price that fits your cost structure or it doesn't.

[bnchrch]

I don't understand why you would feel slighted, this is just a business partnership (albiet a large one) and no different than when Microsoft offered $500, 000 in azure credits to YC companies. There are certain perks to joining an organization of entrepreneurs and developers, this is one of them.

[throwaway13337]

Microsoft also offers 27k of azure service to non-YC startups so it's not like you're left out in the cold if you're not a part of the club.

https://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/about/default.aspx

[dikaiosune]

I think that's fair to point out, but it's an order of magnitude difference (especially in the context of the other comp'd services YC companies get in their first year or two).

[kuschku]

Think about it this way:

You’re a startup, and a significant percentage of the money you sent is directly given to your competitors.

Which is what’s happening here. If you’re a non-YC startup using DO, you’re directly financing your competitors.

[nxzero]

How's YC getting a deal for the companies it's funding a slight to all startups? It's not like YC is free or that it's easy to get into YC. DO is doing the deal because they're hoping to cash out servicing a hyper growth company; which in turn would subsidize small fish using DO. Understand the feeling, just don't see the logic.

[voidlogic]

I read the OPs concern as saying: as a non-YC DO customer, he doesn't like the fact he is providing revenue to a company that is giving services away (the same he pays for) to a group of companies that doesn't include his, and may even be a competitor.

[urda]

I've only seen more coverage of "avoid these startup groups, but use YC instead!" It can set a very dangerous precedent.

YC isn't the end all of all, but it's starting to feel like it is becoming a mandatory part of the startup process (which is NOT ok).

[martin-adams]

The way I see it, I don't think I am subsidising these other startups since DO raised $83m last year [1]

Secondly, with the high attention of YC companies using the service, this may help push innovation forward for things like improved firewall and private networking, managed databases for backup and redundancy and an S3 comparable file store (thus no transfer costs).

If giving $250K to YC companies to create that demand for them to implement it, I'm all for it.

[1] http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/08/digitalocean-raises-83m-ser...

[pbreit]

I'd feel even better about Digital Ocean. This ensures that it will stick around and I'm guessing the YC folks are a demanding bunch and so will will DO forward.

[assocguilt]

Odd use of the word ecumenical.

[dllthomas]

Unusual but not incorrect. My understanding has it that the religious sense is a (very common) specialization of a more general meaning along the lines of "treating different groups the same".

[shoyer]

I'm pretty sure the OP intended to write "economical" instead.

[geofft]

No, I think "ecumenical" in the less common sense of the word, "worldwide or general in extent, influence, or application," makes perfect sense here. Or even in the usual sense of the word, if you're making an analogy between startup accelerators and Christian denominations. It's a pretty good analogy, since despite small differences in belief and large differences in culture and practice, everyone has roughly the same goals. A Lutheran might feel particularly slighted at a program that gives free choral music to Anglicans, because they sing all the same anthems and none of the differences are relevant, and so restricting the free stuff to Anglicans rubs in the difference for no good reason. This is quite different from the way a Buddhist or an atheist would feel slighted by not getting that free music.

Given that OP claimed the feeling will pass, I don't think "economical" quite makes sense.

[ossama]

More likely "equitable"

[bmh_ca]

Geoff's comment nails the intent.

[Scarbutt]

Its just business as usual, this gives them more exposure and good PR, with the financial gain this might bring to them you will enjoy a better (and maybe even cheaper) service in the future, looks like a win-win situation to me.

[gnarbarian]

Get mad then use your anger to code up a storm and surpass those spoiled brats.

[rileymat2]

Perhaps you are not subsidizing them, but they are betting that one of them will be a success gaining them more profit in the end than this grant? Maybe this is a marketing expense.

[kriro]

I'd look at it this way:

1) If you feel you're funding direct competitors...we're talking about startups. More of a validation of your base idea than a real edge for the competition. It's also not horrible to know your direct competition uses the same infrastructure.

2) Otherwise...this lets DO add more customers from the group of startups, which you're in, and thus gain more experience with their typical problems and needs which should benefit you (ever so slightly).

[onion2k]

If you feel you're funding direct competitors...we're talking about startups. More of a validation of your base idea than a real edge for the competition.

There are startups and there are YC startups. If you've got in to YC you've probably already proven your idea and you're generating revenue - YC is about accelerating rather that actually starting after all. If you're directly competing with a YC company then this does put you at a disadvantage, especially if you're in a space where computational power is a big part of your burn.

Mind you, hasn't AWS given huge blocks of credits away to startups in lots of accelerators since forever? This isn't really a new problem for competitors.

[chris_wot]

Wow, I find this rather extraordinary. Have your fees increased as a direct result of this gesture?

[lifesunfair]

Life's unfair bro. Grow a pair.

[ygjb]

Poor muffin. I too don't have the same opportunities as other folks, but it never stopped me running hard and achieving my goals ;)

Don't waste your time and energy worrying about what other folks have, and focus the same into achieving your goals and getting some credits won't make that big of a difference....

[smokeyj]

Don't pat your back too hard. Someone is subsidizing this - and it's most likely the customers that have a choice where they spend their hard earned dollars. Point being, there will likely be a better hosting package somewhere else (for non YC-ordained members of the startup community).