| >> Worse for whom? Worse for those in the real world where you have payroll obligations, rent, AWS bills, health insurance, and mortgages. As a customer I feel the same way. However, having been a co-founder and CTO of a startup, let me tell you the real story: - Most startups are not like snapchat, they are not once-in-a-generation unicorns. - Most startups have huge burn, especially consumer-entertainment type startups (imagine how much network bandwidth YouTube was burning before Google purchased them.) - Startups are at the mercy of funding rounds and sometimes the market itsself can get away from you, through no fault of your own startup - FAANG provide a put option -- "whats the worse that can happen? we get acquired by X" which allows people to take on more risk while trying to swing for the fences. - It is arguable how long darling consumer apps could survive as independent when consumers often dont want to pay money. It is a catch 22 -- the startup is told the product has to be free but they are also not allowed to seek bigger coffers to actually subsidize it So in the end -- sure, I agree with you, but who pays? Esp if this is something massive with network effects. Perhaps I can pay for WhatsApp, but can my grandma pay for it with her meager overseas salary? And if she cannot, how is the network sustainable? I'm not saying I disagree with you, but I dont know what the solution is other than the current one. |