May I suggest something to think over, what about -- “Can I walk out of this, and migrate elsewhere and how complex/hard will be that migration?” instead of the blanket VC-Funded or not. My thoughts.
That's fair, although IMO it's additionally fair to be skeptical of making a long-term commitment to products/services that aren't funded in ways that permit long-term product planning and reasonably-paced development based on that plan.
I guess we all make our own risk calculations, but if it is truly long term, 5+ years then a SaaS is a risk regardless of funding.
Especially for my personal life where long term really means long term, self-hosted is the only safe option.
As an employee it's a toss up on whether your employer or your SaaS dependency changes course first. So a shorter term engagement is basically guaranteed and it doesn't matter that much.
You’re right. I should discriminate between the seriousness of the tool. A non-essential service can be easily replaced when eventually they enshittify it. Email is an essential one, and reliability is the most important factor.