Comment by omnifischer
5 days ago
The logic of putting roof over the head is a point that is too broadly used is not at all valid for things like tailscale as... eventually most businesses at that level (tailscale revenue in 2025 was $45.2M) are crushing the customers. Either entshittification or lock-in. There is a loss of trust. The trust on SV/software is as much as bankers (during Lehmann bros crisis). Some people in HN think oh, we are growing small farmers/engineers from grassroots etc Yes, maybe - but their thinking is to exploit customers sooner or later. These smaller ones (as compared to FAANG etc) think that common man thinks that FAANG are the exploitative ones. But no. The public is getting aware that every damn calendar app or pdf viewer or router is increasing prices or wants subscription or planned obsolescence.
A roof over the head is OK but the price increases are usually to put private Yachts. The income earned by majority of these founders is already good to have lots of roofs.
Maybe my local corner coffee shop is one fellow I would not mind having subscription with...
Out of all the businesses to rant against for overcharging you are really going to focus on Tailscale?
So, the people building yachts also need to pay the bills. Or should the world not have yachts?
Am I supposed to care about the yachts?
> should the world not have yachts?
Maybe? Things like super yachts are just offensive.
Then ask all the billionares or people like you to give jobs/salaries/allowances/holidays at SV level to everyone in the world. Lets all build yachts. I am happy to get that level of pay.
So the perverse "logic" here is basically that since very successful products sometimes get enshittified, there is no point to seeking ANY success?
Do you realize how out-of-touch with reality this sounds? For every $45M Tailscale there's a hundred companies you likely never heard of making respectable but not-very-excessive money in niches here and there. For example, I have a high school friend who owns one: https://speedify.com Thing is, you can't have one without the other. Hell, that's the kind of success (as in "moderate") I'm actually targeting with my work. Which is why comments like this irritate me.
Go make something that other people want and then try to live off it. Offering all of it for free won't cut it, because we don't live in a communist dictatorship (not that any of them might approve you spending your time on your pie-in-the-sky "contributory idea" in the first place).
By the way, in working on the thing I want to sell, I've made a number of offshoot projects open source as a side effect. Check my github, it's never been more active.