I wish there were a service startups could use when they're setting up new products which will provide a 60-90-180-etc. day transfer period for users if the startup ever shuts down, runs out of money, etc. Maybe integrated with more mundane disaster preparedness for the startup, too -- a datacenter ready for them if theirs is flooded, etc.
It would almost make sense for AWS or someone else already providing the infrastructure to do this for a few percent premium on every bill.
I like the concept but it wouldn't work for the very reason people don't save for a nice funeral.
Source code in escrow works because a large customer builds it into the contract; meaning you only get paid if you agree to the terms.
Consumer startups work by removing payment friction for their users, which inverts the dynamic. Plus, most consumers aren't as tech-savvy as HN so it wouldn't enter into consideration when they use an application.
Yeah, it would have to be somewhat automatic and widespread, sort of like credit card warranty/travel/etc. insurance.
It might make sense for b2b apps instead of consumer. b2b apps still aren't usually sophisticated enough to do source code escrow (and what does that really mean for SaaS apps), but a business would still be hurt if someone like Salesforce disappeared (or even a smaller product like a CRM gmail extension or whatever, if your workflow is built around it.)
Also, developers are customers of sites with APIs, so some kind of promise that an API will remain available, non-throttled, etc. would be good incentive to adopt it.
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I wish there were a service startups could use when they're setting up new products which will provide a 60-90-180-etc. day transfer period for users if the startup ever shuts down, runs out of money, etc. Maybe integrated with more mundane disaster preparedness for the startup, too -- a datacenter ready for them if theirs is flooded, etc.
It would almost make sense for AWS or someone else already providing the infrastructure to do this for a few percent premium on every bill.
Unfortunately selling to "companies that have failed" is a pretty unprofitable market.
That's why you charge them before they fail. The idea being to make users more willing to trust random startups with data and business service.
In the enterprise space, a lot of software contracts include source code escrow, etc.
I like the concept but it wouldn't work for the very reason people don't save for a nice funeral.
Source code in escrow works because a large customer builds it into the contract; meaning you only get paid if you agree to the terms.
Consumer startups work by removing payment friction for their users, which inverts the dynamic. Plus, most consumers aren't as tech-savvy as HN so it wouldn't enter into consideration when they use an application.
Yeah, it would have to be somewhat automatic and widespread, sort of like credit card warranty/travel/etc. insurance.
It might make sense for b2b apps instead of consumer. b2b apps still aren't usually sophisticated enough to do source code escrow (and what does that really mean for SaaS apps), but a business would still be hurt if someone like Salesforce disappeared (or even a smaller product like a CRM gmail extension or whatever, if your workflow is built around it.)
Also, developers are customers of sites with APIs, so some kind of promise that an API will remain available, non-throttled, etc. would be good incentive to adopt it.