Slack’s free plan change is causing an exodus

Re:Slack’s free plan change is causing an exodus by mstipetic on Saturday August 27, 2022 @07:03AM (#32617734)

I think this should be outlawed. So many industries destroyed by cheap vc money, and then trying to raise prices once everyone else is gone. You can lose money doing research all you want, but the moment you start interacting with the market there should be a time limit until you can get your unit economics to work, or get out.

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Re:Slack’s free plan change is causing an exodus by webmobdev on Saturday August 27, 2022 @09:51AM (#32619009)

I agree - "free" should be anti-competitive. Today it is incredibly hard for any startup to compete with the "free" products of BigTech. And that is why in this industry, getting acquired by them is the only really viable exit option available for many startups.

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Re:Slack’s free plan change is causing an exodus by bdlowery on Saturday August 27, 2022 @11:26PM (#32625483)

This is why I’ll never use vscode.

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Re:Slack’s free plan change is causing an exodus by cortesoft on Saturday August 27, 2022 @04:17PM (#32622769)

How would this proposed law work? I am really curious how you would word a law to enforce this.

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Re:Slack’s free plan change is causing an exodus by woofcat on Saturday August 27, 2022 @05:58PM (#32623649)

Isn't there already laws against established companies using their market position to price under cost to cut out competition?

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Re:Slack’s free plan change is causing an exodus by cortesoft on Sunday August 28, 2022 @07:07PM (#32633013)

There are laws against 'dumping', which is selling goods at a loss to drive out competitors, but those are fairly narrow in scope. It would be hard to enforce a more general restriction on not being profitable.

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Re:Slack’s free plan change is causing an exodus by mstipetic on Saturday August 27, 2022 @04:38PM (#32622947)

I really have no idea. Since the market values uber or a buy now pay later widget (or at least used to) at 50+ billion I'm not sure I understand much how things work. Maybe we need a reluctant philosopher king like in Plato's Republic.

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Re:Slack’s free plan change is causing an exodus by soheil on Saturday August 27, 2022 @07:26AM (#32617851)

So you're suggesting any startup that can't get its unit economics to work should have its founders sent to jail?

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Re:Slack’s free plan change is causing an exodus by mauvehaus on Saturday August 27, 2022 @08:20AM (#32618155)

Under certain circumstances, the IRS will consider your business a hobby if it fails to make a profit. The consequence being that you may no longer write off your business expenses on your taxes.

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Re:Slack’s free plan change is causing an exodus by kfarr on Saturday August 27, 2022 @08:58PM (#32624734)

It’s a few years IIRC, something like 3-5 years

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Re:Slack’s free plan change is causing an exodus by mstipetic on Saturday August 27, 2022 @08:53AM (#32618418)

Not too jail, where did I mention jail? Stop selling and messing up the market, just shut it down and go do something else that creates value

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