8mo ago

Just a reminder that 0% of fediverse admins took on debt to support their communities.

#fediverse #SocialMedia #sustainability #bluesky #VentureCapital

9 comments

Ah, for context:
"Decentralized social app Bluesky announced on Thursday that it has raised a $15 million Series A round, following its $8 million seed raise last year."
$23 million in debt. Wow.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/24/bluesky-raises-15m-series-a-plans-to-launch-subscriptions/
VC funding isn’t debt.
- @Pieisawesome@lemmy.world Yes, true, fair enough.
  Still, looking from afar, as a non-entrepreneur, seeing startups raising funds only to enshittify and/or fold as they attempt to pay them back, with interests, I don't know if the difference is meaningful enough.
  
  You also have to look at who they raised from.
  There are specific VC firms that focus on sustainable, long term growth over chasing massive profits for short term gains.
  I haven’t checked who blue sky raised from, but not every VC is the same
- It's a leash.
@stefan@stefanbohacek.online just a quibble, but venture funding is structurally a different financial vehicle than debt. they can sometimes function similarly, but it's incorrect at a technical level to equate them. (One key reason that it matters: it's generally illegal in most jurisdictions to have a debt that requires a return above ~1.3x, which would be abject failure for VC.)
- @anildash@me.dm Fair enough. I'm definitely simplifying here to make a point (which I think still stands), but I appreciate the explanation!
I'm going to assume that folks who chose "selling user data" were joking, but do check on your server admins, just in case.

9 comments