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Comment by ig1 | Hacker News Reader

However they miss the easiest fix: Calling their account rep at AWS and cutting a deal.

AWS loves startups that could end up being huge customers so they're willing to slash bills upfront to help you get to growth stage; not only will they assign you an account rep but they'll have a rep whose job it is to build a good relationship with your VC. Speak to your account rep. Have your VC speak to their Amazon rep. Push them to cut your prices.

I've known startups which have cut their monthly bill by six figures going this route. AWS doesn't want your startup to fail and on the margin these resources cost them close to zero so they're willing to deal, make use of it.

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That was definitely part of the effort; it just doesn't make for terribly compelling technical content. We have a healthy, active relationship with our AWS team. They worked with us to put in place minimum commits for several products, and examined both EDP as well as bulk RI purchase discounts.

I'd say especially in your case you could be pushing for additional discounts beyond what's available to everyone else.

You're the ideal case for this, not only will you be a large customer in your own right if you succeed but you have a multiplier effect in that your own clients become heavier users of AWS because of your product encouraging users to move large amounts of data from Salesforce, etc. into AWS.

I don't what level the rep you're dealing with is, but if you're not doing so already I'd strongly encourage you to build higher level relationships with AWS.

Some of the minimum commits aren't exactly standard. I'd talk more about them but they're covered by non-disclosure. I see what you mean by the multiplier effect increasing our bargaining position — totally makes sense.

Gross. AWS is becoming the Cisco of cloud computing. Get people hooked when they are low revenue and twist the screws in later when they get big.

In what way is this gross?

They're giving people what is essentially a loan, which they are uniquely able to give, to help them start a business, in the hopes that this will be an even bigger business. This is almost the definition of a win-win.

Customers are free to leave at any time or work with other providers, but they choose AWS because they give them more value.

Wouldn't it irritate AWS if startups left once they got big, despite receiving special care services from AWS? How do they deal with that?

It's open market, they can do nothing.

> How do they deal with that?

By pricing it in to the discounts in the first place. So smaller discounts. And by making sure their offerings are priced competitively to comparable products.

It's not a loan. They don't require any repayment. It's a discount.

>This is almost the definition of a win-win.

Not long-term for the company that gets lured into this trap. Just like with Cisco/Oracle, companies will waste millions of dollars once they are cornered into a situation like this because the switching costs are so high even though there are plenty of other alternatives.

It's customer obsession, one of the leadership principles of Amazon.

Why not both? Get the best deal and turn off unused servers.

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