I see FastSpring responded in this thread that recurring billing is coming, so maybe that will become a viable option:
So it might be wise to for Braintree to loosen up the fees a bit for promising young companies - an incubator program for payments of sorts. At least for the YC/HN community :)
Though, honestly, looking at their pricing, Braintree ins't crazy expensive even for a company that gets $0 sales out of the gate... $99 initial setup, $35 monthly, $10 for cc storage, $75 as a zero sales "penalty". Setup delay seems to be an issue here as well, but that just seems like Braintree doing its diligence.
If we fail then we stop using Braintree, authorize or paypal (then use them again on the next startup). But if we succeed, we will continue to be a customer (and recommend them to our friends on HN) for a long, long time.
Seems like a slam-dunk to me.