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Comment by nowarninglabel | Hacker News Reader

Well, there is a vast difference between "every fortune 500 company is using Github in some capacity" and "every fortune 500 company is paying for the Enterprise version of Github." I think it'd be an easy sell on a lot of companies, since, as you say, many of the developers are already using it. Heck, I even want to convince my company to get the Enterprise version of GitHub, but we're a non-profit and too small for it.

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That still doesn't answer why you need to raise VC money. How does VC money add value to a company which already has an "enterprise" solution and is a known brand to almost all Fortune 500 companies? GitHub is already making a lot of money via cash flow and VC money will only make them beholden to outside interests. Stack Overflow tried to spin why they were raising money after spending years railing against VC-backed ventures. This seems to be a similar scenario.

[1] https://enterprise.github.com

Last week, I deployed the GitHub Enterprise product in the company I work for (SME, 500+ employees but only 20~ developers). Though the setup process was rather painless, any time I wanted support the only point of contact was an email address[1]. To make things more difficult, because I'm located in Australia the time difference meant most of the time I'd have to wait until the next day to get a reply.

I'd imagine VC would help them create much better support options for the enterprise (the company I'm at usually don't even consider products without commercial support), such as 24/7 local support, support contracts etc.

[1] enterprise@github.com

I should clarify, I'm speaking as it relates to raising capital; not on the existence of 24/7 support at a premium price point. It still seems to be a common theme where companies raise venture capital for the sake of "going into enterprise". There is a big difference between using cash flows to add 24/7 support and raising VC money. The downside of bringing in outside money seems to outweigh the quick cash infusion.

My suspicion is the founders are taking money off the table in a similar manner as 37signals did when they took money from Bezos Expeditions [Jeff Bezos]. Considering the fact that they're bootstrapped, profitable and growing like a weed it seems reasonable to sell a portion of the company to the greatest advisor [Marc Andreessen].

I've been to their offices just a couple months ago. Github is pretty small, there was literally just 7 people there when we went over (granted most work from home). If they want to expand, they need to hire people for sales and support. VC money seems reasonable for that.

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