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Sending to 1,000,000 subscribers costs $55,000+ per year on MailChimp and other premium services. A cheaper option with the same deliverability would be extremely attractive to anyone who doesn't like setting their money on fire!

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Exactly this... People seem to jump on the bandwagon of SaaS services and don't really realize that, as a business, you should be trying to minimize expenses and maximize profit. Granted there is flexibility here in the products you use -- ie, the feature/cost tradeoff needs to make sense, but the fact remains, every $1 of money the company saves helps the company last longer, increases its chance at a future, and benefits both the employees and investors (if there are any). People seem to get sidetracked in our industry a lot of times on this startup mantra that makes people feel like their company is a failure if it doesn't buy everyone an Aeron, have a quirky office in SOMA, and utilize all the hot startup tech services that exist.

Your biggest expense as a company is employees. Every purchasing decision that won't keep you alive for another month is a decision that isn't worth thinking about.

"I could switch from A to B and save $100 a month". Each human being in your startup costs $5000 - $10,000 a month in salary excl. benefits. Saving $150 a month on mailchimp is chump change.

Definitely true... I was speaking to the example of spending $50k/yr on mailchimp with 1,000,000 subscribers. If you're only dropping $150, then it's not as big of a deal.

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