

Ask HN: Why do SaaS companies display their hosting company's logo? - kintamanimatt

I've seen this frequently, particularly if the company is hosted with Rackspace. What's going on here? Why are Saas companies advertising their hosting provider?<p>For example: http://i.imgur.com/2rjbA.png
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lmg643
Referral fees would be an easy explanation. Another reason is that SaaS
companies, particularly in the enterprise space, need to reassure their
customers about the quality of their infrastructure, reliability and
redundancy. So if the servers are hosted in Equinix instead of under a
developer's desk, it conveys a level of security and competence that the
company's brand should benefit from. I have never seen a Rackspace facility,
so I don't actually know what they are like, but the Equinix datacenters I
have been to are better than any major corporate setup I've seen.

~~~
whichdan
I agree with the trust aspect, even if most consumers wouldn't recognize the
RackSpace brand.

Another explanation could be: it's an easy way to fill up some whitespace in
the footer.

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kdavis
We <http://www.forty.to> as part of winning a place in the Rackspace startup
program, receive $2000 dollars of Rackspace services per month for a year.
But, as part of the deal, we display the Rackspace logo on our home page. From
our point of view, it's a great deal.

~~~
kintamanimatt
How do you enter/win that? I did a quick google and found some cursory
information about it, but nothing about entering or applying.

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kdavis
Open the page...

<http://www.rackspacestartups.com/>

Click on any one of the links, say "500 Startups". Fill out the application
form, and you're off to the races.

Good luck!

~~~
kintamanimatt
Awesome.

I'm not sure I'm quite understanding the process. All these links appear to be
seed funds, VCs, etc. Am I applying for investment capital when I fill out
these forms, or just for the $24k of hosting? Do these people take equity, or
what do they get out of it?

There seems to be so little information provided!

~~~
kdavis
You are applying for $24k of hosting nothing else. They take no equity. In
return you place a Rackspace logo on your home page. It's a very good deal.

What Rackspace gets is exposure, good karma, and nothing more.

The good karma, however, goes some way in ensuring you stay with Rackspace
when the year is up.

PS: Yeah, there's little info provided. I heard out about it through word-of-
mouth, Will Perkins at ezeep, and applied right away.

~~~
kintamanimatt
Gotcha! I'll be applying for this then!

Just one last question: why are the details sent to a seed fund or VC? The
thing that's really confusing me is the affiliation with these funds.

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kdavis
The details are not sent to a seed fund or VC.

The various links 21212, 3 Day Startup... confuse me too. AFAIK they are only
groups Rackspace has a relation with. The links 21212, 3 Day Startup... all go
to the same application form, save the image about the form.

~~~
kintamanimatt
What a strange system!

Thanks for letting me know about this. I really, really appreciate it!

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olalonde
I once heard that some of them get a discount on hosting if they display the
Rackspace logo.

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kintamanimatt
I emailed FreshBooks and asked why they do it. I got the following reply:

Hey Matt,

I can't really speak to why everyone does it, but Rackspace has provided us
with amazing service so I think its something of a hat tip in recognition.

Have a great day Matt,

\- John

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mforsberg
In some cases, because everyone is doing it.

Otherwise I am pretty sure they have some kind of partnership that are built
on foundation of hosting for advertising.

