We're a bootstrapped AI startup doing $350K+ revenue and already spending 4-figures monthly on GCP, with our spend growing.
But, because we haven't taken venture funding, we were only approved for $2K in credits instead of the $350K for AI startups that includes Gemini credits.
This feels backwards and frankly regressive; we're a paying startup customer with real revenue, just no institutional money, and Google is going to punish us for that?
I know Azure etc will gladly throw tons of credits and inference our way to switch and save us a ton of money, but switching would be a huge distraction for us for us right now.
However, we go in and out of profitability right now, and I'm self-funding, so even the $2-3K we'd currently save each month would help us stay at break-even so I don't have to dip into my personal bank account each time we're in the red -- and there's not much left in that bank account tbh. Basically, I feel stuck.
Two questions:
- Has anyone gotten an exception as a bootstrapped company?
- Has anyone just... gotten a small check from a friendly investor to technically qualify? Like could I have a VC friend write a $5K SAFE and suddenly be eligible? I like me a good loophole but while this would be an annoying distraction, it's far less annoying than having to migrate off Google entirely.
But, because we haven't taken venture funding, we were only approved for $2K in credits instead of the $350K for AI startups that includes Gemini credits.
This feels backwards and frankly regressive; we're a paying startup customer with real revenue, just no institutional money, and Google is going to punish us for that?
I know Azure etc will gladly throw tons of credits and inference our way to switch and save us a ton of money, but switching would be a huge distraction for us for us right now.
However, we go in and out of profitability right now, and I'm self-funding, so even the $2-3K we'd currently save each month would help us stay at break-even so I don't have to dip into my personal bank account each time we're in the red -- and there's not much left in that bank account tbh. Basically, I feel stuck.
Two questions:
- Has anyone gotten an exception as a bootstrapped company? - Has anyone just... gotten a small check from a friendly investor to technically qualify? Like could I have a VC friend write a $5K SAFE and suddenly be eligible? I like me a good loophole but while this would be an annoying distraction, it's far less annoying than having to migrate off Google entirely.