Running a business is much, much more expensive than you&#x27;d expect if you&#x27;ve never done it before.  I started one on $60 so I get the mindset which has people suggesting that this story represents prolifigate spending, but oh my goodness, it&#x27;s practically a <i>shoestring</i>.<p>There is an individual thing in the AR deployment which exists for no technical purpose to get us a piece of paper issued by Rackspace which we need for legal reasons.  That thing costs more than everything on this page combined.  We have one part-time employee; she&#x27;s 3X more expensive than that thing.<p>If you&#x27;re put off by $80 for a database wait until you get quoted rent, insurance, taxes, accounting fees, any engagement with a professional, review of a customer&#x27;s MSA to sell them an enterprise contract, healthcare for a single person, travel to a single conference, the wifi at the hotel for a single conference, etc etc.<p>Also: there is virtually no scenario under which a SaaS app grossing $Xk per month has a better financial or technical outcome by working on minimizing expenses when you could be working on selling more accounts and selling better accounts.