I have read and re-read the guidelines and I really hope I don't cross the boundaries while writing this comment.
This democracy report sounds like as if written by an Indian journalist Rana Ayyub. (https://twitter.com/ranaayyub) She writes columns in various western media outlets. Her whole career is built on the foundations of hating Modi. Various statements used in the article linked above, sounds eerily similar to what this lady writes time and again.
While I don't give full marks to Modi administration, I do not believe the premise set in the article (or the report) at all. For all unbiased HNers reading this and unfamiliar with India, the issue at hand is very complex. You have to understand, there are vested interests around the world who want to disgrace the current administration in India by hook or crook.
There are issues and problems on both the sides (Hindus and Muslims) but in case say in a murder, a Muslim is the victim, the machinery of the likes of Rana Ayyub have the power to flare it up on all possible International platforms giving spin to the story what suits their own narrative but things go unnoticed when a person from some other religion is a victim when Muslims kill someone. An example, Sometime back a Muslim politician abused a Hindu group; in return a Hindu leader abused Muslim God. A fatwa was issued and the Hindu leader (Kamlesh Tiwari) was murdered by Muslims within few years of uttering the words. His murder never became the hot topic in International media.
I can go on and on to negate every statement in the linked article with supporting proofs if people here really want to listen with eyes and ears open.
All I want to say this There is a lot more to it than meets the eye.
Like Mandrill, most (all?) of these companies have some warmup period. Start sending low volumes, then once you have enough reputation go to higher volumes.
I don't belong to any of these companies but as a client, use their services heavily. Imagine a spammer signing up with them and sending several thousands mails in a day. They deal with such notorious people on a daily basis.
I am not saying you may have done anything wrong but probably their system flagged you when you sent 11k emails to 10-15 people.
In any case here is my rec for you in order-
1. PostMark - They do strictly transactional email.
2. Mailgun
3. SparkPost
4. SES
Do you have other product ideas you want to get off the ground?
I have a list of ideas sitting in my To-Do. I am limited by my time. Wish I can hire some smart folks to execute them. <- Hiring smarter folks than the owner is the sentiment echoed in several comments in this post. How to do that is what we all need. Share profit percentage? Yes, but how much? on what basis?
Once the basic needs are met, many smart and talented people look for internal motivation. It doesn't matter if it is a small or a large company, as long as they are happy and satisfied. According to Daniel Pink's theory of motivation [0], there are 3 aspects of intrinsic motivation:
1. Autonomy - trust them, don't micromanage, let them take decisions
2. Mastery - allow them to get better and acquire skills
3. Purpose - give them a meaningful purpose and sell them your vision
Internal motivation may mean differently for different individuals, but I believe the above three aspects cover the most of it.
There are lots of reasons for choosing a small company over large ones: interest in the field, involvement in decision making, maybe more technical freedom, less bureaucracy ... I would say it depends more on the company itself than its size
I would like to thank each and everyone of you who took time for your valuable answers.
However, with due respect, I see that most of the people are over-fixated on why I should not expand. I am already in an extremely comfortable position when it comes to money. All little necessities of life like insurances, house, car have been already being taken care of. The place where I come from even if I stop working today, I can live comfortably for next 10 years.
Except a couple, most of the answers are telling me why it is not a good idea to expand. I understand their sentiments but this was not my original question.
To give you more details -
This is an eLearning subscription model. Other than questions in my OP, hiring, managing, trusting emp with sensitive info, finding very high quality content creators remains as one of my biggest challenges. I am not from any of the developed countries. I dominate my current niche but looking to expand into other related niches where I see a good competition.
This democracy report sounds like as if written by an Indian journalist Rana Ayyub. (https://twitter.com/ranaayyub) She writes columns in various western media outlets. Her whole career is built on the foundations of hating Modi. Various statements used in the article linked above, sounds eerily similar to what this lady writes time and again.
While I don't give full marks to Modi administration, I do not believe the premise set in the article (or the report) at all. For all unbiased HNers reading this and unfamiliar with India, the issue at hand is very complex. You have to understand, there are vested interests around the world who want to disgrace the current administration in India by hook or crook.
There are issues and problems on both the sides (Hindus and Muslims) but in case say in a murder, a Muslim is the victim, the machinery of the likes of Rana Ayyub have the power to flare it up on all possible International platforms giving spin to the story what suits their own narrative but things go unnoticed when a person from some other religion is a victim when Muslims kill someone. An example, Sometime back a Muslim politician abused a Hindu group; in return a Hindu leader abused Muslim God. A fatwa was issued and the Hindu leader (Kamlesh Tiwari) was murdered by Muslims within few years of uttering the words. His murder never became the hot topic in International media.
I can go on and on to negate every statement in the linked article with supporting proofs if people here really want to listen with eyes and ears open.
All I want to say this There is a lot more to it than meets the eye.