[ANNOUNCEMENT] Big Changes, Same Team. Better Hardware.

crunchbits · May 6

Below is announcement that is also outbound to all customers via e-mail. It's going to take quite awhile to chew through all accounts--so I'm also posting for visibility.

TL;DR:
Crunchbits is now part of Synteq Digital. You’ll see faster infrastructure, quicker hardware turnaround, and better support—with the same team behind it all.

Changes Coming Soon™:

DIY VPS revamp — newer, faster hardware rolling out this month. All existing customers will be upgraded free of charge.

Storage VPS upgrade — more performance, same pricing. All existing customers will be upgraded free of charge.

Cloud GPU improvements — same pricing tiers, better hardware. Existing customers get first access if they wish to migrate.

We’re excited to announce that Crunchbits has joined Synteq Digital, a fast-growing and experienced team focused on building owned data center and HPC infrastructure.

This partnership gives us the scale, tooling, and support to accelerate everything we’ve been building—while keeping the same fast, affordable, no-BS service that got us here in the first place.
And yes: our entire team is staying. Same people.

Here’s what’s already in motion:

DIY VPS: Major Upgrade
We’re revamping our entire DIY VPS platform with newer, faster nodes and improved architecture.
No price changes to your existing service. This is a pure performance lift for everyone currently on the platform.
Storage VPS: Performance Bump
We’re upgrading storage VPS performance across all tiers.
No pricing changes, and existing services will be offered priority migration paths.
Cloud GPU: Better Options, Same Pricing
We’re rolling out upgraded GPU infrastructure behind the scenes.
Pricing tiers will remain the same, but due to limited inventory, existing customers get first dibs if they wish to migrate.

Thank you for putting your trust in us. We built Crunchbits with one mission: to serve our customers with honesty, speed, and reliability. That mission stays the same.

It’s been an honor. One we’re proud to keep earning every day.

— The Crunchbits Team

SocksAreComfortable · May 6

Just got this email:

TL;DR:Crunchbits is now part of Synteq Digital. You’ll see faster infrastructure, quicker hardware turnaround, and better support—with the same team behind it all.
Changes Coming Soon™:

DIY VPS revamp — newer, faster hardware rolling out this month. All existing customers will be upgraded free of charge.

Storage VPS upgrade — more performance, same pricing. All existing customers will be upgraded free of charge.

Cloud GPU improvements — same pricing tiers, better hardware. Existing customers get first access if they wish to migrate.

We’re excited to announce that Crunchbits has joined Synteq Digital, a fast-growing and experienced team focused on building owned data center and HPC infrastructure.
This partnership gives us the scale, tooling, and support to accelerate everything we’ve been building—while keeping the same fast, affordable, no-BS service that got us here in the first place.And yes: our entire team is staying. Same people.
Here’s what’s already in motion:

1. DIY VPS: Major Upgrade
We’re revamping our entire DIY VPS platform with newer, faster nodes and improved architecture.No price changes to your existing service. This is a pure performance lift for everyone currently on the platform.

2. Storage VPS: Performance Bump
We’re upgrading storage VPS performance across all tiers.No pricing changes, and existing services will be offered priority migration paths.

3. Cloud GPU: Better Options, Same Pricing
We’re rolling out upgraded GPU infrastructure behind the scenes.Pricing tiers will remain the same, but due to limited inventory, existing customers get first dibs if they wish to migrate.

Thank you for putting your trust in us. We built Crunchbits with one mission: to serve our customers with honesty, speed, and reliability. That mission stays the same.
It’s been an honor. One we’re proud to keep earning every day.
— The Crunchbits Team

Found this article as well about it: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/synteq-digital-announces-acquisition-of-crunchbits-accelerating-its-expansion-into-high-performance-computing-data-center-services--solutions-302447388.html?tc=eml_cleartime

Jab · May 6

Corporate overlord, rip our 7$/yr deals.

Good luck however!

terrorgen · May 6

What's the plan for VDS?

yoursunny · May 6

What's the plan for Crankbis sub-brand?

crunchbits · May 6

@terrorgen said:
What's the plan for VDS?

6146 --> 6246 (already live and have been getting beat on for about a week verifying new chassis/settings).
Ryzen TBD but looking like EPYC Turin with high clocks.

coo · May 6

@crunchbits said:

@terrorgen said:
What's the plan for VDS?

6146 --> 6246 (already live and have been getting beat on for about a week verifying new chassis/settings).
Ryzen TBD but looking like EPYC Turin with high clocks.

Congratulations 👏
So all winners get epyc turin chickens? 😁
Will you still have permission to do unsustainable deals?

Hertonis · May 6

Oh another deadpooled acquired host

crunchbits · May 6

@coo said:

@crunchbits said:

@terrorgen said:
What's the plan for VDS?

6146 --> 6246 (already live and have been getting beat on for about a week verifying new chassis/settings).
Ryzen TBD but looking like EPYC Turin with high clocks.

Congratulations 👏
So all winners get epyc turin chickens? 😁
Will you still have permission to do unsustainable deals?

Yes. I expect a bit more fun with some of it as I get increased amounts of hardware that is still very capable being pushed downstream.

AuroraZero · May 6

Wish I had known Eric I would have thrown my hat in the ring.

Anagram · May 6

High clocks? Is this old mining hardware? Sounds like a good arrangement.

crunchbits · May 6

@Anagram said:
High clocks? Is this old mining hardware? Sounds like a good arrangement.

If you can run a VPS on old bitcoin asics I would agree

Anagram · May 6

Things have changed since my day

imok · May 7

I'm happy for @crunchbits owners.
I'm sad for @crunchbits users.

cybertech · May 7

awesome. what kinda upgrade for storage?

Wonder_Woman · May 7

Congratulations, @crunchbits!

crunchbits · May 7

@imok said:
I'm happy for @crunchbits owners.
I'm sad for @crunchbits users.

I think you have it backwards.

@cybertech said:
awesome. what kinda upgrade for storage?

CPUs and platform, RAM (speed / amount*), SSD-->NVMe, chassis/cooling, and serviceability.

short_dot · May 7

As a new customer of crunchbits, I can only hope for the best.

Congrats to the team!

Astride3961 · May 7

Are all VPS hardware upgraded? What about VDS?

legendary · May 7

Ok, let's distill bullshit:

Who's the owner of the company? Crunchy daddy or someone else?
I care no for "team does not change" if owner is not the same. New owner in the blink of an eye can retire whole crew if ROI is not met;
Since ROI is the king, how long after "partnership" (wtf with the wording? Does the acquisition now is "parthership") status quo is held? That digit should be written in acquisition document;

These questions would greatly help to plan migration away, until shit hits the fan. And it will hit the fan rather sooner than latter (yep, I'am a doomer type).

Brueggus · May 7

@crunchbits What's your plan for those who are affected by your announcement back in November ("Important Update on Yearly/Promotional VPS Plans") and still have a service in their account which hasn't been migrated yet?

skorous · May 7

@legendary said:

And it will hit the fan rather sooner than latter (yep, I'am a doomer type).

You? Nnoooo... You've always been such a ray of sunshine. < /s >

caracal · May 7

Anyone else think this is all doom and gloom?

AuroraZero · May 7

@caracal said:
Anyone else think this is all doom and gloom?

Nah I have seem some acquisitions over the years work for the better for clients. Only time will tell and I am happy @crunchbits did not leave customers, and staff in the lurch and found a solution instead of just dumping it all.

crunchbits · May 7

@legendary said:
Ok, let's distill bullshit:

Who's the owner of the company? Crunchy daddy or someone else?

I care no for "team does not change" if owner is not the same. New owner in the blink of an eye can retire whole crew if ROI is not met;

Since ROI is the king, how long after "partnership" (wtf with the wording? Does the acquisition now is "parthership") status quo is held? That digit should be written in acquisition document;

These questions would greatly help to plan migration away, until shit hits the fan. And it will hit the fan rather sooner than latter (yep, I'am a doomer type).

Owner: Synteq, exactly as stated in first line of "bullshit".
If ROI is not met, I would also fire whole crew. This doesn't/didn't change. If anything, there will be more of an allowance to test/expand certain product lines that otherwise were not prioritized specifically due to me being quite strict about where the dollars were going because there were less of them to spread simultaneously. Will lead to better pre-emptive hardware supply procurement and healthier hardware ecosystem internally. New owner firing everyone who built what they just acquired and was specifically brought on to expand and direct the entirety of that side of business would be a very complex way of setting money on fire. They could have just skipped the acquisition part when gasoline is under $3/gallon here now.
I can't even understand what you're saying about status quo held, digit be written, and acquisition document but I think you're asking for me to disclose specifics of a contract that I'm not legally allowed to disclose. So: no?

@Brueggus said:
@crunchbits What's your plan for those who are affected by your announcement back in November ("Important Update on Yearly/Promotional VPS Plans") and still have a service in their account which hasn't been migrated yet?

We've been holding onto stuff longer than I wanted, mainly because these transactions can take a lot longer to fully flesh out than anticipated or told. A lot of third parties involved, moving parts, etc even if both primary parties are fully in agreement for months. What's happening is instead of migrating twice, we've been holding to migrate those customers once and to avoid any issues on disclosures and reps/warranties for our side. So in short: if you were a yearly customer that wasn't disallowed for abuse/similar reasons from being migrated to our normal VPS--that is still happening. You're just sort of skipping one tier of upgrades and will end up on the newest gear like all VMs. With the public announcement out and certain things that were administratively 'on hold' for us done, I'm expecting work to continue on this asap and be done by end of month.

crunchbits · May 7

@AuroraZero said:

@caracal said:
Anyone else think this is all doom and gloom?

Nah I have seem some acquisitions over the years work for the better for clients. Only time will tell and I am happy @crunchbits did not leave customers, and staff in the lurch and found a solution instead of just dumping it all.

I had huge concerns over this knowing how many of the acquisitions go for customers after the fact. I can't go into very specific details (at least not yet), but protecting existing customers was a major factor in how I made this decision. The entire team is extremely aligned towards continuing growth and success. This wasn't a 'golden parachute' moment.

Anyone with a bit of experience in the field probably has a clue as to how much capital is poured into a business like this, at extremely high risk and with pretty brutal working hours as a startup. My "immediate" ROI would have been significantly better if I just purchased S&P 500 ETF from the date of forming Crunchbits and played video games/slept all day.

A big portion was that my entire team stays and we're shaping entirety of the enterprise side of business from scratch, but better supported. These are things that are going to be 2-5 year plans (think infrastructure) which only serve to cementing our competitiveness and agility much longer into the future in ways that would not have been possible solo.

My name isn't hidden, many people from LE* communities have met me in person, and I still put a very high value on a handshake. I've made quite a few legitimate personal friends in the space and don't plan to go anywhere.

caracal · May 7

@crunchbits said: handshake

perfect promo code

all the best to you and your team in addition to the parent company! @crunchbits

got to say you're fielding all the questions well.

crunchbits · May 7

@caracal said:

@crunchbits said: handshake

perfect promo code

all the best to you and your team in addition to the parent company! @crunchbits

got to say you're fielding all the questions well.

I didn't want to do it "in the dark" so to speak, so I tried to get posts out as soon as I reasonably could to all accounts/forums/etc right after I could confirm their PR was live. I expect (rightfully) to be asked difficult questions. Internally: pretty excited for what I know we're rolling out and going to have capacity to do.

My main goal and concern is to try and let existing customers know how much I/we appreciate them and to reassure them that the core of who/what we do isn't changing. It's easy to field when it's what you truly believe. It would have been a lot more lucrative and simple for me to just exit. This is nearly the opposite--the main difference being that my time can pivot back towards what I do better and away from required-but-ugh sorts of business tasks that I do poorly.

terrorgen · May 7

I don't blame people asking hard questions in an unfriendly manner. This community had been dinged before by people who looked legit, claimed to meet community members in person, provided great deals, great vibes, then suddenly deadpooled.

Of course you seem to now have more capital and plans to expand so you are less likely to be the next (ahem) N**** (ahem) B****.

crunchbits · May 7

@terrorgen said:
claimed to meet community members in person

The only ones who have managed to skirt me so far is @FAT32 and @FrankZ

I'm patient, though.

Chievo · May 7

Congrats ! Keep the good work ! Changes could be always used to improve everything and enhance it somehow. Just take it easy and well which is the roadmap that you have in mind? May be for the near future 1-2 years which is the target for the company?

[ANNOUNCEMENT] Big Changes, Same Team. Better Hardware.

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