Hello Forum,
I’m curious about what delegates prefer when it comes to the stake pools they delegate their hard earned ADA towards? Besides the obvious criteia like the saturation and fees of a stake pool, do delegates care if a company is running a stake pool or do delegates prefer Cardano to be supported by individuals? Or perhaps it’s important that individuals own and run the stake pool but they are supported by a stable company who provides for them rock solid 24x7 uptime and support.
I’d like to hear from this community on your thoughts when it comes to running a stake pool.
Thanks!
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To be honest, I think the great majority is only interested in large, proven and unsaturated pools. Since Cardano has this genius delegation system you really don’t have to invest a lot of time in a backgorund search, all you risk is 1-3 epochs of rewards.
When it comes to whales it might be different since even 1-3 epochs is a lot of money. But those whales might even operate their won private pool since a few % margin are a lot when you delegate millions of ADA
A minority, probably people hanging around in the community, might delegate to multiple pools factoring in wether its a company, single pool operator, contributions, mission and so on and so forth. I myself opened up several wallets to be able to delegate to some small pools. It is usually not much but I guess it just gives them a good feeling to have some delegators.
Best,
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Hi!
good question - maybe that is similar like finding accommodation. so it is a social thing… there are initial and required parameters ( including the pledge amount) but besides that it is up to the delegators who they choose based on what other information pool operators are sharing… (me for example doing zerro marketing for my pool)
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You started out with zero marketing? Thats interesting 
what do you think was the deciding factor for for your pool finding delegators? Pledge, timing,… luck
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Appreciate the input all! Thank you.
From my standpoint I like to see a business backing a pool in that uptime and support may be more available from resources within the business. That’s not to say non-business SPO’s can provide the same uptime. All pools have the possibility to be an awesome pool and support Cardano admirably. But I also liked to support smaller pools while I delegate. I myself am looking to start my own pool and will be backed by a rock solid company. But I’m also not a marketing person and hope I’m as lucky as you @laplasz and will be able to attract delegates to my pool. 
Thank you.
the main goal is the contribution to this project by operating a pool. so if someone appreciating it by delegation I will thank for it.
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Very good point @laplasz, that is the important point here to help support the Cardano network and make it more secure through more decentralization.
Although contribution is good, the main focus is to secure a reliable and technically sound network, and IOHK has been clear that operating a stakepool is something that is allowed to be run as a profitable business. Starting "just to support’ is excellent and noble, but maintaining this years and years ahead on your own funds might not be desirable. also, empty pools arent as effective due to voting and active stake being used.
Bas
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Most of them are looking for the best ranked pools what makes our job to find new delegations very hard. To be honest things are likely a patience game now than ever because I feel that most of these new pools won’t be here in a year or even less. Running a pool requires commitment and money. For example I’m not willing to run in my home so I’m in a cloud vps virtual environment and I know it’s not profitable any soon but I’m willing to pay from my pockets and try my lucky in this thing. At least I already learnt a bunch of things
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