37signals wants to charge their customers for the chance to give them customer feedback | Hacker News Reader

37signals wants to charge their customers for the chance to give them customer feedback

37signals.com

4 pointsbrett9 comments

There's always been something fishy about 37signals that I can't put my finger on. I respect what they've done but know that I definitely don't want to run a company like they do. Firstly, they charge for everything they possible can. This is not necessarily bad in and of itself but at some point they stop feeling like a product company. First and foremost they're a brand company. I can't help but think they'll sacrifice quality in any other area if it helps their brand out. That's probably not entirely fair, but it's the picture they've painted.

I just want to build cool stuff. I know brand is important but it seems silly to me to try and make a career out of blathering about how awesomely I build cool stuff and how much I just get it where so many others don't.

My impression of them has always been that they are the Apple of webapps. They have style, grace, and a cult following. They also have a reality distortion field, will nickel and dime their customers, and if you don't get it then it's your fault you suck.

That's quite an interesting view. To be honest I loved 37Signals approach to web apps and how they initially shunned outside funding to build their business. Granted that they started out as a consulting company? then morphed into a product company(which is an ideal route if you don't take oustide funding) But these days I'm finding it hard to use Basecamp(although they claim they produce easy to use software) I hope that they don't lose their initial focus. Their business model is sound so is their choice of niche market. Hope they don't stray away from that successful formula.

We tried basecamp for awhile but then grew out of it. Then we tried Highrise when it came out - found it pretty much useless. Lots of people heeded their call for simplicity and the fight against feature creep and that's a good thing. But when their own products begin to get lapped by competitors and the new stuff they are releasing isn't very useful, then there are problems. That said, I don't blame them necessarily for charging people for all this stuff; at $100/person, they probably actually wouldn't make very much money - they need to rent space, get some food, pay for A/V, etc. Going to a developer conference is one thing, but I'm not sure it would be worth a day to hear how someone is using a glorified web form as a collaboration tool.

Isn't this a little harsh? What, you can't file bug reports or submit suggestions without going to the workshop? These user conferences / workshops are very common in the software-for-businesses industry, AND $100 is extremely cheap for one of these things. I'm not saying that it provides any legitimate value or anything, but it's a normal practice, and I think people just go to them because they just have to drink beer and socialize with other geeks, it's a vacation from real work, and they expense it so it's free to them.

It's an excellent opportunity for their competitors to get informed about their products for only $100 (and a plane ticket. My startup being one of them - not that I have time to fly over there) It is also a social gathering, so people might be getting value out of it in that respect too.

They want to charge people $100 to sit through a sales pitch?

Ballsy, definitely, but think about the people who show up for that: you (if you're 37signals) know they'll sign up for anything you offer.

There's an important concept in sales called pre-qualification (i.e. only spend time pitching to prospects who are likely to buy) and this is one way of doing it, albeit an extreme one.

I think there is even more to it than that. Imagine the buzz that can be generated from 300 blogs going up after the conference about the latest, greatest 37Signals app coming up...

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