
37signals wants to charge their customers for the chance to give them customer feedback - brett
http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/384-37signals-customer-summit-exploration
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brett
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.

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skinner696
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.

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jey
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.

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gibsonf1
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.

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

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dpapathanasiou
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.

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jaf656s
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...

