

ScrumPad Offers Free Subscription for Bootstrapped Startups - srayhan
http://www.scrumpad.com
ScrumPad, a popular and intuitive Web-based Agile project management tool, has recently made its service available to bootstrapped  startups. According to the company Website, any startup with only founders on the team and without any external funding is eligible for the free service. If you are a bootstrapped startup and would like to track &#38; manage your product development activities, you should check it out.
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timmorgan
Can't find any more information. The link at the bottom of the homepage takes
you to the FAQs and a hashtag with seemingly nothing there.

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rookie
<http://www.scrumpad.com/public/faq#g6>

How do we cancel?

You can cancel at anytime from within ScrumPad (Admin > Cancel Subscription).
You are responsible for any amount due at the time of cancelation(sp). There
is no undo for cancellation. Once your account is cancelled(sp), all your
project information will be immediately and permanently deleted. In future, we
will allow you to export all project data for a fee.

I would seriously rethink this. There should not be a fee to cancel. I would
personally never pay for a service that would lock me in like that. My data is
my data and I am only using any service for organization of that data.(project
management, todo lists, etc)

It also adds a barrier to entry because once a customer chooses to try it out
they are stuck with it. On the other hand if you were to allow free export it
would be a definite selling point. Will they have to pay a fee at the end of a
30 day trial to export the data?

I would also suggest not deleting the data for at least a month or two. Just
disable the actions of the site.

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mhartl
I agree, this is a questionable policy. You should be able to "cancel" (i.e.,
stop paying) for a couple months and then come back later. This would cover
cases where, e.g., people go on vacation, or take a consulting gig to pay the
bills and don't need the service for a bit.

~~~
srayhan
Good point. We haven't charged anyone for data export yet though. When you
cancel most SaaS, you lose your data. I don't know of any service that allows
you to keep your data even after you cancel subscription and can come back and
reactivate. However, we like the idea. Maybe we will allow users to do that.

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levirosol
To build on my comment below "...I think it's a good design. The #fail didn't
come until i clicked the (bootstrapped) link and landed on a FAQ not related
to the promotion..."

After spending a few minutes on the site I found in the signup form, when i
hovered over the tiny little ? icon what the criteria is for this promotion.
Great, I qualify. However, the signup form is VERY painful. Do you really need
all that info? The only thing you probably need are Company Name, Email and
Password. Assume everything else and give the users a way to set those once
they've signed up.

This is just my 2 cents. Overall your design, and the product itself looks
really good. The signup just seems to be a weakness.

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aaronbrethorst
Syed - Are you A/B testing the three big bullet points at the top of the page?
I read all three, and said "I'm pretty satisfied with what I use today, maybe,
no." I probably would have left the page then under any other circumstances
(update: "any other circumstances" meaning had I not found this link through
HN posted by the founder of the company).

Also, the 'free for bootstrapped startups' section is below the fold on my
1680x1050px screen. Plus, the text in that section (once I found it) doesn't
give me a lot of confidence in your longevity (don't get me wrong, I'm
bootstrapped, too. It's just a psychological hurdle other users of yours will
need to overcome).

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levirosol
Below the fold? Really? You can't scroll?

The whole concept of a fold is ridiculous to begin with (for the most part),
but then to give feedback that the "here's how you get our paid app for free"
link is not front and center? Really?

In the 10 seconds I spent looking at ScrumPads home page, I think it's a good
design. The #fail didn't come until i clicked the link and landed on a FAQ not
related to the promotion. I'd be interested, but I couldn't find more
promotion details. Because of this, we'll probably stick with Unfuddle and
their ticketing system.

I will say that yes, this HN thread is a promotion, and therefore, the URL
should take us to a new landing page highlighting the promotion. Not to the
general home page.

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aaronbrethorst
The article is entitled "ScrumPad Offers Free Subscription for Bootstrapped
Startups," I'm using a fairly high-res screen, and I don't see a 'free
subscription for bootstrapped startups' link anywhere.

I can scroll, but I won't unless something captures my interest. A free
subscription _might_ , but not if I'm not aware of it.

