

Geckoboard: “It’s Chartbeat For Everything Else” - lachyg
http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/03/geckoboard/

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jgrahamc
Looks interesting, but I don't understand the pricing model at all. If I want
to give all my 16 developers access to a company Geckoboard I'm paying 16 x $X
for that, and if they want access from their laptops and iPhones it's even
more. And they'll also be logging in from home. So that's even more devices.

I assume Paul is here: what's the thinking behind that?

I could imagine paying for integrations with specific services and I could
imagine paying extra for different update speeds, but this client level
licensing looks prohibitive for my use.

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pmjoyce
Hi John, to say there was some deliberation on the pricing model would be a
gross understatement. I sweated over this for some time but ultimately it came
down to looking at the data on how beta testers were using the product, a
number of pricing surveys with different user groups and one-to-one chats with
individuals.

The most common use case was users hooking it up to a cheap netbook plugged in
to a HDTV in the office or displayed on a 2nd monitor. In this case most small
companies would use 2 devices max, a machine to configure and another to
display. Perhaps unsurprisingly larger companies used it on more HDTVs (some
use upward of a dozen) but they would rarely have more than one dashboard.

However, there are certainly a number of different use cases. Solo users,
SMEs, large enterprises and agencies all have different usage patterns and
finding a one-size-fits-all is almost impossible. I evaluated 'per device' to
be the least bad option based on the data at my disposal. That said, it's
early days and there are no sacred cows here, I'm always open to suggestions.

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jgrahamc
Very interesting. This makes a lot of sense to me because that's probably how
we would end up using it (we have an in house equivalent called, jokingly,
Boiled Parsnip) that it visible on two monitors in the office.

The thing I find restrictive is that sometimes you'd want people to be able to
access it to get status information while on the road or at home etc.

Have you thought about a 'simultaneous users' model. I could imagine paying
for something like that where I know I've got say three monitors set up (two
here in London, one in California) and then I could allow up to three other
people to log in temporarily if they needed to.

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pmjoyce
The 'simultaneous users' model is intriguing and certainly something I'll
explore further in this context. I had originally discounted it when focussing
on agency users but, while not a perfect fit in all scenarios, it's probably
more palatable for most than the existing model judging my much of the
feedback today. Thanks. edit: grammar

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joelhaasnoot
Love the product, have been testing it, but the idea of paying hundreds of
dollars a month for the services that there are APIs for, and then another $9
a month doesn't appeal to my bootstrapped startup at this moment in time. And
there's no free plan...

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lachyg
Congratulations on launching, Paul! Huge accomplishment. How did you get the
coverage on TechCrunch?

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pmjoyce
Thanks Lachy! As for how I got coverage on Techcrunch, I got an intro. Given
that our initial target market (tech startups) are their core audience, I
thought it would be a great place to announce the launch.

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allenp
Everytime I see something like this I wish I had a startup/company/job where I
could be actively referring to a dashboard to make sure things were humming
along.

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dchs
Congratulations on the funding too! I remember trying this out when you
floated it on HN a while ago. Nice one!

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pmjoyce
Thanks! The quality of feedback I got from my Ask HN post back in July was
pretty incredible.

Since then I've spoken to a number of regular HNers who continue to use the
product and provide feedback and again, been bowled over by just how helpful
people are.

~~~
dchs
Great to hear! :)

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patd
This reminds me of what beebole.com wanted to do. They seem to have pivoted
from that idea.

