
We wrote a CEO page and it works - rsync
http://rsync.net/products/ceopage.html
======
RKearney
So the concept of this is to create a misleading page such that the CEO of a
company would be tricked into signing off on an otherwise overpriced service?

Towards the bottom it reads:

>Depending on the size, this could be as low as 7 cents per GB, per month -
which is cheaper than Amazon S3.

However, after looking at both the pricing and signup page, it appears as
though the lowest you can get is $0.08 per GB, and that's only if you buy 10TB
of space. That's also for a SINGLE off-site location. This is the equivalent
of "Reduced Redundancy Storage" at Amazon, which starts at $0.076 per GB.
However, if you want to compare apples to apples, you would compare it to the
10TB pricing.

10TB Single off-site @ rsync - $9,500/yr

10TB Single off-site @ AWSs3 - $8,011/yr

10TB Multiple off-site @ rsync - $16,625/yr

10TB Multiple off-site @ AWSs3 - $10,009/yr

Every time rsync posts something on HN or Reddit, its always filled with FUD.

~~~
rsync
A few comments ...

First, our pricing almost exactly matching S3 is not a secret - it's well
understood, and by design.

Second, you'll note that the following features of a 10TB account with us are
not included with S3:

\- Free integration engineering (as in, a unix engineer on the phone with you)

\- 24/7 hotline support - as in, xmas morning phonecalls

\- two physical media shipments of any size per year

\- We _will sign a BAA with you_

Ask your contact at Amazon what those would cost next time you talk to them.
Oh wait, you've _never ever talked to anyone at Amazon and you never will_ [1]

So you're right - it's not apples to apples.

[1] Except, of course, at AWS summit and so on, where they are very available
and helpful.

~~~
jvoorhis
You lost me at "Oh wait." I've had positive experiences with AWS support at
both paid and free tiers of support, including phone calls with engineering to
resolve issues. (Knowing your account manager certainly helps.)

~~~
fuzzix
> "Knowing your account manager certainly helps"

So is this on-call service something all paying AWS customers can expect or
only those with rapport?

~~~
jvoorhis
You're going to pay extra for 24/7 on-call, but anyone I've worked with who
pays a moderate amount for AWS services have had an account manager who
reached out.

------
clarkmoody
I would like to see a blog post describing how it has worked for the company,
with a link to the CEO page.

But this seems like a great idea!

~~~
rsync
The short answer is that we've made a (philosophical) decision to stay right
in our highly technical niche and not gussy up our site, or product, with all
of the things you might expect to see.

This resonates very well with the people that find us and will eventually
_use_ us, but the people that make decisions and _pay_ us are not impressed
with what they see.

So if we're not going to put up the PDF whitepapers and the product tour
videos that they want to see ... how do we bridge that gap ?

That's where the CEO page comes in.

~~~
MWil
I'm a recent law graduate researching warrant canaries. Is there a contact at
your company I can be put in touch with?

~~~
jurjenh
That's a very interesting statement that can be read many, many ways... It may
pay to clarify your background a little.

 _I 'm a recent law graduate_ (- but I now work for the NSA...) _researching
warrant canaries_ (- and looking at ways to deal with these companies)

It may be a bit conspiracy-theory, but current affairs suggest it is certainly
not outside the realms of possibility.

~~~
MWil
I can't say I'm a lawyer because I am awaiting MPRE (ethics and
professionalism) test results in two weeks. I would be in very big trouble if
I did call myself a lawyer before that time so I can say I'm a JD and a law
graduate (and bar passer) but not a lawyer or put that badass Esq. (esquire)
by my name yet.

------
mvkel
We used to do stuff like this. It worked okay.

How do you know the _unique_ goals the CEO is trying to achieve in their
strategy matches what's shown on your CEO page? What if your last bullet point
is the only one they care about? Showing every CEO the exact same message
isn't personalized, and doesn't resonate.

What works better is empowering the "recommender" to sell your company
themselves, instead of just having them point their CEO to a page on your
website. You can work with this person to determine what the most compelling
cases are for _their_ business, and tailor the CEO message to that.

It's much more effective for building a relationship without much additional
work, and it raises conversions because it's more genuine.

~~~
rsync
I think you are correct - a more holistic approach would be more effective.

What we had before, however, was nothing - and this has been better.

------
daviddoran
Using the right language for different buyers is a good lesson. First thing
I'd A/B test on the page is the section mentioning "Cheap". I think business
purchasers rarely want cheap, they want value and cost effectiveness.

~~~
koa
I had the same reaction.. I always tend to use the word "affordable" since I
personally interpret "cheap"as low quality.

However, I usually interpret "affordable" as a good value for whatever price
(even if it is actually expensive)

~~~
BHSPitMonkey
"Inexpensive" strikes me as a good alternative.

------
eitally
Imho, you should call it the CIO page instead, but perhaps that varies
depending what kinds of businesses you're targeting. In most medium and large
enterprises, the CIO will have budget authority to make these kinds of
decisions independently and the CEO will never be involved at all, unless the
topic of backups & DR arise in a board or audit meeting.

~~~
rsync
Better that a CIO gets a "CEO page" than a CEO gets a "CIO page" :)

Ironically, _I 'm_ the CEO here and I wouldn't want to see any of these ...

~~~
mbesto
Exactly this. Even it's a VP in a big corp, in their mind they can be seen a
"CEO". This is one of those things good CEOs do for their subordinates - they
empower them.

~~~
eitally
It's pretty common, though, for software & service companies to offer a kind
of generic (no titles listed) "how to convince decision makers to invest in
our _____" web page or whitepaper. Those generally have pretty concise high
level bullets with use cases framed in business-speak. This is useful for
anyone, though, because all too often the _other_ pages on the site are all
couched in useless salestalk that just tries to get you to contact a
salesperson for more information.

------
ultimoo
Awesome! I like the straightforward nature of this article, it focuses on
content rather than style.

A minor nitpick if any of the rsync.net guys are reading this. The front page
states "11 Years serving customers worldwide" and the top section states
"Enterprise Offsite Backup Since 2001".

~~~
BHSPitMonkey
Another nitpick, from the linked "CEO page":

"it appeals to technical people that appreciate elegant solutions"

Should arguably read as "people who appreciate". "Who" is preferred over
"that" or "which" when referring to people.

------
henrikm85
Extremely slow for me,
[http://rsync.net.nyud.net/products/ceopage.html](http://rsync.net.nyud.net/products/ceopage.html)
works.

------
yeldarb
Maybe I'm completely out of touch but what is a "CEO page"?

~~~
mrjatx
A page to provide to your CEO (as a technical person) that will get them past
overly technical/marketing speak. Basically a "I'm recommending this software,
an here is an easy breakdown on why we should use it," page.

------
beachstartup
this is usually just called an 'executive summary'

------
Xymak1y
The "products" page, however, does not work:
[http://www.rsync.net/products/index.html](http://www.rsync.net/products/index.html)

~~~
rsync
... just tested and works just fine ... just a static HTML page that's been in
place since 2006 :)

~~~
mrjatx
I'm on 100MB line and it's been extremely slow. Several of the images from the
/images/ directory are taking 6-7 seconds to load.

[http://i.imgur.com/wEmmMfc.png](http://i.imgur.com/wEmmMfc.png)

------
michaelmior
Mirror:
[http://rsync.net.nyud.net/products/ceopage.html](http://rsync.net.nyud.net/products/ceopage.html)

------
fareesh
It would be sort of nice if VPS providers did this. I sometimes find it
difficult talking to non-technical people about Heroku or Linode and they look
at me like "I've never heard of those, can't we use GoDaddy?"

------
sinak
You should probably update the "Copyright 2011" note in the footer ...

~~~
dovel
I think the date of copyright is supposed to be the date at which content you
are copyrighting was first created and anything after that date is covered.
Not certain though

~~~
hornbaker
There are no rules here, only conventions. In my opinion, a copyright year in
the past makes it look like you don't know what you're doing. If you feel the
need to tout your long history, then put the start and current year, like
2011-2013. Otherwise, follow convention and make sure it always reads the
current year.

~~~
alextingle
Lying about the copyright date is fraud.

That work will (hopefully) enter the public domain one day. By forward-dating
the copyright notice, you are attempting to fraudulently extend your limited
monopoly.

~~~
iand
As far as I know, this is untested in court for online documents. There is an
argument that says that each HTTP request is an act of publication, thus
updating the copyright date to that point in time. It's not a view I subscribe
to personally.

~~~
alextingle
Copyright is dated to _first_ publication. Re-publication is irrelevant.
Disney doesn't get to extend the copyright on Mickey Mouse by re-issuing
_steamboat Willy_. They have to bribe politician for that.

------
deGravity
Thanks for sharing!

Small grammar nitpick: In the last sentence of the "Cheap and risk free"
section you use the word "years" twice where "year's" would be the appropriate
usage.

------
thewojo
Good idea, but think this needs to be more visual. A couple images go a long
way in terms of conveying technical concepts to a non-technical audience.

~~~
jethro_tell
Like an action shot of bits being written to the disk.

------
Accredified
Nothing gets more techy than servers. Why I would hire a tech company that
uses pre 2000 design and static pages from 2006 to sell me on their modern
tech solution is beyond me.

~~~
drharris
Presumably because they're spending time on their actual technology rather
than fiddling in Photoshop and keeping up with patching the latest Node.js
vulnerabilities on a web-appified version?

