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I was seriously looking at working with Chargify for our business www.getdashboard.com as they had been doing a great job at marketing themselves and starting t

by estegonza2002 16y ago

I was seriously looking at working with Chargify for our business www.getdashboard.com as they had been doing a great job at marketing themselves and starting to build a community around their brand. Obviously when looking at a company that will be handling your money or at least a big part of your financial process one must do all due diligence. I heard Mr. Hauser speak at a conference and all I can say is that I got a good read on the guy. He sounded cocky and prideful, however he did sounds and spoke as a very smart guy. As Jeff points out in his blog post, trust is one if not the most important factor in any web business specially in one like chargify. In terms of the freemiun model, Jeff is 100% right. The integration time alone is worth 1000s of dollars. when choosing a billing system one has to weight everything including trust and expenditure. One thing I want to point out. I don't know the ins and outs of chargify's business and this may very well be a 100% needed change in order for them to stay in business. I don't know and I won't judge.

tptacek 16y ago
The integration costs thousands of dollars. It is not worth thousands of dollars to Chargify. Building (anything) is part of your cost structure. It is not reasonable to project your cost structure onto other companies. Any software developer capable of doing multiplication and division can work out what it's going to cost to integrate someone's API into their app. It is also not reasonable to suggest that you are taken off guard by a pricing change and are thus entitled to consideration for your sunk cost. If you are worried about not earning back your sunk cost on someone's API, that's what promises are for. Businesses spell the word "promise" c-o-n-t-r-a-c-t.
- jeffepp 16y ago
  I agree, its not worth thousands but it is worth > $0. You must agree this investment by the integrating company makes them unlikely to leave. A contract is worthless for a company in this situation. The cost of enforcing it is thousands as well.
  - tptacek 16y ago
    This is silly. The contract is simply the formal agreement you enter into with your provider. You don't get a contract so that you can sue someone; you get it so both parties actually know what they agreed to. I assure you, most of your providers do not know that they've agreed that your software development costs are consideration for services they provide you.
    - jeffepp 16y ago
      This is true. I would be willing to bet that 99% of chargify customers assumed they agreed to the current prices. This agreement (contract or not) is trust. Thus my point, the trust is lost.
      - tptacek 16y ago
        It is clear to me that Chargify users assume they agreed to a lot of things. Some of them appear to be even crazier than "Chargify will never raise their prices or eliminate the free option".
- estegonza2002 16y ago
  I hear you... and I rather sign a contract than have this happen to me. Thing is... The TRUST factor is gone. When i have a contract signed that says my price or cost structure isn't gonna change then I don't need to trust. At the end of the day... all press is good press and this is certainly getting a lot of attention. I'm sure they are having a good time! They may have to clean this mess up a bit but they will be fine.

tptacek 16y ago

The integration costs thousands of dollars. It is not worth thousands of dollars to Chargify. Building (anything) is part of your cost structure. It is not reasonable to project your cost structure onto other companies. Any software developer capable of doing multiplication and division can work out what it's going to cost to integrate someone's API into their app. It is also not reasonable to suggest that you are taken off guard by a pricing change and are thus entitled to consideration for your sunk cost. If you are worried about not earning back your sunk cost on someone's API, that's what promises are for. Businesses spell the word "promise" c-o-n-t-r-a-c-t.

jeffepp 16y ago
I agree, its not worth thousands but it is worth > $0. You must agree this investment by the integrating company makes them unlikely to leave. A contract is worthless for a company in this situation. The cost of enforcing it is thousands as well.
- tptacek 16y ago
  This is silly. The contract is simply the formal agreement you enter into with your provider. You don't get a contract so that you can sue someone; you get it so both parties actually know what they agreed to. I assure you, most of your providers do not know that they've agreed that your software development costs are consideration for services they provide you.
  - jeffepp 16y ago
    This is true. I would be willing to bet that 99% of chargify customers assumed they agreed to the current prices. This agreement (contract or not) is trust. Thus my point, the trust is lost.
    - tptacek 16y ago
      It is clear to me that Chargify users assume they agreed to a lot of things. Some of them appear to be even crazier than "Chargify will never raise their prices or eliminate the free option".
estegonza2002 16y ago
I hear you... and I rather sign a contract than have this happen to me. Thing is... The TRUST factor is gone. When i have a contract signed that says my price or cost structure isn't gonna change then I don't need to trust. At the end of the day... all press is good press and this is certainly getting a lot of attention. I'm sure they are having a good time! They may have to clean this mess up a bit but they will be fine.