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Your new designer will be able to have a crack at an original homepage ;) http://i.imgur.com/fRI8Q.jpg http://i.imgur.com/fRI8Q.jpg http://i.imgur.com/KbQo0.j
by wlll 15y ago
Your new designer will be able to have a crack at an original homepage ;)
http://i.imgur.com/fRI8Q.jpg http://i.imgur.com/fRI8Q.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/KbQo0.jpg http://i.imgur.com/KbQo0.jpg
- samstave 15y agoHeh - wow. I'd like to hear this story; is it a curebit founder? Or maybe a CL freelancer they hired...
- dmix 15y agoI got a different homepage: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/533753/Screen%20Shot%202012-01-27%20at%203.28.47%20PM.png http://dl.dropbox.com/u/533753/Screen%20Shot%202012-01-27%20... It's possible they are experimenting with the 37signals design to see if it has legs, then will release a more original incarnation?
- wlll 15y agoI get the version you see when I use Chrome, I get the other version 100% of the time in Safari.
- stouset 15y agoThe choice of A/B test is stored in a cookie.
- sriramk 15y agoDHH just tweeted that they actually serve some of the assets from the Highrise site. That's bad http://yfrog.com/mm5icqhj http://yfrog.com/mm5icqhj
- re5et 15y agothey are asking to get those switched out with something horrible
- farmdawgnation 15y agoIn re the previous sub-comment about switching out the assets: I think some Ocean Marketing images are in order.
- asianmack 15y agoI like this guy.
- ZephyrP 15y agoWow, that's embarrassing.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- Xorlev 15y agoThus ensuring we will never do business with Curebit. That's lazy and unprofessional at best, even if you're A/B testing. Use Optimizely and host your own assets.
- outworlder 15y agoSo, these guys get YCombinator and other investors to give them $1.2M and they still have to rip off 37 signals' design. I wonder which startup got rejected in their place.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- nomadomatic 15y agoWhat if curebit copied highrise's product - not the design mind you, but the core functionality of the product - and used a completely different, original design to dress up the product? Would you throw a similar tantrum? This is something that's always perplexed me. Companies copy other companies' business models and compete for the same customers all the time, but that's considered fair game. But if a design is copied, shit hits the fan. Frankly, I'd rather someone copy my design and go after a diff niche of customers than copy my product and come after my customers. To the guys at Curebit - ignore this noise. The focus should be on creating an awesome product, getting paying customers and generating profits. You guys have an awesome product and deserve the funding. Congrats :) P.S. You should remove the hotlinks tho. No need to use their bandwidth.
- keesmacklin 15y agoWait, so are you saying that we should be more outraged when business models and customers are stolen in a borderline illegal way? This is a valid point and we probably should be more outraged. Or are you saying that it should be ok to rip off someone's design and hotlink to their assets?
- jamesau 15y agoAgreed.
- ahoyhere 15y agoWait, do you think that there aren't already 10s, maybe even a 100+ products out there with the same basic functionality as Highrise? Because there are. There were before Highrise, and now, after. There are more every year. The concept of a CRM is not something you can "copy" because it simply exists. And most web-based software works in roughly the same way. So far, most 37signals products have very few truly unique features, because their focus is on simplicity and less software. Accordingly, 37signals doesn't care if somebody launches a new CRM. They also don't seem to care when live chat apps like Hipchat have one or two features that 37signals pioneered. Stealing a design outright, on the other hand, is not growing or improving or adopting a concept (e.g. "contact management that tracks deals", "it should x when you y") but their actual IP.
- BrianMatch 15y agoPersonally, I don't think it's a big deal. The Curebits designer was obviously inspired by the Highrise design, but didn't copy it pixel-by-pixel. If it helps Curebits convert more customers then more power to them--it's not like they're stealing Highrise customers. Linking to someone else's assets, however, is just wrong.
- metalab 15y ago"but it didn't copy it pixel-by-pixel" They used their image assets. How much more pixel-by-pixel can you get?
- acrum 15y ago"Inspired"? Sorry, but are you trolling? It's about as close to an exact copy as you can get.
- outworlder 15y agoProbably, he meant that the happy smiling guy was replaced by another. They could have gone with a headset hottie instead (http://www.headsethotties.com/ http://www.headsethotties.com/).
- jsavimbi 15y agoThey didn't copy it pixel-by-pixel because they're either too lazy to do so, too stupid to know how or both. And no, there will be no power to them.
- comice 15y agoyou can make the smallest viable product even smaller when you pinch designs and externalise the costs of your asset hosting!
- jamesau 15y agoLOL. Eric Ries would be proud.
- allangrant 15y agoHey - I'm one of the founders of Curebit, and yes - it was a boneheaded move.. We had a different homepage, were a/b testing different pages, came across the 37signals post and were like 'wow we should see how that converts!' We are big fans of rails and what 37signals is doing and did not really think through the implications of what we were doing. We just kind of thought about it as a fun test to run. Clearly it was stupid. It was not meant to offend anyone and we are adding credit where due. (We'll take it down if DHH insists!) Our new designer will take a crack at more than our homepage... we need all our UI "designed".. not redesigned, but designed - because we're primarily backend guys. Yes, this landing page variation was heavily inspired (read: blatantly ripped off) from Highrise -- because these are the peeps we aspire to, and they've done a lot of testing to figure out what works: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2991-behind-the-scenes-ab-testing-part-3-final http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2991-behind-the-scenes-ab-tes... We're running a "ghetto test" - this homepage variant does not even share a common CSS file with the rest of the code base. It's been live less than a week. The idea was to just see how the conversion characteristics were before investing a lot of time into making a "real design" out of the lessons (prominent testimonial, light copy focused on value props). Hence the hot linking, inline styles, etc. It is personally my fault for not including a credit to Highrise for the design.. that credit is well deserved and will be added shortly - a big oversight on my part.. we launch some stuff fast (other things deliberately), and this was one of those fast things. Lesson to us: add credits, and be more explicit what we're testing... ask permission instead of asking for forgiveness. In the meantime, please forgive us? :)
- jcampbell1 15y agoThanks for that. Now I am far less sad about stealing Curebit's concept. Their idea is fantastic, but I found it easier to just copy the concept than integrate with their APIs. Does anyone else find it strange that the article claims they have 1000 customers, and minimum pricing of $50/month, but they raised $1.2M? Why bother raising money if you are already close to a run-rate of $1M? My guess is they have closer to 1000 signups, not active 1000 customers.
- mp3jeep01 15y agoI doubt very many people find it strange -- just because you have revenue, or are profitable, does not mean you're "in the clear". Companies typically raise additional capital so they can accelerate their growth. Your assumption that companies only raise because they aren't cash-flow positive is misguided.
- jcampbell1 15y agoThat wasn't my assumption. It is the scale that I find strange. If the company is pulling in $100k/month, then having $1M in the bank is not going to significantly change what you can accomplish, but the effort required to raise the money is a substantial distraction.
- redguava 15y agoRevenue is not the same as profit, they could very easily be running at a loss even with that amount of revenue. We have seen this in extremes with companies like Groupon lately.
- dkrich 15y agoBy their founder's own admission, they have three employees. Not sure what they're doing that would burn through that much cash. Either their business model is severely lacking, or their spending is out of control. Of course it is possible that they aren't making any money.