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Kagi user, personally I don’t care what they spend my subscription money on as long as they provide a good service (which they do). That said, Kagi has to be th

Kagi user, personally I don’t care what they spend my subscription money on as long as they provide a good service (which they do). That said, Kagi has to be the poster child for not staying in their lane. I mean that mostly as, they keep going off and trying random things and I worry it will distract them from the core product(s). This rings of the whole t-shirt factory thing all over again. Get an office, that’s fine I guess if you will use it but the coworking aspect is just odd.

tokai 11mo ago
The t-shirt debacle made me put off subscribing for good. I felt petty back then, but feel like it was the right decision now.
- scosman 11mo ago
  Debacle? They gave away some t shirts to paying customers. It probably had decent returns on both marketing and loyalty.
  - wonger_ 11mo ago
    https://blog.kagi.com/celebrating-20k https://blog.kagi.com/celebrating-20k > The process from here involves setting up a business entity in Germany, so we can import the t-shirts, store them in a warehouse, connect inventory logistics and ship them all over the world. This includes building a website and connecting it to a back-end database. So, we basically ended up owning a merch production operation end-to-end, just so that we could ensure premium quality of these t-shirts! > Now, you may ask, why did we go through all this trouble and allocate nearly a third of our investor-raised funds to produce and freely distribute 20,000 t-shirts?
    - j_w 11mo ago
      > > Now, you may ask, why did we go through all this trouble and allocate nearly a third of our investor-raised funds to produce and freely distribute 20,000 t-shirts? Marketing.
- Semaphor 11mo ago
  I never understood how that t-shirt thing aggrevated people so much. It’s like the firefox issues taken to the next level.
  - thoroughburro 11mo ago
    When you like something and want it to succeed, it’s discouraging to see that thing waste its resources. Especially if you contributed those resources. I never understood how this very simple position flies over certain heads.
    - deleted 11mo ago
      [deleted]
    - Semaphor 11mo ago
      There’s a difference between disagreeing with a marketing stunt, and saying "I stopped using them because of that". But I guess that also flew over our heads, dumb as we are.
      - deleted 11mo ago
        [deleted]
      - deleted 11mo ago
        [deleted]
    - dooglius 11mo ago
      It sounds like the issue is that you see your payment as a donation, and don't believe the service in and of itself is worth what you pay?
      - nerdponx 11mo ago
        Sort of? You want the thing to exist long-term, so if they're using my monthly payment on bad business decisions then yeah I care because then it won't exist anymore, and I could have spent that money on a more responsible company in the meantime.
- 0x1ch 11mo ago
  For what it's wroth, I didn't know anything about the tshirt situation and have been a happy paying customer for the better part of four months-ish now. Great search engine, although I do agree that this sort of stuff doesn't make a lot of sense.
frereubu 11mo ago
I do care what they spend my subscription money on if it's not about providing a good service. The cost of this place is probably a drop in the ocean in terms of their income, but it does feel like it's yet another distraction from their core services.
- prmoustache 11mo ago
  > but it does feel like it's yet another distraction from their core services. It is basically marketing. I am not sure everyone would call that a distraction if it gives kagi more visibility and thus, customers and revenues to spend on r&d. Belgrade is a good place to test if that marketing works. It is a tech hub, which means higher probability to get new kagi subsribers, and it is not too expensive as a place to do an experiment. If they realize the ratio between money spent on this coworking space vs customer gained in that area in a year is not in their favor they can easily not renew their rent and shut it off.
  - deaux 11mo ago
    Out of curiosity what makes Belgrade a tech hub moreso than other capitals with similar population and HDI?
    - dccoolgai 11mo ago
      Belgrade, historically, was a "gateway between East and West" and in some ways it still is: as a non-EU member in Europe it has access to a broader range of markets than a lot of other cities. I think recently, the wave of Russian tech workers fleeing Russia has also elevated its "tech hub" status.
      - ignoramous 11mo ago
        > Russian tech workers fleeing Russia has also elevated its "tech hub" status. Fleeing as in seeking asylum? Or fleeing as in sanctions? If the latter, besides the Slavic nations, I'd have thought Germany, the UAE, Israel, and Canada to be more popular?
naftalibeder 11mo ago
Would you mind explaining the t-shirt criticism? I got one, it's nice, I'm literally wearing it right now, and I have trouble understanding the "distraction" critique. Seems like a nice way to let their (unusually devoted) users broadcast their enthusiasm.
- KomoD 11mo ago
  Well, I think it's less about the t-shirts themselves and more about how much effort and money was spent on them. > The process from here involves setting up a business entity in Germany, so we can import the t-shirts, store them in a warehouse, connect inventory logistics and ship them all over the world. This includes building a website and connecting it to a back-end database. So, we basically ended up owning a merch production operation end-to-end, just so that we could ensure premium quality of these t-shirts! > allocate nearly a third of our investor-raised funds to produce and freely distribute 20,000 t-shirts? That's a lot of their money just to give out some t-shirts but I get that it's marketing in a way.
  - naftalibeder 11mo ago
    Fair point! It doesn't bother me, but I can see how it would make some customers nervous.
wallaBBB 11mo ago
Not sure they can be a poster child while Firefox still exists.
- ethbr1 11mo ago
  Seriously, while the Mozilla and Wikimedia foundations are burning cash on vanity products instead of reinvesting in their singular (1!) popular products, the bar for fiduciary responsibility is REALLY low. At least Kagi already has multiple decently useful products (Kagi search, Assistant, Orion).

tokai 11mo ago

The t-shirt debacle made me put off subscribing for good. I felt petty back then, but feel like it was the right decision now.

scosman 11mo ago
Debacle? They gave away some t shirts to paying customers. It probably had decent returns on both marketing and loyalty.
- wonger_ 11mo ago
  https://blog.kagi.com/celebrating-20k https://blog.kagi.com/celebrating-20k > The process from here involves setting up a business entity in Germany, so we can import the t-shirts, store them in a warehouse, connect inventory logistics and ship them all over the world. This includes building a website and connecting it to a back-end database. So, we basically ended up owning a merch production operation end-to-end, just so that we could ensure premium quality of these t-shirts! > Now, you may ask, why did we go through all this trouble and allocate nearly a third of our investor-raised funds to produce and freely distribute 20,000 t-shirts?
  - j_w 11mo ago
    > > Now, you may ask, why did we go through all this trouble and allocate nearly a third of our investor-raised funds to produce and freely distribute 20,000 t-shirts? Marketing.
Semaphor 11mo ago
I never understood how that t-shirt thing aggrevated people so much. It’s like the firefox issues taken to the next level.
- thoroughburro 11mo ago
  When you like something and want it to succeed, it’s discouraging to see that thing waste its resources. Especially if you contributed those resources. I never understood how this very simple position flies over certain heads.
  - deleted 11mo ago
    [deleted]
  - Semaphor 11mo ago
    There’s a difference between disagreeing with a marketing stunt, and saying "I stopped using them because of that". But I guess that also flew over our heads, dumb as we are.
    - deleted 11mo ago
      [deleted]
    - deleted 11mo ago
      [deleted]
  - dooglius 11mo ago
    It sounds like the issue is that you see your payment as a donation, and don't believe the service in and of itself is worth what you pay?
    - nerdponx 11mo ago
      Sort of? You want the thing to exist long-term, so if they're using my monthly payment on bad business decisions then yeah I care because then it won't exist anymore, and I could have spent that money on a more responsible company in the meantime.
0x1ch 11mo ago
For what it's wroth, I didn't know anything about the tshirt situation and have been a happy paying customer for the better part of four months-ish now. Great search engine, although I do agree that this sort of stuff doesn't make a lot of sense.

frereubu 11mo ago

I do care what they spend my subscription money on if it's not about providing a good service. The cost of this place is probably a drop in the ocean in terms of their income, but it does feel like it's yet another distraction from their core services.

prmoustache 11mo ago
> but it does feel like it's yet another distraction from their core services. It is basically marketing. I am not sure everyone would call that a distraction if it gives kagi more visibility and thus, customers and revenues to spend on r&d. Belgrade is a good place to test if that marketing works. It is a tech hub, which means higher probability to get new kagi subsribers, and it is not too expensive as a place to do an experiment. If they realize the ratio between money spent on this coworking space vs customer gained in that area in a year is not in their favor they can easily not renew their rent and shut it off.
- deaux 11mo ago
  Out of curiosity what makes Belgrade a tech hub moreso than other capitals with similar population and HDI?
  - dccoolgai 11mo ago
    Belgrade, historically, was a "gateway between East and West" and in some ways it still is: as a non-EU member in Europe it has access to a broader range of markets than a lot of other cities. I think recently, the wave of Russian tech workers fleeing Russia has also elevated its "tech hub" status.
    - ignoramous 11mo ago
      > Russian tech workers fleeing Russia has also elevated its "tech hub" status. Fleeing as in seeking asylum? Or fleeing as in sanctions? If the latter, besides the Slavic nations, I'd have thought Germany, the UAE, Israel, and Canada to be more popular?

naftalibeder 11mo ago

Would you mind explaining the t-shirt criticism? I got one, it's nice, I'm literally wearing it right now, and I have trouble understanding the "distraction" critique. Seems like a nice way to let their (unusually devoted) users broadcast their enthusiasm.

KomoD 11mo ago
Well, I think it's less about the t-shirts themselves and more about how much effort and money was spent on them. > The process from here involves setting up a business entity in Germany, so we can import the t-shirts, store them in a warehouse, connect inventory logistics and ship them all over the world. This includes building a website and connecting it to a back-end database. So, we basically ended up owning a merch production operation end-to-end, just so that we could ensure premium quality of these t-shirts! > allocate nearly a third of our investor-raised funds to produce and freely distribute 20,000 t-shirts? That's a lot of their money just to give out some t-shirts but I get that it's marketing in a way.
- naftalibeder 11mo ago
  Fair point! It doesn't bother me, but I can see how it would make some customers nervous.

wallaBBB 11mo ago

Not sure they can be a poster child while Firefox still exists.

ethbr1 11mo ago
Seriously, while the Mozilla and Wikimedia foundations are burning cash on vanity products instead of reinvesting in their singular (1!) popular products, the bar for fiduciary responsibility is REALLY low. At least Kagi already has multiple decently useful products (Kagi search, Assistant, Orion).