HN user
you know... the more i think about it the more i think their price structure is wrong based on industry standards. Pay as you grow? Then why not just charge a flat fee per transaction. Make it affordable enough and you'll be solving a whole lot of problems here... Give customers transaction discounts based on minimum... Is not my biz tho but is just a thought.
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.
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.
I don't believe in the free or donation based model. You should always charge for your web apps, even if it $0.99/month. You should charge.
You do have a point there. first of all, I work with Auston, the one who posted this threat. I think that making the decision to join a company has to do more with the people and vision of the company I'm interviewing with. At the same time I think it would be nice to show them my skill set. I'm have been a consultant for a long time now and there have been times when I didn't want to do business with the other company after the initial meeting and other times where I had to proof myself to the company before we could have a deal together. I think we approached the interviews pretty good. We set up a very relax atmosphere and talk about more than just programming and skill stuff.
getting hired is harder!