blog dot virek dot net

You built the absolute best app in its field.¹ The most useful and helpful to use with a genuinely delightful interface, all for a reasonable price that fitted so perfectly into the category that you practically single-handedly owned the space.

True, it was a relatively small market, but you were making a healthy profit and were highly respected by the large group of users you served.² So much so, users would volunteer help and advice, knowing that their contributions would be taken seriously and possibly even further developed and integrated into the app for the benefit of all.

Given that your app is a security app, this invaluable feedback helped ensure your app didn’t falter badly like others in the same category, the category you essentially created.

But you couldn’t leave it there, could you?

The lure of MOAR just kept eating away in your mind. Eating like a cancer, growing unseen and undetected until it made itself inextricably embedded.

But unlike the classical treatment of a cancer, and contrary to all knowledge on treating cancers, you decided to embrace it. And embrace it you did. You went off and got that big fat cheque of VC money to expand into “new markets” and into new profits.

For a while, it looked like you had managed the change, and that the mission was the same. The expansion into that new market felt very much like the first foray into bringing the goodness to those on the other platform. I even recommended it to numerous people using the dark side’s platform. But now we know, it was only the cancer directing you to give it more food for growth. And it didn’t take long for the cancer to start attacking the more sane and reasonable parts of the organisation. It always does. That’s what a cancer is. You can’t embrace it, for it will embrace you. It will consume you. It always does. And there is nothing you can do about it once you have left it embed itself so deeply. I know what I’m talking about. I have lived through what a cancer is and what it does. That is why I recognise it, in all its forms.

Then you sent us all an email, explaining that you were “upgrading” your prices (our costs) by 25%. Justifying the move with the fact that you hadn’t increased prices in a long time. Adding that, you were adding functionalities that no one asked for. Functionalities that could potentially result in substantial in cost increases for you.

Firstly, who wrote and signed off on using the word “upgrade” in this context? I would suggest that you purchase a dictionary for them to use, and then systematically double-check any public communications they may make in the near future. It smells (badly) of a press release copiloted by a stochastic parrot. Should that be the case, something we’ll probably never know, the fact that you treated the most important part of your business; hint: your customers with this disdain, suggests that going forward, you will treat us at least as badly, but more likely worse. Let alone the disregard for our data you may have in the future.

Secondly, this was your strategy. Not ours. You decided to use the injection of VC money to stabilise prices, not us. Instead of incrementally pricing as functionality was introduced, or as inflation required. Now it’s our fault? You didn’t even offer an option for those that only need basic functionality to stay on a plan similar to the current one. It would have been less than ideal, but not as egregious as this agressive threat expressed in that rueful email. No. You went for the nuclear option and told us all that you had us by the balls and that the ransom starts now.

So let me be clear, and I want to make this as unambiguous as possible. Go fuck yourselves!

I will be “upgrading” my use of your application, rendering it superflus to my needs.

For the record, my short interaction with the support team, has clarified that you simply do not seem to understand the problem.

So long. And thanks for all the fish.