My (long list of) difficulties with Basecamp at http://go.DanielOdio.com/basecamp

DROdio

I’m with Christian in this matter. Still, I am using Basecamp. I haven’t used for a year or so, but as part of founding a new company I quickly needed a proper platform to manage deadlines, files etc.

I was surprised that Basecamp hadn’t really been pushed forward within this year. Yes, the new calendar was announced, but I agree: that’s not enough. Basecamp charges 24$ each month, which I basically would be fine with- if the service was right and the price-performance ration was right.

From my perspective- it isn’t anymore. Basecamp has lost its on-top-of-the-game status for me. If you fiddle around a little, you can build almost the same functionality using free software, such as Google services. A big downside for me are the functionalities of the Writeboards. Just one user can edit a file at a time. Sorry, that’s not acceptable for me in 2011. Move on, innovate. Basecamp always has this “not enough” feel for me. The Milestone functionalities were okay, but you would always need to run a real calendar elsewhere. That’s not enough. No spreadsheets, no real time editing of docs with multiple users, weak calendar. In the end too much of not-servicing for 24$ a month.

Therefore, I find Basecamp an O.K. solution. But certainly not the perfect match for my needs today. Before renewing my Basecamp subs, I was looking into other services, but I didn’t really find something that caught my eye. Podio seems to be interesting, but on the other hand I think their 2-stage freemium model isn’t the right fit for me either.

Yes, I want some more controls and users, but $99 a month is 4x the price of my current basecamp subs. 37signals have always been talking about pushing things forward, being easy-to-use and innovate. I think they did a great jobs in terms of their branding, but I agree that their service hasn’t caught up with their big words. Jason Fried from Basecamp said:

“It sucks to lose a customer because we did something wrong, but it’s OK to lose a customer if we just aren’t the right fit anymore. People move on from all sorts of things. Clothes, houses, cars, jobs, relationships… Why not software? As circumstances change, one product may not fit someone forever. That’s OK as long as it fits plenty of other people at the same time.”
While I appreciate him getting back directly to Christian’s remarks,I think that it’s a pretty lame explanation for a company like 37signals within a fast-pacing software development market. I think they should have innovated and developed more. But they didn’t. Look at Google: constantly pushing forward their apps, deploying new features. I am not cancelling my account as of today, but once I figured out which other solutions I might focus on, I will. My feeling is, that it won’t take so long anymore.

Cheers Matthias

37signals should have also built a full-blown product alongside Basecamp to support its beloved users. Someone big will eventually have a half-product, with a full product ready for users to migrate to.

SAP did just that, results: kicked TATA out of ERP business sent Oracle on a shopping spree – this will not happen to 37signals. They will not build such full-product, Basecamp is not the only product they have, and they know exactly how to do targeted marketing, and you cannot beat them in their own game.

About all this bubble talk, people are just naive:

I’m Co-founder & CIO of a Bank/credit-card company, I know a bit about bubbles. We are not even close to one. People don’t understand why you would put 40 millions on an app like Color. It’s exactly the same reason Hollywood looses an awful lot of money on 80% of it’s movies. For each lost 40 million, they net-profited at least 10 on a good movie. This is what I do for a living. I give 1000 people money, I loose money in 98% of them, the other 2% pays my loses and gives me a nice profit.

Bubbles only happen throughout the whole market***. Eventual market adjustments (that will occur to linkedin, pandora, facebook) are not bubble bursts. Only real money is lost, not futures. If people start exchanging debt papers for linkedin/facebook papers… bubble!

*** Most companies that are “in the bubble” don’t even have papers in the market!!!! bubbles only happen in open markets.

37signals did not changed – you did. Don’t blame them for your own changes of mind.

Except for iPhone story. If this app really sucks, then Bascamp violated their own mantra – and I am with you.

But based on your hysteria in other places (like about price – 37signals never promised to you that they would be cheapest) – I have reasonal doubts in your ability to see things unbiased.

Frankly, I think you just want a little more fame than you are deserve.

Or, you just on Podio payroll.

We currently use Central Desktop, but have tried and used others like Sharepoint, Salesforce, Yammer, etc…