I was reading 37 signals take on their Wired magazine feature, when the following caught my eye. Some seem to think that 37 signals doesn’t care about customer satisfaction; it’s easy to get that idea when founder Jason Fried says that he doesn’t worry about losing individual customers because no one pays more than $149 per month. In response, Fried writes:
“That’s why we’re happy to have such a diverse customer base. Unlike many enterprise software companies, we don’t rely on any one customer (or a handful of customers) as our primary revenue source. Companies with a few big clients are beholden to those customers in ways that can quickly become detrimental to the company, the product, and other customers.”
As I’ve hinted, I wasn’t a good fit for an enterprise software company, largely because of the scenario Fried describes in this quote. When enterprise software companies believe that the user experience of high value/high revenue customers with years of industry experience matters more than that of the “little people”, that company is little more than an indentured servant. Innovation dies on the vine or stops completely, and those creatives who want to try something new start heading for the exits.
