Another one bites the dust... Commoditize your business at your own risk

It breaks my heart.... another company commoditizing its core value.

I, of all people, understand the value and necessity of recurring revenue models, but no company should make the mistake of restructuring its revenue streams at the cost of alienating its early adopters (and customer evangelists).

No company should make the mistake of restructuring its revenue streams at the cost of alienating its early adopters.

I've been a user of AgileBit's 1Password product (and a product evangelist) since July 2014. Originally, if you bought the software ($19.99, I believe was the initial price) it included upgrades.

At some point, AgileBits decided that they needed to rethink their business model and turned to a subscription-based cloud platform, which in and of itself is not a problem. In fact, it's often an excellent business model.

But here's the problem. They decided to change the expectation and relationship that they developed with their early adopters. Those who decided to dig in early were not rewarded with loyalty. Instead, they are being forced to migrate to 1Password 7 (read: 1Cloud) even though many don't really want to do so.

Those who decided to dig in early are not rewarded with loyalty. Instead, they're forced to migrate even though many don't really want to do so.

I am still of the old-school that says, give me a price for my software and let me buy the thing once. But everyone (including AgileBits) now wants to do a subscription service (read: death by a thousand $3/mo charges).

From a software developer's point of view, this makes tons of sense. These models are (and have been increasingly) adopted due to the proliferation of piracy in the internet age. A subscription model is an easy cure to that ill. But another easy cure is to simply use the internet to handshake with the software (and if you really want more security, to do so using some blockchain technology behind it).

In either case, now that AgileBits has removed functionality for those of us who are its early adopters, we have no choice but to either use the standalone program and manually replace the functionality they removed OR to pay the monthly fee. 

Any company that changes its revenue stream from what early adopters were sold places the early adopter in the position of doing a cost analysis and rethinking their loyalty to the company.

The end result? AgileBits has placed it early adopter in the position of doing a cost analysis as to our options (because, obviously, loyalty means little in 2019). That is to say that any company that changes its revenue stream from what early adopters were sold places the early adopter in the position of doing a cost analysis and rethinking their loyalty to the company. What we're left with is a base of users that really don't appreciate the company making our security a commodity.

Generally, I think folks prefer companies that treat folks the way they want to be treated - with respect to those who are their early adopters (and often best customer evangelists). It's a simple strategy: build a great product, sell that great product, stand behind the great product. And, if your business model needs to change, make sure that you give to those who were there at the start the loyalty that you want them to give to you. It will only enhance your bottom line.

Do otherwise and you're just a commodity like any other. Too bad, really.