Cool idea! In the hopper…
3 Likes
I think that Glowforge will need to balance revenue with customer satisfaction as far as charging for add-on features goes. Generally people are fine with paying for things that feel like valuable new features, but are less thrilled at paying constantly for minor features. Given that the GlowForge is priced at the high end of the market (and it’s worth it, not complaining at all) my expectation would be that they won’t “nickel and dime” us, because that’s not how you treat people who pay more for a higher quality product. But for something amazing and new (and optional) I can’t imagine any complaints.
I’m a little worried that with VC money in Glowforge, someone will make a spreadsheet showing that if they can get everyone to pay a monthly fee for their GF they’ll get rich, when in reality it’d destroy customer satisfaction and thus sales. I’m sure that Dan knows better - he’s making a profit on the product sale, and selling supplies is a natural revenue stream, as is selling “pro” designs, so squeezing out even more money but upsetting customers probably isn’t worth it.
I’m hoping he just left himself an “out” in case in the future they think of an amazing new feature that people would happily pay for.
3 Likes
That’s the way I think about it. Or a feature that was expensive to build or operate, that we couldn’t justify building for free.
12 Likes