@mac2 I appreciate the thoughts and dont get the impression im sitting here fuming like a steam engine. These are well thought through emails written for effect. I will say that i find it interesting that the main point offered by two people to contrast mine is “lower your expectations”.
If that doesnt serve as a warning sign for the folks at bubble I dont know what will.
The actual truth is that what you are seeing is the inside of bubble. Its not well organized and doesnt really know how to think about customers. The people ive communicated with via email have been generally great. I’ve also learned that they have probably not been well staffed which , when coupled with lack or organization, creates the outcomes you see. Maybe things will improve now that they have money to hire but to be honest its not likely.
At least not without us having very high expectations.
The values of a company are strongest early on and then over time rot and decay. All companies that grow will experience this. If you start with a bad culture or lack of focus - its not likely that you are going to somehow just improve. Not without some painful lessons at least. Or a vocal set of customers.
I mean its completely clear that @sam8 is not rewarded based on any customer metrics. Their compensation is unrelated to how well the features they build benefits customers. If it was you would see @sam8 actively focusing on making sure that people are happy and not just happy but understand the different use cases and are integrating it into their products asap - but theres none of that. @sam8 worked on something and then did us the great favor of letting us know about it with one post and their job is done. Success. Thats an artifact that you can directly attribute to @emmanuel. He has low expectations for what his devs do. And it shows. And im not suggesting that their devs are constantly answering questions on posts all the time. Im suggesting that at the very least an “announcement” post should be taken seriously by the person that made the announcement. I dont think that would be asking too much.
Jared.Gibb makes a business of helping people in a variety of ways with bubble. He seems like a very positive force here. There is no way he could maintain the reputation he has if he behaved like sam8. Right? If he made a great control and then posted about and didnt answer a single question about it - do you think many people would try it out? Of course not. Its in his best interest to engage deeply on his own posts about his own stuff to ensure everyone knows how it can benefit them AND that they have an engaged dev who could help them further. Clearly sam8’s motivations and incentives are different.
And here is how things rot as companies scale. now that they can hire more people - in time sam8 will be given manager responsibilities … if they dont have them already. Whats the chance that sam8 will care if the people they hire engage with us proactively? precisely zero.
Sendgrid is one of my go to examples of a company operating without any real leadership. that issue is as old as the hills. and we stepped into it like the steaming pile that it is. A startup spent valuable time and energy learning about sendgrid, building it, rolling it out then discovering that its an unreliably scam. Then we had to unwind and figure out alternatives. From my emails with them i understand the lack of resources was one factor but the truth is that it is but an excuse. Not for an issue as serious and as old as it is.
And you’re wrong. The more money emmanuel has - the less he will personally care. Human nature.
All this to say - raise your expectations. If you like bubble and want bubble to succeed - be a sharp thorn in their side. They may not like you but if they are smart they will appreciate you.
