Geckoboard: “It’s Chartbeat For Everything Else”
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
I assume Paul is here: what's the thinking behind that?
I could imagine paying for integrations with specific services and I could imagine paying extra for different update speeds, but this client level licensing looks prohibitive for my use.
The most common use case was users hooking it up to a cheap netbook plugged in to a HDTV in the office or displayed on a 2nd monitor. In this case most small companies would use 2 devices max, a machine to configure and another to display. Perhaps unsurprisingly larger companies used it on more HDTVs (some use upward of a dozen) but they would rarely have more than one dashboard.
However, there are certainly a number of different use cases. Solo users, SMEs, large enterprises and agencies all have different usage patterns and finding a one-size-fits-all is almost impossible. I evaluated 'per device' to be the least bad option based on the data at my disposal. That said, it's early days and there are no sacred cows here, I'm always open to suggestions.
The thing I find restrictive is that sometimes you'd want people to be able to access it to get status information while on the road or at home etc.
Have you thought about a 'simultaneous users' model. I could imagine paying for something like that where I know I've got say three monitors set up (two here in London, one in California) and then I could allow up to three other people to log in temporarily if they needed to.
Since then I've spoken to a number of regular HNers who continue to use the product and provide feedback and again, been bowled over by just how helpful people are.