Scathing review of Scvngr by burned customer
vintank.com
vintank.com
One of our jobs is to find technologies that will help the wine industry succeed. We often look outside the wine industry to find incredible solutions that help wineries in any way possible. Through extensive research, analysis, and lots of white board sessions we try to surface the technologies that seem most helpful. Fortunately we have only made two mistakes in technologies that we have strongly supported in our three year history. Our most notable was Scvngr.
In the beginning, Scvngr seemed like it had innovated where other platforms had stagnated (Gowalla and Foursquare were struggling to innovate at the time). They offered a level of interactivity that was not just about checking in but about engagement. They had fair pricing and a rapidly growing user base. We loved the way they viewed game theory. So as a location based service that would work for the wine industry, we chose them.
Everything was champagne and roses at first. Scvngr offered rewards for engagement. In a hospitality industry, this seemed like a perfect fit. They had unique features (taking pictures, answering quizes, etc) and fun mapping tools called Treks to tie locations together to earn rewards. Scvngr loved the wine industry because we represented a use case for regions that could easily overlay a game layer with mass tourism and strong hospitality culture. For us it also represented an innovative way to engage consumers in both the digital world and the physical world and deepen the engagement when people visit any winery tasting room.
Scvngr made us promises to ensure this was a giant success (with the potential that they could roll it out to other tourist/hospitality based locations with our case study like Las Vegas, Disneyland, et al). This is what they committed:
Promise: They promised to give all Napa merchants (restaurants, retailers, hotels, etc) free Scvngr rewards programs and games. They also promised to support businesses with training and help to understand how to build rewards and more. Result: They soon released this feature to all businesses nullifying the value and barely touched anyone who signed up.
Promise: They promised to have a Mashable party in Napa to celebrate their new launch with Robert Mondavi Winery and Franciscan winery as part of a major release. They even talked about it with a strong press initiative. Result: We are still waiting.
Promise: Setting up multiple Napa treks to make game play in Napa incredibly interesting for Napa tourists. This was intended to spread to Paso Robles, Sonoma, Walla Walla, and beyond. Result: Pretty much the same as above.
Promise: They assured us that they would add new game mechanics that would be extraordinarily useful to the wine industry. Result: The platform has been stagnant since their VC investment of $15 million dollars and their focus completely changed to a new product called thelevelup.com (yes, another “flash in the pan” – flash sale site).
Our promise: We would share our passion about their innovative product, our time, and our relationships to help the wine industry benefit from this new type of engagement. We signed a contract for biz dev fees which we waived to give discounts to all wineries that work with us on digital brand management so they could be involved in the treks and more. Three of our wineries signed up, one pre-paid (and was fortunately refunded but only after threatening legal action). I recently saw a Scvngr campaign with the Napa Valley Vintners for the annual auction (I am curious how successful the campaign was) and upon calling Scvngr, their statement was, “We don’t have the time or resources to dedicate to those previous promises. If you can find us some resellers . . .” Uh, no. How about you fulfill your promises made to us and the wine industry as a whole.
All indicators pointed to Scvngr becoming a winner and helping wineries deepen their engagement with consumers. Sorry to all that joined us in this debacle. We really believed in them and made a rare mistake betting on their horse. The net net is that we picked a “dog.”
Perhaps it was the money that diluted their focus. Perhaps the VC’s shifted direction and the young management didn’t have the experience to properly communicate. Perhaps they don’t understand the meaning of a partnership or a promise. Maybe they don’t like the wine industry. Whatever the reason, the lesson for us was make sure vision is supported by execution and find partners that really keep their promises. In this case, we have ALL deleted Scvngr from our mobile phones and we are back on Foursquare (who has lapped Scvngr times ten in the last six months with awesome functionality) and Gowalla.
Visit us anytime at the “tank” and check in (with Foursquare or Gowalla, that is).
We don't operate our wineries but if you look at our bio's, we have operated at wineries and for some of the largest wine tech companies in our industry (three of which we founded).
Not everything needs to be a contract or a lawsuit. Sometimes it's fine to take a man at his word, and then simply tell him to walk away if his word is no good.
I was recently involved in a legal dispute where there was no written contract, but the trail of emails and communication was good enough to see judgement in our favor.
* Since I mentioned that IAAL above, this comment is not legal advice.
Edit: Vintank also share the same passion for unifying and making wine 'facts' free for all in the same way that SimpleGeo does with location data. Anyone who spends more than 5 minutes in the wine world knows the horrible state of fragmented / incomplete wine facts (not reviews,tasting notes,ratings) and how that holds the industry back as a whole.
Just trying to paint a picture of who Vintank is for those here who don't know.
"Sample five wines and you get X points with a 'Wine taster' badge!". Just doesn't sound quite right does it ?
A large part of what you do is drive around a large countryside tasting wines at various family owned and operated winery tasting rooms, interspersed with tasty meals. Many of the best wineries are way off the beaten track and there are many wineries who only sell their wine at their tasting rooms so getting traffic into them is crucial.
Something like what scvnger provides would be a great way for those who don't know the area to find some of those off the beaten track gems.
It sounds like you wanted to help an LBS service in the wine industry, and the one you picked turned out not to have a sustainable business. Well, none of the LBSes are making money and when the VC wears off, Foursquare may be in the same boat. This is the risk of being an early adopter... it's a bummer when it doesn't work out but I don't see why you are A) surprised or B) angry.
I don't know anything specific about Scvngr's business, but I spent a good chunk of a year building an LBS (www.mobca.st, fwiw) that really doesn't have any financial future. If you are upset for after "investing" a man-month of thought and a few chats with industry bigwigs over $200 bottles of Merlot, consider a moment the disappointment that the Scvngr team must feel when they set aside the game they've poured their hearts into so they can get to work building a dumb Groupon clone. Your punishment doesn't even register.
When a product goes south, the stringed instrument which plays Ave Maria for you is limited to:
* Founders - Double Bass
* Employees - Cello
* Investors - Viola
* Paying Customers - Violin
* Everyone Else - AM radio, if you can get reception
I cannot speculate what caused them to chose Scavngr over any other service, what type of agreement, if any, that they had in place with them, nor how they were going to measure results if any were to be produced. I also cannot name the particular strain of toxoplasmosis that would cause someone to believe that a company whose business model depends on mass adoption would somehow see that restricting a subset of functionality to a particular industry segment would be financially beneficial to them. The person who wrote this so-called review is ignorant, uninformed and unqualified.
Scavngr isn't dedicating any resources to these types of products because there is no market for it. It's as simple as that and their board has told them to spend their money in another direction. Sorry, you lose.
On another note, it occurs to me that the complaint levied against Scvngr, albeit illegitimate, is quite common. Normals couldn't be expected to understand what exactly it is they're getting into when partnering with a social service, especially one who has to pivot every six months to stay in business. But to label them a flash-in-the-pan is a little too much coming from a think tank for wine producers.
Wait, what?
They built an optical table? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_table
More likely they typed up reams of drivel like the above that they sell to wineries
The problem with SMDB's is that they actually believe that what they're doing has an impact not just on the segment they're repping that morning, but in the technology as a whole. But god forbid you should ask them for any deliverables or whoa, metrics. That's when they shut up and become resentful. Like my barber does when I scold him for sharing out loud that he's part of the fashion industry. He's not; he's a fucking barber just like Paul is a booze promoter on par with the girls who walk around half naked giving out free samples or schwag, usually from that shit brand you never want to drink. Except he uses optics or something.
If you've ever seen wine served you'll see them often using a metal cylinder which often they wash out. It takes barman time and I'm guessing isn't great for the taste.
So it probably is a real problem they solved.
However I can't find the phrase you're referring to on their about us page, so not sure what the change is.
under Our Story
I don't think he is talking about any physical device, he is using optics in place of Paradigm Shift - it is the new meaningless buzz word. Try it out! anytime someone uses optics this way substitute "paradigm shift" and the sentence will still read the same and still convey no information.
To answer your statement:
A - We have led the industry for years as an innovator and we are recognized for seeing the future (and present) time and time again. At the time Scvngr seemed like the right bet. B - We had a server error. Do you need to really troll like this?
Napa Valley has the most tourism in CA next to Disneyland and generate a tremendous amount of income. This valley (and other wine destinations) represents an incredible opportunity for the right LBS company. I think it is less about the opportunity than it is about the focus of Scvngr changing from their app to thelevelup.com.
PS - you spelled Scvngr wrong.
And yet you fail to understand a basic point:
Scvngr isn't playing their little games any more because there's no money in it.
And you don't understand the technology industry. One look at Scvngr's about page would've clued you in.
The real mistake was betting on game mechanics without understanding the underlying psychological principles. The vast majority of 'game mechanics' startups are con artists, and without understanding the academic research on motivational psychology you're just giving your money away.
Paul Mabray VinTank
Jason coleman, stranger studios, winelog
Edit: the blog comments feel like Astroturf.
Edit 2: submitter looks like a sock puppet account.