Ontiveros @ Textdriven

Looking back at previous write ups, I noticed that I oftentimes begin with a disclaimer. I’ll not do that this time. What I will do is discuss what appears to be exploding demand for the Mixed Grill product offering.

Those of you who are active on any of the Strongspace, Joyent, and even Textdrive forums to a lesser extent, know that there are voices in the community who can’t wait for the release of the Mixed Grill offering.

Could this have resulted from a disconnect between Marketing and Operations? Perhaps it was due in part to the Joyent acquisition of Textdrive/Strongspace. I worked for a huge Telecommunications company which grew threw acquisition and had literally hundreds of billings systems alone. It is not easy to consolidate companies/processes.

As a paying customer for Textdrive & Strongspace, I was fortunate in the respect that these customers were converted to Mixed Grill status first. For those of you who do not yet have your coupons, let me say that it is indeed worth the wait. As I’m sure you tire of hearing, or should I say reading these words, rest easy that service has been wonderful.

Technology companies usually have no shortage of good ideas, and I believe this to go double for Joyent/TextDrive. However, there needs to be a balance between being Technology Driven and being Market Driven. What I mean by that is, care must be taken to not let one focus derail the other. Joyent/Textdrive appear to have too many projects going on simultaneously.

Rolling out a new product offering, such as the Mixed Grill, is a massive undertaking. This has always been the case in my experience, and if the forums are any indication of consumer sentiment, I believe this to be true for Joyent.

The Mixed Grill has been offered since late January and here we are on April 1st. Joyent would have done well to end the promotion by the end of February. Why? It would have been better for Joyent/TxD to roll one project(ZFS) after the other (Mixed Grill)? I’m sure the revenue generated by the offering would assist in getting through the migration to Solaris/ZFS. Joyent/TxD should have better positioned themselves to be able to handle the volume of subscriptions.

It is better to release products in a controlled manner instead of simply releasing the flood gates. February could have been used to integrate the billing solution, March for catching up Mixed Grill subscriptions and the ZFS roll out, while April could have marked the beginning of a new “Veggie Grill” roll out.

Sample Offering:
TextDrive

* 4 GiB disk space
* Up to 10 top-level domains
* 10 Gig bandwidth/mo
* Unlimited mailboxes and subdomains
* Up to 20 databases
* All the great standard features

Strongspace

* 5 GiB storage
* 3 upload users
* Unlimited read-only users

Joyent

* Complete hosted application suite, including email, files, contacts, calendar, and all future updates
* Up to 15 users
* 10 GiB storage

Ok…now its time for the disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Joyent/Textdrive in any manner other than as a traditional paying customer. Further, I am not privy to any additional information aside from what is made public to us by way of blog, forum(s), & newspress. I enjoy writing about young technology based companies. Hopefully others will find value in my musings.