30 August 2012
Is this the end for PaidSimply?
by Bill Barnett
Game Over!
Since the last update I have been on and returned from vacation only to discover that our friends at FreshBooks have reversed course on their stated (to us) intention to not implement Stripe integration. On or about August 24 they released a feature permitting their users to enter their Stripe key to begin accepting payments for FreshBooks invoices via Stripe. This is of course entirely their prerogative. Unfortunately for us their prerogative removes every single one of PaidSimply’s value propositions.
Of course we had envisioned the possibility, and in fact the eventuality of FreshBook’s implementing this feature. Had we been doing well enough for ourselves all we may have accomplished is validating FreshBook’s need to add Stripe integration. We’d be no less dead at that point albeit with a few bucks in our pocket. So perhaps FreshBooks has done us a favor. We’ve barely touched the project’s budget.
Or is it?
So is this really game over? We don’t know. Perhaps PaidSimply may pivot into a FreshBooks competitor, seeking to re-segment the existing Web-based invoicing market as a simple, low-cost alternative. This seems the most likely course of action if sufficient stomach remains within the organization to move that solution forward.
I regret that this experiment was so short-lived. I hope that it won’t be the last. If so for PaidSimply then I’m fairly certain the next product to spring out of Gaslight will be similarly documented and blogged about. Have any ideas as how best to proceed from here? I’d love to read about them in the comments below.
Thanks and so long for now!
