I’ve had conversations with Pete Caputa of WhizSpark recently that on the surface might not have seemed so pleasant. I won’t get into all the boring details, but essentially we have been talking about my role with WhizSpark. I currently have complimentary use of their tools but I don’t work there as an employee. I think it’s safe to say I am one of their most supportive customer evangelists. It’s frustrating that I’m not joined by a bigger chorus; but in time, it will happen. (Event planners, concert promoters and other event industry humans out there? Hurry the hell up, will you? Stop using evite already!)
My phone and email conversations with Pete this week have reminded me that it’s an interesting adventure for a startup to balance their own agenda and timeline along with their supporters’ feedback. I’ve been asking for the ability to modify the link colors on WhizSpark event sites for more than nine months. (Red on black? It pains me to see that every time I look at one of the Exploit Boston Game Night event sites!) They keep telling me they will do it; but other things get in the way. So, after a while, I get cranky that things I think are important or “easy” things to acomodate, don’t actually happen. (Nice of me to make that determination, I know.) Of course I could probably impact their agenda much quicker if I had a million dollars to send their way. Any sensible VC out there should really be looking into WhizSpark. They have an actual product that people in the event planning industry need — not just an idea that might be cool. It’s useful and it works. I can only imagine how kick ass it would be if they had more money to spend on development.
When I spoke with Roy Rodenstein (of HeyLetsGo) and Pete at Monday night’s Boston Web Innovator Group party, I joked that HeyLetsGo had become my latest feedback victim. I really like that they’ve got an open forum for feedback during beta. Anyone can post an idea and most likely they will respond to it and at least acknowledge your input. It’s interesting to see what other people have contributed for ideas. They’re invite-only right now so if you want to check them out, sign up through my “Sooz Events” group and you can bypass the invitation and sign up directly.
I’ve been wondering if I can incorporate evangelism work into my freelance services to clients. Something to think (and write) more about, perhaps!