First sign of being not afraid is creating "I am not afraid" blog posts.
/s
Why we are not afraid of Microsoft
21–30 of 38 posts
Re: Why we are not afraid of Microsoft
#22Is there any otherwise-vanilla SaaS out there that generates more controversy than Freshdesk (at least among the HN readership)? Already on this article (8 comments posted as I write this) we have a FUD comment saying their post is "smug" and their customers should be worried, and then another talking about how you need to "be careful" about criticising the company because their employees victimised the commenter by…
I read HN daily and this is my first encounter with Freshdesk. >FD seem to be scrappy, they're growing quickly, their product looks good, they give discounts to startups, and they just happen to be based in India - what's not to like? Regardless of the quality of their offering, I'm personally turned off by the David vs. Goliath click bait being my introduction to the company. Maybe that's unfair, but so it goes.
I too am turned off by the article. Girish Mathrubootham should've posted this on his own personal blog instead of under the Freshdesk corporate blog. It can _only_ present a bad image for the company. He can be a smug CEO all he wants on his personal blog.
Re: Why we are not afraid of Microsoft
#23Is there any otherwise-vanilla SaaS out there that generates more controversy than Freshdesk (at least among the HN readership)? Already on this article (8 comments posted as I write this) we have a FUD comment saying their post is "smug" and their customers should be worried, and then another talking about how you need to "be careful" about criticising the company because their employees victimised the commenter by…
I read HN daily and this is my first encounter with Freshdesk. >FD seem to be scrappy, they're growing quickly, their product looks good, they give discounts to startups, and they just happen to be based in India - what's not to like? Regardless of the quality of their offering, I'm personally turned off by the David vs. Goliath click bait being my introduction to the company. Maybe that's unfair, but so it goes.
I found it to be a great response. A competitor gets acquired, a news article says your company will be put out of business by it, and voila! An opportunity to rise above it.
And yes, when was the last time Microsoft put somebody out of business?
Re: Why we are not afraid of Microsoft
#24Slightly off topic but what is better about Zendesk?
I've been using Freshdesk for a few years and originally chose it because the price was so much less. To me the major benefits of Zendesk appear to be a better mobile experience and a json api (vs Freshdesk's XML). Out of those 2 thing the XML api has been the more annoying to deal with.
It looks Zendesk may have dropped their prices a little and may be worth reconsidering.
Re: Why we are not afraid of Microsoft
#25Slightly off topic but what is better about Zendesk? I've been using Freshdesk for a few years and originally chose it because the price was so much less. To me the major benefits of Zendesk appear to be a better mobile experience and a json api (vs Freshdesk's XML). Out of those 2 thing the XML api has been the more annoying to deal with. It looks Zendesk may have dropped their prices a little and may be worth recon…
The XML api itself should be enough to tell you which one to pick.
Then again, I'm thinking this from a developer point of view, guessing how the decision would have been brought up.
The things that comes to mind is either A) Massive legacy code B) Decision made by business-goon C) Shitty developers.
I would probably never have touched the API, but regardless of that, it would have scared me off.
Re: Why we are not afraid of Microsoft
#26Is there any otherwise-vanilla SaaS out there that generates more controversy than Freshdesk (at least among the HN readership)? Already on this article (8 comments posted as I write this) we have a FUD comment saying their post is "smug" and their customers should be worried, and then another talking about how you need to "be careful" about criticising the company because their employees victimised the commenter by…
I went from Zendesk to Freshdesk purely based on my experience on one feature request on Zendesk. The feature was promised repeatedly for, roughly as I recall, 4 years and never delivered.
Freshdesk functionality isn't better, but it is cheaper and they've never made empty promises that affected me. The thread seems to have been removed now I search for it, not surprised, it reflected very badly on them.
Edit: Found it [0]. TL;DR, Lots of people wanted it. It's coming, it's coming, it's coming... Delivered years later...but not actually what was asked for...
[0] https://support.zendesk.com/entries/12834-Monospaced-Unforma...
Re: Why we are not afraid of Microsoft
#27Unless the blog post has been updated before I read it I find it difficult to understand the hostility being expressed towards FreshDesk.
Someone wrote them off as being good as dead because a competitor was acquired by MS, they wrote a rebuttal, what is wrong with that?
Re: Why we are not afraid of Microsoft
#28I have to say, this HN thread is super confusing to me. There are plenty of good points in this article, none of which come off as smug to me.
The fact of the matter is that the helpdesk software market is huge, and the notion that there isn't enough room for multiple companies to succeed in it is just wrong headed.
Very rarely, but especially with niche software, is there ever only one winner. Usually there's lots of room for many companies to succeed.
As a happy Freshdesk customer I pretty much agree with everything written in this post, and think they'll be just fine.
Re: Why we are not afraid of Microsoft
#29I'm always wondering why journalists "kill" everything. There is room for more than one player - in nearly every market.
Re: Why we are not afraid of Microsoft
#30It's not smugness, it's sensationalism, and it's a valid PR tactic. I think the old saying "there's no such thing as bad publicity" applies in spades here. Look at the controversy in this thread: some people think it's bad, some think it's good, but the number of people with Freshdesk on the brain has jumped by an order of magnitude—if half of them are turned off it's still a net win.