I’ve been a beta user of Scrybe since around Halloween last year. I haven’t found it to be the horror story that some have: I got an early invitation; I wanted it mainly for the calendar, which was there right away; and I like Scrybe’s print option (PaperSync) better than its counterpart in any other web calendar I’ve found.
On the other hand, there are some who waited months for a beta invite; I think that there are some still waiting after many months. Some of those in the beta are frustrated by the long lag behind the schedule for rollout of new function. Some are annoyed by the slow pace of fixed and enhancements to existing function.
I’m not annoyed. I am amazed when I reflect that, almost five months into the beta, I still can’t tell Scrybe that my weeks should start on Sunday (rather than Monday) and that not all appointments start on the hour, half-hour, or quarter-hour.
But I still feel somewhat positive about Scrybe and some recent signs of increased responsiveness. For details, and for an example of someone who feels more positive than I, and an example of someone who feels less positive, see this recent post.
The point of the current post (sorry it’s taken so long to get to it) is the contrast between the saga-so-far of Scrybe and the happier history of Highrise. Jason at 37signals posted extensive previews of Highrise, and many bloggers took the bait and posted enthusiastically about it.
I previously noted that within a couple of days of launch, 37s made some significant changes to Highrise. What I didn’t note, but Jason did, was that by then Highrise was already managing > 150,000 contacts. That shows that there was a lot of capacity for early users at launch.
Future startups might learn from the contrast between these launches of Scrybe and Highrise. I admit that it’s a rather apples to oranges comparison, in that 37s already had an established brand, prior experience of web app launch, etc. But a study of the contrast might help others decide what fruit they want to be, at launch and if and when they grow.