As far as your mixed reaction - you know, I really don't envy the Magento team when it comes to launching things like this. Because it's not practical to include everyone in the entire Magento ecosystem in every initiative, but if they leave anyone out, they risk alienating others. They also have to make sure they're getting the right people involved in the right initiatives to make sure everything lines up to deliver the best possible solution to merchants. So I don't think there was a way they could have included everyone that probably deserves to be included.
I do know that this is just a starting point - it's as much a way to gauge interest and start a conversation than anything else. I'm sure the Magento Small Business team will be taking in this information and checking everyone's reactions and mapping out the next steps for the Small Business program from there. So don't assume just because there are 4 partners listed it will always be just 4 partners or those 4 partners.
One question I have about your comment about agency-level rates - if you don't mind me asking a very blunt, direct question - as a freelancer, charging the rate that you charge for Magento work, would you be able to build and launch a Magento site for less than $4,000? And, if so, realistically, how long would it take from signed agreement to go-live? And not just a default installation - one with about 100 hours of features, customization and integration work built in?
We priced our option low - we're the lowest of the bunch, actually, at $4,000 - and we did this on purpose. Because from talking to merchants, they were finding these sorts of quotes out there in the market:
Lowest bid from a freelance developer, non-certified, generally overseas: $500 and 1-2 months to be live. VERY mixed results - many never went live, most of them had ongoing problems with their site, etc.
Lowest bid from a certified developer: $5,000 and 1-2 months to be live.
Then you had the agencies, which ranged from $10k to well over $100k, and timeframes from just weeks to many months.
So we wanted to put something together that allowed clients to get live in just a day or two for less than any other high-quality solution, so that everyone had the option of having their site built right by a certified developer.
The other reason we priced it this way is because Launchpad is something I've put out there for the entire Magento community - I don't want any merchant to feel like their only option is going overseas to a questionable solution from a non-certified freelancer. Because when merchants do that, they get frustrated, they get exhausted and they give up on Magento. That doesn't help any of us. So we've setup Launchpad so that anyone can refer merchants to it - if you get someone who absolutely can't afford your rates to build them a quality Magento site, send them to Launchpad. We'll have their site live within 2 days, and then we can send them right back to you and you can provide the hands-on support that they need.
So, there's no requirement at all that they pay "agency-level rates" - Launchpad is designed to get merchants live on Magento for $4,000 in just a day or two and then send them back out into the ecosystem to the right ongoing partner for their needs. That could be Creatuity if they like our work and are looking for an agency to support them, or that could be you or another freelancer that they already have a relationship with.
I don't think the message of Magento Small Business is that you have to partner with a large business in order to run Magento. I think the message is that you have affordable options to get your Magento site built correctly from the start, and that we're here to help make sure that happens. But maybe the messaging doesn't come across that way? Maybe there's something in the program or the landing pages that should be tweaked to make that clearer?
As far as the partner solutions go - I can't speak to the others, but I can tell you that, yes, Launchpad is our own custom build of CE. As of today we've spent a total of 915 developer-hours on building Launchpad. That's in building in a number of Launchpad-specific features, as well as in building all of the automations and tools required to be able to literally go from "I want a website" to having the site live in 2 business days. We've actually gotten it down to 30 minutes now, but we're saying 2 business days just in case things get too busy and we're not able to get to a launch right away.
I don't want to turn this thread into a Launchpad-specific discussion (if there's interest/questions about Launchpad, I'll start a new thread about that), so I'll stop there, but my understanding is that Magento asked all of the partners in Magento Small Business to build a custom solution that met specific small business requirements and not simply rebrand CE with a new name.
Thanks for the great thoughts and comments - I'm curious to hear more!
--Joshua Warren - @JoshuaSWarren on Twitter
CEO,
Creatuity
