March 30th, 2007
What's up with the wait list?
In speaking with a customer last week, I realized that the wait list might seem mysterious or frustrating for new users. The speculations we’ve heard from folks: our vendor can’t deliver, we’re out of space, not enough man power, going out of business – the list goes on. Well, it’s really nothing dramatic, here’s the scoop.
We’ve been growing super fast since our launch, which is fantastic. And since then, we’ve tried our best to keep up with demand and for the most part have done so. However, hosting is a very capital intensive business. Especially so for us, because our underlying technology prevents overselling. For every person coming on board, there is a Slice deployed and dedicated. Since many of you are business owners yourselves, a word near and dear to your heart is something we manage daily: cashflow. We’re a small, self financed company, purchasing a tremendous amount of expensive hardware, located in expensive data centers. The demand keeps increasing and we simply can’t add the resources fast enough while continuing to service existing customers who are adding Slices and upgrading all the time.
Now I know what you’re thinking: leasing, loans, venture capital, that black American Express card, the lottery. Well all of those options are being explored, some of them more successfully than others. If you have any leads or wealthy relatives, let us know – seriously :) But these are slowwwww processes.
Ultimately it just means that new users probably won’t get a Slice the second they are ready to sign-up. We always have a pool of Slices on hand for existing customers to add and upgrade since they are a priority, but new users have to be throttled as we purchase and deploy new hardware. It’s great that so many folks want to join our community and we’re growing as fast as possible. So please be patient with us, we’ve got the elves working round the clock and UPS dropping servers off weekly . Currently the wait list is about 2 weeks deep and we’ll keep the ETA updated on the reservations page. We hope you can hold out, it’s worth the wait!
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM emi
where’s that reservation page? :)
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM goldenlarch
You’re nailing it already – keep doing what you’re doing. Customer service and corporate transparency are paramount and the reason you have the clients you do have. Don’t be afraid to lose new clients because they are impatient. You won’t want those kind of clients anyway. :-)
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM jason
https://manage.slicehost.com/customers/reservation
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Eric
I really hope you guys and/or gals can get this situation worked through. I don’t host with you (yet :) but I’ve only heard great things about your business. I don’t have much money but I know I’d chip in a few hundred or something like that to buy some equity. I think a lot of people, expecially in the Rails community, would be interested. It’d also be an advantage over venture capital as you wouldn’t need to answer to someone who doesn’t understand what hosting is about.
Another thing I just thought of is setting up a program where customers could choose to pay an extra $5 or $10 per month which would go towards equity. Don’t know if something like that’s practical but if enough people did it you would have a regular infusion of capital every month providing a bit of stability. Don’t know if something like that is practical but it might be something you want to consider.
You should also look into Small Business Administration loans perhaps even micro-loans (usually considered loans under $25K). They tend to have significantly lower rates than straight business loans and also require a MUCH smaller amount of collateral. Many states/metro areas have what I think are called community investment funds where local people (usually pretty regular people too) invest in local startups or small business that are expanding. Always good to have owners that local and will presumably be in it for the long haul.
That’s the ideas I’ve got for now.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Daniel Fischer
Wow guys, keep it up! I recently got a Slice from you and I couldn’t be happier. I actually had to wait myself, I think I was one of the first waves to witness the ‘reservation’ thing going on.
Either way guys, you know what this means right? You’re doing a fantastic job and all you have to do is keep it up. Small companies are great – they actually respect the customer.
No matter what, the wait is worth it because you guys are just pure quality. I am now going to go blog about you guys and my experience – because I feel like I need to give something back, more people waiting.
Ha, Daniel Fischer
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM David
I would prefer to wait for a properly loaded host than quickly get on an overloaded host.
I think what would be useful is a web page where we could see our position in the queue and estimated number of days until setup. Until then, what is the preferred way to find out how long to expect if we signed up a few days ago?
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Geoff
My wait was pretty short and it was well worth it. My other hosting provider has some cool things planned, but waiting for them to deliver is often like being in a Samuel Beckett play.
I agree with David: far better to have a bit of a wait for a service that’s stable and not oversold. Thank you!
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM DJ
One thing that would be nice is a confirmation that my reservation was received. Once message here said the wait was short, so I’m not sure if I just mis-typed my email or if I’m still in the queue.
Thanks and please forgive me if I make another reservation. I’ll be sure to double check my email for typos before I submit this time.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Baruch
I find it comforting that you aren’t just slapping something together to give people in a hurry, but are holding back to ensure you can deliver on your promises.
I’m paying more for a hosting company that only offers 35 G of bandwidth and that’s oversold… not that I’ve ever come close, but still, it’s kind of worrisome to think that I don’t really have all 35 G… I mean, where’s the point where I start getting stepped on?
Here, I have no such worry – I have my 100 G, if I need it.
So – thanks.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Scott
I did not mind the wait. Although, I have to admit, I was wondering when it would happen. You might want to implement a priority reservation and a casual reservation.
-With a priority reservation, the customer would submit a downpayment that will be fully refundable. This downpayment gets the user an account and a special reservation queue update as a previous commenter posited.
The casual reservation potential customer, would only receive an initial email with the option to upgrade to a priority reservation. Otherwise, they wait until a slice is available and an email.
Just some thoughts. Otherwise, I much rather have to wait for a properly hosted slice than to get a slice that is on an oversold server.
As a business owner, my recommendation grow at your own pace. A pent-up demand is nice. :) Although, you may lose some short-term business, the value in long-term client rentention will outlast the short-term loss given the excellent service you provide continues.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM James
I just went through the waiting list, but I’ve gotta echo some comments already placed and say it’s amazing to see so much transparency. I actually work for a hosting company, and I know how the business “works”, but you guys prove that it can actually work. I had my slice setup about 60 seconds after i placed the order, went through and set it up to my liking. Even the reverse DNS was in place, and I had my personal sandbox setup with you guys in just a couple of hours. I can tell you this, any of my personal customers that come to me in the future will definetly be hosted with you. $20/mo is pocket change for them and me compared to fighting with a shared host for resources or support for a cruddy control panel, or setting up a box in a closet and hoping no-one kicks the power cable.
Basically, what I’m saying is, it’s worth the wait. Xen rocks(I’ve used virtuozzo and openvz in the past, and they don’t even compare) and you guys rock harder.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM hbramlet
Let me echo the request that the reservation system sends me a confirmation email. I signed up yesterday, but have never received an email suggesting that you have my info.
This makes me a sad panda.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM slicematt
Thanks everyone, some excellent comments here that really keep us going. Per requests, we put in a wait list confirmation email.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM gpuk
In terms of funding, you may wish to approach the cool cats at the curious office. They specialise in micro-VC and are very switched on – they are the people behind imagekind and feed digest (rails based).
http://www.curiousoffice.com/
You heard it here first :o)
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM SJML
You should consider doing like TextDrive did and offering lifetime accounts for a few hundred dollars. From what I’m hearing from your customers, plenty of them would be willing to chip in for this level of service.
My biggest worry at the moment (currently in the queue for a slice) is that the money will run out and I’ll be left looking for a host again. Promise us that at least you’ll give us warning if things start to turn sour. :-)
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM slicematt
You don’t have to worry about that. There won’t be such high demand forever, but always a demand. And as you can see, we’re not doing anything crazy that jeopardizes the future.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM SJML
Actually, I’d be worried that demand would go up as word of high-quality, affordable VPS spreads. Are you planning to cap subscribers at some point, or continue growing indefinitely? I’m just curious as to your thoughts on demand subsiding.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Big Ray
Not to be an annoying dweeb, but is there any status update? This post is close to a week old. Just wondering what the good (or bad) news is.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM slicematt
SJML – we’ll always continue to grow at a rate we are comfortable with.
Big Ray – no update. This is a rolling waitl ist, so there really won’t be a change or updates going forward. Sign-ups today should expect about 21 days.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM stubblechin
The wait time is excruciating. I hope you guys get some more working capital soon! I am dying to have my slice.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM matt
The reservations page now reflects a more accurate wait estimate based on purchase rates and the size of the list.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Shane
Matt, does that mean if we put in a reservation on the 5th, we should expect it May 10 instead of April 26?
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Alec
I see a note here saying there is a confirmation email for the reservations. I signed up several days ago and never got any response. Did I mistype my own address, because that would be embarrassing…
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Greg
You might consider leasing rather than purchasing servers, in order to avoid the up-front costs.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Adam
I think the method you have in place is great. I waited the 3 or so weeks for my 256 slice and didn’t mind at all. Keeping the cash coming in up front is a great way to go about it.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Mason
Keep on keeping on. I’ve been on the waiting list for a while now… had to go to Media Temple to get stuff going, but as soon as you guys are ready, you can bet I’m jumping ship with them.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Doug @ Straw Dogs
I signed upto VPSFarm while I was waiting here for my Slice. When I eventually got one I had two VPS’s running at once – now I have one. My Slice.
If I could marry a web host you’d be the unlucky company. :)
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM Mike
This reminds me of Ampd Mobile
March 17th, 2008 at 10:00 PM cbmeeks
I just signed up for the 256 slice to test things out.
I really hope you guys rock the hosting world because I LOOOVVVEEE the simplicity and the PRICE of what you are offering.
Please make sure you can deliver. We NEED a good company such as yours.
And please keep your site clean and ad-free like you have forever.
I just CANCELED my GoDaddy account after I found you guys.
After 6 months and you guys are still rocking, I will see if I can throw more business your way! cbmeeks http://codershangout.com
May 16th, 2008 at 05:45 AM hot carl
29 comments. all of them posted on 17-mar-2008 at 10:00pm?
um… seems a little weird.
May 26th, 2008 at 04:02 PM jason
It appears the dates were altered when we moved to the new blog from our old blog on March 17.