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Onshape for Entrepreneurs
brandon_zschokke
Member Posts: 3 ✭
tl;dr: Basically another request for a lower cost subscription model, but to fulfill a niche
Some backstory: I worked at a startup, where one of my jobs was to design a plastic housing that would fit various sensors / electronics in it. Solidworks has a program called "Solidworks for Entrepreneurs" so we thought lets give it a try. Terrible experience, you essentially throw out 200 dollars for no guarantee that you'll even get a license (which yes, it does say this on the website, but that's still asinine w/ no refund). Licensing is limited, and if I use my license on laptop and desktop, I knock out 2/3 of their licenses. On top of that, we waited months to hear anything about it. Also, if you call Solidworks directly, 90% of inside sales has no clue about the program, and no clue who to direct you to (their operator does though). Turns out it's run by one guy, who happened to be on an extended vacation. So bad timing, bad implementation, and bad communication made this an overall terrible experience.
The Solution: Offer a lower cost product to entrepreneurial ventures. Maybe give them a year or two at the reduced price, then raise the price as they (hopefully) succeed. It's the drug dealers model: Get them the good stuff for cheap, then raise the price after they're addicted (note: probably don't brand it that way).
The Potential Partners: I spent a lot of time in coworking, incubator spaces, and accelerators during the last year. I see a huge advantage to using Onshape in this sort of environment. The Solidworks link above has a section for incubators / accelerators, but I think a company like Onshape could do way better than dassault by partnering w/ entrepreneurs and incubators to offer their tenants / "incubees" a reduced rate.
Some backstory: I worked at a startup, where one of my jobs was to design a plastic housing that would fit various sensors / electronics in it. Solidworks has a program called "Solidworks for Entrepreneurs" so we thought lets give it a try. Terrible experience, you essentially throw out 200 dollars for no guarantee that you'll even get a license (which yes, it does say this on the website, but that's still asinine w/ no refund). Licensing is limited, and if I use my license on laptop and desktop, I knock out 2/3 of their licenses. On top of that, we waited months to hear anything about it. Also, if you call Solidworks directly, 90% of inside sales has no clue about the program, and no clue who to direct you to (their operator does though). Turns out it's run by one guy, who happened to be on an extended vacation. So bad timing, bad implementation, and bad communication made this an overall terrible experience.
The Solution: Offer a lower cost product to entrepreneurial ventures. Maybe give them a year or two at the reduced price, then raise the price as they (hopefully) succeed. It's the drug dealers model: Get them the good stuff for cheap, then raise the price after they're addicted (note: probably don't brand it that way).
The Potential Partners: I spent a lot of time in coworking, incubator spaces, and accelerators during the last year. I see a huge advantage to using Onshape in this sort of environment. The Solidworks link above has a section for incubators / accelerators, but I think a company like Onshape could do way better than dassault by partnering w/ entrepreneurs and incubators to offer their tenants / "incubees" a reduced rate.
8
Comments
Owen S.
HWM-Water Ltd
I think they should give 1 additional account for boss with any company account purchases. This way also the person who makes the decisions would have access to cad and that might lead to more accounts for employees in small company environments. And all accounts under company should be able to use company settings and labels etc..
Markku
www.sloworks.fi
I think it would be easier to check who's active and who's not than checking who's doing contract work with illegal license.
Markku
www.sloworks.fi
https://www.onshape.com/programs/entrepreneur
HWM-Water Ltd
Or maybe turn the question around - why should the startup pay full boat for Onshape when products like F360 are available for free or at a lower price? There's an opening for the marketing folks <g>.
I'll also make my periodic suggestion that Onshape have some sort of hobbyist tier pricing. I'm semi-retired and do a bit of outside engineering design for pay but my annual CAD-related sales would pay for only a fraction of the annual Onshape subscription price so I continue to do that paying CAD work in my old CAD program Alibre. I much prefer Onshape's approach though and use that for most of my hobby work.
As 2nd gen entrepreneur in company established in 1972 I really don't understand why start ups should receive any additional support with lower terms than existing company. I don't even understand the word 'start up' - it's what used to be called as a 'new company' right?
I would understand a lot better to ease up fund raising and other licenses (like cad package for example) for ANY company who does something new. Or work in fields like curing cancer or so..
I think a subsidised option, which is limited in its timescale, is a good thing for the start up businesses but also for us. The more people using Onshape, the better it will become.
OnShape is losing a HUGE market of hobby level folks. They think the free plan is for them - wrong. They are also losing a HUGE market of small business users. If I make custom beehives as a hobby or even a small biz, for example, I might sell a few in a year. That's less than $10k revenue. And it doesn't justify $1500 subscription for the year AT ALL.
OnShape desperately needs a sku that addresses revenue size of a company as the limiting factor. Less than $100k/yr, offer a cheap plan. Then jump up to your standard $1500 sku. This issue was raised YEARS ago when OnShape first hit the streets, and they appear to not care about this opportunity. Meanwhile, we are stuck using a competition Fusion360 that supports this type of revenue-based subscription plan. Lame. I tinkered with OnShape a while back, then was forced to quit and go back to competitors for this reason. Missed opportunity. Carry on I guess. Let me know when to return.
As for startups and small businesses, I think we're all kidding ourselves if we think Onshape would give startups a discount just because they're nice. They would be discounting their product on the front end in hopes that the startup grows, sticks with Onshape, and continues to keep adding licenses as they do.
Professional tools have professional price - I think that's fair. But as software doesn't have 'material cost' and giving out 2nd 'boss license' for any company wouldn't cause too much usage costs either that would make Onshape good friends with bosses. I think it would ease their way on selling more licenses..
Onshape used to have monthly option in past - don't know why they give that up. Most likely not going back too soon as they've already tried.