[gundisclosed]

Hello, Interesting idea and decent execution, congratulations on the launch (A slack bot would also be an interesting add on). But to be honest, I am flabbergasted by pricing model. My current assumption is that it is mainly just a scheduling software, so does it provide the same value as Gmail enterprise ( considering nearly same pricing ) ?

[molsongolden]

Different use cases. If Worksphere has researched the regulations and guidance around returning to in-office work then this could be a great value.

Half of the value might be "if you use this solution then you are compliant" with the other half coming from the actual tooling to orchestrate "you can work in office today but you can't because you came in yesterday and other people need to have meetings".

I'm not familiar with competitors in the space but my gut reaction to the pricing is that most companies will see $6/mo of value from streamlining an employee's return to the office.

[sokoloff]

If they can promise compliance, this is worth $200/desk/month easy.

I don’t think they can realistically promise that, though...

[markpiper]

We've been paying particular attention to California, since minimum workplace contact tracing standards and workplace COVID exposure notification were signed into law with AB-685 and SB-1159.

The other part is getting people to do all the things needed. Mostly that's making it easy to do, which is where this kind of put-it-on autopilot approach to set an office schedule helps, and making it really easy to go into the office for a day.

It's not machine learning and sensors to make sure people are wearing a mask and staying 6 feet apart, but it does meet the bar for most companies.

[gundisclosed]

Or maybe a better question might be, how does one arrive at the pricing model for a product like this ?

[aakhil]

We looked at traditional workplace management software products like iOffice and SpaceIQ. They tend to be a lot more expensive. We also looked at adjacent services like scheduling software for hourly workers and meeting room booking software. So far we feel good about this pricing. But we're still early and may adapt based on customer feedback.

[gundisclosed]

Ok, but SpaceIQ also provides IOT integrations, way finder and some other features. But I understood the direction. Thank you for the comments and best of luck !

[aakhil]

Great idea on the slack bot. Would you prefer using a slack bot instead of an app for scheduling?

We only charge for active employees who are scheduled in office (excludes remote employees). Customers have responded positively to this pricing model so far. But we are still learning.

[sokoloff]

The audience for this tool is used to paying bills with commas in them without flinching. It’s not an office catering case where people have a firm anchor to some high-single digit price that includes the food. The office drinks bill might have a comma in it, but the water and electric bills almost surely do.

My gut is people are responding positively because they see it as so insanely underpriced as to be not worth worrying about.

For one thing, no one who sees $6 of value won’t see $10 of value, so you could raise prices 67% right there. (Maybe there’s an odd person who sees $5 and is willing to pay $6.) You might even find more takers at $100-200/desk/month than $6/user/mo. It’s easy for them to budget; it solves a problem they have; you might look more credible or easier for the office manager/harried HR person who doesn’t care if they pay $120/mo for 20 users or $400/mo for 4 desks. Those numbers are “the same” for office managers.

Look up patio11’s general advice (tl;dr: charge more) and take it to heart. Best.

[markpiper]

Thanks we'll definitely take a look. The range of prices on solutions in this space is incredibly wide.

There's simple things for crazy cheap, complicated things with giant price tags, all intertwined in a brand new land-grab to get adoption.

The founder of Superhuman.com recently introduced us to the Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Meter, and recommended we also check out the book 'Monetizing Innovation' -- more to learn!

[gundisclosed]

Yes certainly! A slack bot would certainly help in ease of use among team members.

[grbi]

I'm just finishing at Slack app to reserve his place at the office. It will be available in a few days ;)

[DevX101]

Congrats OP, you've got your first "I could build this trivial project myself" comment. If history is any guide here, you'll have a $200M valuation in a few months.

[gundisclosed]

It is certainly not “I can build this in X days with Y no-code”. I can see the utility and would be happy to pay. But I certainly don’t understand the pricing model.

[dang]

I appreciate your wish to counter shallow dismissals, but please don't take HN threads snarkward, even when another comment feels annoying. It only makes things worse.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html