[karterk]

It does not try to position it as anything other than a subscription, and the language is plain english.

Yup, plain english which is pretty loaded in the favor of subscription. Point me to one heading which says "VIP subscription costs only 39 USD per month".

every retailer has to optimize their site to perform

This is not the same thing. The typical shopping site constitutes of 1 time purchases. When I google for a product and end up on your site and try to purchase something, I am not going to think it's a crazy thing like monthly subscription whether I buy something or not. Given this scenario, choosing a default like that is not simply optimizing.

We can argue over the fine details, but you can't convince me that this is not shady.

[foobarbazqux]

> We can argue over the fine details, but you can't convince me that this is not shady.

He's not trying to convince you, he's trying to convince himself.

[bane]

He looks pretty convinced here.

http://www.matrixpartners.com/team/josh-hannah/

[trimbo]

Invested in "Huddle" and "Huddler"?

That's weird. Is the idea to be sure if the brand works, one of these will be successful? Or just like the word "huddle"?