I recently heard the CEO of one of our PE owned competitors bragging about what a great company they are. At almost the same moment I received a sales inquiry from one of their customers. The customer had been informed (in December) that ongoing support cost was being increased by 50%. This was only days before the renewal date. The customer was livid and he was looking for an alternative.
This is a situation that has become common in Govtech. Private Equity firms have bought up customers and they are exploiting them in order to grow revenues. They don’t add value, they extract value.
Things are different at TownCloud. We have NEVER increased our subscription fees. We grow Earnings by investing in research and development. We make our existing products more efficient, and we build new systems (like 311 and Financials). We believe that adding value for customers is the best way to grow the business.
The underlying business philosophy of TownCloud is based on an equal balance between customers, employees, and shareholders. We grow by increasing the value for each as the business grows. We don’t exploit customers or employees to enhance shareholders because we believe shareholder value is best served by having happy customers and employees. We grow the entire business…equally.
Customers always ask when we will increase our costs. The answer is simple…when we make our products more valuable.