One aspect of this whole debacle that needs to be highlighted more is the culture that allowed Zenefits to behave in shady ways.
The culture I'm referring to is the "give me complex software, and host and maintain it for me, but have someone else pay for it" culture.
Whether it's through intrusive ads, creepy data practices, and/or Zenefits-like shadiness, insisting that software should be paid for by anyone but the people using it is a disaster waiting to happen.
I'm founder of a startup building an application that is free (as in freedom) for small businesses. If future customers want us to support and maintain the software for them, they will need to pay for it the old-fashioned way. Any other arrangement would compromise both our customers' interests, and our company's integrity.
The culture I'm referring to is the "give me complex software, and host and maintain it for me, but have someone else pay for it" culture.
Whether it's through intrusive ads, creepy data practices, and/or Zenefits-like shadiness, insisting that software should be paid for by anyone but the people using it is a disaster waiting to happen.
I'm founder of a startup building an application that is free (as in freedom) for small businesses. If future customers want us to support and maintain the software for them, they will need to pay for it the old-fashioned way. Any other arrangement would compromise both our customers' interests, and our company's integrity.