Reply from LaunchpeerAug 14, 2021
Hi, Jonathan (and everyone else reading this review response). We like to be thorough in our responses so below we’ll outline our position below.
First, about us ‘attacking’ negative reviews, I won’t argue with that, although ‘attack’ is a strong word.
We have fewer negative reviews than we have years in business (we've been in business for 7 years), and when we do receive a negative review, we want others to know our point of view.
We always back these ‘attacks’ up with evidence and proof, which I’ll be doing below.
1. To your point about Launchpeer being a ‘scam’, I’d like to address that first.
You joined the program on January 28th. Not one time between January 28th and the time you originally left this review in early August did you ever mention being unhappy with the program or thinking it was a scam.
It was actually quite the contrary, as evidenced below.
February 9th - Met with Jake to talk through fundraising. Followed up the next day asking for more feedback on your materials (an odd thing to do if we were a ‘scam’). Screenshot below (I’ve blocked out your Google Drive link to keep your privacy).
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b2qdLehCS23d_1tAz-opm86jAPoNeA5E/view?usp=sharing
February 12th - Again, requested and booked a meeting with Jake to talk about fundraising, and shared more materials for review. Screenshot below (again, I’ve blocked out your Google Drive link).
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rAL2gAa7CgKEpdJicEXKvuXSDPfuTGoB/view?usp=sharing
February 22nd - Requested another call, and 2 days later requested funding documents from our team. Screenshot below.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13nwuL_OZeTtehKOh8xAUe-DCUgD1NT4g/view?usp=sharing
March 25th - You stated you ‘loved’ the work our team did, approving it. Screenshot below.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NovXA74N4Jk0xQfFgBCvfBFqFToKqxwv/view?usp=sharing
March 29th - You formally approved the work our team did, again stating that it was ‘great’. Screenshots below.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FlY31rgy_mD7ClZTP4LQxyZNuUcKO4CB/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rj_pxcsfGtxFOW08OgSZsBj0F0MGkKGA/view?usp=sharing
Then, to further show how happy you were with the program, our team, and our process, on June 24th you reached out to inquire about hiring our team for a new, larger project. Screenshot below.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zQisNhg0Y3Tv9O8Vi_SAuVdoSli6q9FZ/view?usp=sharing
That would have been a very odd thing to do if our team was a ‘scam’.
After having that meeting, on Aug 3 you provided me the follow-up information our team needed in order to have our development team do the needed research to see if we can support that new project. Again, in this messaging, you were excited about moving forward with us and seeing if we had the capacity. Screenshot below.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iSOTvNGB1ZTObjj6Yv5-4qY8Fotio4bB/view?usp=sharing
The issue here is that it was the same day my family made arrangements to travel to visit family in California on short notice. Screenshot below:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HmbTipykN5hiSs8neC8oGYQeljBr-Y9J/view?usp=sharing
During my travels, you ended up direct messaging me personally in Slack on Aug 6th, and also emailing me once on August 10th (again stating how you were ‘eager’ to move forward). Screenshot below.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11iwJdTQea3K9Eur4gHYfyrz474Gt69dv/view?usp=sharing
Normally this wouldn’t be an issue as I’m always willing to work one on one with our founders to help them (as evidenced by several screenshots above), but as I was out of town dealing with last minute family issues, I wasn’t able to respond.
But instead of reaching out to any number of other people on the team, posting in any other Slack channel, chatting in through our publicly available support widget on the site, attending a coaching call, etc, you instead decided to jump straight to writing your initial negative review on Aug 10.
We also outline all these support methods everywhere in the program, most recently before your review on July 28th. Screenshot below.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1v32DA2BFzaqyh99N7fmxyuTEyqELQa32/view?usp=sharing
We also send out weekly proactive surveys to everyone in the program so they can let us know if there are any issues they’re dealing with or things they need one on one help with (this is outlined at the bottom of the previous screenshot). We received no response from you on either the Aug 6th or 13th surveys. If we had, a team member would have reached out immediately.
Bottom line, help was available from any number of resources, but instead of tapping into it, you jumped to writing a negative review, calling us a scam, despite your actions above stating quite the contrary. Not receiving a response to 2 slack messages and an email over the course of 10 days doesn’t justify that, quite honestly.
2. To your point about removing you from the program, I’d like to address that as well.
Once our team was taken aback by your negative review, we decided it best to remove you from the community Slack workspace to ensure communications were kept private and we could address this one on one.
We immediately reached out via email to address your concern. Screenshot below.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ft-H1RyEBr3tDzRyxrC3-Fpcwt_rU0rt/view?usp=sharing
Our team offered to coordinate a call with you on multiple occasions over the next week, but you refused each time, instead requesting a refund.
You even went as far as to threaten us with a ‘worse review’ if we didn’t refund you. Screenshot below.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nhXd4IMjYpN13XTZmi2Mso7x376sWFkH/view?usp=sharing
Despite that, I wrote you on Aug 17 once I was back in town from traveling and offered to hop on a call, and continued to offer a call but you refused each time. Screenshot below.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OgytIswcsEvzqZILiL5FwJgQ7Ip2Vfnz/view?usp=sharing
After you continued to refuse that offer, I then gave you our final offer of adding you back into the program if you agreed to a phone call, but again you refused.
3. TL;DR
You say that we’re a scam, though from all your actions since you joined in January through until mid-August you never expressed that, and to the contrary seemed to enjoy and get a lot of value out of it. So much so that you wanted to hire us for another, higher-tier project.
You say that we’re a scam, but seem upset that you were removed from the program, and then when given an offer to get added back in with a simple call, you refuse that offer in favor of writing a negative review.
You say that we're a scam, but threaten us to make your 'negative review' worse if we don't offer you a refund, despite the fact that you completed the entire program to the point where you wanted to work with our team for a higher tier project.
It’s an interesting 180-degree turn to go from happy enough to hire us again, to thinking we’re a scam, because you didn’t receive a response to two private Slack messages and one email over a 10 day period despite not tapping into any other means of communication prior to writing a negative review. It truly has our team scratching their heads.
Our offer still stands, but regardless of what you decide to do, we wish you the best of luck in the future.