I just saw this on ***, quite interesting.
"These are just my on the ground observations, and I no longer hold an interest in Nearmap.
Around 6 months ago I was interviewed for a role at Nearmap.
For a relatively new company, I was taken by the sheer extravagence of their Barrangaroo offices - prime water views in a very prestigious area - I questioned their best use of company resources for such lavish office accomodation
The interviewing manager had a very hard nosed focus on winning customer contracts and then renewing expiring contracts, but it was very clear that they were in a very high pressure selling situation. They were looking for no-holds barred hunters with little regard for long term customer satisfaction - a key determinant of low churn rate
There was talk of holding out for customers (asking for discounts) by way of increasing future prices if they did not resign the and there (playing the scarcity game) - this might be fine if you are the only provider of such a service, but seemed quite antagonistic
The sales problem as outlined to me was "we sell expensive pictures", how do you go about doing that? There was little talk about the deeper product value and how clients can benefit - red flag
In terms of competitors, a colleague of mine has been doing a lot flying over Sydney and regions for a competitor (Eagleview) for about a year now and they are posing a threat that may not yet be factored in for Nearmap. I'm not deeply in the know about their relative competitive differences, but on initial glance they are similar in offerings
Take what you may from my comments, but the sniff test failed me back then and I moved on to other opportunities."
