Gravity Factor takes on Marqui

I am a current Marqui client and I can tell you this. I received a call from Rick Patri telling me about his new venture. He is and always has been one of the main reasons why I stuck with Marqui over the years. He truly valued us as clients and always solved our problems when no one else would give us the time of day. I tried to get the scoop on the Marqui situation but he was only able to tell me what I had already heard before from the receivers.

So I checked out the solution. It's NICE! I mean it is really slick! He sent me a demo site to play with and it is a much better solution IMO. I had a couple of questions, emailed support and got an immediate response. Our company is switching vendors.

Here's the best part for Marqui clients looking for options. His company is willing to switch us over to their platform for free!

Totally worth checking out. My 2 cents.

If paying what is likely a very increased price for a resold product is what customers want to do, then absolutely, Gravity Factor is the place to go.

Gravity Factor is using the Business Catalyst platform (go to the client login on the Gravity Factor website and view source).

Business Catalyst (also Good Barry - www.goodbarry.com) sells the platform for $79 per month.

Something to think about...

So I checked out Gravity Factor and they are obviously a start up. So lets see, as a Marqui customer already bitten by a failing company, should I move to a start up run by an ex-Marqui exec????

Maybe Marqui's collapse will help create awareness with the dangers of a hosted solution, particularly when it comes to small companies trying to compete in a very competitve market space.

It amazes me that a new company launches and instead of wishing them well, and hoping they achieve success, we look to point out the negative... albeit anonymously. It's truly unbelieveable that people live this way. Anyway, we are happy to respond to all the nay-sayers wishing nothing but negativity... we feel for you.

The Gravity Factor platform is indeed using an engine we sourced from a 3rd party. We licensed the rights to the engine so we could customize and deliver a more suitable application for the Marketing Automation market. We took this approach for a couple for reasons.

1. build vs. buy - its a classic struggle for many orgs. we took the approach to buy in order to leverage an established code base that would give us a head start in the market and allow us to deliver an immediate solution with a smaller team and without the headaches that come from a beta product.

2. speed to market - like all of the other firms calling into the marqui customer base, and you all know who you are, the marqui customer base is looking at options. they are looking for options and we wanted to be one of them.

3. Joomla - not for the audience we are targeting.

4. Opportunity knocks - the MA space is hot and there are some good products out there. We plan to be one of them. If you want to go buy a scaled down version of the app from GB, go ahead. Enjoy your email support from Australia. If you want a team of dedicated individuals that are passionate about delivering solutions that help marketers achieve their demand generation goals, then give us a call.

Well I for one applaude the guys at Gravity Factor and wish them success. I was saddened to learn that Marqui was being sold. They were quite a story in Vancouver and did some really good things. I hope Rick and his team take what they learned, good and bad, and make a go of it! Congrats.

I'm not sure 'applause' is the appropriate reaction if Gravity Factor's founder is violating a non-compete clause, and farming his previous employer's client list. Working the client list will have a direct and detrimental effect on the Marqui's value. Given that it's currently for sale--and word is a number of potential buyers are undertaking due diligenc--I won't be surprised when the lawsuit is the next thing Techvibes is reporting!

Normally I don't comment on blogs, I just like reading them, but I felt the need to chime in here. I received a proposal today from Rick's team becasue we're checking it out. He was upfront that they were leveraging the Business Catalyst platform as the engine. So what's big deal? Is it any different than all of the Microsoft partners out there that have verticalized their platform for a specific industry and calling it CRM 8.0 for X industry? I don't think so.

It really comes down to the value-added services bundled in and the perceived value in them. The Camapaign specific stuff & Salesforce.com integration they have added to the platform is a nice touch and well worth the price they offered it to us at in comparison to the market.

I'm all for pointing things out but why not give them a chance and hope they become a BC success story we can be proud of.

Please! Rick Patri was not the founder. Marqui, aka, Maestro CMS was founded by Thierry LeVasseur and I wouldn't be surprised if it was the guys at Gravity Factor just pumping the blogoshere with noise. Any news is good news and we probably just bumped up their SEO with this conversation alone. Pretty funny stuff.

Rick is a pretty smart guy probably manufacturing stories all over the web. Remember he worked Maestro CMS - home of the paid bloggers program.

Scott... don't know who you are but I love ya man...

I never realized that this would be such a hot topic, but hooray for blogs and SEO. Marketing Automation is a sexy market and we want to play in it with the likes of... SEO drum roll please... marketo, eloqua, marketbright, hubspot, manticore, market2lead, etc, etc.

To be clear "Anonymous"... We have not pro-actively targeted the customer base, sent out an email blast nor have we mailed out any letters. There is enough business out there to be had by multiple vendors in this space. But if the phone rings, we're answering it.

Here's my public recommendation to all Marqui customers...

Relax and do nothing. You already made an investment in a solution and its a managed receivership that has agreed to keep the product up and running. So there is nothing to worry about. There is no need to panic as the Marqui product is fully functioning and the hosted sites are operational. They are staffed and providing support. So just sit back and wait and see what happens and then make a decision. That is what I have advised people that have asked. Obviously my opinions will sit differently with different people.

Marqui was my life for 5+ years and I will never bash the company, the people, the product or the outcome. We all did the best we could given the cards we were dealt.

If this is all about handing out advice, I'd say avoid Gravity Factory (who claim they only work 4 days a week), save yourself the trouble, and go with GoodBarry.com and a local designer. Rick - You wouldn't bash the people? Seems a lot of your staff feel like you left them pretty high and dry. Can't say I've heard anything good from Patri's team about the man. himself.

Can't believe this post didn't mention the reseller gig. Maybe its back to the days of paid to blog?

Wait a minute

Quote from Rick "We have not pro-actively targeted the customer base..."

Quote from Michael : "I am a current Marqui client and I can tell you this. I received a call from Rick Patri telling me about his new venture..."

We're a Marqui client and Rick called and e-mailed us.

usiness is business. I don't think what Mr Rick is up to is not very ethical, But I can't blame guy for being an opportunist. I am starting a company myself. Looks like I need to really watch who I hire in the future. It is a dog eat dog world.

There is no problem with Rick's ethics in contacting Marqui's clients, but I wanted to counter his claim: We have not pro-actively targeted the customer base ...

I would expect that a buyer for Marqui is named within a week or two. Hopefully someone with deep pockets willing to keep moving the product forward.

The sales and marketing staff for Marqui were all let go. I can't blame them for being bitter and trying to screw their former employer, but wasn't it a lack of sales that led to the restructuring in the first place?

To come here and deny any involvement in trying to solicit customers when customers are stating otherwise just shows exactly what type of business Gravity Factor will be operating.

As a former employee of Marqui, I can't tell you how thrilled I am to learn of Rick's new venture! Rick was the rock, the foundation, the glue that held Marqui together for so many years.

Never before have I worked with someone as motivated as Rick. He brought energy, excitement, integrity, leadership and passion to the team, and Marqui lost one of their best assets when he left.

Marqui's failure was a collective letdown for everyone involved, and blame cannot be assigned to any one individual. From the board of directors to our part-time co-op students, we all shared in both the successes and the failures. To point blame the blame to Rick is, in my opinion, ignorant and pointless.

For anyone considering to do business with Gravity Factor, I'd be honoured to give Rick and his team my personal recommendation. He's a man of his word, and he'll do what it takes to deliver....

Best of luck, Rick.

Richard

Richard - Sounds like you've been huffing some of that aforementioned glue.

As this post indicates, Rick is quite happy telling bold faced lies. "A man of his word" sounds dubious to me.

Can someone give us a list of alternative service providers we should consider in case we want to migrate and what do we need to give the new provider if we want to mirror the existing content... man, is that even possible? Please advise?

As a follow-up, I should mention that I am extremely proud of what we accomplished at Marqui, and I do wish them the best of luck in their future endeavours. The product had evolved tremendously over the years (thanks, Ryan!) and I still believe it to have tremendous potential. I in no way mean to be picking sides. At this time, I humbly opt out of this infantile namecalling and bitter fingerpointing....

I've had a conversation with Marqui and encourage all Marqui customers to do the same.

Jackie Reid, VP Client Services, was very up front with me. She gave me the status, gave us some options for contingency planning, including some outside sources to go to if we wanted an opinion outside of Marqui. She let me know that if we decided in the end to leave, they would provide all our files, and some recommendations on how to make the transition easier. I think Marqui is handling itself very well for such a difficult time, they clearly picked the right people to transition the company.

We'll be staying put, meet the new owners and make our decision then.

[...] Wednesday blog post on the continuing Marqui saga and Vancouver’s newest marketing automation competitor has kicked off a flurry of comments. [...]

I find this conversation alarming as the Gravity Factor spin rings too much like old Marqui times for me. I'll add my $.02 due to the unique relationship between Marqui, Rick and my Company as well as myself.

My company, E-Cubed, was a partner with Marqui for a number of years (starting in mid 2004, 2005, and 2006). We implemented solutions for LifeSciences BC, BCTIA, Shriner's Hospitals, Canada Place, Rocky Mountaineer, Streamline, BCCTS, Greater Victoria Public Library and numerous others.

We also were brought in by Marqui to consult on various projects and work to develop managed marketing solutions.

Originally the Marqui solution was great but poor management, questionable ethics and numerous project delays hurt all involved. From my experience working along side them especially during 2006 was very disturbing. The means justified the end when it came to how they sold their product. Misleading customers and padding the product's abilities was the norm rather than the exception. Clients were taken advantage of and led down paths that were anything but straight and narrow.

Pricing and licensing was all over the board with some clients paying $99 per month and others having to shell out over $500 - $1,000 - all for the identical solution.

E-Cubed severed the relationship once these facts became clear to us 2.5 years ago. We have continued to support our Marqui based clients until their licenses expired. At that time they brought in another Vancouver based organization to be their partner of choice.

I know for a fact that Rick and his new team have and are contacting Marqui clients.

Rick threatened me with a lawsuit while at Marqui when I wanted to make certain facts known about the way in which business was being conducted which not only impacted E-Cubed's Marqui based client projects but also E-Cubed's reputation and bottom line. Obviously this affected others as well.

I truly wish Rick well with his new endeavor and I hope that a certain level of transparency will exist where smoke and mirrors one ruled.

I think people are unnecessarily pointing the finger at Rick. The downfall of a company NEVER has to do with a single individual. He was not even the CEO of the company for that matter.

He was simply part of a team that took over and ran with whatever was left of the VC money the previous Management group didn't spend and frlom what I've heard, that's not much.

We're all professionals and visit the TechVibes site for news, events and info about our tech community as a whole. Let's keep it to that. The airing of dirty laundry, finger pointing and sensless blogging is truly a wste and makes us all look like a bunch of high school kids whining on FaceBook about who is dating who.

Let the guy simply simply move and let's find a meaningful topic to discuss.

Interesting, GravityFactor just took down their home page. Somehow, I think it's more to do than just the airing of dirty laundry.

You people need to get lives. Seriously its the weekend here in beautiful BC. Let's move on. This is pathetic. One guy does not bring down or make all of the decisions at a company. I'm sure all of us have done things in the past that the next time around we'd do differently. That's called growing. I don't this guy but i'm sure there are some things he did really well and I'm sure there are some mistakes that he made along the way.

It's called life and no one of is perfect.

Why did Marqui fail?

Why did Marqui fail? How long is a piece of rope? It definitely was not due to one person, Rick or otherwise. From E-Cubed's perspective there was a lack of clarity on where the product fit it. It did not mature enough as a CMS nor provide an open API that we could program against.

It was far too expensive for the feature set it contained and never leveraged the 'paid blogging' exposure that could have given it the legs it needed to get to the next level.

In essence it was eaten up from all sides. Open Source had a better price point and unlimited ability to customize. Mid tier solutions such as Ektron were more value driven and had better support options plus led with commercial features keeping pace with the Open Source crowd plus had a fully accessible API.

Internally they seemed very confused. Software development cycles were never solidified and features that were implemented were already late to market. The last major build of Marqui was over 18 months in coming after we used in in 'Beta'.

Far too long for any commercial product.

Some of the comments above reflect the challenges the market had for Marqui. It was a great product 3 - 4 years ago when the market was immature. It simply never grew up yet the sales/marketing team kept trying to push it as a competitive solution.

"You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear." or so they say. I'd wager that is as clear as it gets.

My $.02 for those who care.

I hope Gravity Factor has great lawyers. Violating a non-compete clause in the midst of a purchase is a bad move. Rick can sell ice to an eskimo I hear he is a master or working a show floor, but often falls short of meeting any promises. My $.02 - Hire a developer.

My 2 cents, as a Marqui Client and also an ex Marqui employee I really have to say that the only reason for the Marqui fall was the corporation’s goals were not aligned and communicated to the entire team. It seems odd to blame one person for the fall of an entire company. I think the only think the VP of Sales is guilty of is just being an opportunist. I used the Marqui Automation solution nearly everyday and like any software, it had its issues, but overall it delivered my results.

As a customer we are being patient and riding out the receivership. The Marqui staff and support have been very helpful and accommodating in this situation. We even looked at getting the solution Gravity Factor uses (Goodbarry CMS). I even called Hot Banana for a quote and when they found out I once worked for Marqui, they offered a discount for leads… Now if anything, that’s unethical. So it seams that all CMS providers our there are trying to benefit out of Marquis’ situation; But the funny thing is, is once they get out of the receivership, I think Marqui will get more clients because of their diligence in dealing with a corporate crisis. The solution to my problem – Hire a webmaster!! They’re cheaper than a CMS and minus the headache!

The reason not to use software from CompanyA that's just a value-added version of CompanyB's software is that CompanyA has no control over the base code, future product direction, release dates, etc. What CompanyA's products do can be adversely affected by changes that CompanyB makes to the product. CompanyA also has no control over the viability of CompanyB. CompanyB can also hold CompanyA hostage when it comes to renewing licenses, which means CompanyA has very little control over the cost of their product. Or, if CompanyB decides to stop licensing their product to CompanyA for any of a variety of reasons, Presto!, in the on-demand world CompanyA's customers no longer have the software they're paying for.

This isn't the case when CompanyA integrates OEM technology from CompanyC to enable a feature. In this case, CompanyA can easily swap that technology out with similar technology from CompanyD if there's a problem, which is quite common.

Marqui customers who switch to Gravity Factor are at high risk of having to migrate to a third product at some point in the future.

I'm looking at a company in Calgary called Canterris. Anyone have things I should ask them to make sure I'm not switching again in a few months?

Zoolooker - I'm not sure I understand your comments....

What's the difference between getting a CMS from Gravity Factor who is using someone else's technology as their platform or going to ABC web design firm who uses Ektron or going to DEF design firm who uses Hot Banana or GHI design firm who uses CrownPeak.

All of thes firms are pretty much in the same boat unless one of the has source code rights.

Gravity Factor is a software vendor, just like Ektron, Hot Banana and Crown Peak. They're not a web design firm. However Ektron, Hot Banana and Crown Peak have developed their own software and own the base code. They haven't just slapped a layer of features on top of someone else's product or base code like Gravity Factor has.

From what I have seen, heard, read, you can't say Patri was the only factor in the failure of Marqui, but he was there for many years and played a HUGE role it going downhill. I think he was even there when it had its original name (Mastero). So he wasn't just there using up the VC money from the previous mgmt group...he was the previous mgmt group! Maybe living in LA while trying to a "Vancouver" based company could be part of it too...hmm...doesn't his new company claim to be Vancouver based too? Interesting....

I was pretty close to Marqui as I was a partner of theirs and recommended their solution to my clients going all the way back to the Maestro CMS days and I can without a doubt tell you Dwight - that you are waaaaaay off.

Lets finally air some facts on this blog becasue the Patri bashing is foolish and makes people sound uninformed and childish.

He was there early on and part of Maestro pre-VC money, but he was not the VP Sales once they got the money. In fact he was relegated to managing Canada when the VC's brought in their own VP, Sales from the Microsoft CMS group - Chris something. I don't remember. Then they hired a new CEO, Stephen King and he brought in his own Mgmnt team from Portland, again a group that Patri was not part of.

When the VP, Sales didn't make the cut, they went out and hired another VP, Sales from yet another CMS provider, Serena Software. When that VP, Sales didn't help the company see success, they then turned to Patri as he had been the most successful and consistent revenue producer that the company had.

It was only then that he really became part of the Mgmnt team and by then they had gone through 2 VP Sales, a name change and most of their VC money.

My understanding from talking to a couple of former Marqui reps is that Marqui would never have landed any of the big name clients that we all see on their client list without him. They also went on to say that he was put in a no-win situation by the CEO, who inturn was in a no-win situation with the VC's.

So Dwight, you should get your facts straight before airing them to the public becasue you have no clue at all. Blaming Patri when he wasn't the VP, Sales until the 2 that came before him failed, is silly. More importantly you need to realize that if Patri was not delivering on the goals that the company set for him that the CEO would have fired him.

So don't try and make Rick the fall guy - it's unfair and ridiculous - he sold a less than competitive product, extremely well, in a competitive market. He did it with passion and the guy really did care about the customers. I can say without a doubt whenver we had problems with any of our customers and we needed to escalate the issue - that he was always available and listened to our needs.

Did they guy have faults? He sure did, just like all of us. If you want to point the finger and then have a discussion - let's point the fingers at the VC's and the 2 CEO's because they are the ones who made all of the important decisions.

Paul,

I wasn't "bashing" patri, I was simply saying that he was there for a long time. From Marqui clients I know of when he was speaking with them, he called himself a "founder" of Marqui so maybe he should be more careful of the words he used. And the only other point I made was the guy lives in LA and speaks to running a "Vancouver" based company. So in agreeing with you, before people start sounding foolish and uninformed...lets get all the facts straight.

As a follow up to the Anno post of July 24th, I've been told that the Gravity Factor email-marketing is just industry mail's product under the covers.

http://www.industrymailout.com/

Why not just go direct and some money?

Anybody heard whether Marqui has been picked up by anybody? Whether they're going to continue product dev/support? Just buying the client list? Bueller...Bueller...anybody...Bueller...

Heard from 2 old Marqui clients as well that Marqui has an intrested suitor. Anybody got the full 411 on who it is and why?

I can't seem to access the gravity factor website. Anyone have some insight as to why its not up? Not that I can't guess....

Bob’s nephew, some questions I’d ask are how long they’ve been in business, how many active customers they have, how many employees they have, their revenue, whether they’re profitable, how old their base code is, who their executive is and what experience they have, who their investors are, etc. Primarily I’d ask for customer references to make sure the software is real.

Hadn’t heard of them before. Their website is slick, the product sounds reasonable. No mention of who their executives or investors are. They just opened an office in Waterloo, which would suggest they’re growing, although why Waterloo? Vancouver has far more tech companies, talent to choose from, VCs, it’s in the same time zone as their partners in California, the whole nine yards.

Just got word that Marqui has indeed been acquired by a bunch of investors. The investor group includes SIL Enterprises, Krystal Financial Corporation, Abraxus Holdings Inc. and Ogilvie Communications.

Taken from the eMail I received

"The new owners believe Marqui plays an extremely important role in helping our customers be successful in the web marketing space and has solid long-term potential. This long-term horizon is in line with our investment philosophy and an important reason for our interest in the company.

The investor group does not bring only financial backing to Marqui, but also technical know-how through its ownership of WaterTrax, a company that develops and markets software to help manage and monitor water quality in large and small communities across North America.

Marqui and WaterTrax will operate as separate businesses, but some management and administrative functions will be combined. For example, as incoming CEO, I am looking forward to bringing my 20 years of experience in the publishing and marketing services to Marqui.

We believe this is a good outcome for Marqui’s customers and employees. As a customer, you can rest assured that we will continue the Marqui service in its current form, and with a core group of employees staying with Marqui, your relationships with us will be maintained and enhanced.

_________________________________________________

I wish the new Management Team and all associated, especially existing clients, much success with this endeavor.

Sincerely,

Kyle Bailey - Da Big Cheeze

Thanks Kyle - a Marqui client was kind enough to forward me the notice earlier today and I've posted on it.

http://www.techvibes.com/blog/new-ownership-announced-at-marqui

The Marqui bio page used to list Rick Patri as one of the founders for what it is worth. Patri joined in 2002 when LaVasseur was still at the helm and it was a 8 person operation.

Marqui started off at WebMX (or something like that) way back in the nineties. The company was a three man crew which LaVasseur recruited from Telus. It provided web design and graphic services - it was pretty good as they had a good designer.

From the web design days, the idea of content management was born - now, which web design firm had not thought of that? The team crew and then Thierry LaVasseur gutted the organization and fired a bunch of people he did not get along with. Thierry has alot of charm which can turn to extreme anger in a flash....unfortunately that limits his ability to manage or lead an organization.

The company's coffers were bone dry in 2002 and was rescued by two deals that gave an cash infusion. Canaccord was one of the early customers that were burned by the product (any Canaccord posters here?).

This looked up in 2003 when it looked like there were investors willing to make it happen....eventually Ventures West bit the bullet. I was pretty surprise but then again they have made other bets that stung from the get-go.

The VCs did not like Thiery LaVasseur's style of mismanagement and slung him to a VP of Marketing role. An expensive CEO from the US (or UK) swaddled in and burned through the VC cash - the problem being that it was a much too crowded market space. And the VC were hoodwinked into investing in a company that had a relatively inmature product (VBScript galore).

Post Y2K is not like the bubble nineties for tech companies - ultimately mid-size companies have a terrible time at surviving. Some of the MaestroCMS old-guard were not very ethical and burned customers - eventually the word get around. Vancouver is a small place.....

Gravity Factor seems to be a shell company; no product or office.

Aside from chasing a few bucks left over from the Marqui tree, not value seems to be there.