Sprend support center - contact informations
Sprend support center is available via email or phone call. If you experience some problem, let us know. Try it free for yourself.
Arne Evertsson saving the world
Sprend is a very simple service for sending large files. You can send your large files quickly and securely. In the case that an obstacle arises along the way, you have a question or you would like to share feedback, feel free to contact our customer service.
Choose the way you prefer, via email: support@sprend.com or by calling the number: +46 10 129 29 10. You will not communicate with the robot or have to send forms and wait for our answer, but you will directly contact one of the members of our customer support team. The most interviewed person in the company, Arne Evertsson answers questions on this topic.
For how long have you been providing customer service?
In the beginning, the first couple of years we had an open feedback page where the user could quickly add a comment. That was a kind of crude support page, but we had to shut it down when there were too many spam comments. About nine years ago we got an official support phone number, +46 10 129 29 10. Support by email has always been available.
How does customer service increase loyalty in your opinion?
You know when you're trying to call your telecom operator and it turns out, they don't have a phone number. A telecom company that you can’t call? Maybe it is time to switch to another company?!. Almost every company nowadays is making it as difficult as possible to contact them. If you call them you will end up in a queue and if you’re lucky there is a human at the end. And if you go to contact on the website, you will end up in some kind of information system where you're supposed to search for an answer that isn’t there. Very tellingly, when you get an email from a company, it's almost always sent from no-reply@company.com.
But why are they hard to get? Maybe they have too many calls because their service isn’t working well. So that's why we are able to give good customer service — simply because Sprends works most of the time. There're always opportunities to make it better. But in general, it works. And it makes it possible for us to be generous about having a phone and email support available. For anyone, whether you're a paying customer or your use of the free service, we give the same opportunity for everyone. If you're a Team account user, a customer of a single account or you don't have an account at all, you're free to get in contact with us. So, does it increase customer loyalty? I don't know. Our customers have to contact us to do that. Most users of Sprend do not contact us. So maybe we should make Sprend a little bit more difficult to use? :-D Then we would get more calls, more opportunities to talk to people.
Is it hard to understand your customer's needs and wants?
No, usually it's not. They know what features we are missing and we know what we need to add. One day we will catch up with all features that I know we need to add, and all problems we need to fix. That day we will start to listen more carefully to our users! I mean, we are certainly listening to what people are saying, but basically, I know what we have and what we need to add. It is obvious to me.
Are you trying to act on promises you made to our customers in a sense of the improvement of the service? Such as sending multiple files at a time for example.
Some people call up and say: "I selected a file, and then I selected another one. And I don't know what happened, but the first one disappeared". So, sometimes it does happen that people call because they are expecting to be able to send more than one file at a time. It's that they cannot even imagine that they're not able to do it. Multiple file support is the next big feature we will release.
What are the most common things people are asking?
It would be like the call I got a couple of minutes ago, about a file that is gone. The time expired. So the question I get often is: "Can you bring it back?". I have to say no to that question. Because we delete it almost immediately.
Basically, we are not Google Drive or OneDrive, not a storage facility. We are the messenger, the company that transports files. Otherwise, we would have to be quite a different service if we were to keep all the files for any amount of time. It would be good to be able to help people get to the files because it could be that they have lost the file. This is maybe their last resort. If we put some effort and thought into that problem we might be able to implement a solution that helps some of those people. So people can mark and choose. For four weeks maximum to save their content.
Are you handling complaints and returns easily?
Yeah, absolutely. If there is any chance that somebody is not happy with the service, we always offer a refund. It says that in general terms as well, I guess people don't read it. If you're not happy you get the money back. I mean, it doesn't matter if you use it for half a year and you're unhappy, you get a 50% refund. Whether you pay by invoice or by card, we will refund you as soon as possible. Who wants to pay for a service that they are not using or not happy with?
Are you ever going out of your way to help your customer?
Sometimes the recipient finds out that it is not impossible to open a file, because of not having the correct software on the computer or something like that. One could argue that Sprend has provided its service perfectly. But at the same time, we want to help people to use the file or read the file or watch it or whatever they do with it, to use it. Any other way, there would be no point in sending something. So of course, I'm trying to help people find the correct software for opening that file that they have received. If I can, if I know.
It's good to have these calls because it puts good ideas into my head on how we can solve more problems. I have a file, I want to send it to you because you need it. Sprend wants to make that possible, and all the way because otherwise, it would be of no use to either sender or recipient. The whole chain needs to work. What can we do to make it like that? That's an interesting topic. Interesting challenge.
Sometimes you describe Sprend as a boring service, but do you have interesting conversations with customers?
That reminds me of Elon Musk and his company that is drilling tunnels, and it's called The Boring Company. Maybe I should join them. Because we are two boring companies, we could learn from each other. But yes, I do have interesting conversations with our customers often.
Are you ever bored?
I guess it happens. But we need to be able to appreciate small things, isn't that what it’s all about?
How we encrypt your files for quickly and secure transfer
Read how we at Sprend secure and encrypt your sensitive files and transfer them easily, quickly, and safely! Try to transfer big files free online!
Encryption is one of the most important features that Sprend provides to its users. What exactly it means and how it is different to send your files when you use it, we tried to explain in an interview with the creator of the service and director of Sprend, Arne Evertsson. We hope it will help you better understand and use our service in the future.
How secure is Sprend service and is it one of your priorities?
Sprend is as secure as you want it to be. If you want to be safe, you actually need to encrypt files before you send them. I guess that's true for any kind of file transfer service. You could install something like WinZip or any other kind of software that provides encryption. After you encrypt the important file on your own computer, you can send it however you like. Sprend, of course, uses the regular encryption that you have for websites, so called SSL or TLS, also known as HTTPS, that encrypts everything that goes between your computer and our server. And when the files have arrived on our side, they are, for Sprend Free users, stored unchanged in the same format as you have them on your computer.
Sprend Pro offers encryption
In short, if they are not encrypted when you send them, they will actually not be encrypted on our service, unless you pay for our Pro version where you have the option to set a password. In that case, the files will be encrypted as soon as they arrive on the Sprend servers. The technology is called Advanced Encryption Standard, AES-256 with a salted password.
Can anyone see the content of a file after setting a password?
After setting a password, the file comes encrypted on our hard drives, so that not even anyone from Sprend can decrypt or see what the content is.
Who is using this service the most?
That's a good question. We have some customers who use Sprend just for the encryption feature for sending confidential documents. Maybe they have customers who require it or they have the laws that are making it necessary regarding GDPR. Some government agencies in Sweden are using our service. Very happy with it. Probably because it's safe as well as works really well for sending files.
Visualization of the AES round function
How would you describe the encryption to the average user?
I get that question sometimes from people, we are obviously not doing a good enough job explaining that directly on sprend.com.
Encryption is taking a file like a Word document, a PDF file, a music or video file, simply anything that anybody could easily watch or see on a computer or a phone, and then scramble the bits and the bytes that are stored on the hard drive into something that basically no program can actually read and display in any way.
If you open that in a program for viewing text, you will see just random characters. If you open it in an application for viewing photographs, you would just see noise. And if you open it in a video player, it wouldn't be able to play it. And when you play it as music, it would just be something like a signal from space, like a complete noise. And only when you kind of run this program “backwards” with the password, you get back your file in the original format. But again, you need the password.
You're still answering the support calls, even after 15 years, could you explain what's the main reason?
I want feedback. Of course, I also want to hear if something is not working so we can improve it. I would like to hear that we’re doing good things as well. When I use a service online and I have some kind of trouble, I would like somebody to help me and take it seriously. Just try to provide the service to others that you would yourself wish for. Not that difficult to figure out, is it? We are available at +46101292910 or support@sprend.com.
Do you often get questions about encryption?
Users are generally confused by the encryption option. Seems like a good thing but they are not sure what it means and whether they should mark this option when sending something. It's important to emphasize that the files sent by Sprend are secure. However, if you want an additional level of security, where it is impossible for anyone but you and the recipient to see the content, then you need to choose the encryption option with a password of your choice.
What is the feature you’re the most proud of?
Well, we are trying to make file transfer simple, a lot easier than other services or other ways of transferring data. That has always been the main goal. And I think we have been successful in that. Even though we can still make improvements. I can go on about this topic for quite a long time. Maybe I should, and I have some ideas of how to make it.
Photo by Deleece Cook (Unsplash)
My last question would be, what are the new features that your users can expect in the near future?
First of all, we are releasing the feature to send more than one file at a time. We haven't had that right now. Our users have to zip their files before they can send them as one big archive, and we will make it possible to drag and drop several files in folders, so that would be the most wanted new feature that we will deliver very soon.
After that, I think we have lots of options, but some of them deal with making it easier to log in and sign up for the service. So that won't be as tedious as it is right now. A lot of people could benefit from that. Not only those who want SSO (single sign-on) but also those single users who just have one account.
But then I was talking about before; when you receive a file, I would like to make it possible to preview that file or to watch that film. Sometimes the user knows it's a video file, but cannot open it. So right now, there's nothing we can do about it, but tell them to ask the sender to send it again in a different format, or maybe to search on the Internet and see if there's some kind of software they need to install. But usually, that's not what the user wants to hear. That's a complex solution. They want to just play the file and be happy with it. We can make it possible to preview a file format that your computer does not know how to open or play. We can add that feature within Sprend, increasing the likelihood that you actually can view the document or see the movie or photo.
To summarize, during the development of a service, there is one common goal?
Yes, and that goal is always to remove annoying things and make things easier. Just go ahead and Send a file or check out our Plans & Prices.
Sprend is getting stronger - new developers have joined our team
We're happy to announce that new forces joined Sprend. Two new developers, Saša and Doroteo, will work on improving the service for sending large files with an existing team. Change is really the only thing that is constant and if it is absent, it starts to seem like we are standing still. We influence each other, thus gaining breadth and the opportunity to upgrade our opinions.
The process of searching for our new colleagues was repeated for the second time. The first time gave us hope that our way was good. We were lucky to find Ratomir, the first Pula great developer and a unique person. This is what you always hope for. That everything can be more than ordinary, even ourselves.
We continued this time with the same idea and hope. But you wonder at one point, will we be so lucky again? Then you remind yourself that there is no reason to worry. Unfounded fears seem to be repeated throughout life. Once upon a time, it was the first day in kindergarten, a roller coaster in an amusement park, and so on. With increasing responsibilities, we thought fears would increase too, but it is actually true that they are diminishing. We know it today.
Two excellent developers joined our team. What are we planning next? To provide them with everything in our power to make them feel welcome, stable, and stimulating for what they aim to achieve through their work. At Sprend, we are guided by certain principles that we consider the key to success. Tolerance, responsibility, fearlessness, proudness, leadership, respect. And above all, common sense as Tanja loves to say.
How will we know if we have succeeded? It is not up to us to say it. Time and others will tell us. As we will need to upgrade, change and adapt along the way. Only in this way can we believe that it is possible for our colleagues to tell us in a few years: it’s a pleasure to work with you. Nothing is more important than that.
Welcome guys!
Working together in the same office for the first time
Once Sprend's Pula office was ready, in time of coronavirus, it wasn’t easy to make it a visited place. It would be nice if we could organize an opening party, but there's still hope since we never lack new reasons to celebrate.
So this pleasant place, decorated exactly as we wished, remained quiet. Until last week, when Tanja, our Croatian Sprend CEO managed to arrive from Stockholm despite all obstacles.
For the first time, we worked together in the same space. And there were no surprises. Except for the pleasant ones. The next thing may seem like something ordinary but really, not everyone does it. Tanja's knocking before entering the office is a very pleasant thing. It probably also depends on who you expect behind it, but the act itself has created a feeling which reminds me of masters of ceremonies. Pleasant intro in expectation of performance.
Our performance is our work. The week is behind us with an atmosphere of flexibility, a productive and inspirational way of working with frequent laughter. And the most important conclusion: we’ll share our desserts next week. We found the perfect balance.
I will conclude with the words of Dr. Rob Gilbert: "Working together works".
Who's standing behind Sprend?
Arne Evertsson
If you would like to know who's the captain of Sprend, here is the answer. It's Arne Evertsson, a developer speaking Esperanto and Croatian (one of the hardest languages in the world). Since always, he had a wish, to make a business of his own. As they say: "Fortune favours the bold" and he made it. Today, Sprend is expanding, having a Stockholm and Pula office.
Who is Arne? To know that, the best way it would be reaching in his childhood, but we'll skip that for now. In his early twenties, at the university, Arne made an educational game "Metris". He had his first job in 1995. and he was a freelancer in 1998. His first file-manager application called „UploadFolder“ was made in 2000.
But except for knowledge and talent, Arne likes to mention the ones who were together with him on the path of creating Sprend. Some of them working with him for shorter periods, others for longer but in the end, he managed to create Sprend - a company for sending large files with great business philosophy. Christoffer, Joakim and Stefan were those people, standing beside Arne at one point. Everyone who ever wanted to build something by himself knows how support is requisite. Tanja Evertsson was this strength all the way.
Today, Sprend's team of five is working with motivating business philosophy, in a stimulating, stress-free surrounding with a lot of humor. The one who brings it is in most cases is Arne himself.
“Metris” educational game Arne made in 1993.
T: Was it hard to let other people in Sprend?
A: No, not at all. I was searching for people for years. Sometimes I think that I spent too much time on that. Finding them, taking time to meet them, but in the end, very few were the right ones for Sprend. Maybe they didn't find the idea interesting enough (laughing).
T: Can we talk a little bit about leading people? I need to say, I noticed at our meetings that there are always much more things you have done than you are saying out loud. In general, people do the opposite.
A: Is that a question?
T: No, you're right, it's not. It's my noticing, and I know you would never say it for yourself. So I needed to. Do you find it easy for people to work with you?
A: Not at all. There were people who didn't like it. I'm very stubborn. And I'm a perfectionist. But also, I believe that in companies the hardest thing can be when the small problems became big problems. Like: "I'm the owner and I have a demand". Then you have classical "us" and "them", the owner and the employees.
T: What is your way then?
A: My golden rule is to behave toward others as you would like them to behave to you. Honesty is the quality I appreciate. Always stay honest. Things can be simple. When I speak with my customers on the phone, if they have some obstacle, I'm always trying to help and if that doesn't work, I offer them money back. You know, when someone is completely honest, people can feel it. In general, they never want their money back and in the end, we always find a great solution. You have many services when you get no reply emails, why? Is that polite? If you have a problem is it good to send a message: "Thanks for contacting us, but we don't want to speak about it now". We need to be available.
T: You're letting people make mistakes, not expecting perfection in every step of a working process, why is that?
A: By making mistakes people learn. It's very human to want to avoid pain, if you know there'll be punishment, you'll try to avoid it. But be able to talk to your boss, that's something.
T: How would you describe Sprend to someone who has never heard of it?
A: When you are feeling lost and lonely and a stranger turns to you, smiles, and says, would you like to join us? But in simple boring terms: Sprend helps you send files that are too large to fit in an email.
This is how our Pula office looks like
We had empty walls. Our space for making an office. The place in which we'll work, have new ideas, make our lives better and I always imagine, in some forty years this will be a building that retired me will pass on the way to the green market, thinking: it was one of the best jobs I ever had. But before future carrots, broccoli, fish, or salad, this is a short video about how it was and how it is today:
Sprend's customer support service - a real thing, not a myth
A topic about customer support services deserve to have a song. I really don't know how anyone yet didn't write one about such an important feeling: desperation while you're trying to reach it. It would become a huge hit. Millions of people would sympathize. It would be number one during the working part of the week. Then it would fell to second place, because of an even greater one: "Why are weekends passing so fast?". And on a third-place after, you're guessing the title: "Oh no, it's Monday again!".
To whom could you complain if the service for complaints is not answering you? Let's start from the beginning. It's a familiar feeling for all of us. Part of the story where we need to decide will we buy something and that is the last time that we'll have control over the situation. This light and great feeling. Everything is possible and our life will be changed after. No matters are we buying a toothpick (which is a really important thing in certain moments) or a house. Only in the case we walk away at that point, without buying it, this will become a perfect product for us. Our memory will bring it to perfection. But we don't have time for the imagination of feelings. The things are simple, we need something and it needs to fulfill the purpose.
It's not easy to stand behind the product or service after selling it. Not to make people feeling good only in those 10 minutes before buying it, but also, the whole time after. Be real. Even with the best ones, sometimes we have questions about it, but does it often looks any different than standing on the high hill and shouting it into the void? This echo we hear after is the same question returning to us, instead of the service providers.
Sprend has a different way from the beginning of its existence. Arne Evertsson, the founder, is still one of those who you'll get on the phone or by email, very easily if you have any questions regarding sending large files. Today, Tanja and Karin are the ones who joined him. No matter if you're using Sprend for free, or you're a paying, PRO user with more advantages, you'll get help. With our servers in Sweden, you can send large files easily, securely and fast.
With Sprend, you don't need to climb a mountain. Only if you like it and if you do it for sport.
Space Oddity
Tihana and Tanja get creative with office furnishing and decoration.
Space designing can be an interesting, fun, or sometimes even dangerous thing for human relations. One can never know what to expect.
We started planning the design of our office in Pula. Chairs, tables, colours, preferences, styles and measures. It would be good to start with measures. So we did. The rest was pretty much fun. When you realise that you work with a person who easily finds entertainment in a lot of things, it becomes magic. Till this moment, I always thought that I'm inclined to exaggerate with styles and wishes, so I tried to bring that back in balance. But completely unnecessary. Tanja not only supported me in each unusual suggestion, but she had it even more. At that moment I realised that her sentence: "Only a sky is a limit" is a vivid thing.
We're waiting for our furniture to come. One last thing is how to approach the entrance with an eight tons truck in a center of Pula. A small thing for us.
When you find a story in a cup of coffee
Where is the best coffee in town? Let’s find out.
“I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.” T.S. Eliot
Some days are passing highly inspired, in some of them, we're in search of it. Brilliant ideas, practical solutions, something effective to be satisfied with ourselves and our work. Small things can always help in that process. Coffee could be one of the solutions. If the intention is to go out of the office, to take a walk and get one of the best cups in town, who knows on which corner the inspiration could find you. That's the main concept of our brilliant idea maker, Arne. So, exactly from Stockholm, he discovered Calm Wins Coffee & Cocktails in the center of Pula.
If you ask me, and I live there, I wouldn't know that the place exists. High quality, great tasting coffee. And here's the story about it: "Coopedota was founded in 1960. in Costa Rica. Currently has 900 farmers with families and it's an integral part of the development of a community of more than 8000 people".
Sometimes the magic is in Arne's code, sometimes in Tanja's remarkable skills of leading or Karin's brightness and humor. And some days it can be just in a cup of coffee. Wish you the best of luck with finding yours.
And Sprend d.o.o was born
Sprend has officialy come to Pula. Here is the short report from the day when it all happened.
A wise man once said: Even the longest journey starts with the first step.
After weeks of preparations and a journey trough todays’s Europe with changing flight schedules, empty airports and heavy rain, but also with a great taste of adventure and excitement, Tihana and me finally gathered in Pula to do this first step - register Sprend d.o.o, a subsidary of our swedish company, that will help us to build an even greater service for our customers.
Starting a company is like constructing a building. If the building is a one story building it will require certain footings to be dug. However, if you are going to build a 50 story building, it will require a completely different type of foundation. We want to build a skyscraper. What is the better place to find the inspiration for that than Pula, a town full of 2 000 years old ancient remains, still standing there and reminding us of past times.
Everything was perfectly planned and organised by Tihana, so the only thing left for me was to sign lots of papers. In fact, my only worry was if my signature would look similar on all these papers :-) People we met were kind, friendly and well prepared. It felt that Pula was welcoming Sprend with open arms.
After the formal part was done, we also had time to check a coffee shop that we would like to cooperate with, and our new office space at Mletačka 12. The office is still empty and the next important step will be to transform it to the greatest work space ever. So stay tuned!
We ended this exciting day with dinner at Farabuto, together with Johanna, our great friend and a source of positive energy, and Tarita, a girl that will help us with financial matters here in Croatia.
So from now, there is only one way - forward. We start where we are, with what we have, and we are confident that this will lead us into something great.
Recycled idea
Why would you frame a crumpled bill picked out of the trash can?
To have a business meeting in the morning and to be happy to see your colleagues, that the greatest luck. It's Monday and you're not sad, hating your life and waiting for the next weekend to come, that's rare. But on the top, when the ones you're working with, share your sense of humor, it's even funnier. Very small things can describe bigger ones. I'll tell you one. After a meeting with our business partner, I forgot to save a paid bill for the cost-covering. So I went back (only because I promised to Tanja and Arne to send it) and asked for the thing. It was already trashed. The next question was: Would you like to have it like this, crumpled? Yes, why not. Seems it has a story. A few days after, at our morning meeting, we mentioned that topic. I told the funny story to everyone and we started to laugh, making jokes and then someone said: You should frame it. That was it. Now, we have the first thing for our new office walls. The one that will tell us a story of how our unintentional mistakes can be brilliant, but just in case you're telling them to the ones who'll make it brilliant. Only, there is one thing about this. Fridays don't represent a day when you're feeling this huge happiness of a non-working weekend, expecting your absolute freedom. You already have it.
What is Sprend?
Six images say more than six thousand words.
Six images say more than six thousand words.
Sprend has an office in Pula
After just a month of searching, Sprend has a new office in Pula, Croatia. The homeland of the best and the worst car in history.
If you have an idea and a vision, how long will take you to make it possible? The catch is that you can never know it. The starting point is sometimes hard, but mostly exciting and challenging, keeping you to aim higher.
That’s what we tried. After just a month of searching, Sprend has a new office in Pula, Croatia. The homeland of the best and the worst car in history, Yugo 45. Not to be the worst, but expecting the best, we applied for the office in the Istrian Development Agency. Its primary role lies in the stimulation of the development of small and medium-sized entrepreneurship in the region of Istria.
We’re so happy to become a part of the Entrepreneurial Incubator “Challenge” Pula. Established in 2005. there are ten office rooms and more than 40 start-up entrepreneurs have been incubated with steady growth rates. Sprend is one of ten now.
Do you know what else is Yugo 45? Most adored car in the history of this region. Still, after so many years, seeing it on the streets of Pula will not leave anyone indifferent. That’s our next goal.
What is Sprend doing in Croatia?
In Corona times Sprend is sending large files and hope.
The photo was taken by analog photography lover Petra Gardijan & her comrade Zorki 4K. The acrobat is Vili Paoletić, the most skillful guy you could ever meet. If you ask him, he'll tell you that anyone can do what he does.
If we speak about the current situation in Croatia, we need to consider the past few months. The Istrian peninsula is a nice place to live, with pleasant people, beautiful nature, and rich history. When Coronavirus occurred in March, it took only a few days to change this town and to put the citizens in a state of shock. Croatia, unlike Sweden, chooses the lockdown at the beginning of a struggle. Together with a fear of the unknown, everything was stopped just in a few days. Schools, bars, restaurants, and all other things that were a part of our lives before, were closed quickly. Socializing with people out of someone's household was not recommended. Offices were replaced for homes for the ones who were lucky, and many others lost their jobs. Not knowing much about this new virus, the comfort that you could get very often was not to worry, the virus kills only older people. Due to the enormous fear, humane society became rootless not even aware of it at that moment. Luckily, very soon we learn how to live with this, to be responsible, but not the prisoners of the situation. Like the rest of the world, we're waiting for this to pass. Things seem much more normal now. But the consequences are greater than visible. With a lot of unemployed, without tourism, our number one in the region, fear grows as winter comes. So the question is, what is Sprend doing in Pula? It's sending large files and hope.
Our Big Croatian Adventure
Why start a company in Croatia, in Istria, in Pula?
Arne in the classic Zastava 750, Fićo, on the Forum Romanum in Pula.
We are setting out on a big Croatian adventure, starting a Croatian company, Sprend d.o.o. If we succeed in this endeavour the development studio of sprend.com will be based in Pula, Istria, Croatia.
And how can we not succeed? It's impossible to fail since: The road is the goal. The connections we are making with people, local government, and institutions make the whole project worth it, even if we don't find a single developer to employ.
So why Croatia? Will it be easier to find great developers here than in Stockholm? No, it's probably just as difficult. Pula is small town in Croatia far from Zagreb, which makes it even more special. The big IT company of the region is Infobip. They've been busy luring away developers from the capital to Istria. Their efforts do in turn it make our task easier. We will try to recruit the developer who feels more at home in a small company where she becomes a crucial member of the team. Perhaps she works for Infobip today?
We're opening up in Istria because because we live there part of the year and because we will get more lines of code per Euro spent, than we would in Sweden.
So what are the plans, the team, and how's the progress? Tune in, and you'll be able to read more in future posts.
Alea iacta est.
Money
The prices for Sprend Pro is going up, and we are adding new currencies. But why?
Price increase
On October 1, 2020, we are raising prices for Sprend Pro from 540 SEK per year to 720 SEK per year, a 33% increase.
Why are we doing this?
To make more money. We are going to use the money for advertising (Google Ads), a new visual profile, and for hiring programmers. Sprend has great unfulfilled potential and things are just moving too slowly when I am the only hacker at the office. More money means more speed.
Is it going to work out?
Hopefully, yes. The competitors will still be more expensive after our price increase. If it works out badly we can always change the prices again.
Even more importantly, we will soon offer Sprend in more currencies than SEK, namely EUR, GBP and USD. It’s no surprise we currently have most of our customers in Sweden. Let’s change that too.
New price list
Plan | EUR | SEK | GBP | USD |
---|---|---|---|---|
Sprend Pro 12 months | €70 | 720 kr | £62 | $85 |
Sprend Pro 1 month | €9 | 92 kr | £8 | $11 |
We are dropping the 3-month plan in favor of a 1-month plan, in line with competitors’ offerings.
By signing up for a year you get 4 months for free compared with the 1-month plan, €70 instead of €9 x 12 = €108. I think that makes sense since the user would normally take a vacation, even from sprending, during the year.
In our 15th year
Sprend started in 2004 as skickafilen.se. Thanks to the Wayback Machine we can show a screenshot of the original user interface.
Sprend started in 2004 as skickafilen.se. Thanks to the Wayback Machine we can show a screenshot of the original user interface.
I had traffic signs in mind when designing the logo and general ui.
In 2008 we changed the domain name to sprend.com to have a more language neutral name. “Sprend” sounds a bit like “send” and can be used as a verb.
In 2011 we released the paid subscription, Sprend Pro. And last year, 2018, was the first year when our revenue was able support a full time employee, i.e. petit moi.
Slow entrepreneurship, we’ve entered our 15th year (“we” = pluralis maiestatis). The future is bright.
This post marks the reboot of the Sprend Blog.