Entitled Readability
Just spit-balling here, but I was thinking of offering a for-pay service where I subscribe to Readability. Readers pay me a small fee and I then use my single Readability account to package their products and send them to you. You will never need to visit the Readability site or even participate in their business. If Readability contacts me on behalf of each user individually, I will then give them a portion of your money. Yes folks, I want to protect you and be your middleman. I will be your gateway to distasteful businesses with poor planning.
This should certainly be douchey enough to get VC backing.
Just a reminder of who Readability is:
Before we cool down and come to our senses, we might as well share how we’re feeling right now: we believe that your new policy smacks of greed. Subscription apps like ours represent a tiny sliver of app sales that represent a tiny sliver of your revenue. You’ve achieved much of your success in hardware sales by cultivating an incredibly impressive app ecosystem. Every iPad or iPhone TV ad puts the apps developed by companies like ours front and center. It was a healthy and mutually beneficial dynamic: apps like ours get exposure and you get to show the world how these apps make your hardware shine. That’s why we’re a bit baffled here.