I’ve been writing about Mindbody a lot lately, with my recent open letter to their customers, and my open letter to their CEO, regarding their new application that competes with Groupon called Mindbody Connect.
And while I thought I was mostly done writing about how terribly they're treating their customers, I had completely forgotten about the fact that Mindbody worked with Yoga Journal to prevent companies like Tula Software, and other like us, from participating in the Yoga Journal Marketplaces.
The Yoga Journal Marketplaces, if you aren’t aware, are nationwide open to the public events contained within the Yoga Journal Conferences, and are a fantastic way to meet people in the yoga industry around the country.
Tula Software was told directly by Aim Media sales representatives, the parent company of Yoga Journal, that we were not allowed to participate in their marketplaces because Mindbody had gotten upset when our mutual competitor Front Desk showed up at the January 2014 San Francisco Yoga Journal Conference, which I also attended as we were preparing (or so we thought) to sponsor an event in a different city.
So a short 2 years ago, the CEO that is saying this kind of thing on the Mindbody customer forums:
“A relatively small number of people are caught up in self perpetuating fear. And, if they don’t break out of that negative spiral, their businesses will suffer - not because of us. Because of them.”
And mocking his customers on twitter by saying things like this:
Yes, that is the CEO of the company that was actively working with Yoga Journal, the industry's most respected publication with the industry's largest marketplaces, to prevent Tula Software and others like us from participating in the same marketplaces Mindbody was participating in.
And now that same company is shoving their customers and their students into their marketplace and minimizing the impact that their decision to compete with Groupon has had on your business.
They can try all they want to lecture you about competition and fear, and I’ll be here every step of the way to teach them about hypocrisy.