My name is **** and I am the CEO at ****. ****, our team and myself are all very disappointed by your choice to discontinue our relationship.
Since day 1 we could sense a struggle with your lead developer, Chuck, to come to terms with your choice of hiring **** (and for that matter anybody else but him). There were constant comments throughout this initial period on how this was only a trial. But at the end of the day, we removed all of Gregg's fears i.e. **** did not understand your business case or were slow. We had a call with Gregg on Friday (Chuck did not show up even after confirmation). These are recorded conversations that we do for note taking purposes (only) in which Gregg makes positive comments about our work. So from a business standpoint we were as fast as anyone else and we did accomplish the targets. Remember Gregg is not at all technical and admiteddly had no clue about the 'code quality'. He was satisfied in terms of business outcome and progress. Despite that, he chose to let Chuck make a technical choice.
So after our Monday call what could Chuck come up with? 'Well, they did not following my approach'....which he never told us anyway. I doubt two programmers think alike.
As far as Zend2 is considered there was a miscommunication (more so English language related). I can personally show you multiple Zend2 projects done by our team and the developer. Chuck just needed a reason and so he found one. Here is are some of them done in Zend2 framework (ask Chuck to check it, it actually is easy to do so): http://mobile.pcgamesupply.com/ http://198.52.9.3:10080/millvillemutual/public/auth (this is Zend 2.2).
Your software is not as complex and it is not like he did anything like NASA. He is just scaring you….wonder why(?)
We have grown from a single employee to an 850 employee company doing $22M (FY 2013), ONLY by doing a good job in serving our customers. You see us and meet us at shows. We are not fly by night and not our first rodeo by any means. I hate to sound cocky, but to bring up my point, the loss of 1 billable resource does not really bite us.
However the reason for my email as a CEO to CEO is to let you know that this is a very common problem when it comes to outsourcing. Of course Chuck will never ever allow anyone else to come close. So getting his buy-in is a little naive from a business standpoint.
The person who suffers is you and your growth. You are resource starved. And are paying a lot more money. Chuck is happy :-). Remember Chuck has all the interest in having you handcuffed. And why not? I would do the same thing if I were in his position (wouldn't you?).
Anyway, we do appreciate you giving us a shot and buying into our 'sales pitch'. We do not agree with your choices and decision. Given what has happened and the way we were handled I can promise you that we had made up our mind to never work together again. Reason of course is the bad name you got our team due to your internal politics / dynamics. The only reason we kept the AdWords going is because Gregg threw a fit when we respectfully declined any business with you and terminated the relationship. Think about it. We were walking away from business (to reflect how vehemently we oppose your decision).
I apologize if I am being direct. I think there is enough business out there for us all and finding the right partners that help in each others growth. We cherish positive and long term relationships with our customers. Away from politics and clutter. Focused on growing our customer’s business.