Athletepath

Robert Jackson

2014-05-12

All - as a former race director/promoter and currently active racer, I
would be remiss to not throw my opinion out there. Athletepath is hands
down my favorite. I've seen Embree's (and all of Athletepath's for that
matter) commitment to providing a top notch solution that is athlete
focused from the start.

I will continue to support them and OBRA however I can. I learned long ago
that the value of a dollar goes both ways, how much you keep to yourself
and how you choose to spend them.

On Mon, May 12, 2014 at 12:59 PM, Christian Reed wrote:

> First of all, just wanted to let folks know that Athletepath is secure
> with respect to Heartbleed. One of our vendors, Cloudflare, was the entity
> that discovered the OpenSSL vulnerability, so we were one to the first to
> be notified and were in the first wave of companies to implement the patch.
> So your information safe when you use Athletepath registration.
>
> With respect to pricing, Athletepath, like all registration vendors
> (including OBRA) charges to process registrations. Like everyone who
> accepts a credit card (from Amazon.com to your local barista) we have to
> pay transaction processing fees as well as keep the lights on. What
> separates us from most vendors is that we post the final checkout price
> upfront, so you're not surprised by any additional fees and taxes. So it
> may look at first like we're charging you more, but really we're just not
> sneaking in additional charges at the end. [For those who want to get down
> in the weeds, our fee is 6.5% + $1, so the difference to OBRA pricing is
> less than $1 per registration.]
>
> Athletepath is an 11 person company based in Portland, and no fewer than
> four of us hold OBRA licenses and race regularly. We're huge fans of OBRA,
> and the event promoters and racers that flourish in the best grassroots
> racing scene in the country (and we know, because we serve events across
> the country). Event directors that choose our service are generally looking
> for a more full-featured registration system, but OBRA is also a great
> solution that is quite frankly better than many of our national competitors.
>
> But ultimately our goal is to serve the racers, and that's why we offer
> free text message and emailed results, and are constantly trying to improve
> the user experience. We've been really lucky to have Kenji's backing from
> the start (I actually got my job at Athletepath after learning about the
> company from one of Kenji's emails), and the support we've had with access
> to the OBRA database has proved an excellent learning experience for us.
> We've really been fortunate to have OBRA in our backyard with their
> commitment to openness and doing whatever they can to promote participation
> the sport.
>
> If you've ever got any feedback for us, or would like to participate in a
> focus group, please don't hesitate to shoot me an email at
> christian@athletepath.com, or just come talk to us at races. These are
> the Athletepath folks that race regularly:
>
> Christian Reed - Green Submarine Records - Short Track MTB, XC MTB, CX
> Andrew Kreps - (He's the guy on the fat bike =) - Short Track MTB, XC MTB,
> CX
> Kristen Minarik - Bicycle Attorney - Short Track MTB, XC MTB, CX
> Whitney Dawson - Athlete's Lounge - CX
> David Embree - (our CEO) - CX
>
>
>
> Thanks!
> Christian
> _______________________________________________
> OBRA mailing list
> obra@list.obra.org
> http://list.obra.org/mailman/listinfo/obra
> Unsubscribe: obra-unsubscribe@list.obra.org
>

--
Robert M. Jackson
RMJacksonIV@gmail.com


Christian Reed

2014-05-12

First of all, just wanted to let folks know that Athletepath is secure with respect to Heartbleed. One of our vendors, Cloudflare, was the entity that discovered the OpenSSL vulnerability, so we were one to the first to be notified and were in the first wave of companies to implement the patch. So your information safe when you use Athletepath registration.

With respect to pricing, Athletepath, like all registration vendors (including OBRA) charges to process registrations. Like everyone who accepts a credit card (from Amazon.com to your local barista) we have to pay transaction processing fees as well as keep the lights on. What separates us from most vendors is that we post the final checkout price upfront, so you're not surprised by any additional fees and taxes. So it may look at first like we're charging you more, but really we're just not sneaking in additional charges at the end. [For those who want to get down in the weeds, our fee is 6.5% + $1, so the difference to OBRA pricing is less than $1 per registration.]

Athletepath is an 11 person company based in Portland, and no fewer than four of us hold OBRA licenses and race regularly. We're huge fans of OBRA, and the event promoters and racers that flourish in the best grassroots racing scene in the country (and we know, because we serve events across the country). Event directors that choose our service are generally looking for a more full-featured registration system, but OBRA is also a great solution that is quite frankly better than many of our national competitors.

But ultimately our goal is to serve the racers, and that's why we offer free text message and emailed results, and are constantly trying to improve the user experience. We've been really lucky to have Kenji's backing from the start (I actually got my job at Athletepath after learning about the company from one of Kenji's emails), and the support we've had with access to the OBRA database has proved an excellent learning experience for us. We've really been fortunate to have OBRA in our backyard with their commitment to openness and doing whatever they can to promote participation the sport.

If you've ever got any feedback for us, or would like to participate in a focus group, please don't hesitate to shoot me an email at christian@athletepath.com, or just come talk to us at races. These are the Athletepath folks that race regularly:

Christian Reed - Green Submarine Records - Short Track MTB, XC MTB, CX
Andrew Kreps - (He's the guy on the fat bike =) - Short Track MTB, XC MTB, CX
Kristen Minarik - Bicycle Attorney - Short Track MTB, XC MTB, CX
Whitney Dawson - Athlete's Lounge - CX
David Embree - (our CEO) - CX

Thanks!
Christian