A Short Pause, On Purpose

If you've tried to sign up for Field recently, you've probably noticed something: you can't right now. That's not a bug, and it's not us quietly going away on you. It's deliberate, and you deserve the real reason, not a banner that just says "back soon."

So here it is.

We're building the thing I already told you we were building

Back in July, I wrote that Field is the first product, not the last, the real goal is a full operating system for small businesses. I meant that. And getting there the right way means some of what's actually running underneath Field's login screen has to change, not just Field's features.

Right now, if we ever ship a second product, you'd end up with a second password, a second account, a second everything, two systems awkwardly stitched together instead of one. That's exactly the "four different systems bolted together with duct tape" problem Field exists to get small businesses out of. I'm not going to build our own platform the same way.

So we're doing the unglamorous work now: one real account system, built to actually support more than one product, instead of something we'll have to rip out and redo later once real customers are depending on it. I'd rather pause new signups for a bit and do this properly than let people sign up today under the old system and put you through a messy switch later. That's the same "build to last" reasoning I led with in July — it just means something different applies it to more than just the app itself.

The other thing I changed: trials now require a card

Separately, and I want to be straight about this one too: starting a Field trial now requires a credit card, when I originally said it wouldn't.

When I wrote that "no credit card required" line, it felt like the right way to lower the bar for someone to try Field out. Since then, I've thought about it more, and I've come around to a different view: I'd rather every trial be someone genuinely evaluating whether Field fits how their business runs, not just poking around because it cost nothing to click a button. That's a better use of your time and mine, and it means I can put real attention into supporting the people actually running a trial, instead of it getting lost in noise.

You won't be charged anything without knowing exactly when and how much, and cancelling during the trial is still exactly as easy as I promised the first time. That part hasn't changed.

When we're back

I'm not going to throw out a date just to have one. This is genuinely a "get it right, not fast" moment, and I meant it back in July when I said I'd rather still be proud of this in ten years than hit some arbitrary launch date now. What I can promise is that I'll post here the moment it's ready, and that Field on the other side of this will actually be a stronger foundation, not just the same thing with the sign-up button turned back on.

Thanks for sticking with a small team doing this the slow way on purpose.

— Pete