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Uncensored Everpix metrics, financials and slides

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Re: Uncensored Everpix metrics, financials and slides

#21

Post by jmathai »

loceng wrote: post #15
adventured wrote: post #4

Could Everpix have been run by a very small team at the end, rather than shut down? It looks like it was near adding a net 1,000 subscribers per month. Also, wouldn't it have been possible - with the understood pain points - to substantially reduce costs by moving off of AWS? Trading the ease of AWS for the critical cash for operations.

This could have been beginning of a hockey stick growth too. You'd think this is where a VC would be willing to accept some risk.

If you read through the VC correspondence the hang up was that the space simply isn't big enough (>$100M). According to the VCs the hockey stick would have hit a ceiling too low for them to invest.

Re: Uncensored Everpix metrics, financials and slides

#22

Post by bidev »

Hey Guys, Thanks for posting this.

Could anyone please clarify for me following things? I have just started to learn about startup capital. 1. Since company is now closed down what happens to Investor's money ? Do they just loose all or do owners have to return it ? ( sorry if this seems pretty noob but I would like to know it ) 2. What does 1 year maturity mean in convertible notes ? 3. Shouldn't the Net Operating Income be negative ? Since they had income of $280696 and Expense were $2,665,192.34 ? Did they count investor's money as income ? or how did they arrive at $2,384,224.67 ? Thank you for the reply.

Re: Uncensored Everpix metrics, financials and slides

#23

Post by tinco »

mbesto wrote: post #18
crystaln wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> HR - $1,374,695.06 - or 52% of total costs Why would it be unusual for the majority of costs to be salaries for a company that sells services and develops products? This has nothing to do with the "talent war." That's just the way things work. What else would they be spending money on? > AWS - $394,588.35 - or 14% of total costs How much higher would that number have been had Everpix built out their own infrastruct…

My points weren't criticisms, they were merely highlighting the sentiment that comes from outside "the bubble" that is SV. It is unusual to people outside SV* to see such a high number (the % was just an additional data point that signals to non-tech people how much salaries constitutes tech startups). This has everything to do with the talent war - the market dictates that an engineer's salary must be $foo because F…

Aren't these numbers also so high because they took VC funding? The VC wants to throw the company against the wall as fast and hard as possible to see if it sticks. That means no time to roll out custom infrastructure, and hiring rockstar consultants just to build the product as fast as possible.

The idea is not terrible, it's definitely better than doing everything the right way (tm) for 5 years, just to find out there is no way to fit the market.

Re: Uncensored Everpix metrics, financials and slides

#24

Post by jchonphoenix »

MediaSquirrel wrote: post #16
wheaties wrote: post #7

Thank you for this. Reading the VC letters was just so amazingly refreshing I can't begin to tell you. I love how they said "no" in almost all the same ways. I'd really like to know the two that were so standup, that they wouldn't fund a competitor or someone who could, eventually, be a competitor. In all honesty, those are the types of funds you want backing you. They've bought your vision and they're not going to d…

Are you kidding? The "we can't fund a competitor" VCs are just saying "no" like everyone else. There's nothing particularly noble (or ignoble) about it.

In the particular case of Everpix, I'm relatively certain I can guess who these VC funds are and who that competitor is. Given this information, it's not just some empty excuse for a VC to bow out.

Re: Uncensored Everpix metrics, financials and slides

#25

Post by rtfeldman »

mbesto wrote: post #18
crystaln wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> HR - $1,374,695.06 - or 52% of total costs Why would it be unusual for the majority of costs to be salaries for a company that sells services and develops products? This has nothing to do with the "talent war." That's just the way things work. What else would they be spending money on? > AWS - $394,588.35 - or 14% of total costs How much higher would that number have been had Everpix built out their own infrastruct…

My points weren't criticisms, they were merely highlighting the sentiment that comes from outside "the bubble" that is SV. It is unusual to people outside SV* to see such a high number (the % was just an additional data point that signals to non-tech people how much salaries constitutes tech startups). This has everything to do with the talent war - the market dictates that an engineer's salary must be $foo because F…

This breakdown is characteristic of software startups, not SV in particular.

I was involved in the Web startup community in St. Louis, Missouri for years before moving to SF. It was the same for those companies: salary costs dwarfed all other costs.

Re: Uncensored Everpix metrics, financials and slides

#26

Post by jkw »

This is a huge help the community, thank you! The completeness of this data is a testament to the team's diligence and in-depth understanding of startup metrics. Regardless of the outcome of Everpix, this analysis shows that the team has developed some good processes and best practices for their future ventures.

Re: Uncensored Everpix metrics, financials and slides

#28

Post by karangoeluw »

bidev wrote: post #22

Hey Guys, Thanks for posting this. Could anyone please clarify for me following things? I have just started to learn about startup capital. 1. Since company is now closed down what happens to Investor's money ? Do they just loose all or do owners have to return it ? ( sorry if this seems pretty noob but I would like to know it ) 2. What does 1 year maturity mean in convertible notes ? 3. Shouldn't the Net Operating I…

I can answer the first one

> 1. Since company is now closed down what happens to Investor's money ? Do they just loose all or do owners have to return it ?

They lose it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venture_capital

Re: Uncensored Everpix metrics, financials and slides

#29

Post by username223 »

rokhayakebe wrote: post #17

You know at some point we are going to have to sit back and ask "Where the F&*^K" does this $100M or $1B business number comes from. The minute I get the opportunity to put my money my mouth is, I will invest solely in lifestyle businesses: one to two guys/gals wanting to build a profitable business with a yearly dividend, one where if the team makes $500,000/year we are all extremely happy.

This is what separates you from the real movers and shakers: they just want to get in, get theirs, and get out, and they believe they're sufficiently smarter than the rubes to do it.

Re: Uncensored Everpix metrics, financials and slides

#30

Post by nashequilibrium »

carsongross wrote: post #9

What a hugely useful thing for you guys to do. Thank you, truly. The lesson I see from this: AWS hurts bad if you are using it heavily, but salaries... salaries kill. Automate, outsource and self-build as much and as long as you can possibly stand it, and then push on a lot longer than that.

Is the AWS cost so high because they primarily stored pics? If so what can be done to reduce this cost in terms how to store the pics?
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