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GitHub Raises $250M at $2B Valuation

wsj.com

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Re: GitHub Raises $250M at $2B Valuation

#51

Post by justincormack »

hermanmerman wrote: post #45
gamesbrainiac wrote: post #17

Just $2Bn? Sound a little low to for something like Github.

tablecloth math time: $2bn worth, assuming they're worth 10 times their revenue (let's be generous), that would require $200m in sales. they have 10m users, assuming 1% are paying, that means 100k users for $200m sales, meaning each user must spend 2000 dollars per year at Github. Sounds a little high considering the basic plan is $7/month, but with entreprise sales and growth rate, it sounds feasible.

They are probably valued at much more than 10x revenue as a fast growing company. And "users" is the wrong metric as big companies probably make up 90% of revenues, and most of that is not even visible in the public repos.

Re: GitHub Raises $250M at $2B Valuation

#52

Post by bskap »

jamesharding wrote: post #24
tswartz wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you need a private repo why do you use BitBucket? I've used the private repos on GitHub and found them to work just fine, but I'm new to coding...

BitBucket is free for private repos, GitHub is not (unless you have a student promotion active).

BitBucket is free for private repos with less than five people. Doesn't work for a lot of businesses, which is where most of the money is.

Re: GitHub Raises $250M at $2B Valuation

#53

Post by ljk »

GauntletWizard wrote: post #10

Github has already stumbled, and will fall soon. Their gaffes in conduct[1] and content[2] policies are already dividing the community. For a company that has thrived on being a monoculture, this spells doom. [1] https://np.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/3e5c6f/why_the_... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9966118

is this why github's been doing the censoring and making it a "safe" place? to appeal to a broader audience and please the investors? similar to what reddit recently went through

https://github.com/opal/opal/issues/941

http://readwrite.com/2014/01/24/github-meritocracy-rug

Re: GitHub Raises $250M at $2B Valuation

#54

Post by scott_karana »

justincormack wrote: post #51
hermanmerman wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

tablecloth math time: $2bn worth, assuming they're worth 10 times their revenue (let's be generous), that would require $200m in sales. they have 10m users, assuming 1% are paying, that means 100k users for $200m sales, meaning each user must spend 2000 dollars per year at Github. Sounds a little high considering the basic plan is $7/month, but with entreprise sales and growth rate, it sounds feasible.

They are probably valued at much more than 10x revenue as a fast growing company. And "users" is the wrong metric as big companies probably make up 90% of revenues, and most of that is not even visible in the public repos.

Are they still fast-growing? I would have thought that their growth curve would be flattening out at this point.

Most of the big tech companies already have a presence there, and they've been the go-to for VCS-using developers for a few years now.

Re: GitHub Raises $250M at $2B Valuation

#55

Post by arikrak »

calcsam wrote: post #41

Both this piece, and most commenters, seem to miss the point about where Github's value comes from. It's not for being a social identity for programmers, or hosting open-source libraries. Those are worthy pursuits, but from a business perspective mostly serve as marketing. Github is basically Microsoft Word for programmers, and is an essential part of their workflow. Companies that need enterprise functionality aroun…

Github currently may use the "social coding" part for marketing now, but it can build off it in the future. For example, StackOverflow built a whole careers site off Q&A, Github can choose to go further based on real code.

Re: GitHub Raises $250M at $2B Valuation

#56

Post by hkmurakami »

calcsam wrote: post #41

Both this piece, and most commenters, seem to miss the point about where Github's value comes from. It's not for being a social identity for programmers, or hosting open-source libraries. Those are worthy pursuits, but from a business perspective mostly serve as marketing. Github is basically Microsoft Word for programmers, and is an essential part of their workflow. Companies that need enterprise functionality aroun…

So it seems that the true test will whether a shop like HP would adopt Github Enterprise and pay $20/mo/programmer for 50,000 programmers and pay $1mm/mo to Github.

Re: GitHub Raises $250M at $2B Valuation

#57

Post by gabesullice »

aakilfernandes wrote: post #7
Trufa wrote: post #2

Github seems to be a pretty good or "safe" investment. Developers have already entrusted them with something as precious as their code itself. They also have pretty clear pathways for being profitable with private repos and so on, I'm not that surprised they are getting a lot of funding.

Sorry to say, but any time I need a private repo I just head to BitBucket. GitHub provides tremendous value, I hope they find a good way to capture some of it.

I get that when it's just a personal project, but the Github workflow is also very nice to have. When I want a buddy to access my private repo, I just add his/her GitHub user name, I don't need to have them create a BitBucket account. I don't need to figure out how issues and PRs work with BitBucket, etc. It's the network effects and UI that I'm paying for - one UI private or public. Plus, it supports a service I value very much.

On a more important note, you're probably not GitHub's target market. It's more like agencies and in-house dev teams.

Re: GitHub Raises $250M at $2B Valuation

#58

Post by blizkreeg »

hermanmerman wrote: post #42
blizkreeg wrote: post #34

What would the exit strategy for a company like Github be? Get acquired by a big co like say, Google or IPO? An IPO and the accompanying scrutiny of a public company sounds like an unlikely strategy for a Github. Thoughts?

Google naturally comes to mind. Facebook / Parse, also. Amazon Web Services. Actually any company in this space (that is worth more than $20bn). Why do you say an IPO is unlikely? I don't see why the public markets would be wary: Github is IaaS done right, has clear ways to make money and grow on its current offering, and can very well come up with innovations adjacent to its core services.

Re: IPO I didn't mean to say that the public markets would be wary. Quite the opposite - the short-term scrutiny from Q to Q that a company faces after going public is not for every type of company. Look at Twitter, Yelp etc. I'm not sure if Github is profitable yet, but unlike an Amazon (eCommerce), the market would expect most other companies to show rapid revenue/profit growth once public.

Re: GitHub Raises $250M at $2B Valuation

#59

Post by hga »

petercooper wrote: post #39
darkstar999 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seriously think censoring the word "retard" will harm their business?

I don't, but what I believe could worry many (especially business users) is the idea of needing to rapidly enact a change within 24 hours to not have a repo or even your entire account deleted. This is assuming https://imgur.com/QC51FZz is even true, though.

I learned about this before it became front page news here, and personally confirmed the repo was made unavailable for a while. That and its return is entirely consistent with the supposed email.

Re: GitHub Raises $250M at $2B Valuation

#60

Post by bvrlt »

aakilfernandes wrote: post #7
Trufa wrote: post #2

Github seems to be a pretty good or "safe" investment. Developers have already entrusted them with something as precious as their code itself. They also have pretty clear pathways for being profitable with private repos and so on, I'm not that surprised they are getting a lot of funding.

Sorry to say, but any time I need a private repo I just head to BitBucket. GitHub provides tremendous value, I hope they find a good way to capture some of it.

Repository hosting seem to be a market where multiple companies can strive. Both GitHub and Bitbucket can capture more value.
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