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I tried to get onto their business backup product without success. Something about how they do their accounts, sales, software stuff just was not smooth? I had to buy a separate product MSP360, and then even then configuring that to work with Backblaze wasn't easy (at all). I got stuck and gave up. Hope they smooth out the kinks.
I'm not sure, sorry
I'm surprised how small Backblaze is. Am I reading this right that they only had 53 million USD in Revenue in 2020? That's a tiny fraction of, say, Dropbox's revenue. I would have expected them to be in the 30-50% range of Dropbox on size. And with 164 employees to boot, that's only $323,000 revenue per employee. I wonder what the compensation is like there.
But yeah I tend to agree: why do they have such a large footprint?
I love Backblaze. Kind of surprised they aren’t profitable. >” In the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020, our revenue was $40.7 million and $53.8 million, respectively, representing growth of 32%. We incurred net losses of $1.0 million and $6.6 million for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020, respectively”
Pretty bold to IPO with those kind of revenue #s these days... I guess the iron is hot though.
What's even revenue to say in the face of growth.
I love Backblaze. Kind of surprised they aren’t profitable. >” In the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020, our revenue was $40.7 million and $53.8 million, respectively, representing growth of 32%. We incurred net losses of $1.0 million and $6.6 million for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020, respectively”
Sounds to me like prices will pretty much inevitably go up after they're public, and I'll finally have the motivation to set up my own remote backup by exchanging hard drives with a friend of mine on the other end of the country.
90% gross retention is really good, even if 110% NRR is bottom quartile for public SaaS. Wouldn't be surprised if they become profitable soon.
I'm surprised how small Backblaze is. Am I reading this right that they only had 53 million USD in Revenue in 2020? That's a tiny fraction of, say, Dropbox's revenue. I would have expected them to be in the 30-50% range of Dropbox on size. And with 164 employees to boot, that's only $323,000 revenue per employee. I wonder what the compensation is like there.
Given the number of 164 person pre-revenue startups, I’m not sure what to make of numbers anymore. But yeah I tend to agree: why do they have such a large footprint?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, I was until I switched to restic and saved a bunch of money. I still get unlimited storage with G Suite. You can also get 6TB of annual storage with Office 365 family plan for $80 at Costco.
How can you save a bunch of money when Backblaze is dirt cheap?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just curious, are you currently or have you been a Backblaze customer?
Yes, I was until I switched to restic and saved a bunch of money. I still get unlimited storage with G Suite. You can also get 6TB of annual storage with Office 365 family plan for $80 at Costco.
Did you save $-10?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They apparently build 500+ of their pods at close to $9k each (as of the older version--can't find cost on the latest) every year in 2016. That could represent the cost of growth in free trials through 2020 with people getting their home offices set up. A few hundred thousand people added over 2020 not paying for 15 days, and possibly not paying at all if they cancel, would be expensive.
They were unprofitable in 2019 as well… And the cost of the pods will be capitalized and depreciated so a large surge in buildings won’t necessarily lead to bad financials.
I was curious about this as well:
Cost of revenue consists of expenses for providing our platform and cloud services to our customers. These expenses include operating in co-location facilities, network and bandwidth costs, and depreciation of our equipment and capital lease equipment in co-location facilities. Personnel-related costs associated with customer support and maintaining service availability, including salaries, benefits, bonuses, and stock-based compensation are also included. Cost of revenue also includes credit card processing fees, amortization of capitalized internal-use software development costs, and allocated overhead costs.
We intend to continue to invest additional resources in our infrastructure and related personnel, and our customer support organization, to support the growth of our business. Some of these investments, including costs of infrastructure equipment (including related depreciation) and expansion, are incurred in advance of generating revenue, and either the failure to generate anticipated revenue or fluctuations in the timing of revenue could affect our gross margin from period to period.
50% gross profit is not great compared to a SaaS company, but still not terrible compared to .
They also generate ~$12M in net cash from operating activities. So "profitable" is a weird one here. They'll have to continually invest in data centers and hardware, but generally speaking they are turning cash pretty well.
I love Backblaze. Kind of surprised they aren’t profitable. >” In the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020, our revenue was $40.7 million and $53.8 million, respectively, representing growth of 32%. We incurred net losses of $1.0 million and $6.6 million for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020, respectively”
Pretty bold to IPO with those kind of revenue #s these days... I guess the iron is hot though.
Smart move IMO.