Thanks for clearing that up. I'm quite surprised to see how large the salary cost is. That and the 400k for consultants ( was this for computer vision experts?)
I'm kind of impressed looking at the landing video, it's a neat idea, it's sophisticated using CV to organize photos. However, the market just didn't respond enough to cover the payroll costs.
Did having a VC funding in anyway impact your decision making to grow faster than you should?
I guess it starts with an idea, does it fit? if you have VC money you can see the answer faster but I fear that it puts an expiry date on your product if the answer is still no by the time you can't find another investor. Shame because investors are not always rational. Maybe the next investor could've seen the vision behind your product and pushed. Sad to see a seemingly great product disappear from the market and reducing consumer choice because they had to 'go big or go home'.
I also wonder what it would've been like if you started in a market where tech salary was on the low side, such as Vancouver, BC, where there are laws set in place so that you can work your developers and designers to death out of fear of losing their job in the scarce market and not having to pay any bonuses or overtime.
I wonder what the outcome would've been if you weren't funded, and grew customer by customer. Doing this would've fine tuned the margin between cost and profit and forcing you to grow at a rate that is right for your size at the right price at the right time (where supply and demand curves intersect) just like mom and pop's business.
Thanks for sharing this boatload of information on how a company works for those that never ventured out to startupdom. It really is in the spirit of hackernews. Brutal honesty.
I'm kind of impressed looking at the landing video, it's a neat idea, it's sophisticated using CV to organize photos. However, the market just didn't respond enough to cover the payroll costs.
Did having a VC funding in anyway impact your decision making to grow faster than you should?
I guess it starts with an idea, does it fit? if you have VC money you can see the answer faster but I fear that it puts an expiry date on your product if the answer is still no by the time you can't find another investor. Shame because investors are not always rational. Maybe the next investor could've seen the vision behind your product and pushed. Sad to see a seemingly great product disappear from the market and reducing consumer choice because they had to 'go big or go home'.
I also wonder what it would've been like if you started in a market where tech salary was on the low side, such as Vancouver, BC, where there are laws set in place so that you can work your developers and designers to death out of fear of losing their job in the scarce market and not having to pay any bonuses or overtime.
I wonder what the outcome would've been if you weren't funded, and grew customer by customer. Doing this would've fine tuned the margin between cost and profit and forcing you to grow at a rate that is right for your size at the right price at the right time (where supply and demand curves intersect) just like mom and pop's business.
Thanks for sharing this boatload of information on how a company works for those that never ventured out to startupdom. It really is in the spirit of hackernews. Brutal honesty.