3 ms·

So that begs an important question.. where would/should you best publish your private corporation's revenue and profit numbers if you chose to? To your userbas

So that begs an important question.. where would/should you best publish your private corporation's revenue and profit numbers if you chose to? To your userbase? The media? Hacker News? :) The user base will ultimately see the information at some point, and I'm trying to understand their reaction to the information.

patio11 17y ago
The user base will ultimately see the information at some point, and I'm trying to understand their reaction to the information. I think you probably overestimate how much your userbase cares about you, unless you have cultivated an unusually close, personal relationship with them. I mean, many of the companies that you do business with publish all their financial information four times a year. Have you ever gone through, e.g., a Google earnings report because its just so important to you? (Substitute with another company if you are not actually a Google customer.)
- blantonl 17y ago
  I think you probably overestimate how much your userbase cares about you, unless you have cultivated an unusually close, personal relationship with them. There in-lies the issue.. this project started many years ago as a platform for a small hobby related concept to a major business operation today. Our revenue model started from donations and ultimately moved to the fremium model. All along the way I have been intimately involved with the user base, and still to this day I am directly involved with the userbase. There are many long time members of the site that to this day believe that their subscriptions "support" the site's operations vs. puts food on the table for my family and pays my salary (many don't know I've moved on to run this business full time).
  - tptacek 17y ago
    You obviously don't want to publish your financials. So don't. Patrick doesn't get to read Matasano's financials either. Most people don't publish their numbers, and many of them have very good reasons not to. He's still probably right: your customers don't care about your numbers.

patio11 17y ago

The user base will ultimately see the information at some point, and I'm trying to understand their reaction to the information. I think you probably overestimate how much your userbase cares about you, unless you have cultivated an unusually close, personal relationship with them. I mean, many of the companies that you do business with publish all their financial information four times a year. Have you ever gone through, e.g., a Google earnings report because its just so important to you? (Substitute with another company if you are not actually a Google customer.)

blantonl 17y ago
I think you probably overestimate how much your userbase cares about you, unless you have cultivated an unusually close, personal relationship with them. There in-lies the issue.. this project started many years ago as a platform for a small hobby related concept to a major business operation today. Our revenue model started from donations and ultimately moved to the fremium model. All along the way I have been intimately involved with the user base, and still to this day I am directly involved with the userbase. There are many long time members of the site that to this day believe that their subscriptions "support" the site's operations vs. puts food on the table for my family and pays my salary (many don't know I've moved on to run this business full time).
- tptacek 17y ago
  You obviously don't want to publish your financials. So don't. Patrick doesn't get to read Matasano's financials either. Most people don't publish their numbers, and many of them have very good reasons not to. He's still probably right: your customers don't care about your numbers.