3 ms·

I really think that if Xobni sticks to it's guns, they can probably have a nice ISV and make quite a bit more than $20 million a year without breaking a sweat.

I really think that if Xobni sticks to it's guns, they can probably have a nice ISV and make quite a bit more than $20 million a year without breaking a sweat. If they price their product for $100 a license, then they'd only have to sell 200,000 licenses a year to reach $20 million a year.

kirubakaran 19y ago
"If they price their product for $100 a license, then they'd only have to sell 200,000 licenses a year to reach $20 million a year." Since the price of MS Office Home Edition is $150, imho they will have a tough time justifying a price higher than $29.99 (with the current feature set of Xobni at least). Don't get me wrong - I like Xobni... I am just saying this from a practical sales standpoint. Considering this and considering they have to pay income tax instead of capital gains tax, they may have to sell at least a million copies to make $20 million. Of course they can make it into a product with a ton more features making it worth $100 a piece in the eyes of Joe CubeDweller.
- martin 19y ago
  "Since the price of MS Office Home Edition is $150..." I don't think that really has anything to do with it. There are plenty of Office plugins that cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. It's all about how much value the product offers and how much that value is worth to the users. I don't disagree that $100 a seat seems a bit pricey for Xobni's existing functionality, but I don't doubt it could someday be worth that or even more to a large organization.
  - mwerty 19y ago
    > There are plenty of Office plugins that cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Do you remember the names of these plugins? I know there are some dev-tool type plugins that cost a lot.
    - martin 19y ago
      Well, I work in the financial industry, so that's the type of product I'm familiar with... but Bloomberg, FactSet, SNL, Capital IQ, Datastream, Mekko, DealMaven... all of those offer Excel, Outlook and/or PowerPoint plug-ins that carry price tags well above those of the Office apps they depend upon.
      - kirubakaran 19y ago
        Thank you for sharing the knowledge. I didn't know that. Follow-up questions: I look at Xobni as a time (hence money) saving tool for the end user... not a money making tool. Are all the tools/plug-ins that you mentioned money making tools? Can a time saving tool be sold for a price higher than the host app?
        martin 19y ago
        Well, it's kind of a blurry line that separates the two. The financial industry existed before all of those products did. Building a financial model doesn't require these products -- one could do it by spending hours pouring over government filings, etc. to compile all the information needed -- so they're all "time saving." And since time is money -- faster modeling means more work can be done in the same time, and/or fewer analysts are required to do the same work -- they're all "money making." I suppose you could distinguish between the "market data/financials products" and "products that save time and thus money in other ways." Mekko, for example, might fall into the latter group -- it's basically just an advanced charting tool. It retails for about $500. DealMaven, which is basically a workflow improvement tool, would probably fall into that category as well, although I'm not sure what it costs.
      - mwerty 19y ago
        thanks
- iamelgringo 19y ago
  Yes, but MS Offic Pro goes for $500 retail, less if you're buying a site wide license. Let's face it, the money for Xobni isn't in home uses, the money is in enterprise sales. In fact, $100 might be pretty low for an Enterprise plug-in for Outlook. They might be better off charging $500 a license for it. BigCo likes to pay a lot of money for software. I don't know tons of people who use Outlook for home use, most people I'm around are using web mail. The people that are using Outlook are BigCo employees. And, if you can can sell a bulk license for the Xobni plug-in to a couple of Blue Chip companies, you're well on your way to $20M per year.

kirubakaran 19y ago

"If they price their product for $100 a license, then they'd only have to sell 200,000 licenses a year to reach $20 million a year." Since the price of MS Office Home Edition is $150, imho they will have a tough time justifying a price higher than $29.99 (with the current feature set of Xobni at least). Don't get me wrong - I like Xobni... I am just saying this from a practical sales standpoint. Considering this and considering they have to pay income tax instead of capital gains tax, they may have to sell at least a million copies to make $20 million. Of course they can make it into a product with a ton more features making it worth $100 a piece in the eyes of Joe CubeDweller.

martin 19y ago
"Since the price of MS Office Home Edition is $150..." I don't think that really has anything to do with it. There are plenty of Office plugins that cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. It's all about how much value the product offers and how much that value is worth to the users. I don't disagree that $100 a seat seems a bit pricey for Xobni's existing functionality, but I don't doubt it could someday be worth that or even more to a large organization.
- mwerty 19y ago
  > There are plenty of Office plugins that cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Do you remember the names of these plugins? I know there are some dev-tool type plugins that cost a lot.
  - martin 19y ago
    Well, I work in the financial industry, so that's the type of product I'm familiar with... but Bloomberg, FactSet, SNL, Capital IQ, Datastream, Mekko, DealMaven... all of those offer Excel, Outlook and/or PowerPoint plug-ins that carry price tags well above those of the Office apps they depend upon.
    - kirubakaran 19y ago
      Thank you for sharing the knowledge. I didn't know that. Follow-up questions: I look at Xobni as a time (hence money) saving tool for the end user... not a money making tool. Are all the tools/plug-ins that you mentioned money making tools? Can a time saving tool be sold for a price higher than the host app?
      - martin 19y ago
        Well, it's kind of a blurry line that separates the two. The financial industry existed before all of those products did. Building a financial model doesn't require these products -- one could do it by spending hours pouring over government filings, etc. to compile all the information needed -- so they're all "time saving." And since time is money -- faster modeling means more work can be done in the same time, and/or fewer analysts are required to do the same work -- they're all "money making." I suppose you could distinguish between the "market data/financials products" and "products that save time and thus money in other ways." Mekko, for example, might fall into the latter group -- it's basically just an advanced charting tool. It retails for about $500. DealMaven, which is basically a workflow improvement tool, would probably fall into that category as well, although I'm not sure what it costs.
    - mwerty 19y ago
      thanks
iamelgringo 19y ago
Yes, but MS Offic Pro goes for $500 retail, less if you're buying a site wide license. Let's face it, the money for Xobni isn't in home uses, the money is in enterprise sales. In fact, $100 might be pretty low for an Enterprise plug-in for Outlook. They might be better off charging $500 a license for it. BigCo likes to pay a lot of money for software. I don't know tons of people who use Outlook for home use, most people I'm around are using web mail. The people that are using Outlook are BigCo employees. And, if you can can sell a bulk license for the Xobni plug-in to a couple of Blue Chip companies, you're well on your way to $20M per year.