4 ms·

Keep in mind that there's a ton of institutional shorting on $SWI and that's where a lot of these attack articles are coming from. Having said that, SolarWinds

Keep in mind that there's a ton of institutional shorting on $SWI and that's where a lot of these attack articles are coming from. Having said that, SolarWinds is garbage software even without the security vulnerabilities and I hope it goes the way of the dodo. Source: I've had the misfortune of using it on multiple contracts.

genmud 6y ago
Because anyone who is smart or has competent security teams have been looking to drop them like a sack of potatoes. I work with a ton of customers that have/had SolarWinds and the general sentiment with them is that they are ripping it out and replacing with alternatives. I would be willing to bet that the majority of SolarWinds sales are relationship based, not based on technical wins. It is extremely dangerous for a company that is based on relationship sales to require their economic buyers spend a non-insignificant amount of political capital defending bad practices. TBH most buyers aren't going to stick their neck out for them unless they have a really good reason. Even then, security teams and legal teams might poo-poo the purchase and for most people in IT it is easier to find an alternative. Being reliant on relationship sales rather than technical wins is not by itself a bad sales or growth strategy... But as a company who has taken that approach, you have to ensure you don't do stupid stuff, or the stupid stuff isn't something that requires people to stick their neck out for you on. I imagine this is why institutional investors are shorting $SWI more so than anything. Their customer churn is going to probably not be pretty and they are going to have to work really hard and hope that in 2-3 quarters people have forgotten about it.
- alfiedotwtf 6y ago
  FIFY: I would be willing to bet that the majority of Enterprise sales are relationship based, not based on technical wins.
- joncrane 6y ago
  Their Q4 2020 Earnings were pretty good. They issued downward guidance on their Q1 2021 Earnings but it looks like they don't expect to lose THAT much business. Most of their subscriptions are yearly so most people are stuck paying them for the duration of the contract regardless of whether they ripped out their Solarwinds stack or not.
wglb 6y ago
Are you familiar with Sturgeon's Law?

genmud 6y ago

Because anyone who is smart or has competent security teams have been looking to drop them like a sack of potatoes. I work with a ton of customers that have/had SolarWinds and the general sentiment with them is that they are ripping it out and replacing with alternatives. I would be willing to bet that the majority of SolarWinds sales are relationship based, not based on technical wins. It is extremely dangerous for a company that is based on relationship sales to require their economic buyers spend a non-insignificant amount of political capital defending bad practices. TBH most buyers aren't going to stick their neck out for them unless they have a really good reason. Even then, security teams and legal teams might poo-poo the purchase and for most people in IT it is easier to find an alternative. Being reliant on relationship sales rather than technical wins is not by itself a bad sales or growth strategy... But as a company who has taken that approach, you have to ensure you don't do stupid stuff, or the stupid stuff isn't something that requires people to stick their neck out for you on. I imagine this is why institutional investors are shorting $SWI more so than anything. Their customer churn is going to probably not be pretty and they are going to have to work really hard and hope that in 2-3 quarters people have forgotten about it.

alfiedotwtf 6y ago
FIFY: I would be willing to bet that the majority of Enterprise sales are relationship based, not based on technical wins.
joncrane 6y ago
Their Q4 2020 Earnings were pretty good. They issued downward guidance on their Q1 2021 Earnings but it looks like they don't expect to lose THAT much business. Most of their subscriptions are yearly so most people are stuck paying them for the duration of the contract regardless of whether they ripped out their Solarwinds stack or not.

wglb 6y ago

Are you familiar with Sturgeon's Law?