4 ms·

$50M in revenue on 130 employees seems quite remarkable, no? Not to mention they grew to $88M with the same headcount. Are they uniquely able to outsource a la

by ttymck 5y ago

$50M in revenue on 130 employees seems quite remarkable, no? Not to mention they grew to $88M with the same headcount. Are they uniquely able to outsource a large number of functions? I've worked for firms with far less revenue and far greater headcount, and the road to IPO seemed inextricably dependent on orders of magnitude more headcount.

namdnay 5y ago
That doesn’t seem huge? 50M for 130 is a bit less than 400k revenue per employee. Of that revenue you’re already spending at least 100-200k on the employee themselves
- pc86 5y ago
  For some of the devs, sure, but no way is their average payroll per employee $200k. How many analysts and support staff work there? I'm sure there are people at Expensify making $30-50k/yr.
- ttymck 5y ago
  The current number is $88M. For comparison: Gitlab did $150M on 1,400 employees.
  - missedthecue 5y ago
    And sure enough, GitLab doesn't even make an operating profit.
pbreit 5y ago
Slow growth over 13 years in an easy-to-monetize category can get you there.
dhruvkar 5y ago
We're at $11M on 35 employees slinging physical stone slabs. I'd expect a software company to be much higher on $rev/employee.
- xmprt 5y ago
  Wouldn't hardware revenue be much higher than software revenue because costs are equally high?
  - jpleger 5y ago
    I imagine OP is probably selling countertops or maybe even something with required precision like granite surface plates. Typically durable goods will have less revenue than software services, since there isn't really the concept of logarithmic growth that you can theoretically support with software.
  - dhruvkar 5y ago
    You could sell $5 fidget spinners or $500,000 Rolls Royces. Costs would be highly dependent on the industry/product. However, what's limiting is that physical goods depend on physical distribution. Theoretically, software's available market is the entire planet. Physical goods only go where you can physically send (and support) your product. All else being equal, distribution plays a larger role in the discrepancy between physical vs. software.

by ttymck 5y ago

namdnay 5y ago

That doesn’t seem huge? 50M for 130 is a bit less than 400k revenue per employee. Of that revenue you’re already spending at least 100-200k on the employee themselves

pc86 5y ago
For some of the devs, sure, but no way is their average payroll per employee $200k. How many analysts and support staff work there? I'm sure there are people at Expensify making $30-50k/yr.
ttymck 5y ago
The current number is $88M. For comparison: Gitlab did $150M on 1,400 employees.
- missedthecue 5y ago
  And sure enough, GitLab doesn't even make an operating profit.

pbreit 5y ago

Slow growth over 13 years in an easy-to-monetize category can get you there.

dhruvkar 5y ago

We're at $11M on 35 employees slinging physical stone slabs. I'd expect a software company to be much higher on $rev/employee.

xmprt 5y ago
Wouldn't hardware revenue be much higher than software revenue because costs are equally high?
- jpleger 5y ago
  I imagine OP is probably selling countertops or maybe even something with required precision like granite surface plates. Typically durable goods will have less revenue than software services, since there isn't really the concept of logarithmic growth that you can theoretically support with software.
- dhruvkar 5y ago
  You could sell $5 fidget spinners or $500,000 Rolls Royces. Costs would be highly dependent on the industry/product. However, what's limiting is that physical goods depend on physical distribution. Theoretically, software's available market is the entire planet. Physical goods only go where you can physically send (and support) your product. All else being equal, distribution plays a larger role in the discrepancy between physical vs. software.