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I'm surprised how small Backblaze is. Am I reading this right that they only had 53 million USD in Revenue in 2020? That's a tiny fraction of, say, Dropbox's

I'm surprised how small Backblaze is. Am I reading this right that they only had 53 million USD in Revenue in 2020? That's a tiny fraction of, say, Dropbox's revenue. I would have expected them to be in the 30-50% range of Dropbox on size. And with 164 employees to boot, that's only $323,000 revenue per employee. I wonder what the compensation is like there.

Spooky23 5y ago
Why? It’s a pure commodity business. They are competing against your iCloud subscription and little USB drives that cost $30. Not sure what the long term strategy is, but I hope going public doesn’t kill them — seems like a nice little business that could just coast for years.
- quickthrower2 5y ago
  Yes - and the danger for them is as an iPhone user I feel almost forced to use iCloud, and if I do that I might drop backblaze as I can use iCloud for everything. Why am I forced, because if I don't back up my phone using iCloud, then I need to back it up using iTunes, or not at all. That they have made copying photos off the iPhone terrible and iTunes terrible, is a good tactic to make me use iCloud. For now I am holding out, sticking with backblaze (I love the do-nothing and it's backed up workflow) and probably will go the iTunes YUK route for backing up.
  - marcellus23 5y ago
    I believe iOS has always supported a “camera view” when plugged into a computer, where all videos and photos are readable as files. Doesn’t help for backing up anything else but seems like a straightforward enough path for backups.
    - quickthrower2 5y ago
      Yeah copying files from there just crashes out on my pc.
  - cameron_b 5y ago
    I was very disappointed in that myself. I’m very resistant to increasing my iCloud spend past the free bit. I ended up setting up Nextcloud for myself and my wife. It isn’t fun to sync everything if your phone is already full, but a fresh install would have a very native feel with some setup and a fast host for your backup ( I currently self host at home, but I wfh so it matters little. )
- rsync 5y ago
  "Not sure what the long term strategy is, but I hope going public doesn’t kill them — seems like a nice little business that could just coast for years." Yes, it does seem just like that and I believe we are witnessing an entity (backblaze, in this case) trying to switch from one zone of attraction: Nice little business that throws off a ton of cash and grows organically but doesn't make anyone a billionaire ... ... to another zone of attraction ... Scaled up enterprise that requires a sales and marketing effort (and accompanying infra) capable of revenue generation that matches the demands of an IPO and public shareholders ... and could possibly make someone a billionaire. There's a big, deadly valley between those two zones of attraction and you have to push very hard to make that change. Very unlikely any kind of corporate culture or "human touches" survive that movement. " ... seems like a nice little business ..." Sometimes that's enough for people. Sometimes it's not. Sometimes you paint yourself into a corner where the (IPO) is the only choice one has. I wish them the best.
qeternity 5y ago
Given the number of 164 person pre-revenue startups, I’m not sure what to make of numbers anymore. But yeah I tend to agree: why do they have such a large footprint?
- djbusby 5y ago
  New sales staff in 2020? Adds costs (going to profitability) and head count.
quickthrower2 5y ago
Less than an angel round, or a 2-pizza team's salary. Ok I exaggerate. Less than that in 2023.
wp381640 5y ago
Carbonite - which is rarely mentioned on hn, had a $300M+ run-rate when they were acquired in 2019 I think brand awareness of Backblaze is insular - I remember Carbonite had the strategy of advertising on right-wing radio in the 00's which seems to have worked for them.

Spooky23 5y ago

Why? It’s a pure commodity business. They are competing against your iCloud subscription and little USB drives that cost $30. Not sure what the long term strategy is, but I hope going public doesn’t kill them — seems like a nice little business that could just coast for years.

quickthrower2 5y ago
Yes - and the danger for them is as an iPhone user I feel almost forced to use iCloud, and if I do that I might drop backblaze as I can use iCloud for everything. Why am I forced, because if I don't back up my phone using iCloud, then I need to back it up using iTunes, or not at all. That they have made copying photos off the iPhone terrible and iTunes terrible, is a good tactic to make me use iCloud. For now I am holding out, sticking with backblaze (I love the do-nothing and it's backed up workflow) and probably will go the iTunes YUK route for backing up.
- marcellus23 5y ago
  I believe iOS has always supported a “camera view” when plugged into a computer, where all videos and photos are readable as files. Doesn’t help for backing up anything else but seems like a straightforward enough path for backups.
  - quickthrower2 5y ago
    Yeah copying files from there just crashes out on my pc.
- cameron_b 5y ago
  I was very disappointed in that myself. I’m very resistant to increasing my iCloud spend past the free bit. I ended up setting up Nextcloud for myself and my wife. It isn’t fun to sync everything if your phone is already full, but a fresh install would have a very native feel with some setup and a fast host for your backup ( I currently self host at home, but I wfh so it matters little. )
rsync 5y ago
"Not sure what the long term strategy is, but I hope going public doesn’t kill them — seems like a nice little business that could just coast for years." Yes, it does seem just like that and I believe we are witnessing an entity (backblaze, in this case) trying to switch from one zone of attraction: Nice little business that throws off a ton of cash and grows organically but doesn't make anyone a billionaire ... ... to another zone of attraction ... Scaled up enterprise that requires a sales and marketing effort (and accompanying infra) capable of revenue generation that matches the demands of an IPO and public shareholders ... and could possibly make someone a billionaire. There's a big, deadly valley between those two zones of attraction and you have to push very hard to make that change. Very unlikely any kind of corporate culture or "human touches" survive that movement. " ... seems like a nice little business ..." Sometimes that's enough for people. Sometimes it's not. Sometimes you paint yourself into a corner where the (IPO) is the only choice one has. I wish them the best.

qeternity 5y ago

Given the number of 164 person pre-revenue startups, I’m not sure what to make of numbers anymore. But yeah I tend to agree: why do they have such a large footprint?

djbusby 5y ago
New sales staff in 2020? Adds costs (going to profitability) and head count.

quickthrower2 5y ago

Less than an angel round, or a 2-pizza team's salary. Ok I exaggerate. Less than that in 2023.

wp381640 5y ago

Carbonite - which is rarely mentioned on hn, had a $300M+ run-rate when they were acquired in 2019 I think brand awareness of Backblaze is insular - I remember Carbonite had the strategy of advertising on right-wing radio in the 00's which seems to have worked for them.