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> I’m amazed that you noticed our margins Neil. Why is that amazing? Isn't it plainly obvious?

by mr_justin 18y ago

AndrewWarner 18y ago
I'm surprised that people don't look at financials beyond the top and/or bottom line.
- mr_justin 18y ago
  But at that point in the interview you've just mentioned that you made $1-$3 per user, with millions of users active each month, and you were paying 10 cents for a portion of those users. Of course the first thing people are going to is the math and realize there's a lot of money right there. But back to why I posted my original comment, it was more the condescending tone of the "I'm amazed" part of that sentence. My gut reaction would be: "Why yes, I can multiply in my head and it is amazing, Andrew." Thanks for your reply though, nice to see you in this discussion.
  - antiismist 18y ago
    Wasn't it that they paid $.10 per user, and then, if they converted, got $1-$3? Without knowing the conversion ratio you wouldn't be able to say what the margin was.
    - AndrewWarner 18y ago
      Great point. We didn't have 100% conversion. I kept things simple to explain how the business worked. There were other factors like this at play. By the way, a big one was fraud. I remember seeing my first washed check. That's where someone took a check our company made out for $25 or so. Washed our ink of it, and rewrote the check for much more money. Crazy.
      - antiismist 18y ago
        Supposedly there are special inks that help with that. But even so checks are hard to control, and the company I worked for switched to paypal for international payments.
- run4yourlives 18y ago
  If you can't determine profit margins from those two numbers alone, there's something wrong with you. :-)
10ren 18y ago
A touch of salesmanship exuberance.
dschobel 18y ago
I hate this phony exuberance. Along with all the "Great question!" openers. I once had a sales guy say "here's what I'm going to do for you" and I walked out on the spot. I simply can't deal with unctuous people.
- AndrewWarner 18y ago
  I once heard Michael Milken interviewed by Barbara Walters. Every time he answered a question, he used her name. I thought, he must do that habitually because it works well in one-on-one conversations, but it comes off obnoxious when you're watching it. And now I did something similar. Thanks for the feedback.
- dave_au 18y ago
  I found the various commenting on the questions he was asked quite interesting because they were coming from someone who does a lot of interviews. I didn't take the "Great question" as phony exuberance at all because of that, but that could just be me. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

> I’m amazed that you noticed our margins Neil. Why is that amazing? Isn't it plainly obvious?

AndrewWarner 18y ago

I'm surprised that people don't look at financials beyond the top and/or bottom line.

mr_justin 18y ago
But at that point in the interview you've just mentioned that you made $1-$3 per user, with millions of users active each month, and you were paying 10 cents for a portion of those users. Of course the first thing people are going to is the math and realize there's a lot of money right there. But back to why I posted my original comment, it was more the condescending tone of the "I'm amazed" part of that sentence. My gut reaction would be: "Why yes, I can multiply in my head and it is amazing, Andrew." Thanks for your reply though, nice to see you in this discussion.
- antiismist 18y ago
  Wasn't it that they paid $.10 per user, and then, if they converted, got $1-$3? Without knowing the conversion ratio you wouldn't be able to say what the margin was.
  - AndrewWarner 18y ago
    Great point. We didn't have 100% conversion. I kept things simple to explain how the business worked. There were other factors like this at play. By the way, a big one was fraud. I remember seeing my first washed check. That's where someone took a check our company made out for $25 or so. Washed our ink of it, and rewrote the check for much more money. Crazy.
    - antiismist 18y ago
      Supposedly there are special inks that help with that. But even so checks are hard to control, and the company I worked for switched to paypal for international payments.
run4yourlives 18y ago
If you can't determine profit margins from those two numbers alone, there's something wrong with you. :-)

10ren 18y ago

A touch of salesmanship exuberance.

dschobel 18y ago

I hate this phony exuberance. Along with all the "Great question!" openers. I once had a sales guy say "here's what I'm going to do for you" and I walked out on the spot. I simply can't deal with unctuous people.

AndrewWarner 18y ago
I once heard Michael Milken interviewed by Barbara Walters. Every time he answered a question, he used her name. I thought, he must do that habitually because it works well in one-on-one conversations, but it comes off obnoxious when you're watching it. And now I did something similar. Thanks for the feedback.
dave_au 18y ago
I found the various commenting on the questions he was asked quite interesting because they were coming from someone who does a lot of interviews. I didn't take the "Great question" as phony exuberance at all because of that, but that could just be me. Different strokes for different folks I guess.