We are celebrating the second “profitable” month in our history: Welcome to our Open Startup Report for December 2022.
December at Friendly in Numbers
- 💳 Software revenue: CHF 13’930 (+1%)
- 💵 Consulting revenue: CHF 4’751 (+156%)
- 💸 Costs: CHF 18’221 (-)
- 🧾 Profit: CHF 460 (-)
- 👩 Active customers: 84 (+8%)
- 💔 Churn Rate (lost customers): 2.8% (+8%)
- 👋 New trials: 5 (-17%)
- 🔎 Website visits: 4’093 (-4%)
These were the key developments in December:
The second “profitable” month
Surprisingly, we were “profitable” in December. Alongside June 2021, this is only the second month in Friendly’s history in which we have achieved this.
However, “profitable” is deliberately in quotation marks. For one thing, I’m still not paying myself a salary. For another, it is not yet clear whether we will be able to maintain this situation in the long term.
Nevertheless, we are proud of it. It shows that we are able to operate sustainably – and that real profitability is within reach.
There are two developments that have made this milestone possible. Firstly, our team voluntarily gave up part of their salary. As a result, our costs already fell in November. In December, we were able to maintain this lower level with costs of CHF 18,221.
Here are all our costs including salaries for December 2022 in detail:
On the other hand, December was enormously successful in terms of consulting services such as the creation of individual email templates, campaign implementations and web analytics consulting. Our consulting revenue rose by +156% in December to a record CHF 4 751.
Our monthly recurring revenue from software subscriptions rose again for the second consecutive month following the slump in October. Compared to November, we recorded an increase of +1% to CHF 13 930:
These effects together led to a small “profit” of CHF 460.
As mentioned, our goal for 2023 is to become permanently profitable. Without investors, this is also the only way to secure Friendly’s future and remain on the market in the long term.
We have an exist strategy, not an exit strategy.
