March at Friendly in Numbers

• Software revenue: 18 768 CHF (+2%)
• Consulting revenue: 10 727 CHF (+14%)
• Total revenue: 29 495 CHF (+6%)
• Costs: 25 728 CHF (+3%)
• Profit and loss: 3 767 CHF (+31%)
• Active customers: 126 (+2%)
• Churn rate (lost customers): 1.6% (-34%)
• New trials: 8 (-50%)
• Website visits: 3 206 (-13%)

These were the key developments in March:

Revenues: Software sales rise slowly, consulting on an upward trend

Our monthly recurring revenue (MRR) from software subscriptions rose by 2% or around CHF 300 to CHF 18 768 in March. This is the ninth consecutive month of reliable growth in software sales.

Consulting turnover continues on an upward trend. At CHF 10 727, we exceeded the CHF 10 000 threshold for the fourth time, following successful consulting months in June, September and November 2023. Compared to the previous month, we achieved a 14% increase in consulting turnover.

This is systematic: we are investing more in consulting, as we are active in the B2B sector with our software and are increasingly reaching larger customers who need customized software solutions.

Thanks to the technical and professional expertise of our CCO Lukas Sigel and CTO Joey Keller (Friendly Automate) and our “permanent freelancer” Peter Boehlke (Friendly Analytics), we can offer these customers personal support and individual solutions.

Our customers request our team to be available for these important services and appreciate the fact that we have reliable contacts on site.

Meanwhile, the number of our active customers rose by +2% to 126, while the churn rate fell to a good 1.6%.

Thanks to the very good result in consulting, our total turnover rose by +6% to CHF 29 495 in March.

This result puts us 48% above the total turnover in the same month last year (March 2023).

Costs: Slight increase in salary costs due to salary increase and exchange rate fluctuations

Our salary costs rose by around CHF 600 in March. This was partly due to exchange rate fluctuations: We pay Joey’s salary in euros. In Swiss francs, his salary cost us around CHF 100 more this month than in February.

At the same time, Lukas was able to increase his workload at Friendly from 35% to a (permanent) 40%. This is a long-term gain for us. Lukas supports our most important customers in a friendly and professional manner. Examples of this are Branchen Versicherung and the pharmaceutical company Pierre Fabre, with whom we recently published two case studies.

Our advertising costs fell slightly in March in line with normal fluctuations, while most other cost factors remained constant.

There was a one-off cost for Stefan’s participation in a marketing event, at which he developed his knowledge and made new contacts.

Here are all our costs including salaries for March 2024 in detail:

Founded writes about Friendly

The Founded magazine reports on the startup ecosystem in Switzerland. They recently published an article about Friendly (in german language). It discusses our beginnings, our goals and what is important to us.

Founded calls Friendly “exemplary for a new generation of software companies that not only drive technological innovation, but also take social responsibility seriously and lead the way”.

Conclusion

The result in March: we achieved a “profit”* of CHF 3 767, an increase of another 31% compared to the good previous month of February.

This is the first time in our history that we have achieved two very good results in succession. And all the signs indicate that the upward trend will continue in the coming months.

* “Profit” is deliberately put in quotation marks because Stefan has not yet paid himself a salary for his work at Friendly and, as a sole founder without investors, he has yet to make up for the loss so far.

Der Beitrag We’re getting the wind in our sails: Open Startup Report March 2024 erschien zuerst auf Friendly.

February at Friendly in Numbers

• Software revenue: 18 428 CHF (+1%)
• Consulting revenue: 9 453 CHF (+14%)
• Total revenue: 27 881 CHF (+5%)
• Costs: 25 007 CHF (-9%)
• Profit and loss: 2 874 CHF (-431%)
• Active customers: 123 (+1%)
• Churn rate (lost customers): 2.4% (+195%)
• New trials: 16 (+14%)
• Website visits: 3 691 (-13%)

These were the key developments in February:

Revenues: Software sales and consulting sales increase

The positive trend of recent months continued in February. Our monthly recurring revenue (MRR) from software subscriptions rose slightly by 1% to CHF 18 428.

Our consulting turnover also grew by +14% to CHF 9 453. This puts us slightly above the average for the last 6 months. The largest projects in February were assignments for a pharmaceutical company, a hotel group, a construction machinery dealer and an insurance company.

We acquired four new customers and currently have 123 active customers. Our churn rate was within normal range at 2.46%.

As a result, our total revenue in February rose by 5% to CHF 27 881. We are very satisfied with this month’s outcome.

Costs: Lower than in the previous month, slight overall increase due to salary increase and sponsoring

Compared to the previous month, our costs fell by -9% to CHF 25 007 in February.

In January, however, we had an outlier on the cost side due to a miscalculation. If we compare the February costs with December, we see an increase of +7%.

This increase is primarily the result of a pay rise that we were able to make possible for our CTO Joey Keller. We increased his salary from EUR 5 500 to EUR 6 000 per month.

Even with this pay rise, Joey’s salary is still lower than that of Kathrin and Lukas, adjusted for working hours. As Joey works from Hungary, this difference is acceptable to us. In the long term, however, we plan to bring all salaries in line with Swiss pay levels.

Another moderate increase in costs is due to higher sponsorship for Mautic, the open source project on which Friendly Automate is based. Previously, we supported the further development of Mautic with USD 130 per month. From February, we are increasing this amount to USD 220.

Here are all our costs including salaries for February 2024 in detail:

Conclusion

Our revenue increased more strongly than costs again this month, and we therefore posted a profit of CHF 2 874 in February.

Even if this figure still looks modest, this is the third-best result in our company’s history, after the successful months of September and November 2023.

Having been largely “in the black”* over the last 6 months, we are very confident about the coming months.

* “In the black” is deliberately put in quotation marks because Stefan has not yet paid himself a salary for his work at Friendly and, as a sole founder without investors, he has yet to make up for the loss so far.

Der Beitrag Things are going well for us again: Open Startup Report February 2024 erschien zuerst auf Friendly.

January at Friendly in Numbers

• Software revenue: 18 212 CHF (+1%)
• Consulting revenue: 8 275 CHF (+47%)
• Total revenue: 26 487 CHF (+12%)
• Costs: 27 354 CHF (+17%)
• Profit and loss: -867 CHF (-370%)
• Active customers: 122 (+2%)
• Churn rate (lost customers): 0.8% (-50%)
• New trials: 14 (+27%)
• Website visits: 4 229 (+12%)

These were the key developments in January:

Revenues: Slow growth in software sales, good result in consulting

Our monthly recurring revenue (MRR) from software subscriptions rose by just CHF 190 to CHF 18 212 in January, an increase of 1% on the previous month.

As our software subscriptions form the basis for consulting, they are the decisive growth factor for our company. The figures for the last few months show: We are growing slowly – but steadily.

And that is okay. Our company is growing healthily, we are continuously improving our quality and we are providing everyone in the team with a solid foothold in life. Not only financially, but also through a balanced working environment in which we do well in the long term.

Our customer numbers are also currently very stable. In January, we lost one customer and gained two new ones, so we currently have 122 customers.

This month, consulting turnover rose by a full 47% to CHF 8 275. The largest projects were assignments for an insurance company, a construction machinery dealer, a bank and a non-profit organization. We assisted with the design of newsletters, set up enterprise instances and provided employee training.

Our total revenue in January was a good CHF 26 487, an increase of 12% compared to December.

Costs: Costs explode due to freelancers and high advertising expenses

By contrast, our costs rose massively in January: from CHF 23 338 in the previous month to CHF 27 354.

The main reason for this was a consulting project that we covered with a freelancer. This project resulted in unforeseeable expenses that we were unable to charge directly to the customer and therefore had to bear ourselves.

I see these one-off costs as an investment in the customer relationship with an important customer. And as a lesson learned. I miscalculated and evaluated the mistake so as not to repeat it.

In addition, our advertising costs in search engine advertising also increased. This increase was directly caused by higher demand for our products on Google and Bing, and I am therefore very pleased with it.

Here are all our costs including salaries for January 2024 in detail:

Open Startup: Does it make sense?

We don’t just run from one success to the next. We grow slowly and make mistakes. And we also share these things in our Open Startup Reports. We are regularly asked if this is “necessary”.

I recently shared my motivation on indiehackers.com:

Marketing and visibility
“We benefit by getting attention. Our monthly open startup reports do very well on LinkedIn because being open is still novel in Switzerland, our home market. We are still the first and only “open startup” in Switzerland.”

Trust
“It creates trust because people see that their fees actually are invested into the product; not into the CEO’s Lamborghini.”

Feedback
“We often get valuable feedback. For example, people questioned our hosting costs and pointed us to better options.”

To summarize – we’ve had positive experiences with it. Others see it differently. Read more in the article on indiehackers.com.

Conclusion

The result of the good revenue figures and the high one-off costs on the other side: the new year starts with a narrow loss of CHF -867.

This is uncomfortable after we had already reached the “black figures”* quite reliably last year.

But it’s also manageable because we understand why it happened.

I expect that we will be able to sustainably consolidate our financial situation this year.

* “Black figures” is deliberately put in quotation marks because I have not yet paid myself a salary for my work and, as a sole founder without investors, I have yet to make up for the loss so far.

Der Beitrag We make a mistake and experience a setback: Open Startup Report January 2024 erschien zuerst auf Friendly.

We reach the black figures

2023 is the year in which we reached the “black figures” with Friendly. Although total revenue increased reliably in the first few financial years, so too did costs. It was not until 2023 that we succeeded in significantly increasing total revenue with only slight cost increases.

In 2023, our annual recurring revenue (ARR) from software subscriptions was CHF 188 691, while consulting revenue amounted to CHF 90 313. This brought our total revenue to CHF 279 004, an increase of 60% compared to the previous year.

Meanwhile, our costs rose by only 29% to CHF 266 038. After the previous annual losses, we thus achieved a small profit of CHF 12 966 at the end of the year for the first time.

The balance for the entire business time still shows a loss of CHF 59 554, which Stefan, as the sole founder without investors, paid out of his own pocket and which the company still has to make up.

And we missed our repeatedly communicated target of being able to pay Stefan a salary within 2023.

That is why we continue to write “black figures” in quotation marks. But we have come one step closer to real profitability.

Open Startup – what’s the point? Stefan shares his motivations on indiehackers.com.

We establish consulting as a key business area

After initially maintaining our strategy of generating most of our revenue through software subscriptions, we started offering consulting as a service in March 2022.

At first, our monthly consulting turnover was only just in the four-digit range, but since shortly before the turn of 2022/23, we have been achieving a significant turnover.

In 2023, consulting has established itself as one of our core business areas. To be sure, in the Open Startup Reports we have repeatedly described the rollercoaster ride that our consulting turnover represents month after month.

However, a quarterly comparison and the annual overview show that we can count on solid consulting income.

Over the whole of 2023, we earned an average of CHF 7 526 per month through consulting, or a total of CHF 90 313, which accounts for 32% of our annual turnover.

We support innovative projects

Our customers implemented some impressive projects with Friendly Automate and Friendly Analytics in 2023, some of which we would like to highlight:

• Knies Kinderzoo and Knies Zauberhut simplified their marketing activities and event management with Friendly Automate (see the case study here).
• For the Swiss branch of the French pharmaceutical company Pierre Fabre, we used Friendly Automate to develop individual applications such as a sales portal, an intranet and an event management platform (case study to follow shortly).
• A Swiss bank integrated Friendly Analytics into its e-banking system.
• Bofrost Switzerland, the Bürgenstock Collection, wemakeit, Switch and other companies and organizations implemented high-quality tracking projects with Friendly Analytics.

We strengthen our position in data protection

Since our company was founded in 2020, we have been focusing on data protection and information security with Friendly.

In 2023, we were able to significantly strengthen our position in data protection even further, as the introduction of the revised Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection in September 2023 sensitized many Swiss companies and institutions to the issue.

We set high data protection standards for our software, are visible with a detailed blog post and at events (link in german language) and now also offer data protection training courses on request.

Read more: The new Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection will be introduced on September 1: The comprehensive guide (+ checklists and templates)

We obtain important industry certifications

With “swiss made software” and “swiss hosting”, we received our first official labels last year. These labels confirm that we are a Swiss company that generates most of its added value in Switzerland and that the data we host remains entirely in Switzerland.

Then shortly before the end of 2023, we successfully passed the initial certification for ISO standards 27 001 & 9 001.

Both standards are recognized worldwide and are among the leading standards in their respective fields. ISO 27 001 certifies that we have implemented an information security management system (ISMS) and ISO 9 001 that we have introduced a quality management system (QMS).

We are proud of these awards and are certain that they will strengthen our value proposition and our customers’ trust in us.

We build our team culture

At Friendly, we place a high value on team culture. This includes mutual appreciation, which we would like to express to all our team members for their achievements in 2023.

József “Joey” Keller, our CTO and first employee of Friendly, continued to work with great dedication in 2023 to maintain and further develop our infrastructure, and competently answered numerous support requests for Friendly Automate with his technical knowledge.

At the same time, Joey continued to be a key member of the Mautic open source team in 2023, on which our Friendly Automate software is based. He was the third most active individual member of the Mautic community and even brought Friendly to the 2nd place of the most active companies. We are proud to have Joey on our team.

Most active members at Mautic 2023	Contributions
1   Ruth Cheesley	5390
2   Jan Linhart	1700
3    Joey Keller	1505
4   Mohammed Abu Musa	1358
5   Matthias Michaux	995

Most active companies at Mautic 2023	Contributions
1   Acquia	1926
2    Friendly	1511
3   Dropsolid	1425
4   Steer Campaign	1359
5   Leuchtfeuer	1064

Lukas Sigel, our CCO, has managed demanding customer projects in 2023 and thus significantly developed and expanded the consulting sector at Friendly.

Our customers appreciate Luke’s professional approach, his accessibility, the creative design of templates for Friendly Automate and his innovative solution finding. Luke’s contribution is extremely valuable to Friendly.

Peter Boehlke, our independent analytics consultant, worked numerous freelance hours for us again in 2023 and advised our customers on Friendly Analytics. Peter is part of the core team at Matomo, the open source software behind Friendly Analytics, and his expertise is a great asset to us and our customers.

Matic Zagmajster has been supporting us as a developer with a small part-time job since August 2023. Thanks to Matic, we have already been able to improve the important link between Friendly Automate and the Microsoft Dynamics CRM and fix several software bugs.

Dr. Kathrin Schmid, our CMO & CISO, has expanded the marketing and data protection area at Friendly over the past year.

With her contributions on our website and at events, she increases our visibility in the public eye, and her achievements for ISO certification and data protection strengthen public trust in us. Both are very important to Friendly.

Stefan Vetter, our founder and CEO, has continued to shape Friendly in 2023 with his forward-thinking management style.

His focus on team culture, appreciative working conditions, personal responsibility, sustainability and friendliness creates a company that the team is very happy to work for.

We are focused on a sustainable future

Like the reflections on the company’s two-year and three-year anniversaries, we conclude this review with a reminder of the future:

We don’t see the journey with Friendly as a sprint, but as a marathon. We have an exist strategy, not an exit strategy. We’ll see whether we’re successful after 10 years. Not before. And we very much want to go down this path. If possible, for much longer than 10 years.

Der Beitrag Our year in numbers and events: Open Startup Annual Review 2023 erschien zuerst auf Friendly.

December at Friendly in Numbers

• Software revenue: 18 022 CHF (+2%)
• Consulting revenue: 5 638 CHF (-50%)
• Total revenue: 23 659 CHF (-19%)
• Costs: 23 338 CHF (+1%)
• Profit and loss: +321 CHF (-94%)
• Active customers: 120 (-)
• Churn rate (lost customers): 1.7% (-62%)
• New trials: 11 (+10%)
• Website visits: 3 763 (-4%)

These were the key developments in December:

Revenues: Sixth consecutive month of growth in software revenue, total revenue drops due to consulting

Our monthly recurring revenue (MRR) from software subscriptions rose reliably for the sixth month in a row with a small increase of 2% to CHF 18 022 in December.

This not only continues the positive trend of recent months, but also of the past few years: In our almost 4-year company history, the MRR has only failed to rise in 7 out of a total of 47 months.

Admittedly, all monthly increases were within a modest range of just a few hundred francs. Even though we would like to see slightly faster growth, we recognize the stability that we achieve through slow growth with small and medium-sized customers.

On the one hand, this allows us to avoid cluster risk and, on the other, gives us enough time to keep pace with the changes in our company.

However, our consulting revenue is constantly keeping us on our toes: In December, the zigzag course once again moved downwards and, at CHF 5 638, was a full -50% below the previous month’s revenue, and even in a one-year comparison for 2023, still -25% below the monthly average. (More on this in our Open Startup Annual Review, coming soon).

At the same time, the number of our active customers stagnated at 120 for the first time after a 6-month increase. As we also recorded a very low churn rate of 1.67%, we are still just about satisfied with this result.

Overall, our total revenue fell by -19% or more than CHF 5 000 to just CHF 23 659 this month.

Costs: Personnel costs stable, cost increase due to initial ISO certification

On the expenses side, most cost factors remained constant: marketing and administration costs hardly changed and wage costs also remained largely at the previous month’s level. However, our freelancers worked slightly more hours.

The ISO certification for the 9 001 & 27 001 standards has a noticeable impact. In addition to the preparation costs, there are now also the costs for the initial certification.

We amortize both items over 12 months each, so we pay CHF 1 735 per month for this investment in the future, or CHF 20 820 in total. This is a considerable sum for our small start-up, but we are confident that we have taken the right course with the certification.

Together with the low expenditure in the area of training & events, there was nevertheless only a slight increase in costs of +1% to CHF 23 338 this month.

Here are all our costs including wages for December 2023 in detail:

Which tool is this actually?

One of the most frequent questions we receive about our Open Startup Report is which tool we use to create our cost table. In the spirit of our Open Startup philosophy, we are of course happy to share this with you too.

We are using Soulver. It’s a text editor that can do calculations. Soulver integrates simple spreadsheet functions into its clean notebook interface and is much slimmer than an Excel spreadsheet. The tool is available for a (one-time) fee and only works on Mac.

Conclusion

At the end of the year, we achieved a narrow “plus”* of CHF 321 in December, a profit that is over CHF 5,000 lower than in November. Despite steadily rising software sales and stable costs, this was once again due to the fluctuations in consulting.

As a sole founder without investors, I have not yet been able to pay myself a salary for my work at Friendly. I mentioned several times in my Open Startup reports that I wanted to change this within 2023. We have missed this target in the past year.

Despite this, the last month of the year saw a (small) “black figure”* and, for the first time, we recorded a five-digit “profit”* for the year as a whole.

In all likelihood, 2024 will therefore be the year in which we will be able to build up financial reserves at Friendly for the first time.

* “Profit”, “plus” and “black figure” are deliberately put in quotation marks because I have not yet paid myself a salary for my work and I have yet to make up for the loss so far.

Der Beitrag As the year ends, we only just reach our target: Open Startup Report December 2023 erschien zuerst auf Friendly.

November at Friendly in numbers

• Software revenue: 17 726 CHF (+5%)
• Consulting revenue: 11 310 CHF (+87%)
• Total revenue: 29 036 CHF (+27%)
• Costs: 23 139 CHF (-2%)
• Profit and loss: +5 897 CHF (-947%)
• Active customers: 120 (+4%)
• Churn rate (lost customers): 4.3% (+59%)
• New trials: 10 (-41%)
• Website visits: 3 934 (-10%)

These were the key developments in November:

Revenues: Record software revenue for five months in a row, new record for new and active customers

Our monthly recurring revenue (MRR) from software subscriptions continues to rise slowly but reliably. We have now recorded revenue growth for the fifth month in a row, with an increase of 5% to CHF 17 726 in November. This means that we have now set a new record for our most important KPI for the fifth month in a row.

In November, we also achieved a small record with new customers: we were able to conclude 10 new software subscriptions. Among our existing customers, however, we recorded a slightly higher churn rate of 4.3% with 5 terminations compared to an average of around 2% in the previous months. Overall, our customer base has thus increased by 5 to 120 customers. This is also a record.

In Consulting, the rollercoaster continued – this time upwards again. At CHF 11 310, we recorded the second-highest consulting turnover in our company’s history; the only time this turnover was higher was in September 2023. We advised more than 15 clients, including customers from the financial sector, insurance and trade unions.

Despite the major fluctuations in consulting, we were able to count on an income of around CHF 7 000 per month on average last year. In absolute terms, the figure has never been below CHF 4 000 in the last 12 months, so we can also rely on this income with some certainty.

As a result, we also recorded the second-highest figure in our history for total revenue at CHF 29 036, having already reached a one-time figure of CHF 33 215 in September. Compared to the previous month, our revenue rose by an impressive +27%. Looking back a year, our total revenue has almost doubled compared to the same month last year: in November 2022, it was still at CHF 15 625 and has increased relatively steadily since then.

Costs: Wage cuts finally lifted, costs still down slightly due to further savings on freelancers

A year ago, our balance sheet did not look good: Our MRR was declining and we were only reaching a few new customers. As a self-financed start-up, we were forced to cut our costs. The result was self-imposed wage cuts.

We are proud that these measures and constant hard work have enabled us to overcome the crisis by our own efforts and that we have now been able to fully reverse the wage cuts. Lastly, we raised Joey’s salary by EUR 500 back to the original EUR 5 500.

This increase in costs was offset by further savings on freelancers, meaning that our costs fell by a total of -2% to CHF 23 139 last month.

Here are all our costs including wages for November 2023 in detail:

Is this all going too slowly?

One criticism we received in response to our last Open Startup Report was that Friendly should finally be profitable. According to them, there was not enough healthy pressure to drive us forward.

This is true. We have less pressure than some others.

I still earn my income from my second company Wortspiel. This means I can afford to work for Friendly for free.

If this were not the case, we would indeed have to invest more in short-term successes such as outbound sales.

However, this does not mean that we are not “putting our foot down” and working less hard.

On the contrary, we can afford to invest in things that will take us forward in the long term:

• Building our brand
• Enhancing safety and quality with certifications in ISO 27 001 and ISO 9 001 (to be completed shortly)
• Strengthening our team culture

This does not bring high short-term profits, but I am convinced that it will pay off and is currently the right use of our resources. And I am glad to have this freedom.

Conclusion

Thanks to strong revenue in Software and Consulting and stable costs, we achieved a “plus”* of CHF +5 897 in November.

This is the second-highest “profit”* in our history. The only time we did better was two months ago in September 2023.

Looking back on the current year, we are very satisfied with what we have achieved. Overall, we were in the black* in 5 out of 11 months in 2023.

This is a clearly positive trend, after we only just managed one “profitable”* month each in 2021 and 2022. Over the whole of 2023 so far, we have even achieved a “plus” of CHF 12 645.

I am particularly pleased that we were also able to completely reverse last year’s pay cuts in November.

In addition to a salary for me, my main goal for 2024 is to build up financial reserves at Friendly.

* “Profit”, “plus” and “in the black” are deliberately put in quotation marks because I have not yet paid myself a salary for my work and, as a sole founder without investors, I have yet to make up for the loss so far.

Der Beitrag The second best month in our history: Open Startup Report November 2023 erschien zuerst auf Friendly.

October at Friendly in numbers

• Software revenue: 16 864 CHF (+2%)
• Consulting revenue: 6 035 CHF (-64%)
• Total revenue: 22 899 CHF (-31%)
• Costs: 23 595 CHF (-10%)
• Profit and loss: -696 CHF (-110%)
• Active customers: 115 (+5%)
• Churn rate (lost customers): 3% (+45%)
• New trials: 17 (+31%)
• Website visits: 4 367 (-5%)

This is what moved us in October:

Revenues: Software revenue and customer figures on an upward trend for months, consulting revenue on a rollercoaster ride

Our monthly recurring revenue (MRR) from software subscriptions increased by +2% to CHF 16 864. This is once again the highest software revenue in our history and the fourth consecutive month of revenue growth.

It is particularly encouraging that the number of our customers has also been rising reliably for many months. With an increase of +5%, it also reached a record level for the fourth month in a row and now stands at 115.

In addition to the increasing quality and visibility of our offering, we also attribute this development to the introduction of the new Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection, which is prompting companies to look for Swiss software alternatives.

Our consulting turnover continues to be a rollercoaster ride. After the best result by far in September, Consulting sales plummeted by -64% to CHF 6 035.

The largest consulting projects were marketing automation consulting for a Swiss insurance company and analytics consulting for a Swiss social security institution and a Swiss luxury hotel.

Our income therefore amounted to CHF 22 899 in October. Overall, the increase in sales and customer numbers and the fall in consulting resulted in a decline of -31% compared to the previous month.

Expenses: reduced due to savings on freelancers and marketing

Our costs fell by -10% to CHF 23 595 in October. This was due to savings on freelancers and in marketing.

As we had fewer consulting projects than in the previous month, we were able to cover more with our employees and had to purchase fewer services from freelancers.

We also reduced our advertising expenditure and had lower costs for participating in events.

However, there was an increase in salary costs. We increased Kathrin’s salary to bring it in line with Lukas’ salary, which had also recently increased.

Here are all our costs including salaries for October 2023 in detail:

Conclusion

Despite the significant decline in consulting revenue, we only posted a small loss of CHF -696 in October.

My goal was to pay myself at least a small salary by the end of this year. We will probably miss this target.

Nevertheless, after years of high losses, we have managed to get “into the black”* in a reasonably stable manner. Over the whole of 2023, we have so far posted a “profit”* of CHF 6 748.

I am confident that we will be able to maintain and build on this positive trend.

* “Profit”, “profitability” and “into the black” are deliberately put in quotation marks because I have not yet paid myself a salary for my work and, as a sole founder without investors, I have yet to make up for the loss so far.

Der Beitrag Software revenue and number of customers on an upward trend, but still a small loss: Open Startup Report October 2023 erschien zuerst auf Friendly.

September at Friendly in numbers

• Software revenue: 16 523 CHF (+4%)
• Consulting revenue: 16 692 CHF (147%)
• Total revenue: 33 215 CHF (+47%)
• Costs: 26 283 CHF (+15%)
• Profit and loss: 6 932 CHF (-4 645%)
• Active customers: 110 (+4%)
• Churn rate (lost customers): 1.9% (-6%)
• New trials: 13 (-24%)
• Website visits: 4 619 (-39%)

This is what moved us in September:

Revenues: Software revenue up slightly, consulting revenue exploded

Our monthly recurring revenue (MRR) from software subscriptions increased for the fourth consecutive month in September, this time by a significant +4% to CHF 16 523. This is the highest software revenue in our history.

The number of customers also rose again slightly by +4% to 110.

We are used to fluctuations in consulting. In July, we experienced a real slump in revenue. Since then, consulting revenue has recovered and virtually exploded in September. It rose by an incredible +147% to CHF 16 692.

Among them was analytics consulting for a Swiss bank, a newsletter template for a retail company, a lectureship at a technical college, and marketing automation consulting for a chamber of commerce.

For the first time, consulting revenue even just overtook our software revenue. We assume that we will probably not be able to maintain this high level yet, but it is a nice confirmation that sustained effort pays off at some point.

Our total revenue for September was CHF 33 215, an increase of +47% over the previous month and the highest revenue in our history.

Costs: increased due to higher salary costs

Our costs increased by +15% to CHF 26 283 in September. Our costs have never been this high.

In addition to the permanent increase in costs due to investments in a management system for ISO 27 001 and ISO 9 001, the increase was mainly due to higher salary costs.

Since we could not cover the enormous amount of consulting with our employees alone, we had to rely more on freelancers, which more than doubled the costs for this item.

I also paid our employees bonuses totaling CHF 1,300 in addition to their salaries as a result of their outstanding performance recently.

The other cost blocks were about the same as the previous month. Here are all our costs including salaries for September 2023 in detail:

Conclusion

There are months when everything just flows.

After posting a small loss in the previous month, we achieved the highest «profit»* in our history in September with almost CHF 7 000.

We owe this to exceptionally high demand for consulting services from our customers.

Even though we will probably not be able to maintain this high level in the long term, the trend in recent months is clearly moving in a good direction.

Our goal remains to achieve sustained profitability and to expand the margin to such an extent that I will be able to pay myself a salary this year if possible.

* “Profit” is deliberately put in quotation marks because I have not yet paid myself a salary for my work and, as a sole founder without investors, I have yet to make up for the loss so far.

Der Beitrag Our best month: Open Startup Report September 2023 erschien zuerst auf Friendly.

August at Friendly in numbers

• Software revenue: 15 865 CHF (+1%)
• Consulting revenue: 6 764 CHF (+55%)
• Total revenue: 22 629 CHF (+13%)
• Costs: 22 781 CHF (+6%)
• Profit and loss: -153 CHF (-90%)
• Active customers: 106 (+6%)
• Churn rate: 2% (∞)
• New trials: 17 (+42%)
• Website visits: 7 552 (+127%)

This is what moved us in August:

Revenue: Software revenue up slightly, consulting revenue up significantly

Our monthly recurring revenue (MRR) from software subscriptions increased for the third month in a row in August, albeit only slightly by +1% to CHF 15,865. This is again the highest software revenue in our history.

We had many smaller new customers who used the last days until the new Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (nFADP) came into effect to switch from Google Analytics to a Swiss alternative.

Although this only made a slight contribution to revenue, the number of our customers rose by a full +6% to 106 – another record.

This development is very welcome for us. We are safer with little revenue from many customers than with a lot of revenue from a few major customers.

Our revenue from consulting grew again by a whopping +55% to CHF 6,764 after the slump in July. About half of this came from work on Friendly Automate and half from work on Friendly Analytics. This is interesting because Friendly Automate accounts for almost 80% of software revenue. The consulting revenue for Analytics is therefore currently disproportionately high in relation to the software revenue.

Our total revenue for August was CHF 22,629, an increase of +13% from the previous month and the second highest revenue in our history after June 2023.

Costs: increased due to investments in safety and quality

Our costs increased by +6% to CHF 22,781 in August, the third highest in our history. The biggest increase was in the “Product” division.

We are increasingly receiving requests from companies and organizations that process sensitive data and have high data protection requirements. We have therefore decided to invest heavily in the security and quality control of our offerings despite limited resources.

With the support of a specialized partner, we are setting up a so-called management system to identify risks and continuously improve safety and quality.

As proof of these activities, we are striving for certification in accordance with ISO 27 001 (information security) and ISO 9 001 (quality management). The first external audit is planned for the end of the year. If we pass this, we will be officially certified in these areas

The costs for setting up the management system amount to CHF 15,000, and another CHF 3,825 will be due later for the initial audit. We can only afford this investment from a cash flow point of view because both partners thankfully allow us to pay in installments. Accordingly, we write off the costs for the installation in the cost report over 12 months.

There was a slight increase in salaries. On the one hand, we finally reversed Kathrin’s salary reduction and increased her salary back to the previous level of 3,000 CHF. On the other hand, our CTO Joey finally has a developer in his team again: Matic Zagmajster from Slovenia. Matic initially starts as a freelancer, but with a fixed workload of 10% for €500 per month.

The other cost categories were about the same as the previous month. Here are all our costs including salaries for August 2023 in detail:

Conclusion

After slipping into the red numbers in July for the first time in three months due to the slump in consulting revenue, we almost returned to “profitability” in August*.

This is all the more remarkable as we have begun a major investment in our information security and quality control with certification for ISO 27 001 and ISO 9 001, which significantly increases monthly costs.

* “Profitability” is deliberately put in quotation marks because I have not yet paid myself a salary for my work and, as a sole founder without investors, I have yet to make up for the loss so far.

Our goal remains to achieve sustained profitability and to expand the margin to such an extent that I will be able to pay myself a salary this year if possible.

Der Beitrag (Almost) “profitable” again despite additional investments in security and quality: Open Startup Report August 2023 erschien zuerst auf Friendly.

July at Friendly in numbers

• Software revenue: 15 712 CHF (+9%)
• Consulting revenue: 4 355 CHF (-58%)
• Total revenue: 20 067 CHF (-19%)
• Costs: 21 529 CHF (-9%)
• Profit and loss: -1 462 CHF (–222%)
• Active customers: 100 (+5%)
• Churn rate: 0% (-100%)
• New trials: 12 (-25%)
• Website visits: 3 320 (-5%)

This is what moved us in July:

Revenue: Software revenue rising, consulting fluctuating

Our monthly recurring revenue (MRR) from software subscriptions increased in July, even by a significant +9% to a record 15 712 CHF.

We owe this to some upgrades as well as five new customers, most of them with Friendly Analytics. Here we clearly benefited from the forced shutdown of Google Analytics 3 / Universal Analytics, and of course from the increasing data protection awareness in Switzerland, accelerated by the new Federal Act on Data Protection (nFADP).

As a result, our customer numbers also increased by +5% and we are celebrating our 100th customer.

Our revenue from consulting, on the other hand, fluctuated and fell by -58% to 4 355 CHF. Our Consulting revenue has not been this low since November 2022.

We explain this with the holiday season and the absence of some of our contact persons. In any case, the demand for consulting is of course always dependent on many factors and is a volatile source of income for us, especially when billing on an hourly basis.

Our goal therefore remains to get into profitablity with the more consistent software revenue alone, and to see consulting only as a “bonus”. And perhaps also to sell consulting with more predictable billing models – for more predictability and stability on both sides.

The total of our income thus amounted to 20 067 CHF in July.

The costs: decreased due to savings on freelancers and advertising

Our costs decreased by -9% to 21,529 CHF in July. The largest decreases were in freelancer expenses and marketing.

Since we had fewer consulting assignments, we were able to cover more with our permanent employees and had to purchase fewer services from freelancers.

This compensated for the fact that we increased Lukas’ workload from 30% to 35%, while also slightly increasing his salary in recognition of his strong performance and as part of his promotion to “Chief Customer Officer”.

Given the continuing tight financial situation, we reduced our spending on advertising by more than a third.

Here are all our costs including salaries for July 2023:

Conclusion

After three profitable months in a row for the first time, we recorded a loss of -1 463 CHF in July. This is painful, but not dramatic in view of the good development in software revenue and customer numbers.

Our goal remains to achieve sustained profitability and to expand the margin to such an extent that I will be able to pay myself a salary this year if possible.

Der Beitrag Software revenue on the rise, but still a loss: Open Startup Report July 2023 erschien zuerst auf Friendly.