I’ve waited a long time to write this blog post, and I know this will be bittersweet to some because we had to raise prices to get here, but most people we’ve told (merchants and other business owners) see this as a wonderful thing and one of the key reasons they rely on Chargify…
CHARGIFY IS PROFITABLE
Chargify is a great team of 10 people plus some outside help. We started much smaller and grew with the number of merchants we support.
After setting initial pricing much too low and then going through two adjustments since 2010, we got our prices in line with the real costs of supporting 900 businesses.
It feels very good after 3 years to NOT be burning cash each month.
And we still have a nice chunk of Mark Cuban’s investment from last summer. As I said to Mark early this year, “We want to invest that capital, not burn it on operational losses.” To which he replied, “Amen.”
Most people, upon hearing this, give us a high five or say something similar. Most entrepreneurs know that it’s usually a long road from idea to profitability.
But we couldn’t have done it without you, and the journey is still early - we have to maintain and grow Chargify to keep up with the needs of our merchants, affiliates, partners, dev/design shops, and eveyrone else who’s helped us get this far.
So with a small and growing profit, plus some money in the bank, we’re making Chargify better.
PROFIT AFFORDS A BETTER CHARGIFY
- We hired our first full-time systems engineer last month. We jumped the gun on this a little bit, but keeping our systems healthy and growing is one of the most important things we do for you.
- We’re testing data centers to set up our second set of infrastructure. Right now, we run in one data center, and that presents risks. We aim to run two data centers in geographically diverse areas.
- Our second Level 2 tech support person starts in 2 weeks.
- We’ve retained a highly regarded U.S. development firm (Mutually Human) to help us get large features out faster. They kicked off their first project with us at Chargicon, starting with conversations with merchants.
- I’ll start collecting a moderate paycheck. I invested in Chargify when I joined the team in 2009 and I’ve been working for free ever since, but I don’t want to do that forever, and the things I do need to be paid for, whether it’s me doing them or someone else. (For those who care, my deal was: I’ll invest and work for free until we get this thing profitable.)
THANK YOU
Again, thanks to all of our merchants, affiliates, partners, dev/design shops, and eveyrone else who’s helped us get this far.
It’s your monthly payment to Chargify that makes this all possible.
We’ll continue developing Chargify to help you run more and more interesting parts of your business.
Thanks.
—- Lance Walley, co-founder/CEO
—- Chargify
—- lwalley@chargify.com
—- 415-244-0349 cell