We’re selling DropSend!
We’ve made a big decision, over here at Carson Systems Headquarters. We’re selling DropSend, our web app that allows you to send large files that you can’t email.
DropSend is a great web app and here’s why:
- It’s profitable
- It’s well known
- It requires little or no maintenance. I spend about 10 minutes a day answering support emails and we have a freelance developer that spends about one day a month on updates and bug fixes.
- It markets itself - We spend zero money on advertising and DropSend revenue steadily climbs every month.
So why sell?
Here’s why: We’re a small company and we can only focus our full attention on one web app at a time. We’ve just launched Amigo and we’d really like to spend a large chunk of time on marketing and growing it.
So what’s next?
We’re going to be revealing:
- How much revenue DropSend brings in each month
- What the rate of revenue growth is each month
- How many active users we have
- How many users are on each plan (Free, Basic $5, Standard $9, Pro $19 and Business $99)
- How many users access DropSend through the desktop tool versus the web interface
- And more …
Anyone interested in presenting an offer will be invited to get in touch with me directly at ryan-at-dropsend.com.
It should be an interesting ride - stay tuned!
[…] Ryan Carson from Carson Systems wrote to say they are putting DropSend, their profitable file upload tool, up for sale. The small team is transferring its attention to Amigo, its new email newsletter advertising tool. Ryan plans to openly chronicle the sale of the product on Carson Systems’ Bare Naked App blog. Can’t say this is sure to be a riveting tale, but we’ll be keeping an eye on it. […]
Pingback by GigaOM » DropSend for Sale — November 4, 2006 @ 5:28 pm
Best of luck! Interesting to hear this though. If it takes that little effort to maintain, I’d have thought it’d be better to “do a 37signals” and just keep building up your assets and monthly turnover with low maintenance services than cash out.. but looking forward to hearing more :)
Comment by Peter Cooper — November 4, 2006 @ 5:30 pm
[…] For more details checkout DropSend blog. […]
Pingback by StartupSquad » Blog Archive » DropSend on the block — November 4, 2006 @ 6:36 pm
Good luck with your sale, but you kind of contradicted yourself. You said “It requires little or no maintenance” yet you’re selling because you don’t have time to work on it and want to focus all your time on Amigo? Good luck anyway, I’ll be interested in seeing the figures.
Comment by Matt Dempsey — November 4, 2006 @ 6:47 pm
If it´s profitable, requeris little or no maintenance (doesn´t require much attention or time), why are you selling it to free your time to focus on Amigo? It seams that selling it will not free you too much time because it even consume to much time. Anyway, good luck. :)
Comment by Fabio Seixas — November 4, 2006 @ 6:48 pm
This sounds like a contradiction. I’m sure there’s more to it, but this is what I’m reading: “Buy it because it’s no effort at all to maintain” and “We’re selling cause we have too much on our mind to maintain Dropsend”
Comment by Mischa — November 4, 2006 @ 7:03 pm
Best of luck for a quick, profitable sale!
Comment by Michael — November 4, 2006 @ 8:36 pm
DropSend could be even more successful if someone focused 100% of their attention on it.
As I said, we do zero marketing or advertising for it. This is because we don’t have enough time to focus on it. If someone devoted solid time to it, it would grow at an even faster rate.
It’s like having a racing horse that has the potential to win the Grand National, and never taking it out to run.
Comment by Ryan Carson — November 4, 2006 @ 9:35 pm
That’s great, I look forward to seeing some stats :)
Good luck with the sale.
Comment by Ross — November 5, 2006 @ 2:19 am
[…] DropSend, a file sharing application that is similar to the king of the space, YouSendIt, announced itself for sale today. In a follow up post a few hours later a number of potential acquirors were revealed, including Flock (I wonder how Flock feels about this disclosure). The creator, Carson Systems, says that the site is profitable and growing, but that they don’t have enough time to focus on the service. […]
Pingback by Techcrunch » Blog Archive » DropSend For Sale: Flock Is Looking — November 5, 2006 @ 8:52 am
[…] Enligt bloggposten som annonserar försäljningen går DropSend med vinst. Anledningen till försäljningen uppges vara tidsbrist. Carsons lovar också att snart avslöja antalet användare och även förtjänsten per månad. Det ska bli spännande att se vilka siffror som presenteras […]
Pingback by Hej Varlden » DropSend är till salu — November 5, 2006 @ 12:13 pm
[…] We’re selling DropSend! […]
Pingback by CISNKY » DropSend for Sell — November 5, 2006 @ 12:42 pm
I am so 100% certain you guys are going to buy zookoda with the money you’ll earn by selling this. Which, I must admit, thrills me.
Comment by Guillaume — November 5, 2006 @ 1:47 pm
Has this anything to do with www.mediafire.com launching their free “all you can upload” email/storage app ? Ryan is looking forward and obviously dropsend can’t match the offer by mediafire.
Too little, too late IMHO
Comment by Nikosk — November 5, 2006 @ 2:04 pm
[…] DropSend, un service de partage de fichiers similaire au leader du secteur YouSendit vient d’annoncer qu’ils se mettaient en vente aujourd’hui. Le créateur Carson Systems déclare que le site est profitable et en croissance mais qu’ils n’ont pas assez de temps à dédier au service. […]
Pingback by TechCrunch en français » DropSend à vendre: Flock intéressé — November 5, 2006 @ 2:07 pm
[…] Last evening, DropSend announced that it was For Sale. Ok, fair enough. But then a few hours later, it blogged about already receiving several emails expressing interest, including "…one from Geoffrey Arrone (from Flock)". […]
Pingback by DropSend’s “For Sale” Announcement & Curious Chatter at CommaVee — November 5, 2006 @ 5:32 pm
[…] Some people without life (would) do everything to get some attention. The blogger behind iShopr discovered yesterday evening, yes on a saturday evening, the sale of DropSend and kinda broke the story. […]
Pingback by need for life equals need for attention « Smart Ass Farm — November 5, 2006 @ 6:54 pm
[…] ファイル共有のDropSendは、この分野のリーダーYouSendItと似たサービスだが、今日（米国時間11/5）、売却を希望していると発表した。運営会社のCarson Systemsによれば、このサイトは収益を上げ、成長中だが、同社はこのサービスに集中する時間が取れないとのこと。 […]
Pingback by TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » DropSend、売りに出る―Flockが興味か？ — November 6, 2006 @ 12:08 am
[…] Carson Systems are Selling DropSend How fascinating - having blogged about all the ins and outs of developing their second web-app, Amigo, Carson Systems have announced their intention to sell their first app, DropSend. True to form, they’re blogging about as much of the experience as possible. Filed Under: Web, Business & Finance […]
Pingback by Ian Nelson : Carson Systems are Selling DropSend — November 6, 2006 @ 11:56 am
[…] Earlier today TechCrunch.com reported that DropSend, a file sharing application, had announced itself for sale today. The owners, Bristol based, Carson Systems, says that “the site is profitable and growing, but that they don’t have enough time to focus on the service”. […]
Pingback by TechCrunch UK » Blog Archive » DropSend For Sale — November 6, 2006 @ 3:00 pm
[…] Our friends over at Carson Systems have announced that they are selling their online files storage solution DropSend. It’s exciting to hear that they are selling this service, as it has grown over the last year to 45,000 users (as reported by Ryan Carson at the Future of Web Apps Conference Aug 06). […]
Pingback by Voodoo Ventures - Idea Fuel Blog » DropSend on the Block — November 6, 2006 @ 4:08 pm
[…] Deze screenshot is een recente weergave van de Inbox van de makers van DropSend. sinds TechCrunch aandacht besteedde aan de verkoop gaat het hard getuige de vele e-mails die men binnenkrijgt. En aangezien volledige openheid over de verkoop aangekondigd is, is het interessant te volgen wat er nu gebeurt. Alle seinen - veel aandacht voor de aktie, spanning over het verloop, een mooie propositie om partijen tegen elkaar uit te kunnen spelen - staan immers op groen voor een hele mooie prijs. Ik ben benieuwd! Tags: amigo, dropsend, sale Plaats op… BlinkList […]
Pingback by Wegens te weinig focus te koop: DropSend · BlueAce — November 6, 2006 @ 5:47 pm
[…] Ryan Carson’s decision to sell DropSend may be quite odd - especially if it’s as profitable as they are making it seem. I can understand the need to focus on other, higher priority projects, but merely dumping off a product that is profitable and has huge potential to grow smells slightly fishy in my book. I’m willing to bet the margin of growth each month is starting to decline and the grass isn’t as green as Carson Systems would want you to believe. Even more mystifying is the fact that Flock is in discussions about the purchase. I understand why - online file storage via your browser fits directly into their ‘vision’ of how the web should work. What I don’t understand is how - it’s apalling to me a company with no product or business plan could raise enough funding (Anyone know how much they raised? A quick TechCrunch search didn’t provide any relevant topics.) to continue Flock, much less purchase other products! […]
Pingback by DropSend Sale Provides a Glimmer of Hope » MichaelWales.com — November 6, 2006 @ 6:02 pm
[…] Θεωρώντας ότι είναι μια επιχείρηση που μπορεί να βγάλει πολλά περισσότερα αν κάποιος αφιερώσει περισσότερο χρόνο (που αυτός δεν μπορεί…), αποφάσισε να την πουλήσει. Έφτιαξε λοιπόν ένα Blog για αυτή τη δουλειά. […]
Pingback by Dropsend - Πωλείται μέσω blog - Blogopoly — November 11, 2006 @ 5:33 pm
[…] DropSend, a file sharing application that is similar to the king of the space, YouSendIt, announced itself for sale today. The creator, Carson Systems, says that the site is profitable and growing, but that they don’t have enough time to focus on the service. […]
Pingback by Naik’s News » DropSend For Sale: Flock Is Looking — November 15, 2006 @ 6:59 am
[…] It’s been a little over three weeks since we announced our plans to sell DropSend. A phenomenal amount has happened in that time and we’ve already learned so many lessons about the ins and outs of selling a web application. […]
Pingback by Vitamin Features » Guess the Value: Basecamp — November 20, 2006 @ 5:25 pm
[…] I’ve been watching with great interest the information Carson Systems is putting out about the process of selling their application, DropSend. I have a number of ideas for online applications and the data they’ve shared has been highly informative. […]
Pingback by Lara Kramer » Blog Archive » Products and Services — November 24, 2006 @ 4:26 pm
[…] Although we have presumed valuations for each of those companies, we don’t have the necessary metrics to compare each of them to Basecamp. However, thanks to Ryan’s transparency with the sale of Dropsend, we’ve got a lot of information to compare DropSend and Basecamp. So, let’s get started. […]
Pingback by Voodoo Ventures - Idea Fuel Blog » Basecamp vs. Dropsend Valuation Smackdown — November 27, 2006 @ 4:34 pm
[…] In case you missed it over on Bare Naked App, we’re in the process of selling DropSend. I’ve decided to move the discussion over here at Carsonified. […]
Pingback by Carsonified! » Blog Archive » Things potential buyers are asking about DropSend — November 30, 2006 @ 11:38 am
[…] Here’s the latest on the DropSend sale … […]
Pingback by Carsonified! » Blog Archive » DropSend acquisition talks fall through with YouSendIt — December 14, 2006 @ 11:56 am
[…] Wall Street Journal, Is ‘Web 2.0′ Another Bubble? Vitamin, The Adventures of Huckabuck A VC, The End of Page Views Bare Naked App, Selling Drop Send […]
Pingback by lab:kloud9 - Make money using the world wide web… — December 30, 2006 @ 9:51 am
[…] When Ryan Carson announced that he was putting DropSend up for sale I was very interested to see how it would work out. Here you had a service that had a decent user base that was willing to pay a monthly fee to use. In comparison to other Web 2.0 applications that attempt to live off of Adsense revenue, DropSend showed real potential to be a key component for any company looking to enter the file-sharing space. Two months later and DropSend hasn’t found a buyer yet. […]
Pingback by When Fake Money is Greater Than Real Money » Wisdump — January 4, 2007 @ 5:23 pm