Bare Naked App

Well, here we go!

How much profit does DropSend bring in each month?

• Revenue: $9,041.81 per month (and growing by 8.6% per month)
• Costs: $2,100 per month (Servers at 365main.com + maintenance)
• Profit: $6,941.81 per month

The above image is from our new stats package that we just installed.

Predicted Revenue Growth?

So how fast is Dropsend revenue growing? A lot :) By the Dec ‘07, based on very conservative estimates, it will be bringing in $21,000+ per month.

The extraordinary thing about this growth, is that we do zero advertising for DropSend. This is purely viral growth. If the buyer of DropSend spends a reasonable ($10K?) on advertising, it should easily double those revenues.

So why are you selling?!

Businesses are built to be sold. Some take a long time to build and sell, some take less. We feel it’s time to capitalize on our initial investment. The timing is perfect for us.

Let me be clear: Carson Systems does not need cash - that’s not what this is about. We don’t have a cent of debt and are profitable as a company.

Here’s the latest on what’s going on with the sale. I have to admit, things are moving faster than I thought they would. It’s getting kind of crazy (in a good way).

Here are the type of companies that have expressed interest:

1. Hosting companies
2. Software companies
3. Browsers
4. Small, medium and large web app shops
5. Web design companies
6. Email hosting companies
7. CRM companies
8. Various entrepreneurs

I think I made a mistake by disclosing that I was IM’ing Geoff Arrone from Flock and I’ve sent him an apology over email. We won’t be disclosing the companies or names of those who get in touch from now on.

The goal of blogging about the sale of DropSend is to de-mystify the process for everyone. We are totally inexperienced at this and we thought it would be useful for everyone to learn from our experience.

Let the adventure continue!

Mike Arrington picked up the sale of DropSend and posted about it on TechCrunch.

Wow, as soon as we announced the sale of DropSend the emails started coming in.

So far we’ve received five six emails expressing interest. I also had an IM conversation with Geoffrey Arrone (from Flock).

We had several comments asking why would sell, if DropSend is profitable and requires very little maintenance. Here’s why:

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 (because we’re a small company). If someone devoted solid time to it, it would grow at an even faster rate. I believe it could double or triple it’s current revenue.

It’s like having a racing horse that has the potential to win the Grand National, and never taking it out to run.

So, the next step will be to publish our user stats and financial figures. Stay tuned …

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:

1. It’s profitable
2. It’s well known
3. 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.
4. 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:

1. How much revenue DropSend brings in each month
2. What the rate of revenue growth is each month
3. How many active users we have
4. How many users are on each plan (Free, Basic $5, Standard $9, Pro $19 and Business $99)
5. How many users access DropSend through the desktop tool versus the web interface
6. 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!

Now that barenakedapp.com is closing, I figured I’d use this chance to do a quick, “what’s next”.

Well, obviouslly I’ll still be working on Amigo with the team, but as I’m a freelance developer there’s always another project to work on. I’ve got a few of those going on, Dexmo should go live next. I’ve also got a few of my own projects (kapoddo might be next on that front), if anyone listening has a site with 5k+ visitors monthly please get in contact (dave@builtbydave.co.uk).

It’s been a great time sharing info here, the ups, the downs, even the moon on a stick! If I’m ever at a conference/event near you please come and say “Hi”. Until next time, signing off..

Well everyone, it’s been an amazing ride on the Bare Naked App Express. Thank you for joining us along the journey. Gill and I have sure enjoyed sharing all of the victories, defeats, and craziness that has gone along with building Amigo.

We’ve decided it’s time to focus on growing Amigo and really making it fly. In light of that, we’re going to stop posting to BNA and focus 100% on that.

Thanks so much for cheering us along - we couldn’t have done it without you!

(Thanks to Shaun Inman for the photo)

We’ve submitted Barenaked App (the figures behind top web apps) as a proposed panel at next year’s SXSW interactive festival in Austin, TX. So if you’re going to SXSW, or you just think it would be a cool to know the figures behind other web apps then vote for us over at the panel picker (choose the Web 2.0 drop-down).

The guys at SXSW usually release the podcasts after the event so even if you’re not attending we think it would be a good panel to listen to.

Well, we were hoping for a ’soft’ launch but TechCrunch, as apparently avid readers of Barenaked App, had other ideas. Here’s what they said about Amigo:

“Simple but elegant”

“…much of Web 2.0 is about moving beyond email for communication with constituents - but a person can’t live on kool aid alone and Amigo is an interesting development.”

“All in all, it’s a nice clean, simple system that was developed in a transparent way by some people who are active participants in the Web 2.0 community.”

We’re overjoyed! Amigo is running steady, we’re on the front page of TechCrunch and the Summit in San Francisco is just around the corner.

Read the complete article here.

Holy heck! Amigo is alive and kicking!

You faithful BNA readers are the first to know. Please give it a good thrashing and email us if you find any errors. Please submit any bugs (with screenshots, what platform you’re on and what you were doing) to support -a-t- heyamigo d*o*t net

The above screenshot is me telling BitPusher to set it live :)

Thank you for all your support, feedback and encouragement. It means a lot to us. We’ll keep you updated on how it’s going.