I actually didn't want this article submitted so I flagged it. Kidding, kidding. There are, however, some out of context quotes and a ridiculous looking picture (the photographer was nice, but quirky). Oh well, I <3 press.<p><i>To clarify:</i><p>-We've never said that we'll never take money. In an ideal situation, startups would not have to take money and if we can get away with it great, if not that's okay. We're well aware that the odds are against us on this one.<p>-We've been very open with this with our potential investors. The sharp money is still investing in this economy and luckily some of them are still interested in us. You think a VC will argue with you when you say you want more months of operational information so you can make a better informed, data-driven decision? Nada. I've talked to four potential investors this week alone.<p>-Due to the economy, sales have stayed relatively flat as average sales have gone down while volume has gone up. However, we're still working out bugs and have over $1 billion worth of tickets on the site. Most people don't even know we have concert tickets yet, which is by design. We'll be chasing more PR soon, which will hopefully lead to real salaries for myself and Tom.<p>-We don't have a model, a deck, a pitch book or executive summary. We'll make them on demand if they are ever needed. If you want to do it right, it's a very time consuming process. In the short term we thought it was a better use of our time to talk to our users (I respond to literally every non-form letter email), create content, develop and sell.<p>-Obviously models can reflect growth rates. My point was: when you are growing quickly in the early stages, by the time you get to the final boardroom meeting, everything can very easily be out of date. This is especially true when you haven't spent any money on advertising.<p>-Month over month traffic is up 67% as of today. This is largely due to Obama Tickets, more pages being indexed, SEO and good ol Google.<p>-I haven't had a haircut since I quit my job. \m/<p>Edit: Of course as I write this our contact page is down. We're on it.<p>Edit 2: It's back up.
I have to say, Congratulations to Tom and Dan. Turning a profit from the get-go is very rare, and they managed it quite well. It's great to see that snowball rolling downhill...<p>Cheers!
Can't comment on the photo, but I think "out of context" is a little harsh. Here's why: <a href="http://tinyurl.com/5bvwzz" rel="nofollow">http://tinyurl.com/5bvwzz</a>
-Galen (the MHT reporter)