Dragons' Den star's biz Outsourcery sends yet more millions up in smoke Cloud service provider Outsourcery has released its half-year financials while talking up its business potential, quietly avoiding the fact that it has little to boast about in terms of actual performance. Revenues at the cloud services player to the end of June moved up 23.5 per cent to £2.1m (including £1.5m of recurring …
I think most have figured out by now that the best option 3 (for themselves) is:
3. Sell stuff in 1. to third parties (especially advertisers)
Works for FacePalm etc. (sorta).
Of course, what is good for them is not necessarily good for those putting the stuff in 1. into the cloud in the first place Particularly personal details and behaviour.
Im not sure the Regs numbers are right.
As well as being the fuglyest press release I have ever seen I dont know why an investor would touch these guys with a barge pole.
EBITDA on the press release is £3.2m which is what I would have expected, and with £7m in the bank they are blowing through their cash pile at a rate that gives them a year more life.
WTF?
Too true. In my experience, they do what it says on the tin... they outsource.
They approached me over a substantial Lync implementation - yes, they had they skills, they had the pedigree they assured me..... then they phoned one of the other firms I was talking to to see if they could help them with a Lync project. They add no value, can't understand how a business model like that is allowed to survive.
According to Companies House, 32 of the companies he's been inolved with have folded. Luckily, Outsourcery appears to be doing very well. .... http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/dragons-den-piers-linney-10-2145466
Dragon's Den - more like Marketeer's Den. With a few exceptions they generally only ever back business proposals that are either already successful or they believe they can get into the market using their TV celebrity profile. The punters know this of course, that's why they never ask for much money - they are there to get the best-Marketing-Director-ever in return for equity. But everyone involved likes to keep up the pretence so the programme doesn't just look like an interview process.
Then the punters are put through the excruciating indignity of having to recite their company figures from memory - unlike real life where you and the investors have the numbers in front of them in what we like to call a 'business plan'. In any of the programmes I have watched, not one 'Dragon' has ever asked for a business plan.
And then the 'Dragons' shark for something like 40% of the business whatever stage its at - leaving only just enough to keep the founder in the game and motivated. And if the punter doesn't want to give away that much equity for a celebrity Marketing Director they get berated about the company's over-valuation, which has more formulas than motor racing.
A 'Dragon's' best ever business move was to get themselves on Dragon's Den.
There are plenty of providers out there offering good services at a fair price and making money. Just because their are too many fools like this who think burning cash is a sensible approach doesn't mean everyone operates that way.
The lesson is simple, understand what you want before approaching a provider and be prepared for them to ask you lots of questions, and if it looks too cheap then it probably is a crap service
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