Jaxtr CEO Is Out
Two weeks after laying off 30 percent of his employees, Jaxtr CEO Konstantin Guericke finds himself out of a job. He is being replaced by vice president of engineering Bahman Koohestani (former CTO at Cyworld and Orbitz), who will be acting as “interim” CEO.
Jaxtr offers VoIP calls to both your regular and mobile phone. Its last round was a $10 million Series B in June. Investors include Lehman Brothers Venture Capital (yup, they are still around), August Capital, Mangrove, Mayfield, DFJ, and angels Ron Conway and Reid Hoffman. (Guericke was part of the founding team at LinkedIn).
The company is obviously going through a rough time, but Koohestani still spins it as a “very healthy” business. He offers the following partial stats:
On average paying members go through $10 worth of jax calling credits in just nine days, leading to strong repeat purchase behavior where now 68 percent of our minutes are now paid for and we are seeing a strong commitment to purchase premium memberships. 43 percent of our new buyers opt for a premium membership. This is a predictable revenue stream, which is subscription-based.
That is great that such a high percentage of Jaxtr’s phone minutes are being paid for. The unanswered question, unfortunately, is whether the amount Jaxtr charges covers its costs.
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Jaxtr CEO Is Out
Two weeks after laying off 30 percent of his employees, Jaxtr CEO Konstantin Guericke finds himself out of a job. He is being replaced by vice president of engineering Bahman Koohestani (former CTO at Cyworld and Orbitz), who will be acting as “interim” CEO.
Jaxtr offers VoIP calls to both your regular and mobile phone. Its last round was a $10 million Series B in June. Investors include Lehman Brothers Venture Capital (yup, they are still around), August Capital, Mangrove, Mayfield, DFJ, and angels Ron Conway and Reid Hoffman. (Guericke was part of the founding team at LinkedIn).
The company is obviously going through a rough time, but Koohestani still spins it as a “very healthy” business. He offers the following partial stats:
On average paying members go through $10 worth of jax calling credits in just nine days, leading to strong repeat purchase behavior where now 68 percent of our minutes are now paid for and we are seeing a strong commitment to purchase premium memberships. 43 percent of our new buyers opt for a premium membership. This is a predictable revenue stream, which is subscription-based.
That is great that such a high percentage of Jaxtr’s phone minutes are being paid for. The unanswered question, unfortunately, is whether the amount Jaxtr charges covers its costs.
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A Spot Of Trouble At Spot Runner
There is no escape from the advertising recession. Not even for hotshot TV advertising startup Spot Runner. Despite having raised more than $111 million, half of that as recently as last May, the LA-based company may be in for a major round of layoffs next week following the election (and the associated last-minute media blitz).
As many as 25 percent of its more than 300 employees may find themselves without a job come next Thursday. While the exact number has not yet been determined, I have been able to confirm that the company is currently going through a cost-reduction planning process and is looking at all options in light of the deteriorating advertising environment.
Any job cuts would be on top of an earlier round of layoffs last August, which resulted in 50 people losing their employment. Another 50 or so subsequently left on their own account. According to one former employee who quit, morale is low and a sense of disillusionment permeates the company, at least among the engineers. That’s not a good thing for a tech company. This engineer describes Spot Runner as being more of a tech facade for a regular ad agency.
Spot Runner ramped up employees too fast in a rush to grab market share before Google gets truly serious about the same Web-mediated TV advertising opportunity. Now, it has to worry more about making its cash last and getting to profitability. The number of expected cuts among employees is another 50 to 75. But, again, our understanding is that the exact number has not yet been finalized. When and if job cuts occur, we will add them to our Layoff Tracker.
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A Spot Of Trouble At Spot Runner
There is no escape from the advertising recession. Not even for hotshot TV advertising startup Spot Runner. Despite having raised more than $111 million, half of that as recently as last May, the LA-based company may be in for a major round of layoffs next week following the election (and the associated last-minute media blitz).
As many as 25 percent of its more than 300 employees may find themselves without a job come next Thursday. While the exact number has not yet been determined, I have been able to confirm that the company is currently going through a cost-reduction planning process and is looking at all options in light of the deteriorating advertising environment.
Any job cuts would be on top of an earlier round of layoffs last August, which resulted in 50 people losing their employment. Another 50 or so subsequently left on their own account. According to one former employee who quit, morale is low and a sense of disillusionment permeates the company, at least among the engineers. That’s not a good thing for a tech company. This engineer describes Spot Runner as being more of a tech facade for a regular ad agency.
Spot Runner ramped up employees too fast in a rush to grab market share before Google gets truly serious about the same Web-mediated TV advertising opportunity. Now, it has to worry more about making its cash last and getting to profitability. The number of expected cuts among employees is another 50 to 75. But, again, our understanding is that the exact number has not yet been finalized. When and if job cuts occur, we will add them to our Layoff Tracker.
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