Comments on: Let’s talk about Sparrow

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 13:38:57 +0000

Well..it is a 5 person team. Going by this article…round numbers is $200k per person. Plus benefits (if they have any, if not then their pay needs to be higher). That is $1mil/year in salaries. So that $2mil would cover them for 2 years. Unless they have offices, equipment, etc. then less. Plus–that $2mil was probably gross revenue–meaning after Apple’s cut–only $1.4mil. They had worked for several months before it came out, by the time the $1.4mil hit they were probably a year into it. And sales had fallen off. Unlikely to have been able to make payroll by years end.

By: Serge

Serge — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 08:47:39 +0000

“To match Google’s offer, every Sparrow user would have to have paid $93 (for an iOS license) or $310 (for a Mac license)”
– Google paid all that money to kill the product and remove it from the market instead of making it flourish further. That’s what I’d call an ‘anti-investment’. Whether most/some of those folks “spawn a team full of serial entrepreneurs” is a big IF, not a given. Or do people join a huge corp with the sole aim of quitting it in a couple of years and starting spawning start-ups?

By: Drew Crawford

Drew Crawford — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 20:28:08 +0000

Possible. Let's say the company's revenue is $2m, which reconciles with other analysts. It's still a far cry from the $25m that Google offered. Your iOS license is now "merely" $37 or OS X license "merely" $125 to match Google's offer. The best use of that $25m was not to throw it away and add more features to an e-mail client.

By: Hendrik

Hendrik — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 19:21:56 +0000

Those Xyologic numbers seem to be complete BS. I compared our own sales figures to those reported there and the numbers were WAY off.
I would say it is fairly safe to assume that the Sparrow guys had at least 2 million $ in income, which is more than sustainable for a 4 person team.

By: Michael Tsai - Blog - Sparrow and Google

Michael Tsai - Blog - Sparrow and Google — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 18:00:57 +0000

[…] van der Merwe (via Drew Crawford): This is the core of the disappointment that many of us feel with the Sparrow acquisition. […]