Cheap PC Company In Trouble
from the told-ya-so dept
Back in April, I posted an article about SlipStream in which I indicated that it probably wasn't going to work. Of course, I didn't think it would only take two months to go down the drain. I still wouldn't be surprised if some investor tries to bail them out. The whole thing is silly though. Apparenlty no one actually writes business plans and tries to understand a market any more before just going in to business.
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Its a flaw in their financing, not in their concep
Their financial backer is walking out on them. So they're doing the right thing and not taking anyone else's money until they have the cash reserves to carry through on their promises. It sounds like they've been caught in a nasty situation through little fault of their own, and they're doing the best they can.
After all, it's going to take time for them to find more financial backing (or get the money they were promised from their backer). People are saying "It's been a whole 24 hours, where's my free PC?" and it totally ignores the fact that the financial end of things doesn't run on Internet time.
And, how many users did they sign up in just a few weeks? Sounds like something was working...
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Re: Its a flaw in their financing, not in their co
However... I still question their business plan on the following grounds: they admit in the article that they are losing hundreds of dollars on each sale, and yet they hope to make that up on rental applications. At the same time they don't give any requirement to rent the apps. You definitely have a problem, where people will self select themselves to buy the PCs but not use the apps, and then the company is basically giving away a dollar for ever 80 cents that someone sends them. That's really not sustainable.
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Hmm, point taken.
Yes, it does seem like they're taking a high-risk approach. Maybe if they just concentrated on the software rental side of the business, to see if it would actually work?
Jon Acheson
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