In summary, Sourcehut is financially healthy, with an operating monthly profit of about $1,038. Slowed growth in Q2 picked back up in Q3, to levels similar to Q1. Though perpetual growth is not a goal of Sourcehut, growth does help us accomplish our goals. One of these goals is to sponsor members of the open-source community to work on self-directed projects - a goal which was met for Q4, when Simon Ser will be joining us. My goals for future growth are:
- Investing in additional hardware and resources
- Marketing & outreach
- Investing in the broader open-source ecosystem
Thank you for your support in the alpha. I’m looking forward to continuing to serve you.
Disclaimer: this report is a summarized approximation of Sourcehut’s financials, and is not used for tax purposes.
Revenue sources
Sourcehut receives revenue from paid user subscriptions. During Q1, we processed 1,134 invoices. The invoices paid break down as:
612 $2 (paid monthly)
282 $5 (paid monthly)
65 $10 (paid monthly)
121 $2 (paid yearly)
43 $5 (paid yearly)
11 $10 (paid yearly)
The total gross revenue during this period was $9,172.00, which after transaction fees comes out to $8,511.83. This is an improvement over Q2, but falls just short of Q1 revenue. In Q3, 1,650 new users registered accounts, of which 204 (12%) have paid for their account. As of the end of Q3, there were 10,331 registered users in total, of which 1,272 (12.3%) have paid subscriptions.
At time of writing (2 weeks into Q4), the breakdown of subscription types is as follows:
223 $2 (paid monthly)
104 $5 (paid monthly)
26 $10 (paid monthly)
582 $2 (paid yearly)
174 $5 (paid yearly)
62 $10 (paid yearly)
The monthly revenue from these subscriptions (with annual subscriptions realized over 12 months) is approximately $3,307, after transaction fees. This is a $734 increase in monthly revenue compared to Q2.
Sourcehut has $10,748 in the bank at the time of writing (2019-10-21).
Breakdown of Q3 expenses:
$1950 Philadelphia datacenter lease (inc. network, power, etc)
$1693 New server equipment
$ 360 Contractor payments (artwork)
$ 129 San Francisco datacenter lease (inc. network, power, etc)
$ 107 Misc
$ 95 Research expenses (names.sr.ht)
Payroll:
$1,500.00 Drew DeVault (CEO)
+$ 179.07 Employer taxes & processing fees
Going into Q4, our monthly expenses are expected to be:
$1500/mo Payroll (approximate)
$640.00/mo Philadelphia datacenter lease
$129/qtr San Francisco datacenter lease
Starting in Q4, Sourcehut will be sponsoring the work of free software developer Simon Ser, which is being recorded under Payroll for these quarterly financial reports. To protect his privacy, I have adjusted my personal salary and summed payroll into a single figure. This figure will continue to be opaque until a few more hires are made, after which I will resume disclosure of my personal salary.
The closure of Q4 will mark one year of Sourcehut’s public alpha. Accordingly, yearly subscriptions will be renewing for the first time. What fraction of these subscriptions will bounce, be cancelled, or refunded will have a significant impact our financial planning, and is the biggest financial unknown we face leading into Q4. We’re planning a light marketing drive to remind our subscribers of what we’ve accomplished in 2019, and what we’re planning going into 2020.