May 10, 2001

12:49 PM

Update on FuckedCompany.com.A lesson for all those who pooh-pooh'ed Pud's move to start a subscriber service from his free site: he's now got 860 subscribers paying an average of $63/month, so he's making over $650K a year. Not bad in less than 2 months. Article is a couple of days old, but I missed it when it came out - sorry if it's old news =)
posted by JParker (20 comments total)

Good for Pud: Independent producer creates sustainable online business.
posted by tranquileye at 1:12 PM on May 10, 2001

Wow. I bet his newsletter will get a bit more cheerful.
posted by th3ph17 at 1:28 PM on May 10, 2001

His expenses are minimal: rent on his 31st Street loft, and salary for a single assistant.

now that the ipo craze is over, maybe we'll see more successful sites using this model.
posted by lescour at 1:30 PM on May 10, 2001

God Bless Pud.
posted by tranquileye at 1:58 PM on May 10, 2001

This suggests that people are most willing to pay for information concerning their possible future unemployment.

I wonder If one could deduct the subscription fee on one's taxes as a business expense????
posted by ParisParamus at 2:07 PM on May 10, 2001

The 650K a year figure is based on all these subscriptions being sustained. If his rumor mill isn't worth the $75/month asking price, the 860 could go down, if people find it's not a reliable or useful resource for business intelligence. If it is worth it, expect the numbers to surge, along with his income. I would expect this information becomes less important over time though, as companies stabilize.

I think it's a tad early to call this a total success. A few months from now yeah, but he just launched it less than 2 months back.
posted by mathowie at 2:10 PM on May 10, 2001

"F****d Company"

I can't stand *****'s. It reminds me of flowers I sent to a friend with the message "today is your day, grab it by the balls." She called the next day very confused about the message. The card had arrived "today is your day, grab it by the b***s. She was never one for hangman.
posted by heather at 2:10 PM on May 10, 2001

By the way, this works: http://www.f---edcompany.com.

I suppose that Pud registered it knowing that the URL would have to be forwarded around in places of business. He's obviously a smart and resourceful guy.
posted by fooljay at 2:34 PM on May 10, 2001

Assuming that pud's info is fairly reliable, I wonder if any people are using it as a supplimental source of info for day/semiday trading activities. Knowing about some of these layoffs may be worth it, especially in companies that don't get heavy press coverage..... Just a thought....
posted by Witold at 2:54 PM on May 10, 2001

I have a feeling a large majority of people paying for the service are company insiders looking to see if their company employees are tattling to the rag during difficult times. I know I was tempted when the dot com I was working for was on the way down, and I could see that there were rumors being reported but I couldn't see them.

If this is the case, look for Mathowie's drop scenario to take place-- however as those people drop out, new company HR and VP types are always going to step up and check out the scene, even if it's just for a month.

Even if his numbers are half of the 650k scenario, it's a great business for one person to run. Shows that the internet is a brilliant business environment, as long as you're selling information, and your costs are extremely low.
posted by FPN at 3:03 PM on May 10, 2001

How long can the subscription numbers hold? The dot-com crash is already winding down. News of tech layoffs can only stay valuable for a finite period. Plus the free site must stay sticky enough to attract all those rumors.
posted by Erendadus at 4:00 PM on May 10, 2001

There are still plenty of companies out there however, each looking for some advantage over their competitors in order reach for the golden ring of sustainability. I know a guy who works for a company who subscribes to the service in order to find out all of the latest dirt about their competitors. This information could be considered invaluable when participating in a competitive RFP process.
posted by fooljay at 4:05 PM on May 10, 2001

Now if he could just make the crap filter work in the Happy Slander boards. I also wonder if subscribers get a version of the site that's been run through a spellchecker - for sixty bucks a month, the apostrophe's ought to be in the right place.

That said, good for him! Content: the final frontier.
posted by lileks at 7:34 PM on May 10, 2001

I think a lot of the customers have gotta be the media. They're always looking for that scoop.
posted by owillis at 8:07 PM on May 10, 2001

I'm halfway confident that the historical trend of 90% of businesses failing within three years will hold.
posted by dhartung at 8:17 PM on May 10, 2001

I had an email exchange with Pud when he first launched the site - I was the first ever deadpool champion, so he asked if he could forward my name to journos.

At that time he seemed to genuinely (I believed, and still do) feel that it was fun, kind of a pain in that it was a lot of work, but ultimately silly. Especially the notice he was getting over it - which at first was over the top, and now is just ridiculous.

I got really bored with it as soon as the message boards went up - but I'm happy that a guy who just started a little project like a hundred others, for a lark, might be able to ride it for a while both in terms of notoriety and maybe some cash.
posted by mikel at 8:40 PM on May 10, 2001

Wow. Serious thanks fooljay. Stupid smartfilter at work only blocks three or four sites and that`s one of them.

Seriously. Thanks.
posted by chiheisen at 11:53 PM on May 10, 2001

For those of you who work for companies that make it to fuckedcompany.com like myself, you may go into work one day and find that you can't access the site. They blocked the site where I work (xdrive.com). Little do the idiots know that you can access the site from a proxy server website. If this has happened to any of you, just visit www.fakeproxy.com and go to fuckedcompany that way. Enjoy. :)
posted by GrooveJedi at 4:06 AM on May 12, 2001

Free fakeproxy is no more...
posted by ParisParamus at 6:55 AM on May 12, 2001

No problem, chiheisen. Always here to please...

GrooveJedi, my condolences on your press (I work for i-drive...)
posted by fooljay at 2:28 AM on May 13, 2001