SpinVox Investor: ‘It’s A Nice Problem To Have’
A Dragon’s Den investor who is one of SpinVox‘s key advisers has come out batting for the under-fire voice-to-text firm. Asked about outcry over the company’s financial issues and off-shoring of voicemail transcription, Julie Meyer, whose Ariadne Capital holds an equity stake in return for advising the firm, told paidContent:UK: “In a way, it’s a nice problem to have. I’d much rather be in this situation than a company with no market traction that is going nowhere fast. They’re managing very rapid growth in a difficult market.”
– Diligence then: Meyer told Newsnight in 2007 CEO Christina Domecq “has not slowed down even for due diligence cycles and venture capitalists she wants to work with … some of the people who’ve backed her have been willing to buy in to her, do fairly minimal due diligence and realise they’re backing her and her judgment on the team and the market opportunities”.
– Diligence now: With $200 million funding now under SpinVox’s belt, Meyer told me Friday: “I’ve seen a lot of companies get funded; the documentation that was given to (SpinVox) investors in terms of due diligence was world-class, has been first rate. The likes of a Telefonica (NYSE: TEF) and the business case that’s been put to them, it simply would not work if it was all human transcription.”
Referring back to Newsnight: “I said investors backed Christina’s vision of the market and that’s different from saying there’s little due diligence or little that’s on offer;” it was a brief clip from a longer interview, two years ago. “The point I was making is that I believe most investors have been fascinated with the innovation and the vision of the market. They are executing on that vision, otherwise they simply would not have found the customers they have. I think it all stacks up, I really do.”
Meyer, who also judges Dragon’s Den online pitches and co-founded First Tuesday, added: “I’ve seen so many mobile companies fail to get in to the operators – finally, we’ve got a UK success story. These guys have sold in to the likes of Telefonica, who are deploying SpinVox in 13 countries; I can’t even fathom how somebody would call that a failure. These guys have been over-the-top successful.
“It’s hard to build businesses. This is an extremely well-managed business, world-class people that are absolutely working their butts off.” That doesn’t ring true with comments coming from employees past and present, some of whom claim unpaid salary and expenses: “I do believe all SpinVox employees were paid their payrolls today, a couple of days early. Human behaviour is that, when you’re let go, sometimes people tend to squawk.”
Some of the hoo-hah is coming from users who were, until the recent reports, under the impression the voicemail-to-text conversion was 100 percent automated. Meyer: “How they could be under that impression, I don’t know, I don’t believe they’ve ever suggested or put in writing that it was 100 percent automation. I cannot imagine they would have said that in any situation.” Were investors aware SpinVox was part-human transcription?: “Yeah, of course. Investors are fascinated with the innovation at this company.”
While the notion SpinVox is not 100 percent automated has surprised some now the BBC has taken up the subject, some industry analysts say it’s never been a secret; SpinVox’s terms and conditions say voicemails may undergo “single or multiple human review”.
"In a way, itâs a nice problem to have"?????? Is Julie Meyer this clueless? I still don't understand how Spinvox gets away with counting actual users with *potential* users.
Well that says it all. A person with a vested interest in the firm says it's all OK, financially speaking that is. "I believe all staff have got paid", which really means she has no idea. And just because they have deals with Telefonica and so on, doesn't mean they are making any money from them.
Also more over they claim they have 100 million customers, but even before that customers were in the millions. It just doesn't stack up if you look at their last accounts which even if each customer was giving them 50p a year they would have 50 million coming in per annum, but last accounts show 2 million and if you look at their pricing they should be making a lot lot more than that. Based on income I'd think they have about 40-50,000 customers, and if they do have 100 million customers then the business is just making a loss from everything.
As an investor not something I'd invest in, but I'd be bleating the same story if I was an investor already hoping to sell up if someone more gullible was to take over ownership of Spinvox.
"This is an extremely well-managed business," …
On which planet this would ever be considered a "extremely well-managed business" I don't know.
Do you know what 'churn' is Julie Meyer? Failure to honor contracts? Ethics?
Of course Christina didn't slow down for Due Diligence, because there was none, and now you realize you are up the creek because you didn't do any.
Sure you listened to a speech or two, I am sure you read some great blog posts, and I bet someone technical sounding showed you a power point presentation, and they bought you a great dinner.
But me, I'm out.
Looking at the First Tuesday website:
"First Tuesday became a synonym with the dot com boom"
Is that something to be proud of? Little due diligence and hugely hyped over inflated valuations of companies with no products or future.
'whose Ariadne Capital holds an equity stake in return for advising the firm'
No skin in the game. $200M of investors money and Ariadne Capital retains equity for mere 'advice'.
No credibility. Smells like a pump and dump scheme to me.
Ariadne Capital have received huge fees over the last 3 years from SpinVox for "mentorship and training" for Christina.
They also received significant commissions when Jonathan Simnett was taken on as contract Head of PR, as he came through them.
Julie is now a firm friend of Christina's. She also has equity in the company.
She knows absolutely nothing about the company's technological capability (or lack thereof), nor does she have a sound view of the company's finances.
This is a pointless article – it's free publicity for one of SpinVox's spinners..
on another note – there is NO technology save for an automated hang-up detector and an audio quality plug.
SpinVox are not going to be capable of delivering Telefonica messages in huge volumes without falling over…
And of course – has anyone mentioned yet that they bought access to Telefonica's networks for millions of pounds? The equivalent of LG paying your TV license fee if you buy a TV off of them…
He who laughs last …..