Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 11:49:50 -0400 From: freematt@coil.com (Matthew Gaylor) Subject: HavenCo Update from Ryan Lackey To: freematt@coil.com (Matthew Gaylor)
HavenCo Update from Ryan Lackey <ryan@havenco.com> on 04:32 PM April 30th, 2001 EST
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=01/04/30/2058218&cid=61
Just to let everyone know how things are going, since I'm sure people will ask:
HavenCo has been doing pretty well recently -- the dotcom funding crisis means we're getting a lot more resumes, although we're not actively hiring. We're pretty much breakeven now, which is quite a relief given the current funding environment.
We're focusing on a few key markets:
* financial information and services (payment systems, stock information, etc.)
* gaming (aka gambling)
* outsourced email/IM/file servers, subpoena proof
* reseller/VAR/OEM packages -- (ISPs that want to move certain clients offshore, ASPs, etc.)
AFAIK fairtunes and other music services are still underway, but HavenCo itself isn't that actively involved in them. While I'm sure we can weather any storm caused by hosting an opennap server or other controversial information, it is simply better business for us to go after higher-paying, zero-hassle, high value financial and gaming servers.
I apologize for not updating the website -- we've been very busy, and I have a new site with lots of photos and everyone else sitting in cvs, and at a staging URL, but it's not live yet. Hopefully soon, but unlike a lot of companies now on fuckedcompany, we're spending more time on actually selling products and supporting customers than on flashy websites...
We have a pretty good referral program now, which hasn't been publicized or put back on the old website -- bring us a customer, and when they pay their sixth month's colo fee, you get it.
I also got some netra X1's, and would like to host more of them -- we're discounting them substantially, since they're so easy to host, and people run solaris, netbsd, or sparclinux on them, rather than windows, saving us a bunch of hassle. We're charging about USD 6000/year to host on an X1 with minimal bandwidth, additional bandwidth to be purchased separately, vs. about USD 1500/month for a 1U or 2U intel/etc. type server with much more bandwidth.
sales@havenco.com has info, of course. Buy servers, save money in regulatory and tax issues, and enable me to buy better food for Sealanders, and maybe a sushi chef.
It's pretty obvious where we stand on free speech, privacy, copyright, etc. issues, but unfortunately we have a duty to shareholders, and the "donate service to all sorts of cool free projects, bring a bunch of controversy, earn the hatred of the established media industry, etc." is just not good business practice for HavenCo, regardless of what the Sealand Government wants to do. They are from a pirate radio background, after all!
Interesting but fairly random stuff:
I was actually speaking at the Jupiter Plug-In Europe conference with Aram, the analyst quoted in that piece -- he's a really interesting guy who taught me things about Napster I didn't know! I also met Bruce Ward of NetPD, who turns out to be much cooler in person than one would expect -- I totally respect his/NetPD's technical competence, and if anyone needs to trck down child pornography or other illegal use of their own network, I'd definitely recommend NetPD. After meeting a bunch of music industry people, ranging from lawyers to artists (Howie B. even gave me his new unreleased album, which I promptly mp3'd and put on my rio...it's *excellent*, and speaking of rio, the CEO of Sonicblue was there, and everyone standing around the table with him pulled out different generations of rio!). Barcelona, by the way, kicks ass -- all the goodness of France and of Spain, combined. I saw a yacht in the bay which was bigger than Sealand!
I was in San Francisco for RSA -- I'll be in Vegas for BlackHat and Defcon, but not much other than some events in Europe before then. Alas, 13 hour plane trips kind of suck. I had sushi just about every day. It was good. I was also on techtv, which people may have seen. Makeup artists are good at making ultra-pale geeks look suntanned.
I'm working on some software and papers, will probably set up a personal havenco page to post them. So much to do, so little time.
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