Buffer November Update: $2,347,000 run rate, 1,189,000 users

Joel Gascoigne -

Below is the monthly update email I have just sent this morning to all our investors. I hope you enjoy taking a read about the full details of our work on Buffer in the last month. I’m excited to hear from you in the comments if you have any questions about what we’re up to!

If you want to know how October went, you can take a look here.

Traction update

  • New users: 66,000 (Total: 1,189,000, from 1,123,000: +5.9%)
  • Daily active users: 30,600 (down from 32,500: -5.8%)
  • Revenue: $196,000 (Annual: $2,347,000 down from $2,388,000: -1.5%)
  • Business revenue: $22,250 (down from $30,510; -27%)
  • Cash in bank: $318,651 (last month: $311,719)

The volatility of an early product (Buffer for Business) is affecting our revenue growth rates. We’re growing faster overall, but the growth is spiky. We saw a similar pattern in the early days with our freemium product. October’s hacking incident is the cause for the drop of DAUs, but we’re seeing it returning to previous levels now.

Launch of 2-Step Login

We launched 2-Step Login last week in the wake of the security breach last month, and as a key business feature.  In addition to this, we have strengthened security by setting up Two Factor Authentication for the main services we use at Buffer.

Buffer for Business

  • MRR grew 17% to $19,200
  • Total revenue declined 27% to $22,250
  • Buffer for Business was 11.4% of total revenue in November (down from 15.3% in October)
  • 376 total paying customers (from 268 in October)

We’ve seen that this month, stable MRR growth has continued (17% MoM growth). The decrease in overall business revenue this month is largely caused by less annual payment signups and no new enterprise customers. As we prepare for the upcoming launch with additional new features, we expect the business segment to resume a higher growth rate.

Team growth and the Buffer Retreat #2

This past month we added three new team members and now we are at 16. A total of 11 of us are currently in Thailand now for the 2nd Buffer Retreat. Members of our distributed team came from as far as the UK, Australia and different parts of the US to be together for a week working from a hotel in Bangkok and villa in Pattaya City. As we experienced in the first ever retreat in San Francisco and Lake Tahoe, this will be another effective bonding opportunity for the growing team.

We’re working towards a launch of Buffer for Business in the coming weeks, which will be an exciting time for us again.

Let me know any questions you have on our progress, I’d love to answer them.