Word on the street is that Vancouver's EQO Communications downsized from 35 employees to 12 today.
EQO (pronounced “echo”) is a FREE application that brings free instant messaging, cheap calling and cheap texting to your mobile phone. Chat on the go using MSN, AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk, QQ (NEW!), ICQ and Jabber, or call and text anyone in the world at super-low rates. Invite your friends to join your EQO network and you can use EQO to call them at 50% off EQO’s regular calling rate, or send them an EQO Message for free.
EQO launched at the DEMO show in February 2006 and was honoured as one of the Top 100 private companies in 2007 by Red Herring. EQO is headquartered in Vancouver and operates marketing/business development centers in San Francisco and London.
In April of 2007, EQO closed a $9 Million second round of financing which was on top of their original $4 Million Series A financing. The second round investment included first round participants GrowthWorks and BDC Capital as well as new investor Ventures West taking the lead.
According to the careers section of the EQO website today they're "well-funded" and still hiring. At $13 Million, I agree with well-funded but it sounds like the job opportunities might be getting stale.
We’re EQO (pronounced “echo”), a well-funded start-up that helps people stay connected around the world using their mobile phone. We’ve... [more]
wow if they've burned through most of that 9 million in the past 20 months that's an eye-popping burn rate for a company with no users and no revenue. looks like the "marketing/business development centers in San Francisco and London" really did a great job!
Let me clear up some misinformation here. EQO does have users, in fact over 2 million users and growing. And they have revenues too :-) But given the tough financing environment ahead, the company felt keeping their burn as low as possible was the prudent thing to do. Silicon Valley VCs are advising the same for their portfolio companies,
http://gigaom.com/2008/10/08/sequoia-rings-the-alarm-bell-silicon-valley-in-trouble/
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/09/benchmark-capital-advises-startups-to-conserve-capital/
Tough times call for tough measures and the name of the game (for now) is survival. EQO has an awesome product and loyal customers who love the service. They've already built a great foundation and I have no doubt they can become a wildly successful company one day but first they have to weather this unprecedented financial market meltdown!
Jenny works for BDC Venture Capital and invested in EQO.
Something she forgot to disclose in her post.
www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/eqo.com
I think tough economic times gave EQO a wonderful excuse.
I think the biggest problem might be that the really large market for cheap international calls consists of people who don't have credit cards or cellphones with data plans, so they buy calling cards from convenience stores rather than purchase credits for services like EQO. The calling card business gets a bad rap, but it remains a gold mine. It's one of those things that really is a wake up call for all of us who get frustrated that the old ways of doing things prevail -- people won't use something just because it's better if it ignores the realities of how, where and when its potential customers buy.
