Amazon Revokes NY HQ2, AWS Announces Bare Metal IaaS, Freshworks Launches High Velocity Sales Summit: Newsletter February 15, 2019

Amazon has this week announced it has reversed plans to open an HQ2 in New York. Pushback from local politicians involving tax incentives and Amazon’s anti-unionization policies ultimately led the e-commerce giant to contain its expansion to Northern Virginia and Nashville. The decision comes just two weeks after Amazon shared a record-breaking year-on-year operating profit increase of 80% to $3.8 billion in Q4.

The Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) world this week saw AWS launch bare metal instances, granting companies more control over their service by way of a dedicated underlying server. Bare metal service is optimal for those who need a service to “run applications that benefit from deep performance analysis tools, specialized workloads that require direct access to bare metal infrastructure, legacy workloads not supported in virtual environments, and licensing-restricted Tier 1 business critical applications,” AWS shared.

In SaaS and recurring revenue entrepreneurial news, Freshworks is launching High-Velocity Sales Summit, an online conference happening between Feb 20 – 22, 2019. More than 30 sales leaders and influencers are joining to share insights on how global leaders in SaaS are driving sales for companies like Slack, Stripe and other multinational firms. Make sure to check it out if you are interested in learning how to grow your sales from the world’s industry experts.

New in platform business listings this week we have a $1.98M B2B affiliate marketing platform, with over 12 years of operational history, making the business one of the oldest, largest, and most reputable businesses in the niche, strong historical financial performance, with the business generating c.$5M in gross revenue over last five years, steady traffic with over 1M sessions and 5.2M page views throughout the past year, revenues diversified across numerous profitable monetization channels and highly trained and professional team transitioning with the business post-sale. If you are interested in this business, please follow the link to request a prospectus.

In events news this week, LTV Conf ended its super early bird pricing but tickets are still available in early bird pricing, which will won’t last for much longer! Prices go up every few weeks, so don’t wait to purchase. Discounts are offered to bigger groups, so make sure to bring your team, and use code FEINTERNATIONAL10 at checkout for an extra 10% off. Up to 400 invited SaaS Founders, Executives and Investors from private and public companies will be in attendance making this the perfect place to learn and make new connections.

Some of the confirmed speakers include:

• Nathan Barry, Founder and CEO of ConvertKit
• Dan Martell, Angel Investor and Chief Instigator at SaaS Academy
• David Hauser, Founder of Grasshopper and Chargify
• April Dunford, Executive Consultant for Market Strategy and Product Positioning
• Claire Suellentrop, Co-Founder of Forget the Funnel and customer feedback expert
• Lauren Foundos, Founder and CEO of FORTË

Founder Thomas Smale, CEO Ismael Wrixen and the FE team had a great time meeting up with clients at our Annual FE International London Networking Drinks event. Thanks to everyone who came out! Next up, Thomas and Ismael are off to San Diego to attend Traffic and Conversion Summit 2019 from February 25-27 where FE International and Powerful Partners are co-hosting a food and drinks networking event for clients and attendees on the 25th. Make sure to reply to this email to set up a meeting if you will be in the area!

Continue reading below for more on Amazon’s HQ2 decision and AWS’s bare metal IaaS.

Listings

New

Affiliate Marketing Platform – 12 Y/O B2B Affiliate Marketing Platform – $79K gross/mo

  • Over 12 years of operational history, making the business one of the oldest, largest, and most reputable businesses in the niche
  • Strong historical financial performance, with the business generating c.$5M in gross revenue over last five years
  • Steady traffic with over 1M sessions and 5.2M page views throughout the past year
  • Revenues diversified across numerous profitable monetization channels
  • Highly trained and professional team transitioning with the business post-sale

Yearly net profit: $642,000
Asking price: $1,978,000

New

Affiliate – Printing & Apparel – $3.2K gross/mo

Affiliate – Carpentry Education – $2K gross/mo

Affiliate – Hardware & Power Tools – $800 gross/mo

In The News…

Amazon Rescinds Plans for New York HQ2

Amazon has announced that it will no longer be building a second headquarters in New York.

According to the company, resistance from local government and residents who are protesting the Long Island City Headquarters due to tax breaks and Amazon’s anti-unionization policies. In Amazon’s statement, the company reported that it will not reopen its search and will continue with its plans for new headquarters in Northern Virgnia and Nashville.

The New York location had been contentious from the start due to the involvement of Mayor Bill de Blasio.

AWS Launches Bare Metal IaaS

A bare metal version of AWS’s popular IaaS has now been launched allowing for greater control of the cloud.

Typical Infrastructure as a Service relies on customers paying for space on a server on a “multi-tenant” basis. Sharing a server with others means sharing processing power, and this may not suit businesses requiring high-intensity workloads.

Subscribing to a single-tenant system can solve these issues, and yesterday AWS announced five of these new “bare metal” instances. This service comes at a greater expense, but the extra control over the storage and processor should appeal to a wide range of businesses. It is likely more cloud services will offer similar services in the near future.