If you really look at those numbers, they become really "interesting".
The only application making a profit is drop-send. (Sorry, "top secret" = "not enough" for me) Some of those sites have some outrageous costs indicative of major VC involvement. On the surface, none of them (aside from freshbooks) seem like a very good way to make money either. Granted this is my highly subjective take, but I see it as this:
Drop-Send - Profitable, traded high expectations for more secure results... may have competition problems in the future, which is probably why its for sale. It has a great potential though, and room to move in the cost to profit area to compete.
Freshbooks - Good looking app, should be able to pay for itself... ridiculously high monthly costs are a liability.
Maya's Mom - Great Idea, better have a killer idea to make money off of it though, I don't think ads will cut it.
Mobissimo - Not promising in my mind.. already need to explain in words how they're different from expedia and travelocity. Not a good sign.
Wesabe - Interesting concept, but there's no way in hell I'd give them my account information. That's a big leap of faith for a start-up to ask of their customers.
While, in dollars, founder time and equity don't cost anything, in real terms, they do. Unfortunately, even in public companies, there isn't a good way to really account for these numbers... So I believe the bigger numbers (Mobissimo, Wesabe) are more indicative of the "real" costs of starting a business.
For instance, if I were start and self-fund a new business, the development and design costs would be zero, but I'd be paying rent, eating food, paying for gas, etc etc, since I'd be working full time. For a real account of the overall costs, I'd have to take those expenses as "salary" in my overall cost evaluation.
The only application making a profit is drop-send. (Sorry, "top secret" = "not enough" for me) Some of those sites have some outrageous costs indicative of major VC involvement. On the surface, none of them (aside from freshbooks) seem like a very good way to make money either. Granted this is my highly subjective take, but I see it as this:
Drop-Send - Profitable, traded high expectations for more secure results... may have competition problems in the future, which is probably why its for sale. It has a great potential though, and room to move in the cost to profit area to compete.
Freshbooks - Good looking app, should be able to pay for itself... ridiculously high monthly costs are a liability.
Maya's Mom - Great Idea, better have a killer idea to make money off of it though, I don't think ads will cut it.
Mobissimo - Not promising in my mind.. already need to explain in words how they're different from expedia and travelocity. Not a good sign.
Wesabe - Interesting concept, but there's no way in hell I'd give them my account information. That's a big leap of faith for a start-up to ask of their customers.