While we’re hiring, some of our customers are still struggling within the retail environment. One client, Cathy Hulgan Designs, is closing because the new landlord wanted to double the rent and asked for a long-term lease. Cathy was a big proponent of ours. I am saddened by her store's closing. I’ll miss her.
I’ll note that her situation did bring to mind the merit of offering digital services and Bridge’s business model. Unlike a rental retail space in a strip mall, one can ‘own’ a domain. You buy a domain and you ‘own’ it with very fair ongoing annual renewal rates. ICANN, which manages domains, can’t suddenly say that ‘bridgecatalog.com’ is going from $9/year to $9,000. That’s the beauty of a domain over a rented property. That is one reason we’re in the right business.
There is another benefit to digital services: I told Cathy Hulgan that we’re going to give her the Bridge Store service for free till October 1st. The quirky part of this: this offer doesn’t cost us anything. Unlike most analog services, digital is at once very valuable yet almost free to offer if it’s part of a platform. It feels good to be able to exercise this quality to help husband and wife store owners that are in their 60s and 70s. We can afford to be generous.
Software also gets better and better each year. If Cathy spent $1m on rent over 10 years, after 10 years she has $0 in capital goods. The landlord has her $1m. Rental expenses are a black hole. If Bridge spends $1m on software, after 10 years we have $1m in software. Our investment in our Bridge software compounds.