InfoSum is building data collaboration tools for the modern enterprise. This is a privacy-friendly way to power identity on the internet, otherwise known as Data Clean Rooms. Currently we're working in adtech.
Available roles:
- Enterprise Sales Director - London
- Customer Success Associate (Italian-speaking) - London
Infosum is a series B-funded business focused on building privacy-friendly infrastructure for data collaboration -- when two or more organisations want to make their data useful for one another without sharing any of the underlying data.
We're adding the following roles to our team:
Backend Engineers
- Basingstoke-based (hybrid)
- Golang, or Java cross-train to Go
IT Security and Compliance Officer
- Basingstoke-based (hybrid)
- SOC-2, ISO 27001 experience needed
- AWS experience needed
Outbound Business Development Representative
- London-based (hybrid)
- We have a complex sales process for a technically demanding product and need help executing on opportunities for this.
More details on our website, infosum.com/company/careers. Feel free to email me for details: douglas (dot) my_last_name (at) infosum dot com.
Very few people are needed to run the technology elements of these businesses (let’s exclude warehouse/logistics in Amazons case). So why is there an order of magnitude more staff than what’s needed to run those?
There’s this idea that tech companies are laying off folks to boost their stock prices by cutting operating expenses. This reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of investors think about these types of companies and what determines their worth.
Unlike other kinds of businesses, these companies face very little pressure to control costs. They can overhire, and do. They can overpay employees, and do. They can incinerate cash on wacky projects, and do.
This is not because the fundamental constraints of accounting don’t apply to them, but rather because they’re able to optimize for other outcomes because their critical personnel costs are such a tiny portion of what they’re able to bring in: they’re hoarding human resources, they’re trying to develop second acts, they’re able to tolerate bloat and process if they think that’s worth it.
When Amazon turns up the heat, it’s not primarily because they’re worried about costs. It’s because they want to get people out of there who don’t belong there, and because return to office in their minds is a good way to make the org more productive over the long term.
These companies are trying to get a culture they perceive as being a little over staffed, too bureaucratic, maybe lacking in focus, to turn around.
Fixing that has a much bigger impact on long term shareholder value creation — it’s the exact same rationale as overpaying staff, over staffing and spending generously on wacky new bets. Ship faster.
Amazon is two businesses in one. AWS is a high margin technology services business. The rest is a low margin box shifting distributor.
To be competitive in distribution you need to be ruthless about costs. I've consulted for a few of these sort of companies and it's insane what they will do to save a few pennies. They are utterly miserable places to work as their frugal attitude spills over into all their interactions. It starts with using doors as desks and progresses to making staff piss in a bottle.
I suspect this culture is what makes Amazon as a whole such a difficult employer.
If they were two independent businesses then it would never make sense for them to merge, just as you wouldn't expect Microsoft to buy Walmart. It would probably be better for both sides if they divorced.
> Very few people are needed to run the technology elements
Right. Engineers aren't hired to run trains, but to build the train you'll need next year.
When does innovation stop? It's not usually for lack of innovative people. Most commonly, it's when the existing architecture and workflows are constrained to the point where a significant change is not worth it.
The reasons for that are typically lost to history, so there's no negative feedback for the error.
And there's no incentive to cut or transition existing customers. So what remains is to operationalize the function: reduce it to running the old train.
Developers concerned about their careers need to realize this evolution is natural. The solution is to migrate to innovative teams before you get left with the duty of managing the winding-down.
>Unlike other kinds of businesses, these companies face very little pressure to control costs
This is not really true anymore and is exactly why Google and Amazon are doing big layoffs. Money isn't free anymore. The "just grow at all costs" couldn't last forever and it's finally coming to an end
Investors are specifically expecting profitability now and not just growth of customers. The end of what you're talking about is precisely what is happening now
Keep The Lights On effort was typically around 10% of total capacity. The rest of the effort was because the goal is not to maintain, it’s to drive improvements to the business.
I think Twitter provides a case study here. The site is still working fine despite being staffed by only 20% of the employees it had just over a year ago.
Yea, I think we still need to wait and see. Airplanes keep gliding when you turn the engine off. I think Twitter is still in the "Wile-E-Coyote ran off the cliff but hasn't started falling yet" phase.
I take a middle position on this having seen it all at Twitter since 2006. The site does still work, but not without outages. Of course, Twitter had major outages during the Williams/Costello/Dorsey period as well. What happened was that when Musk obtained control, the haters claimed that Twitter/X would burn down or get bricked. None of that ever happened, which leads some people to believe it "still works fine" with 20% of the former staff.
1. Because beliefs around WFH have changed.
2. Investors aren’t thinking about tactical stuff like office amenities, free lunches and WFH.
None of it makes a dent on the valuation in the way that better focus and execution do, and investors expect the managers to set up the culture to do that without having to make a determination about the specifics of WFH in Amazons particular circumstances.
That is exactly what Amazon thinks it’s doing. Yes, costs are getting cut, but by far the more significant impact would be 5 or 10% better execution on stuff that really moves the needle than a 2% cost reduction.
When margins are high the returns to growing revenue are much greater than cutting costs.
Beliefs around WFH didn't change. Economic circumstances did. If it reverts to difficulty hiring and retaining people, WFH will change back. Productivity is an excuse after the fact.
>When margins are high the returns to growing revenue are much greater than cutting costs.
Margins aren't necessarily high and growing revenue isn't always an option. Certain products/services just aren't in demand, no matter how well you execute.
AWS is high margin but retail isn't. For better or worse the two businesses are merged and considered together by Wall St. which means management also has to look at it that way.
> Very few people are needed to run the technology elements of these businesses
Have you used AWS before? The complexity of the site alone should tell you this side of the business would need more than a "very few" people to run it. And that's just their web services side, never mind retail.
InfoSum develops a unique, privacy-preserving cloud resource that lets organizations connect their first-party data in a compliant, private and secure way. We power data collaboration across household names. Privacy, security and governance are central to our value proposition with our clients, many of who are highly regulated and work with consumer data.
Open Roles:
- Director of Security (London, UK or Basingstoke, UK)
- Information Security Compliance Analyst (London, UK or Basingstoke, UK)
To learn more, please reach out to douglas.weltman@infosum.com
InfoSum | Technical Support Specialist | Full-time | London, UK
InfoSum provides data clean rooms, a privacy-enhancing technology that powers identity online.
If you’re a wiz with AWS, GCP, know your way around SQL and databases, and have some familiarity with adtech, then get in touch with me at douglas (dot) weltman (at) Infosum (dot) com.
I want to talk to you about our Senior Technical Support Specialist role in London.
InfoSum | London | Customer Success | Full-time | www.infosum.com
InfoSum develops privacy-enhancing technology to power the data economy, and works with leading brands, publishers and agencies in the US, UK and Europe.
We are hiring in London a commercially-astute Customer Success Associate with some adtech or enterprise SaaS experience to help our clients get maximum value from the platform.
If this sounds interesting, get in touch with douglas (dot) weltman (at) our_domain.
InfoSum solves the privacy challenges that organizations confront when trying to make their first-party data useful outside the four walls of their organizations. Our clients include major enterprises, advertising platforms and other identity providers.
We're looking to bring on board a senior technical account manager with a proven track record in customer-facing engineering support.
Shoot me an email (douglas dot my last name @) to learn more!
InfoSum is building data collaboration tools for the modern enterprise. This is a privacy-friendly way to power identity on the internet, otherwise known as Data Clean Rooms. Currently we're working in adtech.
Available roles: - Enterprise Sales Director - London - Customer Success Associate (Italian-speaking) - London
Apply here, and mention Doug Weltman: https://www.infosum.com/company/careers