I have completed the accounting for 2023 - it will still have to be cross-checked with the results the accountants get, but - good news! - it shows an improvement over last year, we are now close to be back to break even. Over the year, the cash flow was still slightly negative, but we are nearly there – and that, despite having invested in some areas, like recruiting to be able to accept new projects again, and product management / UX. We’ll have to keep pushing for sustainability in 2024, but kudos for all the work done to improve it already, it makes a big difference. 
Now, for 2024, to get a balanced budget with the client commitments we currently have, we would need to not do any raises and keep the presence minimal at the conference. Gladly though, there are enough reserves to be able to decide either way anyway (and no shareholders to tell me which way to choose 
) - so I’m opting to give a 5% raise this year, and keep the full team presence at the conference. We will need to get new clients and contracts to pay for this, but I’m betting we can increase our overall client work this year.
With the latest changes on 2U’s side, and the general economic circumstances – the project, the company and the community are at a crossroad. Depending on how we act now, it could go either downhill, or mark another important step for the project: becoming more fully community-run, with a higher elephant factor, and benefiting from the effects of better open source practices. We’ll have a role to play in this, so imho it makes sense to invest now in the team, and in the project. Economic downturns come and go (hopefully!) - but ultimately, further growth will come from the team, and from the project’s ability to meet the demands of clients.
@gabriel Do you think you would have time to update everyone’s rate in the billing system before the January invoices are generated? This way the raises will apply from January 1st. If not let me know, I’ll take care of it.
Comments and questions welcomed.
Reference:
- History of raises (last year’s post)
- Team raises in the handbook - note: if you joined in 2023, unlike what the handbook currently says, you will still get a raise, but in proportion of when you joined in the year (eg. someone joining in June gets 0.5x5%=2.5%), I’ll update it there.
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