Welcome to the first of what’s going to be a regular quarterly update blog. Your time is valuable, and we’re not going to waste it. If you make it to the end of this article there’s something that could be rewarding!
Krystal goes Climate Positive
Krystal exists to make a positive impact on the world. So to kick off 2021 we signed up with Ecologi – a Bristol-based organisation that plants carbon-capturing trees and runs Gold Standard sustainability projects around the world. So far we’ve planted over 300,000 trees and made our entire workforce “Climate Positive”. We’re hoping to hit 1 million this year as part of the milliontreepledge.org.
Restoring Nominet’s purpose
In January, Krystal started the PublicBenefit.UK campaign to restore Nominet’s original not-for-profit spirit. In March an EGM was held where 740 members backed the resolution and 5 directors were successfully removed, including the CEO. This is a necessary first step on the path towards a more stable, non-commercial Nominet which we hope will reduce .uk prices. Got .uk domains with another registrar? See whether they supported the UK public.
EveryCity acquired, becomes Krystal Enterprise
In February, we were delighted to welcome managed cloud hosting specialists EveryCity to the Krystal family. Now integrated under Krystal Enterprise, their expertise allows us to provide managed hosting solutions and cloud services on AWS, Azure, Katapult and Hybrid. If you or someone you know needs cloud transformation, management or DevOps please get in touch for a free consultation.
aTech Anniversary
March 10th was the 1-year anniversary of aTech joining and it’s gone by fast! Now Krystal Labs (we’re hiring!), they’ve created world-class solutions like DeployHQ, Codebase, Onyx Managed Wordpress, Katapult Public Cloud and most recently a brand new website performance monitoring tool, Metritool (try the beta, first reactions have been very positive so be sure to check it out!). Thanks Labs!
Katapult launches in New York!
In March we took Katapult, our master-crafted, all-NVMe self-service public cloud INTERNATIONAL! You can now spin up a VM in either London or New York in seconds (£100 credit included). Designed and developed entirely in the UK by Krystal Labs we’ve plans to roll it out to 3 other global locations this year. If you need cloud and want to support local, look no further. Let us know what you think!
Would you be interested in 5% Krystal Bonds?
As Krystal goes from strength to strength (we grew 35.8% last year), we plan to accelerate our growth by raising additional capital.
There are 2 ways to raise money; selling equity and taking on debt. As a 100% family-owned, independent business that isn’t selling, equity makes no sense as there’d be no “exit” for investors to see a return. That leaves debt, and we thought we’d rather pay our clients interest than a bank!
We’re considering offering existing clients “Krystal Bonds” (legally a mini-bond, your capital would be at risk) that we think will look like the following;
- £500 cost per bond
- 5% annual interest, paid monthly
- 5 year term (60 interest payments)
- Full repayment of the bond principal at the end of the term
- Swag and exclusive early access to new services for bond holders
The money we raise would be spent on just 2 things that we’re very familiar with and will return value;
- Acquisitions - to join the 12 profitable and successful ones we’ve already done
- Developers - we’d like to double the size of the team in the UK to work on our software;
- cPanel replacement
- Metritool (beta)
- Onyx
- Katapult
We think this is a great way for us to give something back to our valued clients, and help share Krystal’s success.
We hope that you’ve found this new quarterly update informative. Given that we’ve just started it we’d love to have your feedback, tips/suggestions and comments on how to improve the format/make these better. Please leave any feedback in the comments section below.
Existing clients – please check your inbox, you should have a copy of this Quarterly Update with a link to a survey we'd love your response to!
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About the author
Simon B
In 2002, frustrated by poor service and bad business practices, I created Krystal to provide an “Honest, Reliable & Personal” alternative to the large faceless hosting corporations. We’re in business because we’re passionate about technology & solving problems.
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