The problem is that Py, Fichet or anyone else: the company is losing money, as the history of its accounts shows (including those that were never filed).
The figures reveal one of the core knots in Daan’s problem: while the gross margin seems to improve steadily (44% in 2021, 48% in 2022, 50% in 2023), this apparent good news hides a more complex reality.
In 2021, the year of commercial success, production costs accounted for 56% of revenue. That ratio improves slightly in the following years, but this industrial optimisation can’t make up for the collapse in sales volume, which falls by 21% in 2022, then by a further 14% in 2023.
This situation illustrates the dilemma raised back in 2019 between Antoine Fichet and Damian Py: a Bob made in France cost about €200, against €140 in China. Despite efforts to optimise production, this structural gap limited profitability and flexibility in the face of market swings.
A major aggravating factor appears in HR management. Between 2021 and 2023, while revenue fell by 32%, the payroll almost doubled, from €1.07M to €1.8M: it represented 11% of revenue in 2021, but reached 28% in 2023, a critical level for an industrial company.
This paradoxical trend is explained by steadily rising hiring between 2021 and 2023:
This expansion of the workforce, based on expectations of continued growth that never materialised, created structural rigidity. In France, where cutting staff is complex and costly, the company found itself trapped by its own hiring strategy. And therefore dependent on outside financing.
An analysis of marketing spend reveals a third critical factor in Daan’s financial failure. This spending exploded from €1.31M in 2021 to €1.8M in 2022 (+37%), then to €1.9M in 2023, even as revenue was collapsing.
As a proportion, this marketing investment went from 14% of revenue in 2021 (a reasonable ratio for launching an innovative product) to 24% in 2022, then to an unsustainable 29% in 2023.
That’s fairly standard for a start-up, because you fund growth through marketing spend… except that it’s a strategy that only works when you have a VC footing the bill. And nobody wants to fund Daan any more.