Cellnuvo business model is not sustainable. Even though they claim that they are profitable from the beginning.
Members won't keep swiping unless they are big suckers like me. You swipe 10 golds, and it is enough for paygo service. There is no need to keep swiping because paygo phones are only occasionally used. If it is not paygo, not enough people will be interested enough to join. Once people accumulate a certain amount of golds, they stop swiping, so revenue will drop significantly.
How to keep business in operation? First, obtaining venture capital but the business model is not persuasive enough. Second, use all resources available, including the cash reserved for members' gold redemptions. When members cannot redeem their golds, they quit immediately other than suckers like me.
Is there any hope for cellnuvo to turn around? Very dim. But they can try.
First, the founders themselves have to be an excellent software developer. It is very expensive to hire a good one to do the job. Cut any cost unnecessary. Should consider working at home based office.
Second, fulfill the promise to keep the members swiping. Make swiping part of employee's job when there is not enough work.
Cellnuvo could have made it if they took the correct remedy approach when old carrier quit it. Now we know that the best idea is to go to tello for help. If all lines have paygo service, people won't know that there is a financial problem and it gives time for cellnuvo to change. What if tello is not interested in helping? Issue a 10 dollars gift card to each line that has over 15 golds and tell them to join tello or too twigby or whatever. Now, so far it will only cover up the problem temporarily, and the beast will come back to eat cellnuvo if they do not come up with an honest way to keep members swiping.
How to keep members swiping? Most important of all, provide them phone service, they would not care if they do not even have phone service. The Amazon gift card is indeed a very clever idea. It gives people a much stronger incentive to swipe. Of course cellnuvo has to put aside certain amount of cash to answer members redemption call. If it cannot resist the temptation to dig into such reservoir, it may consider quiting.
At this point of time, I guess cellnuvo has run out of cash to support its members' gold value. I suspect that cellnuvo did not even pay redpocket for our temporary phone service. It is just like an arrangement between ringplus and Ting. This can reasonably explain why topups won't work. It is a financial problem rather than a software problem. This has nothing to do with cellnuvo management's moral character. It is the result of a bad business model. Members expect too much, cellnuvo promises too much, and neither has done enough, and worst of all, cellnuvo is not agile enough to adapt to the changing situation and improve itself on a timely manner.
Cellnuvo survived so long because it digs into the cash reservoir for members gold. It is not not to do so. The limited and stagnant revenue leaves it no choice, so it dies. False promises can keep members swiping for a while, but it has a limit and can backfire. If it partners with tello and integrates a gift card system on time, cellnuvo might have made it. Too late. Even a big cellnuvo sucker like me has lost faith. It might have run out of cash long before the old carrier quit.
