1. Business model they've run was growth -> profit which drains capital quickly if you don't have a big one or if you don't have clear expense calendar.
2. Low net profit (or even net loss) - as I understood from one member, they're marketing brandable domain across multiple marketplaces. 3% payment processing leaves Alter on 7%. If the name is sold through another marketplace, deduct 5% more and that's 2% of gross profit. Now if we calculate infrastructure expenses, employee's salary, cost of marketing, that's already net loss.
To run this type of business, you'll need to be prepared for operating at margin negative for some time if you're looking for stable market share. Plus, turning this into profit would require increasing percentage on success fee or add another income streams (like BrandBucket or Brandpa pay for listing or paying to get appraisal etc). And even those are keeping high success fee % after all upfront costs they impose.
Alter has a business that could most certainly success on long term, but certain changes (pivot) should initiate that success.
