Mahalo at some point had to let go of close to 10 percent of its staff and also started renting out space to other startups in a strategy designed to move the company forward at a better pace.
Some of the staff members the company had to let go of could probably be classed amongst some of the most skilled individuals in their profession, considering the assertion of Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis, that he only hires the best possible hands to work in his organization.
Observers deem it curious that a company could let go of staff which are considered among the best in their field, indeed disengaging quality staff is a peculiar feature noticed in some startup organizations with some having even closed shop despite their staff having delivered consistent quality on work assigned to them. Some observers feel that this may either be due to the state of the economy or deficiency in the business models or concepts adopted by some of these startups which have not proved to be very workable. However, it may be difficult say which is actually the case without an insider view of the structure of such organizations.
Although the reasons why Mahalo decided to fire staff regarded as quality ones may not be so clear cut, there are certain features which the company can still adopt on its site that can push it to starters. For starters, the site needs the inclusion of some specific pages that will be the major backbone for generating much needed revenue for the site. Presently, the ads placed on the site are very similar to the other links on the site, though it is not very clear if this alone would be enough to make visitors to the site to click such ad links. The company should be looking into other extra ways that will help to improve its ranking on Google as viewership for its video show has witnessed some level of decline despite using SEO titles for the video links.
According to Ashkan, an analysis of the present business model operated by Mahalo, shows that its strategy of generating traffic is merely to latch on to the most recent news break item, make a publication of such on their website and start hoping that the page would be indexed very quickly by Google’s search engine. While the strategy may not be completely without merits, there is also no exact guarantee that it will be successful.
There are also indications that the company is aiming to move some of its position overseas as sources claim that a new office has been opened in Manilla by Jason Calacanis, the CEO of Mahalo.