There are, perhaps surprisingly, more than a few ways to describe Frontline as a business - starting by saying that FrontlineSMS has never been a literal business. Broadly speaking, there were three phases in Frontline’s business history - each characterized by a unique market and strategy, novel challenges, and a new company. And, at each stage, our read of the market, the opportunities, and the resulting approach were unconventional, bordering on counter-cultural. That started before I joined Frontline and was something that we wore proudly throughout our work. It’s fair to say that those choices were key to what we became - and to why we’re closing.
The purpose of this post is to explain our growth, the insights of our market exploration and experience, and convey some hard-won truths over the years. We, eventually, reverse engineered a business model for Frontline - and one that kept us in the black most of the time. So, it’s possible. But as a lot of things, including our choice to close, should indicate - it’s hard to recommend. This post isn’t a comprehensive history, it’s an attempt at sharing the value of the experience.
