No, because in our operating model, we don’t have staff “on the bench.” Your interpretation would be quite accurate for a typical professional services firm operating with a “bench model.”
I am simply trying to say that the reported number of experts is a good indicator of revenue, but the actual revenue is even stronger because these other variables also influence it.
Am I remembering incorrectly, but didn’t you at least previously have your own employees on the payroll as well, i.e., you also have a so-called bench in theory?
We have approximately thirty percent of our experts on our own payroll, but while on the bench, their salary is significantly lower than when they are on a project. When on a project, the salary is in the range of 8.5–9k EUR / month, while on the bench, it is 3k EUR / month. So yes, there is bench time, but a) its cost is considerably lower than in a “normal bench model” and b) the expert’s incentive to sell themselves into an extension or the next project is much stronger.
With twenty years of experience in professional services, my own rule of thumb is that our overall bench risk is on the scale of one-tenth compared to the “normal bench model.”
You can read more about it here: How does Witted Mavericks work? – Witted.com
Witted founder and former CEO @Harri_Sieppi was a guest on Salkkukatsaus this week, where in addition to his arresting life story, they discussed the founding of Witted and its long-term potential.
Discussion on the founding of Witted starts at 41:24 and Witted as an investment at 01:20:15. 
Now that Reaktor is going public, will it be competing for the same market share as Witted? And will it eventually end up buying them out, considering they already own a large stake in the company?
I don’t suppose listing affects the competitive situation at all?
No one can say for sure. Or well, Harri Sieppi can say it’s not for sale, as he owns 15% of the company. And it would have been cheaper to list through Witted than to first spend millions on an IPO and then buy a public company off the exchange.
Witted had a dull shareholder listing for May. Mostly just receipts of share-based incentives.
They are likely already fishing in the same waters, marketing their programming expertise (“all companies will eventually become software companies” - or something like that, as someone once said). However, on the stock exchange, Reaktor will be competing with other similar firms for investor appeal. Now that they have also branded themselves as an AI company and since they own a significant stake in Witted, anyone purchasing their shares also becomes an indirect part-owner of Witted.
It’s great to see new companies entering the stock market. It increases the interest and attractiveness of this sector. As for Witted’s business, I don’t think anything changes here. This same competitive landscape still exists. Companies cooperate and, on the other hand, compete with each other. That’s how it’s always been and how it will always be.
A longer article about Huttunen and Witted in Kauppalehti:
Behind a paywall, but here is a short quote from the end:
Huttunen has also caused a certain amount of bad blood in the IT industry with his blunt opinions. He doesn’t hold back in his comments now either.
”The discussion about the state of the IT industry frustrates me. I came into this industry somewhat as an outsider and concluded that for far too long, this business was far too easy. From the financial crisis to the COVID-19 pandemic and the start of the war in Ukraine, growth was so easy that you just lured talent to work, cracked the doors and windows open a bit, and so much business pushed in as fast as you could handle it.”
Witted’s share price has been in a gentle decline for years, which has disappointed many investors. A cautious rise in the share price could be the first sign of improvement, provided the company can capture growth. First, however, the CEO wants to focus on the essentials—what is within the company’s own hands right now.
”It’s profitability. That is what we focus on first; everything else comes after. We have now seen the first evidence of this work, which was definitely a hard-won victory. These are the opening bars.”
Before any major rallies, the stock needs significantly more trading volume. The presence of large institutional investors is conspicuously absent from the shareholder list.
”That side needs to be woken up. There is no single silver bullet for it, though; it happens over time. If we run a profitable and growing business, investors usually get excited through the numbers. We don’t want to become storytellers, but rather show concrete results.”
A small correction to this: Pienimäki put the shares he received from the Nexec holding company up for sale immediately.
It seems WD8 didn’t apply this time, as the May figures haven’t been released yet.
