Nearmap has quite an interesting history WRT the original...

Nearmap has quite an interesting history WRT the original founders, Ipernica's takeover, and the subsequent departure of said founders.

I suspect the split was not exactly amicable, and if you look on Whirlpool as well as these forums you can occasionally find some oddly negative posts regarding Nearmap's management.

As an outsider who has held shares in IPR since 2010 all I can say is that before the founders departed Nearmap was losing money and had been doing so since Ipernica bought it. The old business model of selling subscriptions by government department wasn't profitable whereas the current per-seat licensing clearly is.

That said, Nearmap does have have a seemingly high turnover rate. If you look back at the ASX announcements of some senior positions over the last 2 years you'll find quite a few of them are no longer with Nearmap today. Also, if you had a list of employees prior to the founders' departures and compared it to today you'd find very little overlap.

This is a little concerning but it suggests that Nearmap is not tolerant of underperformance which, IMHO, is a good thing.

Finally, keep in mind that Nearmap relocated its HQ from Perth to Sydney. 2012 was a year of much upheaval.