This teaches an important lesson. A company can have a great product in a great market, but if it still cannot turn a profit in a reasonable time, the stock market will crush it. A company whose revenue ratio is lower than its peers tells me management might not be making difficult decisions in good times as well as tough times. No one wants to predict a slowdown, but overlooking the possibility creates an unprofitable business, or an already-unprofitable business whose shares are crushed by the stock market. In tough times, management needs to scale back expenses quickly, especially in headcount, in order to maintain the bottom line.
Timing is critical.
By the time you figure out the stock market thinks your business is poor, it will already have decimated your share price. This seems to be what happened to many stocks in this sector. For more than a year, their business models flourished, and they hired according to current revenue growth. An RPE that's not in line with those of peer companies should raise a red flag for potential investors. For example, LifeMinders has about 138 employees.