[deleted]
Ask HN: What tech companies/industries will do well in a recession?
51–60 of 184 posts
Re: Ask HN: What tech companies/industries will do well in a recession?
#52Related question: which tech products are 'inferior goods' - goods whose demand rises when incomes fall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferior_good
Torrent clients and generally any open source alternative to paid software would be my guess.
Re: Ask HN: What tech companies/industries will do well in a recession?
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
You have a valid point, I was thinking luxury retail.
Why would luxury retail be a good harbor in a recession? Usually luxury spending goes down.
Depends on the luxury level. At the very top the customer base consists of the most recession-proof people in the World. I assume they just carry on with their habits recession or not.
Re: Ask HN: What tech companies/industries will do well in a recession?
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
You have a valid point, I was thinking luxury retail.
Why would luxury retail be a good harbor in a recession? Usually luxury spending goes down.
I don't think that's true. I worked for a luxury retailer right after 08/09 and I looked at their revenues. They were about even, if not moderately higher. I went to work for another shortly after that, and it was a similar story. Now, net sales may go down, but luxury retailers have a pretty wide latitude in what they sell their products for because they're often artificially controlling inventory (similar to the way Nintendo does). I think that's what really affects the bottom line.
Re: Ask HN: What tech companies/industries will do well in a recession?
#55Related question: which tech products are 'inferior goods' - goods whose demand rises when incomes fall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferior_good
One might be software substitutes for physical software engineers. Automated QA software instead of QA Engineers, for example.
Re: Ask HN: What tech companies/industries will do well in a recession?
#56Home service businesses (contractors, electricians, plumbers, HVAC, roofers, etc). Even houses owned by banks/investment groups need repairs done. It's a huge industry that desperately needs employees.
Re: Ask HN: What tech companies/industries will do well in a recession?
#57Companies that cater mostly to luxury clients Anything energy related. Geography also plays an important role. Places like the valley saw very little impact while the place I was living at in the South basically had it's software ecosystem gutted. It did bounce back within a year though, so just make sure you have enough funds to ride a recession out in the worst case.
> Companies that cater mostly to luxury clients Nah - look at what happened to the Boating industry in 2009. The values of jetskis, sailboats, etc took a major hit as demand dried up. Boats are considered luxury items
I would think the important distinction would be luxury products that cater to the extremely wealthy (as opposed to luxury products bought by people that can barely afford it).
Re: Ask HN: What tech companies/industries will do well in a recession?
#58I knew of an online company that caters toward attorneys. They publish bankruptcy notices. They do very well in every economic downturn. But that's pretty niche isn't it.
Re: Ask HN: What tech companies/industries will do well in a recession?
#59None. Tech is highly cyclical.
Maybe some are closer to government spending which maybe will rise in a recession but they will all be hurt.
Re: Ask HN: What tech companies/industries will do well in a recession?
#60Home service businesses (contractors, electricians, plumbers, HVAC, roofers, etc). Even houses owned by banks/investment groups need repairs done. It's a huge industry that desperately needs employees.
These are among the first businesses to get hit by a recession. Sure, you may call the plumber to fix a leaky pipe but that bathroom remodel project is on hold. New construction, where a lot of contractors make the bulk of their money, also dries up.