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Twitter Plans Hundreds More Job Cuts as Soon as This Week

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Re: Twitter Plans Hundreds More Job Cuts as Soon as This Week

#301

Post by thr0waway1239 »

wslh wrote: post #288
danieltillett wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I run a bootstrapped SAAS business and I make far more than $20K a month profit and have done so for years. The key is choose a niche that is large enough to make the level of profit you want, but too small to attract VC funded competitors. The sort of market size you want is in the range of $5 to $20 million per year. Big enough to be worth the hassle, but too small to attract the big guys.

You are right but the problem is finding that niche, so it is a business exploratory issue. Also, $ 20k is low if you need to growth your business, even, a little bit (e.g. hire people).

Its 20K a month in profit, not 20K a year. If you genuinely think it is hard to hire people at that point (not suggesting the GP should), then you have probably not explored all your options.

Re: Twitter Plans Hundreds More Job Cuts as Soon as This Week

#302

Post by potel576 »

Analemma_ wrote: post #20
artursapek wrote: post #6

I've always sort of had this question that continues to feel naive - but I'm not sure I know the answer: why do so many companies feel like they have to grow perpetually? Why can't Twitter just be happy being Twitter, knowing its limits and making a stable profit? Instead it's more users, more VC money, more staff... constantly burning as quickly as possible. There's a ceiling on every business; it's all bound to com…

People have answered this before, and what it boils down to is: because they took VC money, and then went public. If you bootstrap a business from nothing and grow it on its own, then sustainable growth and stable profit is fine. But Twitter got VC and IPO money with a promise that it would have Facebook-like growth in return. I think the analogy I saw used was that they promised investors a Porsche and instead deliv…

What I find ironic about this is that if they actually tried to be a Toyota Corolla, they might have given off the perception of being a Porsche. Even if they didn't give off the perception, they would have at least put money in shareholders' pockets.

Re: Twitter Plans Hundreds More Job Cuts as Soon as This Week

#303

Post by sixtypoundhound »

Was pondering this for another business and it seems relevant here. How many people would be required to run "the core" of twitter (basic microblogs)?

Seems like that could be very lean...simple UI. A feed. A huge database. For web and apps for the two major mobile O/S.

Now go one step out. Running ads on that feed. Core sales team (those with paying accts) and administrative team. Need a revenue source. Add them back.

Now....what does everyone else do and is it generating cash?

My suspicion is:

- First two groups are lean & covered by revenue - Most of the rest of the team is "strategic" yet not revenue generating - The rest is support and will scale up/down with headcount

Standalone twitter + ads feels like a business you can make ramen profitable.

Re: Twitter Plans Hundreds More Job Cuts as Soon as This Week

#304

Post by wslh »

thr0waway1239 wrote: post #301
wslh wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are right but the problem is finding that niche, so it is a business exploratory issue. Also, $ 20k is low if you need to growth your business, even, a little bit (e.g. hire people).

Its 20K a month in profit, not 20K a year. If you genuinely think it is hard to hire people at that point (not suggesting the GP should), then you have probably not explored all your options.

> If you genuinely think it is hard to hire people at that point...

Where? In US, SV, New York, China, Ukraine, Argentina? If you growth it can be difficult to scale without having higher profits or outside investments.

Re: Twitter Plans Hundreds More Job Cuts as Soon as This Week

#305

Post by wu-ikkyu »

infodroid wrote: post #277
StanislavPetrov wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why do so many companies feel like they have to grow perpetually? Because, in a nutshell, the "economy" is a massive ponzi scheme that depends on constant growth. This isn't a popular opinion among many of the VC crowd that believe in the myth of the meritocracy, but its an irrefutable truth. For example, the FED (and other central banks) set a target inflation rate (usually around 2%, but it can vary). That means…

> ponzi scheme that depends on constant growth. Can you recommend any references for a non-economist to learn about this theory? Also, is this related to why financial markets are so obsessed with profit growth? I always wondered why being profitable wasn't a good enough indicator of success.

>Can you recommend any references for a non-economist to learn about this theory?

This TED talk by professor Franz Hörmann does a good job of explaining.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88ksYFsleto

Simply put, when money is created by the bank for a loan, only the amount for the loan (the principal) is created and given out. The problem is that an extra fee (interest) is charged on top, but the money to pay that fee was never created.

So basically it is an impossible contract to fulfill on a macro scale. A negative sum game.

Re: Twitter Plans Hundreds More Job Cuts as Soon as This Week

#306

Post by maxt »

artursapek wrote: post #6

I've always sort of had this question that continues to feel naive - but I'm not sure I know the answer: why do so many companies feel like they have to grow perpetually? Why can't Twitter just be happy being Twitter, knowing its limits and making a stable profit? Instead it's more users, more VC money, more staff... constantly burning as quickly as possible. There's a ceiling on every business; it's all bound to com…

> Dr. Srikumar created a life changing business school course so powerful that it has its own alumni association. He is the author of Happiness at Work and has helped thousands of executives find greater fulfillment in both life and work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGBoXTaitr0

Worth watching because his words of advice did help me when trying to grow my own business. I didn't reach my numbers, but having a goal gave me a sense of direction, and there was a sense of movement. I think we're only at a loss in business when everything falls still. I'm no expert, but I don't sense that Twitter is falling still just yet, and there's still movement.

As you said: "Why can't Twitter just be happy being Twitter". I can't imagine the web without Twitter and it still feels like some sort of plumbing, or public utility at this stage. Twitter is there like water (hopefully). You turn on the tap, and it's there like water.

Re: Twitter Plans Hundreds More Job Cuts as Soon as This Week

#307

Post by _wp3r »

aub3bhat wrote: post #247
_wp3r wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would suggest that Twitter is a niche. It is in a brand management and customer engagement niche, and without some giant platform change, I think that trying to profit by increasing the number of eyeballs is always going to be challenging to the bottom line if the business value does not dramatically increase. The noise in twitters ecosystem from all those users, while interesting and good for research data sets, w…

Twitter a billion dollar company, a social network used by presidential candidates and tens of millions of people is a niche?? Do you understand the dictionary meaning of the term "niche" if anything Twitter is opposite of it.

Niche: the situation in which a business's products or services can succeed by being sold to a particular kind or group of people

or a specialized market

Size is not necessarily a function of the word niche it only implies that the good or service being sold targets a group that is not a majority of all of the market participants. In twitters case 3.4B users on the internet, with only some subgroup that participates on social media and then only a subgroup of that group that wishes to participate with limited post length and then, business wise, just the business niche that have a large customer base within that subgroup of internet/social media/short form.

As an example BMW is a niche business, luxury auto, that had 92B in revenue last year.

Re: Twitter Plans Hundreds More Job Cuts as Soon as This Week

#308

Post by emodendroket »

aub3bhat wrote: post #89
AtheistOfFail wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is one simple item: "When you take someone's money, their priorities are now your priorities" If you can bootstrap your business with 30k and make a 20k profit every month, then why do you need 1 million dollars from investors? When you take the money, it's just a golden handcuff and ties you to that person for the future. If your business lasts longer than 20 years, that may as well be an additional marria…

Because your competitor can raise those million dollars, and eventually your 20k profit per month becomes 20k loss per month. You can build all your imaginary arguments about magical businesses that make 20k profit per month while being self-sustained with holocracy, cruelty free, authentic, organic etc. etc. But the reality is that doing big things at bigger scale requires huge capital. If you are willing to pass up…

That's not necessarily true. I don't see how a microblogging service could be bigger than Twitter is.

Re: Twitter Plans Hundreds More Job Cuts as Soon as This Week

#309

Post by cabinguy »

aub3bhat wrote: post #244
makomk wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then the investors will get tired of subsidising the other company, it will get more and more user-hostile and quite possibly run out of money altogether and shut down, and users will be worse off in the long run.

Oh yeah and eventually Diaspora will overtake Facebook. Oh wait... If the VC model did not work it would have simply gone out of business. The reality of business is that doing things at larger scale requires capital. Sure you might be able to pull-off your lifestyle, but its going to be hard to motivate employees when the VC funded competitor gives them michelin star chefs, 50% higher salaries and a shot at windfall…

The VC model works best for the VCs. Sure, a few entrepreneurs win too, but the model expects way more failures than homeruns. And that's if you get to the place where you're deemed worthy of their capital.

I'm part of that successful bootstrapped crowd (way more than $20k/mo profit). I'm not a billionaire but my lifestyle is pretty amazing. Bootstrapping is a legitimate way to grow a real business.

Re: Twitter Plans Hundreds More Job Cuts as Soon as This Week

#310

Post by quxbar »

maxt wrote: post #306
artursapek wrote: post #6

I've always sort of had this question that continues to feel naive - but I'm not sure I know the answer: why do so many companies feel like they have to grow perpetually? Why can't Twitter just be happy being Twitter, knowing its limits and making a stable profit? Instead it's more users, more VC money, more staff... constantly burning as quickly as possible. There's a ceiling on every business; it's all bound to com…

> Dr. Srikumar created a life changing business school course so powerful that it has its own alumni association. He is the author of Happiness at Work and has helped thousands of executives find greater fulfillment in both life and work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGBoXTaitr0 Worth watching because his words of advice did help me when trying to grow my own business. I didn't reach my numbers, but having a goal…

I have to point out that this last point is totally ridiculous. Twitter is functionally just like like Xanga or Livejournal or any other dead blogging platform you care to name. Just because you have a community of dedicated users and a better UI doesn't mean the service is unique. It's as if you thought Evian(R) or Dasani(TM) are public utilities.

Frankly, I think we're going to see a backlash against information overload - social media has lost its novelty, and most consumers need far less of it than the producers want to provide.

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