The ‘Terminator’ of startups says he’s seeing two to four wind-downs a week • Hacker News Board

Re: The ‘Terminator’ of startups says he’s seeing two to four wind-downs a week

#41

Post by ajamesm » Tue, Mar 21, 2017, 6:03 PM UTC

mathattack wrote: post #16

Activity of restructuring firms is a good leading indicator of what's happening in private markets. These types of guys get involved well before public announcements of companies like Quixey. [0] It's also a very valuable service. Silicon Valley does well when people and assets from failing companies are freed up to join hyper-growth companies. Lenders are also more willing to take on startups as customers when they…

All this needs is a "This is good for Bitcoin." and we've reached full success-fail.

Re: The ‘Terminator’ of startups says he’s seeing two to four wind-downs a week

#42

Post by JBReefer » Tue, Mar 21, 2017, 6:10 PM UTC

ajamesm wrote: post #41

mathattack wrote: post #16

Activity of restructuring firms is a good leading indicator of what's happening in private markets. These types of guys get involved well before public announcements of companies like Quixey. [0] It's also a very valuable service. Silicon Valley does well when people and assets from failing companies are freed up to join hyper-growth companies. Lenders are also more willing to take on startups as customers when they…

All this needs is a "This is good for Bitcoin." and we've reached full success-fail.

It's actually a core and well supported part of capitalism - people hire more when firing is easy, lenders are more willing to lend in industries with repo men, etc. It's kind of morbid, but rich ecosystems like the Amazon mostly exist because dead stuff is rapidly recycled. The economy is no different: slowing down the cycle is incredibly distortionary.

Re: The ‘Terminator’ of startups says he’s seeing two to four wind-downs a week

#43

Post by CalChris » Tue, Mar 21, 2017, 6:11 PM UTC

rfrank wrote: post #35

italicbold wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is an upgrade from an Aeron?

Embody, also by Herman Miller.

At $1500 for a chair, no wonder these startups are failing.

Re: The ‘Terminator’ of startups says he’s seeing two to four wind-downs a week

#44

Post by ericd » Tue, Mar 21, 2017, 6:12 PM UTC

justinzollars wrote: post #34

brooklynmarket wrote: post #20

VC cash in NYC is crumbling. Just invest in Apple. Why even take a chance? Makes no logical sense $$$ wise. AAPL up 40% in the last few months, is it worth even taking a chance anymore? And how much is Amazon up today?

AMZN is getting crushed at the moment. (Posted at 10:30am PST 3/21). Down $10/share

At >$800/share, that doesn't count as getting crushed.

Re: The ‘Terminator’ of startups says he’s seeing two to four wind-downs a week

#45

Post by cmiles74 » Tue, Mar 21, 2017, 6:13 PM UTC

italicbold wrote: post #27

nsxwolf wrote: post #23

Looks like I'm getting a new chair soon. The best thing about the Dot Com bubble bursting was my cheap Aeron. I'm ready to upgrade.

There is an upgrade from an Aeron?

I've been really happy with my AllSteel #19.

http://www.allsteeloffice.com/products/seating/work/19

Re: The ‘Terminator’ of startups says he’s seeing two to four wind-downs a week

#46

Post by rfrank » Tue, Mar 21, 2017, 6:19 PM UTC

CalChris wrote: post #43

rfrank wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Embody, also by Herman Miller.

At $1500 for a chair, no wonder these startups are failing.

Something something it's literally impossible to hire engineers who aren't showered in toys and treats.

But yeah, I generally agree with you. I like my fancy chair because I spend an awful lot of time in it every day, and I'm tall (6'6"), so most chairs are pretty uncomfortable for me and my lower back already sucks.

Re: The ‘Terminator’ of startups says he’s seeing two to four wind-downs a week

#47

Post by seizethecheese » Tue, Mar 21, 2017, 6:19 PM UTC

This may be a good thing for new start-ups. If investors are not "throwing good money after bad" they may have more fuel in the tank for new bets. Each massive round in a unicorn can fuel ten series A rounds.

Re: The ‘Terminator’ of startups says he’s seeing two to four wind-downs a week

#48

Post by CalChris » Tue, Mar 21, 2017, 6:24 PM UTC

bluetwo wrote: post #11

strictnein wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, one can imagine him coming into the house uninvited and starting to examine their equipment and various other assets.

Vampires can't enter a house uninvited.

Really, this guy is not a vampire. He's the grim reaper.

I worked for a startup that got shutdown. Don't like failure? Don't work in Silicon Valley. Anyways, Cisco (our probable exit strategy) leaned ever so slightly in the other direction and the VCs pulled our funding. But they also sent in a turnaround guy to reposition us for either the direction Cisco ever so slightly leaned in (soon to lean back) or something else.

Guy was the biggest asshole in the world. Moving the company to Microsoft Exchange is not a worthy accomplishment for a turnaround executive. Two weeks later, he shut us down for good but not before putting his 8 months pregnant wife on the insurance plan. This was a strange detail given that he was worth about $20M.

This guy had taken the job to shut us down. He then brought in a squadron of his buddies who shut us down properly and put a bow tie on it only after laying off everyone else. Basically, he sucked a lot of money out of the VCs. I occasionally Google'd him to figure out if he'd ever done anything afterwards of any merit. Nope.

That guy was a vampire.

Re: The ‘Terminator’ of startups says he’s seeing two to four wind-downs a week

#49

Post by ajamesm » Tue, Mar 21, 2017, 6:33 PM UTC

JBReefer wrote: post #42

ajamesm wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All this needs is a "This is good for Bitcoin." and we've reached full success-fail.

It's actually a core and well supported part of capitalism - people hire more when firing is easy, lenders are more willing to lend in industries with repo men, etc. It's kind of morbid, but rich ecosystems like the Amazon mostly exist because dead stuff is rapidly recycled. The economy is no different: slowing down the cycle is incredibly distortionary.

Yeah, private equity is a natural response to business failing in the wake of a bubble, but bubbles themselves are market distortions caused by insane valuations.

Highlighting the value of reclamation just draws the heat off of the irrationality of the tech bubble. Amazon isn't a rich ecosystem, it's oligarchic.

And, indeed, any systemic failure in a capitalist economy gets explained away by saying that some cadre of vultures will exploit arbitrage until the gap closes. No one really questions the systemic failures per se. The economy happily creates this surplus in full anticipation of it being scrapped and fed to vultures. Banks repossess cars and capitalists think "working as intended" instead of "there's so many delinquent car loans that there's an industry of repo men and maybe that's significant." This criticism extends similarly to the tech bubble.

Re: The ‘Terminator’ of startups says he’s seeing two to four wind-downs a week

#50

Post by mason240 » Tue, Mar 21, 2017, 6:40 PM UTC

JBReefer wrote: post #42

ajamesm wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All this needs is a "This is good for Bitcoin." and we've reached full success-fail.

It's actually a core and well supported part of capitalism - people hire more when firing is easy, lenders are more willing to lend in industries with repo men, etc. It's kind of morbid, but rich ecosystems like the Amazon mostly exist because dead stuff is rapidly recycled. The economy is no different: slowing down the cycle is incredibly distortionary.

Creative destruction.