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WeWork says will file to withdraw IPO

reuters.com

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Re: WeWork says will file to withdraw IPO

#121

Post by benj111 »

ethbro wrote: post #115
benj111 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds slightly like a no true Scotsman arguement to me. I'm sure you could find some none pure tech plays that are successful. Plus companies like Uber don't exactly own assets, its more tech company than not. For all the promise of the Web, people live in the real world, that's where the money is to be made, mega tech companies are necessarily going to live at the interface.

The irony is that essentially all of SoftBank's playbook is ripped from Buffett. Except Buffett did it with non-tech, capital-heavy companies. Where it arguably works a lot more reliably.

"SoftBank's playbook is ripped from Buffett"

How so?

Re: WeWork says will file to withdraw IPO

#122

Post by pram »

PMan74 wrote: post #103
puranjay wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly think Uber has over-invested in engineering. The problem they're trying to solve isn't so complicated that it needs their current engineering force. They don't have to add new features at as rapid a pace as a true software-focused company like, say, Stripe.

From an external viewpoint stuff like building your own internal chat application seems like a "too many engineers with too little to do" kid of decision. https://eng.uber.com/uchat/

The chat program they’re referring to in the beginning was HipChat, which really was a steaming pile of crap. Uber was our largest user and they constantly brought the entire service down.

IDK if making their own was the right solution, but it was driven by necessity and not boredom I assure you.

Re: WeWork says will file to withdraw IPO

#125

Post by mschuster91 »

djsumdog wrote: post #112
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“There are three ways to make a living in this business: be first, be smarter, or cheat.“ -Margin Call SV ran out of the first two because they are much harder. We are left with the dying gasps of companies trying the third way.

> or cheat This is called "Being disruptive." Basically, just ignore the law, but make sure you get enough workers and customers that love you so that they turn against politics when you break the law.

> Basically, just ignore the law, but make sure you get enough workers and customers that love you so that they turn against politics when you break the law.

Unfortunately, this seems to be the only way that's not outright massive violence such as Hongkong or France to get politicians to do their goddamn job. Taxi services have had a really massive lobby power in the US.

Re: WeWork says will file to withdraw IPO

#126

Post by ghaff »

inscionent wrote: post #37
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully they'll learn something from it. Losing a job really isn't the end of the world if you don't have a mortgage and a family (which will be the case for most entry level hires).

Losing your job is never the end of the world; no matter your indebtedness to a bank.

It's not the end of the world but you may be in a position where you really do need to take something/anything. Which during times such as 2001 wasn't necessarily anything related to what you studied in school. A lot of underemployed engineers and others in the tech sector (and elsewhere).

Re: WeWork says will file to withdraw IPO

#127

Post by samstave »

chisleu wrote: post #11
mharroun wrote: post #4

Incoming layoffs... between wework and uber the market will be "flooded" with talent. I wonder if having wework on your resume is a good or bad thing.

Flooded means I'll be able to find more than 3-4 qualified applicants per quarter? Good

Lame.

Because there are many more people out there who should be contributing in general.

Re: WeWork says will file to withdraw IPO

#128

Post by akulkarni »

john_moscow wrote: post #120
akulkarni wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a classic "bottoms-up" model that is quite viable (eg Dropbox, Slack, Zoom, Elastic, MongoDB). Not sure why anyone would call it a scam. In fact, I would be wary of software companies without a base of free users, as that means the company needs to keep spending a lot of its revenue on sales and marketing.

>This is a classic "bottoms-up" model that is quite viable (eg Dropbox, Slack, Zoom, Elastic, MongoDB). None of which are profitable. >In fact, I would be wary of software companies without a base of free users, as that means the company needs to keep spending a lot of its revenue on sales and marketing. I am much more wary of companies that keep or burning cash for years and years with the only excuse that "Amazon d…

> I am much more wary of companies that keep or burning cash for years and years with the only excuse that "Amazon did that as well".

I think about this a little differently. Spending money on free users is actually a much more efficient "marketing expense" than classic outbound strategies (e.g., online advertising).

Re: WeWork says will file to withdraw IPO

#129

Post by skinnymuch »

john_moscow wrote: post #71
axiak wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the pure tech plays in 2019 are doing just fine. Zoom, Cloudflare, and Datadog all look like good companies. They're just not over-hyped and overinflated.

Cloudflare still relies on the "massive amount of free users creating buzz vs. a tiny fraction of paid users". Although not an obvious scam, they may very well go the Groupon way.

What relevance does Groupon have? The two companies aren’t related in any major way. Def not with freemium model or revenue model.

Re: WeWork says will file to withdraw IPO

#130

Post by konschubert »

ethbro wrote: post #111
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How is this comment relevant to WeWork? How has it "cheated"? They borrowed short, lent long and then pretended it was as sustainable business. To their credit, they abundantly disclosed their shenanigans. (I haven't seen any evidence suggesting investors can reasonably claim fraud.) But they were playing fast and loose with basic economics. At its core, sure, WeWork could have been a business. Its thesis, that off…

Furthermore, and this to me is the most damning indictment: where's the moat? SoftBank and Masayoshi Son's hypothesis is: 1. Find a market which can be captured by a business with access to massive capital 2. Provide massive capital 3. Extract profits once a monopoly has been established WeWork is a terrible example of this, because in no way does scale give them unique advantages. And furthermore, "scale" in this co…

Same for Uber.
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