how did they even raise any funding with that low of revenue?
Why are there no articles answering this question? Please link if you find one!
What software engineers can learn from the rapid collapse of Fast
251–260 of 482 posts
Re: What software engineers can learn from the rapid collapse of Fast
#252Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find it absolutely crazy that companies do this. My company's strategy is get one extremely solid person across all our verticals (Android / iOS / Backend / Infra) to minimise communication overhead and maximise iteration speed (since we throw out half the code we write anyway). I would be very hard pressed to hire more than 2-3 people in each role even if we were offered 10s of millions.
Headcount perversely increases the valuation sometimes. Hence, big head positions.
I've been wondering why a seemingly stable startup would go on a massive hiring spree leading to all kinds of chaos rather than take a more measured approach and have started to suspect that this is the reason right here.
Re: What software engineers can learn from the rapid collapse of Fast
#253I don't understand why $600K in revenue wasn't a giant red flag. Maybe they don't tell the employees the revenue numbers? If so, that is a giant red flag.
How many engineers reading this comment know (or even care) how much revenue their company is making?
Re: What software engineers can learn from the rapid collapse of Fast
#254I was an engineer at Fast for over a year and wanted to clarify a few points-- - engineers did have access to data and could write their own queries to check revenue (but few people did until the article came out). - the strategy leadership decided on was to go after massive enterprise sellers which would, in theory, result in step-change functions in revenue. Many people knew about the low numbers but were willing t…
> The story is a lot more complicated and nuanced than the headlines you read in publications
You could put that as subtext for pretty much every story you read. ;-)
Re: What software engineers can learn from the rapid collapse of Fast
#255I was an engineer at Fast for over a year and wanted to clarify a few points-- - engineers did have access to data and could write their own queries to check revenue (but few people did until the article came out). - the strategy leadership decided on was to go after massive enterprise sellers which would, in theory, result in step-change functions in revenue. Many people knew about the low numbers but were willing t…
An overly positive culture is default behavior for most startups. It does appear to be poisonous and there is nothing you can do about it. If you call people out on BS, you are painted as a negative person. Not sure there is a fix.
Re: What software engineers can learn from the rapid collapse of Fast
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
I joined Fast towards the end of last year. I didn't get as much exposure to the rest of the company as parent comment, but I'll say I saw a weird air of complacency and assumed success. I first ignored my instincts that something was wrong, but as I saw more of how the company operated, I became convinced that the single largest problem the company had was the culture. On the surface, I agree with the parent comment…
Good point, I am always surprise when well funded startups hire former big-tech engineers, rather than experienced startup engineers.
There is a pretty good reason. If the experienced engineer worked at a startup that went anywhere, they have a lot of money and aren't coming to work for you. So the choice in many cases is big tech engineer or failed startup engineer. It's not clear which is better, it is clear (ish) which seems better.
Re: What software engineers can learn from the rapid collapse of Fast
#257Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The company spent a lot of money on marketing events including sponsorship deals with the Tampa Bay Lightning and the rumored million dollar concert by the Chain Smokers here we go, this is late 90s all over again
This is such a revealing comment and here's why: The reason late 90's start-ups invested the way they did is because they had no meaningful way to track the effectiveness of their ads, much less the payback. A Super Bowl ad for Pets.com seems fine if you can (more or less) guess that it adds a bunch of customers. Since then, start-ups have built a bunch of tools to track customer acquisition costs and paybacks in a p…
Worth adding AI to this list :-)
Re: What software engineers can learn from the rapid collapse of Fast
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The company spent a lot of money on marketing events including sponsorship deals with the Tampa Bay Lightning and the rumored million dollar concert by the Chain Smokers here we go, this is late 90s all over again
This is such a revealing comment and here's why: The reason late 90's start-ups invested the way they did is because they had no meaningful way to track the effectiveness of their ads, much less the payback. A Super Bowl ad for Pets.com seems fine if you can (more or less) guess that it adds a bunch of customers. Since then, start-ups have built a bunch of tools to track customer acquisition costs and paybacks in a p…
> I wonder when the music stops.
Who cares? Champagne on the Concord, and let's order a bunch of Starfire servers from Sun Microsystems!
Re: What software engineers can learn from the rapid collapse of Fast
#259I was an engineer at Fast for over a year and wanted to clarify a few points-- - engineers did have access to data and could write their own queries to check revenue (but few people did until the article came out). - the strategy leadership decided on was to go after massive enterprise sellers which would, in theory, result in step-change functions in revenue. Many people knew about the low numbers but were willing t…
An overly positive culture is default behavior for most startups. It does appear to be poisonous and there is nothing you can do about it. If you call people out on BS, you are painted as a negative person. Not sure there is a fix.
Makes me think about theranos or wework. Charismatic leaders can get a lot of people/talent following them without necessarily having a solid grasp on all of the complicated aspects of the business they run. Of course you have really great charismatic leaders in startups like Marc Benioff for example who kind of get everything right.
Re: What software engineers can learn from the rapid collapse of Fast
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
Additionally, it's a bigger loss felt when that person leaves.
...which is why it's so important to foster an environment, where they don't want to leave. I kept engineers (really good ones) for decades . They had many "life problems" (like divorce, cancer, etc.) during that time, and I kept them on. It's entirely possible. I have done it. I ran a team that was all "top-shelfers."
I assume you were able to do it with more than just money?