Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

coinbase.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 533 posts

Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#141

Post by bfeynman »

jesuscript wrote: post #105
SilverBirch wrote: post #87

Coinbase is a weird company, because it's got such an obvious comparable: CME Group. CME Group has about 3500 employees, did 1.2bn in revenue last quarter with 680m net income. Then you have coinbase now trimmming to about the same number 3500, 590m revenue and a net income loss of 550m. That's right, as far as I can see, Coinbase loses $1 for every $1 of revenue. Firstly, I don't see how Coinbase needs as many peopl…

My best guess is that raising funding helps raise the valuation, especially as they approach IPO. So raise money for the sake of raising the valuation. You don’t really need the money, but you got it. What are you going to do with it to appease the investors? Well you gotta act like you are doing something with it, especially something that shows growth. Hire more. Hire more because we imagine more. Keep imagining un…

classic vc growth story, almost a fairy tale.

Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#142

Post by danielheath »

robertlagrant wrote: post #19
Buttons840 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, but 1% of society holds more wealth than the bottom 50%. To a passing observer of crypto, they see that a few have extreme amounts of wealth, just like every other currency, and think everything seems normal.

They don't see the difference in mechanisms. Getting rich through pump and dump vs getting rich through making or doing something people find valuable.

To be fair, it's a little bit harder to see the difference between pump & dump vs getting born rich.

Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#143

Post by mupuff1234 »

eqmvii wrote: post #78
mupuff1234 wrote: post #31

The stock jumped 15% yesterday before this was public information. Coincidence? I think not.

a lot of tech stocks jumped yesterday, and crypto stocks are extremely volatile.

At closing most tech stocks only had mild gains, even the more volatile ones afaict.

Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#144

Post by Nursie »

Traubenfuchs wrote: post #68
rwmj wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure there's good money in boiler room scams, but that would be a pretty big red flag on a CV.

I have written boiler room scam callcenter software in direct violation of a law that doesn't allow for fanned out autodialing and autohangup to minimize agent downtime. So what?

So I wouldn’t hire you with ethics like that.

There’s more to the job than just technical skill.

Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#145

Post by rkachowski »

jerpint wrote: post #124
rkachowski wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It works both ways - a CEO throwing out resumes with prejudice means the candidate doesn't have to suffer a prejudiced CEO, "big boy company" already says a lot about the culture you're trying to foster.

Username is irl_chad …

looks like I took the bait..

Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#146

Post by mritchie712 »

pifm_guy wrote: post #93
shawabawa3 wrote: post #2

Sorry a slight error in the title. Operating costs reduced by 25%, but it's actually roughly a 20% reduction in workforce (950 employees out of ~4700)

Coinbase has 4700 employees!?! Like a team of 5 software engineers, and a customer support team of 10, and 1 boss ought to cover it...

support team of 10? they have 100 million users and sell a not-so-simple product to consumers who often don't understand what they're buying.

https://www.businessofapps.com/data/coinbase-statistics/

Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#147

Post by nicky0 »

serioussecurity wrote: post #130
SunlightEdge wrote: post #46

I lost a little bit of money investing in crypto on Coinbase (I put about £500 in which shrank to £200 - over the course of past 2 years and for past year I mostly have just had money in sterling - the market looked terrible) I finally decided yesterday to cash out of coinbase yesterday - they charged me £3 to withdraw my money!! In the scheme of things I didn't lose that much money - not really. But personally I can…

Your surprise over a £3 fee strikes me as a perfect illustration of crypto: profoundly naive, inexperienced investors getting a hard lesson in how unregulated markets work. I hope, some years down the line, you take the broader life lesson that anyone promising you money for nothing does not have your best interests at heart.

You make it sound like a £3 transaction fee is evidence of some kind of scamminess or preying on naivety but most normal, regulated investment platforms, crypto or not, come with transaction fees, account fees, fund management fees and so on. Usually they are taking a lot more than £3 from you too. That's even before we get into the world of professional financial "advice" and the commissions they just happen to earn when you buy the one they recommend. Compared to all the ways the traditional investment world seeks to milk you, Coinbase's flat fee per trade looks admirably straightforward.

Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#148

Post by reverend_gonzo »

iLoveOncall wrote: post #117
kasey_junk wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s indicative of a very inexperienced staff or one that is desperate for interviewers, presumably because they are binge hiring. There are places that go out of their way to get very junior people interviewing early on purpose but in those cases there is usually someone more senior also involved. For most places though it means they were throwing whoever they could find at the interviews.

Why would you need someone with decades of experience to hire an intern or a new grad? It's customary for a lot of companies to have an interviewer which is above or _at_ the level that you are recruiting. Therefore someone with a year or two of experience is perfectly able to hire an intern or someone that will be hired at the same level as them. Looking at Amazon for example, "Hire and Develop the Best" is one of t…

Inexperienced engineers simply don’t have the experience to make good hiring decisions. Having them being involved in the process is fine, but they should be shadowing someone more senior.

Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#149

Post by bfeynman »

college_physics wrote: post #135
SilverBirch wrote: post #87

Coinbase is a weird company, because it's got such an obvious comparable: CME Group. CME Group has about 3500 employees, did 1.2bn in revenue last quarter with 680m net income. Then you have coinbase now trimmming to about the same number 3500, 590m revenue and a net income loss of 550m. That's right, as far as I can see, Coinbase loses $1 for every $1 of revenue. Firstly, I don't see how Coinbase needs as many peopl…

Is there something in market-making technology (or otherwise) that sets them apart from any other modern exchange? Could they pivot into trading pork bellies (or tokens thereof)?

exchanges have been around for almost a century now, so coinbase actually has a huge disadvantage in that they have no institutional stickiness or users, exchanges are built on trust and I would not want my money being routed through them if I was a client.

Re: Coinbase cuts staff by a further 20%

#150

Post by paulcole »

consumer451 wrote: post #102
pifm_guy wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coinbase has 4700 employees!?! Like a team of 5 software engineers, and a customer support team of 10, and 1 boss ought to cover it...

Does that cover legal/regulatory/compliance?

Of course not. HN Headcount Guy™ sincerely believes anything that isn’t engineering (and perhaps occasionally a single support person who also delivers the catered lunches and does the marketing “work”) doesn’t exist.
Post reply on HN