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Flexport will lay off 20% of the company starting Friday, leaked memo says

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Re: Flexport will lay off 20% of the company starting Friday, leaked memo says

#31
post #12

Meh. I think Flexport proved what their word was worth when they rescinded loads of employment offers. Not an ethical company to deal with.

To be fired in the latest layoff a few weeks later.... Not sure what you want them to do?

Don’t make employment offers and then rescind them? Seems pretty obvious

Re: Flexport will lay off 20% of the company starting Friday, leaked memo says

#32
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would the “stock market” care? It explicitly talks about reassuring costumers.

It cares because: running out of cash is a bad idea for any company and running leaner says that you will have more runway. Whether or not it will be enough runway as perceived by that very same stockmarket will determine your share price. If there are no buyers for your stock the price will drop like a stone, so this is both a message to current shareholders 'don't sell, we'll make it' and potential buyers 'sellers…

[deleted]

Re: Flexport will lay off 20% of the company starting Friday, leaked memo says

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Initially, meaning years ago, I saw Flexports strategy as positioning themselves as an acquisition target for a legacy forwarder. We'll see if they can successfully pivot to being a modern, lean logistics conoany able to stand on its own feet or not. Wouod be a shame if not, but then most investors, at least it seems so from the outside, have been investing based on the assumption of Flexport being a "tech" company.…

This is a fairly common occurrence, a company taking on investment not realizing that this is giving them both an opportunity and a massive change in direction as well as reduced options. Because to keep those investors happy a lot of those 'lean' landing strategies are no longer on the table, it's a bit like a junkie getting a first shot of a new and dangerous drug. The drug isn't free but you don't quite realize th…

The main reason I bootstrapped my, now defunct, attempted start-up. I didn't want a boss, so why would I take on something even worse, an investor? I wanted to be able to settle for a profitable boutique kind of thing, only a small number of investors would be fine with that and I had neither money nor time in finding those.

You nailed it with your last sentence, VC nacked companies can simply out spend competitors, upsetting markets by virtue of having, or rather having had, endless money. And then some still go bust. And there is a complete generation of people thinking that is just normal, a good thing even, and see funding as a success for a company. Hopefully that changes now, but we'll see I guess.

Re: Flexport will lay off 20% of the company starting Friday, leaked memo says

#34
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would the “stock market” care? It explicitly talks about reassuring costumers.

It cares because: running out of cash is a bad idea for any company and running leaner says that you will have more runway. Whether or not it will be enough runway as perceived by that very same stockmarket will determine your share price. If there are no buyers for your stock the price will drop like a stone, so this is both a message to current shareholders 'don't sell, we'll make it' and potential buyers 'sellers…

"Stock market" is normally used to refer to shares of public companies traded in stock exchanges. They don't need to make public announcements to communicate with private investors. There will be time to make the IPO attractive when the IPO comes.

This is a quote in the article: "It's clear that our customers want us to be a profitable company they can rely on to solve important problems in their supply chain." I'd say they are the main audience.

Re: Flexport will lay off 20% of the company starting Friday, leaked memo says

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a fairly common occurrence, a company taking on investment not realizing that this is giving them both an opportunity and a massive change in direction as well as reduced options. Because to keep those investors happy a lot of those 'lean' landing strategies are no longer on the table, it's a bit like a junkie getting a first shot of a new and dangerous drug. The drug isn't free but you don't quite realize th…

The main reason I bootstrapped my, now defunct, attempted start-up. I didn't want a boss, so why would I take on something even worse, an investor? I wanted to be able to settle for a profitable boutique kind of thing, only a small number of investors would be fine with that and I had neither money nor time in finding those. You nailed it with your last sentence, VC nacked companies can simply out spend competitors,…

I do tech DD and get to see the other side of the table as well, which can be pretty interesting. Some VCs are cautious and spend wisely, others are reckless and will throw money away in the hope of a jackpot. I've seen business cases that were so broken they essentially amounted to VC subsidized re-sale of luxury goods and yet nobody thought twice about it. I think I understand the rationale behind about the 50% or so of the deals that I see. But - and this is where it gets really interesting - I've been wrong on a low number of occasions too (from the investors perspective, they made out like bandits) and there is a pattern here: VCs don't necessarily need for the company to work out long term, they just need for it to work out until they sell their shares. This is known as the 'bigger fool' theory and you have to wonder how many of the 50% of the deals remaining falls into that category.

Finally: some VCs have a model that drives them to do this, they get paid over 'funds under management', and whether or not that eventually works out or not doesn't matter all that much, they get paid in the meantime. It will ultimately affect their ability to launch new funds but by then they usually have three funds in flight due to the delay between launching the first fund and the problems in the investments catching up with them, companies with money to burn can take a long time to fail.

Re: Flexport will lay off 20% of the company starting Friday, leaked memo says

#37
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It cares because: running out of cash is a bad idea for any company and running leaner says that you will have more runway. Whether or not it will be enough runway as perceived by that very same stockmarket will determine your share price. If there are no buyers for your stock the price will drop like a stone, so this is both a message to current shareholders 'don't sell, we'll make it' and potential buyers 'sellers…

"Stock market" is normally used to refer to shares of public companies traded in stock exchanges. They don't need to make public announcements to communicate with private investors. There will be time to make the IPO attractive when the IPO comes. This is a quote in the article: "It's clear that our customers want us to be a profitable company they can rely on to solve important problems in their supply chain." I'd s…

Yes, that is what it normally means. But: the stock market has effects far beyond the stock market itself and Flexport supplies enough companies that are listed that their status can have significant effect. That's why you see publications like the Wall Street Journal reporting on them.

Re: Flexport will lay off 20% of the company starting Friday, leaked memo says

#38
post #14

Please delete this. I (I meant this comment, not the original post) @dang

Why?

I made a comment, and in retrospect and within the edit time window I wanted to delete it. Was not commenting to delete the original post, only my comment.

Re: Flexport will lay off 20% of the company starting Friday, leaked memo says

#40
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would the “stock market” care? It explicitly talks about reassuring costumers.

It cares because: running out of cash is a bad idea for any company and running leaner says that you will have more runway. Whether or not it will be enough runway as perceived by that very same stockmarket will determine your share price. If there are no buyers for your stock the price will drop like a stone, so this is both a message to current shareholders 'don't sell, we'll make it' and potential buyers 'sellers…

>It cares because: running out of cash is a bad idea for any company and running leaner says that you will have more runway.

They are a private company, they have no relation to "the stock market". Maybe "Wall Street"?

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