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Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

bloomberg.com

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Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#51

Post by toomuchtodo »

fourseventy wrote: post #45
faefox wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"As I just shared on our call, I think the world of you." Just not enough to offer any severance or healthcare. #TruckYeah!

The company is shutting down because they ran out of money... where do you think this magical severance pay is going to come from?

Good management manages the treasury so those funds are available during a wind down. If you run out of runway and the bank account is empty, with nothing to provide workers who are getting term'd, you fucked up.

(have co-owned a business where we made folks whole for pay the owner skipped out on during the failure, asset acquisition, and their onboarding with us; plan ahead and you can do the right thing, fail to plan and people will experience pain; you're not saving the business while burning through the severance allocation, you're just lying to yourself that the business isn't already dead)

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#52

Post by dylan604 »

sputknick wrote: post #6

start-up idea if anyone is bored: disrupt car shipping. When I moved from Seattle to Raleigh shipping my car was BY FAR the biggest headache. It's a 20th century business where you have to call people, who will bid for you, and you have no idea if your bid is accepted. Agents will promise a low price to get your business, then tell you a week later that bid was too low, you need to double it. I eventually just gave u…

I rented a flatbed car trailer and attached it to the back of the moving truck. Even if you hire a moving company, the same should be able to be done, right? I've never used a moving company. Is this not something they handle? I at least had experience pulling a trailer, so it maybe wasn't as daunting of an idea for me.??

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#53

Post by calabin »

fourseventy wrote: post #45
faefox wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"As I just shared on our call, I think the world of you." Just not enough to offer any severance or healthcare. #TruckYeah!

The company is shutting down because they ran out of money... where do you think this magical severance pay is going to come from?

They probably should've called the game a bit earlier - or at least significantly cut things back

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#54

Post by muzz »

fourseventy wrote: post #45
faefox wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"As I just shared on our call, I think the world of you." Just not enough to offer any severance or healthcare. #TruckYeah!

The company is shutting down because they ran out of money... where do you think this magical severance pay is going to come from?

Even if they mismanaged their cash to this extent, sometimes the VCs step up with the cash for this as a goodwill gesture.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#55

Post by vogt »

wooly_bully wrote: post #11

(Ex-)Convoy engineer here. No mystery as to why this happened, sudden tight market and low available capital demolished us. External reasons given in the article were the same we knew and couldn't do anything about considering that none of the M&A options materialized. Detailed the shutdown on a call at 8:30am Pacific this morning. CEO said there'll be no severance or healthcare. Lot of talented folks in Seattle and…

>CEO said there'll be no severance or healthcare.

Classy. Learning a lot about how certain people treat their employees during these last couple of admittedly insane years. Good for future reference, I guess - though not much solace now. I feel for the employees.

Edit: Wow, more responses than I thought! I admit that the tone of my comment was too reactionary, but my opinion stands. I won't modify the original comment but instead will add this quote from Dalton Caldwell, YC Partner:

"So what happens if you have less than three months of cash? It's important to face the issue head on and account for your liabilities and the scenario of shutting down your company.

In many cases, Convoy raised $1.1b including a $260mm Series E almost exactly a year ago.

[1] https://www.ycombinator.com/library/3Z-advice-for-companies-...

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#56

Post by moralestapia »

paxys wrote: post #17
sputknick wrote: post #6

start-up idea if anyone is bored: disrupt car shipping. When I moved from Seattle to Raleigh shipping my car was BY FAR the biggest headache. It's a 20th century business where you have to call people, who will bid for you, and you have no idea if your bid is accepted. Agents will promise a low price to get your business, then tell you a week later that bid was too low, you need to double it. I eventually just gave u…

Businesses like these are hard to "disrupt" because despite all the fancy websites and apps, pricing algorithms, scheduling, reminders, live video feeds and whatever else you can build, underneath it all the success or failure still depends on some guy showing up at your house, picking up your car and trucking it across the country. Unless you can automate that part nothing will fundamentally change.

Exhibit A: TFA

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#57

Post by vic-traill »

bradleybuda wrote: post #42
bloopernova wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> CEO said there'll be no severance or healthcare. That should be illegal. How much are the executives making from this? I'm really sorry you're in the middle of this. I hope you can find a better job soon.

What makes you think the executives are making anything from this? It's a startup, it ran out of money, it failed, there is nothing left. Joining a startup is risky.

>It's a startup, it ran out of money, it failed, there is nothing left

It may not be that clear cut ...

From the article: The startup, valued by investors last year at $3.8 billion, had already whittled its staff down to about 500 people from a peak of 1,500, and was on track to run out of money in a matter of weeks

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#58

Post by meiraleal »

sputknick wrote: post #6

start-up idea if anyone is bored: disrupt car shipping. When I moved from Seattle to Raleigh shipping my car was BY FAR the biggest headache. It's a 20th century business where you have to call people, who will bid for you, and you have no idea if your bid is accepted. Agents will promise a low price to get your business, then tell you a week later that bid was too low, you need to double it. I eventually just gave u…

Sure, what the world's in need now is more ideas that need VC capital to build. Convoy's CEO is bored and ready to take another idea.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#59

Post by mywittyname »

emgeee wrote: post #21
wooly_bully wrote: post #11

(Ex-)Convoy engineer here. No mystery as to why this happened, sudden tight market and low available capital demolished us. External reasons given in the article were the same we knew and couldn't do anything about considering that none of the M&A options materialized. Detailed the shutdown on a call at 8:30am Pacific this morning. CEO said there'll be no severance or healthcare. Lot of talented folks in Seattle and…

Dang, no severance or healthcare is really brutal and signals to me they probably should have called it earlier.

At least nobody will be around to fight against unemployment claims.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#60

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

vogt wrote: post #55
wooly_bully wrote: post #11

(Ex-)Convoy engineer here. No mystery as to why this happened, sudden tight market and low available capital demolished us. External reasons given in the article were the same we knew and couldn't do anything about considering that none of the M&A options materialized. Detailed the shutdown on a call at 8:30am Pacific this morning. CEO said there'll be no severance or healthcare. Lot of talented folks in Seattle and…

>CEO said there'll be no severance or healthcare. Classy. Learning a lot about how certain people treat their employees during these last couple of admittedly insane years. Good for future reference, I guess - though not much solace now. I feel for the employees. Edit: Wow, more responses than I thought! I admit that the tone of my comment was too reactionary, but my opinion stands. I won't modify the original commen…

Isn’t this standard for startups that shutdown?
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