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

Canoo spent double its annual revenue on the CEO's private jet

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 270 posts

Re: Canoo spent double its annual revenue on the CEO's private jet

#151

Post by s0rce »

dgrin91 wrote: post #36

The headline is relatively clickbait-y. Its double their revenue because their revenue is basically 0. Their actual expenses are hundreds of millions, of which this 1.7 million is a drop in the bucket. Once their upfront expenses are paid they will (presumably) be making hundreds of millions/billions in revenue, which means this 1.7m is not particularly important. You can talk about standard complaints of CEOs with p…

Not a drop in the bucket at all, its a massive waste for a startup on the edge of insolvency. They need to focus on priorities and spend much more carefully. No way does a small startup founder need a private jet.

Re: Canoo spent double its annual revenue on the CEO's private jet

#152

Post by imzadi »

efnx wrote: post #149
imzadi wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Must be nice to not be over 40 when the world implodes

Well I’m 40 and my partner is 45, but who knows how old we’ll be when/if the shit hits the fan.

I was just joking, because when I looked into immigrating to New Zealand, they had a point system penalized people for being over 40.

Re: Canoo spent double its annual revenue on the CEO's private jet

#153

Post by axlee »

blackhawkC17 wrote: post #26

If the reimbursements were solely for corporate travel, it might not be a concern. The CEO here sold his previous company for $6.5 billion [1], so he already owned the jet before starting Canoo. The company reimburses him for corporate travel on it. What's concerning is that Canoo is stacking big losses and living on the edge...it seems like excessive spending for a company that hasn't even made a dime of profit. But…

> But hold on, this same CEO has spent over $230 million(!) buying Canoo stock from his personal funds [2], so he is significantly in the red no matter how much he gets reimbursed for air travel.

He's not the only shareholder. I am not sure the others appreciate paying for the CEO's lavish lifestyle when his company is on the brink of failure, even though the CEO is also in the red. And as you say, if he really wants to travel private, he can always use his own plane and not charge anything for it. The other shareholders are basically bankrolling his plane.

Re: Canoo spent double its annual revenue on the CEO's private jet

#154

Post by s0rce »

gumptionary wrote: post #25

Tony Aquila is the CEO of both companies - Canoo and Aquila Family Ventures. I'll never understand why it's okay for CEOs to have multiple concurrent jobs, while one of the biggest fervors of the pandemic was when employees were found to have... multiple concurrent jobs.

As others said, he just runs his family office, likely 99% of the work is delegated to people who work for the family office.

Re: Canoo spent double its annual revenue on the CEO's private jet

#155

Post by flyingpenguin »

Solvency wrote: post #104
Climato wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need at least 400 Million to enter the car manufacturer market. The investment does sound absolutely reasonable at this point.

Can someone explain why people try to make new cars from the ground up, rather than "fork" a base platform from GM/Toyota/KIA/whoever with a different design and little features? This happens in literally every other market and industry. hell, just look at PCs and laptops. Like why can't a Canoo or Rivian license a base EV platform and come up with their own chassis design, infotainment system, and other little thing…

I suspect, starting from the ground up is part of why people are so interested in these companies.

The ICE car market is a massive market, which taking a part of required massive long term investment, and would result in you being relegated to just some minor side note.

Even Toyota one of the longest biggest players is still seen as kinda "new" compared to BMW and VW, let alone hyundai which is basically a massive state backed effort.

Now consider, all of that 100+ year history becoming completely irrelevant. An opportunity to time travel back 100 years and try to become the BMW of the future. I think this is what is exciting people.

when is the last time an entrenched trillion dollar industry with hardly any shakeups in decades suddenly had the ability for anyone to enter and say their biggest advantage is that they are new?

I am not saying I agree with it, I think knowing how to make a luxury car is a skill... But I don't think the goal of these CEOs and investors is to make a good car. Their goal is to make a 100+ year global legacy like BMW. If they could do that without making the car I am sure they would.

Re: Canoo spent double its annual revenue on the CEO's private jet

#156

Post by efnx »

wsc981 wrote: post #87
rvnx wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it there ? Are earthquake and food (and mosquitoes in the bushes) as bad as the rumours say ? (serious question about the first 2)

[flagged]

I felt that NZ handled it great! I lived through a year of American lock down and then a year of Kiwi lockdown (we emigrated from the US while on lockdown - it was nuts). IMO Ardern handled it beautifully, at least compared to the misinformation train wreck happening in the states, but that is of course only my opinion.

Re: Canoo spent double its annual revenue on the CEO's private jet

#157

Post by drexlspivey »

malfist wrote: post #88
ametrau wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s the actual story. It’s a bit boring though. The rest is bs clickbait.

A bit boring? Seems like straight up embezzlement.

So I’m assuming you’re paying for plane tickets out of pocket when going on a business trip. Otherwise it would be embezzlement right?

Re: Canoo spent double its annual revenue on the CEO's private jet

#158

Post by axlee »

woobar wrote: post #124
dgrin91 wrote: post #36

The headline is relatively clickbait-y. Its double their revenue because their revenue is basically 0. Their actual expenses are hundreds of millions, of which this 1.7 million is a drop in the bucket. Once their upfront expenses are paid they will (presumably) be making hundreds of millions/billions in revenue, which means this 1.7m is not particularly important. You can talk about standard complaints of CEOs with p…

CEOs get all kinds of compensation. Business jet travel, security, etc. This line item could be just tax optimization for this guy. I am not trying to defend him, he is getting paid a lot: "On May 5, 2023, the Board granted Mr. Aquila an award of 6,884,682 RSUs. These awards vest on May 5, 2024, subject to continuous service." [1] At current stock price it is ~$20M. Getting outraged about additional $1.7M that was ne…

Well, what kind of world-class engineers could he get for $1.7M a year? How many salespeople ?

Seems like the CEO's comfort when travelling should be a lot lower in the company's list of priorities, as it's losing hundreds of millions a year.

Re: Canoo spent double its annual revenue on the CEO's private jet

#159

Post by MattGaiser »

Solvency wrote: post #104
Climato wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need at least 400 Million to enter the car manufacturer market. The investment does sound absolutely reasonable at this point.

Can someone explain why people try to make new cars from the ground up, rather than "fork" a base platform from GM/Toyota/KIA/whoever with a different design and little features? This happens in literally every other market and industry. hell, just look at PCs and laptops. Like why can't a Canoo or Rivian license a base EV platform and come up with their own chassis design, infotainment system, and other little thing…

> Like why can't a Canoo or Rivian license a base EV platform and come up with their own chassis design, infotainment system, and other little things to differentiate themselves?

I imagine anyone willing to license one at the moment only has a crappy one to sell you or it is some Chinese EV, which creates political problems.

Post reply on HN