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Beepi Winding Down After Burning Through $150M
11–20 of 64 posts
Re: Beepi Winding Down After Burning Through $150M
#12Learn from this. High Level Strategic planning & market research is often underrated by the Investors & Founders, that is why so many fail. And I can say this definitively because the reasons for failure can often be traced to one of these two reasons:
1) We expanded too fast - the result of poor stragetic planning
2.) The market for our products was weak - the result of of limited or no market research
In Beepi case it was reason (1) they expanded too fast. Can't imagine what they were doing with 300 employees, technology should have been used to make them more efficient.
Investors are more concerned with college pedigree yet that has not limited failures. They don't know what they need to know until it is over.
Re: Beepi Winding Down After Burning Through $150M
#13How's Shift doing?
I hope they're doing well. We got a car from them few months ago, it was so much better than going to the dealer.
Same, sold my car through them, and recommended a friend to the same. Great experience all around.
The fact they were willing to deal with cars older than 6 years was the only reason I looked at them over Beepi.
Re: Beepi Winding Down After Burning Through $150M
#14Learn from this. High Level Strategic planning & market research is often underrated by the Investors & Founders, that is why so many fail. And I can say this definitively because the reasons for failure can often be traced to one of these two reasons: 1) We expanded too fast - the result of poor stragetic planning 2.) The market for our products was weak - the result of of limited or no market research In Beepi case…
In many cases, you don't really know #2 when you start, and #1 is a matter of timing and funding. I view this as a failure in the Venture funding process. Companies do #1 before validating #2.
Re: Beepi Winding Down After Burning Through $150M
#15Beepi's business model is not scalable at all. I would be very surprised if any experienced investor has a dime in it.
Re: Beepi Winding Down After Burning Through $150M
#16Sad to see them go, there are so many things wrong with the way Americans are treated when buying and selling a car. Even though I work for a company in the same space it was great to have a company like them around to keep us on our toes.
Most people understand that like trading in anything used, you get what you bargain for. The quality varies, prices vary and you risk buying crap sometimes. Don't like that? Pay a bit more and buy extended warranty or precertified cars.
To sell your car, there's KBB, carmax, cars.com and any dealer you want to buy a car from.
Beepi was just one of the many options (no hassle no haggle). However, instead of being a marketplace like cars.com, it took ownership of the transaction probably with hopes to take a bigger chunk of the transaction but effectively became a dealer. Car dealer margins are like 2%. At a 5x multiple, it would be worth 10% of Sales.
Re: Beepi Winding Down After Burning Through $150M
#17Learn from this. High Level Strategic planning & market research is often underrated by the Investors & Founders, that is why so many fail. And I can say this definitively because the reasons for failure can often be traced to one of these two reasons: 1) We expanded too fast - the result of poor stragetic planning 2.) The market for our products was weak - the result of of limited or no market research In Beepi case…
It's rare to actually need to expand that quickly. If you've created something so easy to copy, you're in a lousy place. Play your own game, differentiate and expand at a reasonable pace.
Re: Beepi Winding Down After Burning Through $150M
#18Learn from this. High Level Strategic planning & market research is often underrated by the Investors & Founders, that is why so many fail. And I can say this definitively because the reasons for failure can often be traced to one of these two reasons: 1) We expanded too fast - the result of poor stragetic planning 2.) The market for our products was weak - the result of of limited or no market research In Beepi case…
In many cases, you don't really know #2 when you start, and #1 is a matter of timing and funding. I view this as a failure in the Venture funding process. Companies do #1 before validating #2.
Yes you do know #2 when you start. If I'm working on a cure for (name your sickness) you know there is a market. You're doing it wrong if you don't know #2 when you start. Don't be a solution looking for problem/market see:
Is Your Product a 'Vitamin' or 'Painkiller?'
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/230736
Re: Beepi Winding Down After Burning Through $150M
#19I hate seeing things like this.
As an entrepreneur it's frustrating that I've built a business, in a growing space, $300k ARR, consistent growth, a few employees, no debt and a well defined path to 10x growth that's not built on any (bulshit) models that VC seems to love. And for some reason it's very hard to find funding that's not from Wall Street guys (who love models that earn).
Hey VCs! I can burn less of your money a little slower!! Hit me up!
Re: Beepi Winding Down After Burning Through $150M
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
In many cases, you don't really know #2 when you start, and #1 is a matter of timing and funding. I view this as a failure in the Venture funding process. Companies do #1 before validating #2.
Yes you do know #2 when you start. If I'm working on a cure for (name your sickness) you know there is a market. You're doing it wrong if you don't know #2 when you start. Don't be a solution looking for problem/market see: Is Your Product a 'Vitamin' or 'Painkiller?' https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/230736
Many startups haven't figured out monetization at the beginning, that's why they search for Product Market Fit. If you do MVPs properly, you won't have burned much money on the way.