I don't know about this infighting, but don't you think that someone like Meg Whitman would suck badly at being Uber CEO, not that she did wonders at HP.
If anyone has opinion, I would be interested to hear.
Benchmark Capital Sues Travis Kalanick for Fraud
141–150 of 196 posts
Re: Benchmark Capital Sues Travis Kalanick for Fraud
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
Board seats are part of bargaining chip during funding rounds.... they are very very important. If you lose control of the board as a founder, you basically are another employee at the company, at the mercy of your investors, who can choose to bring "adult" supervision anytime they seem it is fit to them. Having the founders control of the board did well to both facebook and google on the long term. On the other hand…
This gets especially interesting when you start to expand into Europan countries, and suddenly large amounts of the board seats are elected by the employees (usually a similar amount is chosen by investors and by employees). This is something that seems to be missing in the US.
> and suddenly large amounts of the board seats are elected by the employees
Any stats or info on this? Would be interested to find out more.
Re: Benchmark Capital Sues Travis Kalanick for Fraud
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
VCs don't invest their own money. I haven't been privy to details of many VC funded companies, but the ones I saw definitely had the VC General Partners investing their personal money side by side with money from their Limited Partners. That was reflected in the names on the preferred stock certificates from day one. (Probably don't do paper stock certificates any more). I agree with your statement that "it's not tha…
Yeah, they definitely put up their own money - it's also public record :) This is how reporters know a firm is raising another fund (beyond just expecting them to every 2 years). The amount/percentage of the total fund that the partners pay in themselves varies by firm and fund. Here's the records from Benchmark's Fund 7 Partners put up $80mm of their own cash, in a vehicle named Benchmark Founders' Fund VII, L.P.: h…
I wonder why they split GP vs LP money into two separate companies.
Re: Benchmark Capital Sues Travis Kalanick for Fraud
#144Benchmarks in a bind and at war with travis; they need to liquidate their stake in next year or two. Softbank deal to buy out their shares fell apart in part b/c no CEO. Benchmark wants safe-hands leader who will cost-cut firesale their way to quick IPO. travis + allies being more long term; blocking benchmarks CEO picks (meg). so board civil war continues with benchmarks dirty tricks like this sour grapes lawsuit an…
Brings up a fun thought: "What do with all the Uber fragments I can't keep in my arms grip!?!?" --- So what do? How harvest. (Think of this as a thought experiment) --- Uber collapses: As an outsider, what are perceived assets and what are perceived risks/liabilities What are perceived opportunities: how to harvest them NOW?? Experiment 1: Uber shall die in x months; thus need to take action y now, at cost of x with…
Is this in English? Are you ok???
Re: Benchmark Capital Sues Travis Kalanick for Fraud
#145Benchmarks in a bind and at war with travis; they need to liquidate their stake in next year or two. Softbank deal to buy out their shares fell apart in part b/c no CEO. Benchmark wants safe-hands leader who will cost-cut firesale their way to quick IPO. travis + allies being more long term; blocking benchmarks CEO picks (meg). so board civil war continues with benchmarks dirty tricks like this sour grapes lawsuit an…
Brings up a fun thought: "What do with all the Uber fragments I can't keep in my arms grip!?!?" --- So what do? How harvest. (Think of this as a thought experiment) --- Uber collapses: As an outsider, what are perceived assets and what are perceived risks/liabilities What are perceived opportunities: how to harvest them NOW?? Experiment 1: Uber shall die in x months; thus need to take action y now, at cost of x with…
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Re: Benchmark Capital Sues Travis Kalanick for Fraud
#146It's interesting to see how all the chaos at the board and management level has affected employees. Data from LinkedIn paints a troubling picture both in terms of hiring and retention.
* Uber has 31,537 employees as of August 2017.
* New hiring is down from 1000 per month in 2016 to 500 a month in 2017. July was the lowest month since the start of LinkedIn data which is August 2015 @ 440 hires.
* There are currently 8,000 job openings. Operations and Engineering are the two largest categories.
* With every 100 people that are hired. ~80 people are departing the company.
Hiring managers I have talked to say that it is very challenging to attract strong candidates to Uber and it is demoralizing because their best people are leaving.
Re: Benchmark Capital Sues Travis Kalanick for Fraud
#147It's interesting to see how all the chaos at the board and management level has affected employees. Data from LinkedIn paints a troubling picture both in terms of hiring and retention. * Uber has 31,537 employees as of August 2017. * New hiring is down from 1000 per month in 2016 to 500 a month in 2017. July was the lowest month since the start of LinkedIn data which is August 2015 @ 440 hires. * There are currently…
Why so many people?
Re: Benchmark Capital Sues Travis Kalanick for Fraud
#148It's interesting to see how all the chaos at the board and management level has affected employees. Data from LinkedIn paints a troubling picture both in terms of hiring and retention. * Uber has 31,537 employees as of August 2017. * New hiring is down from 1000 per month in 2016 to 500 a month in 2017. July was the lowest month since the start of LinkedIn data which is August 2015 @ 440 hires. * There are currently…
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Re: Benchmark Capital Sues Travis Kalanick for Fraud
#149In my best Nelson Muntz voice: "Ha-ha". The VCs have done this to themselves. They put up all the money, they should have never allowed themselves to be put into this situation. Decades ago, when I was at startups, this was 100% clear, cut and dried. The Golden Rule. People who have the gold make the rules. I'm sure this won't be a popular opinion, since more HN readers are founders and employees than are VCs. But do…
Because the terms of the deal dictate the allocation of control. There are many differences between investments and acquisitions, control being the most prominent.
Re: Benchmark Capital Sues Travis Kalanick for Fraud
#150It's interesting to see how all the chaos at the board and management level has affected employees. Data from LinkedIn paints a troubling picture both in terms of hiring and retention. * Uber has 31,537 employees as of August 2017. * New hiring is down from 1000 per month in 2016 to 500 a month in 2017. July was the lowest month since the start of LinkedIn data which is August 2015 @ 440 hires. * There are currently…
Why so many people?
Many of the 30,000+ employees are non-tech. Uber needs lots of hires for driver recruitment, training, support. They have people on the ground in every region they operate.