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

Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 639 posts

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#221

Post by [deleted] »

itsoktocry wrote: post #183
bart_spoon wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If things are dire enough to close up shop now, they probably were dire enough to close up shop 2 months ago, and you can use the cash to give your employees some runway for finding new employment.

> If things are dire enough to close up shop now, they probably were dire enough to close up shop 2 months ago, and you can use the cash to give your employees some runway for finding new employment. This might be true, but personally I'd rather the company try to remain a going concern.

[deleted]

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#222

Post by poorbutdebtfree »

bart_spoon wrote: post #86
benced wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ex-Convoy employee here: if a company is shutting down, it obviously can't provide severance. It's not a matter of class or not.

If things are dire enough to close up shop now, they probably were dire enough to close up shop 2 months ago, and you can use the cash to give your employees some runway for finding new employment.

[dead]

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#223

Post by jonkho »

lawlessone wrote: post #92
brianwawok wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, OP is either from Europe or very entitled or both.

When did not wanting to be shafted become entitlement?

No one is being shafted. With each paycheck, the obligations of the company are met.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#224

Post by stickfigure »

dboreham wrote: post #192
benced wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ex-Convoy employee here: if a company is shutting down, it obviously can't provide severance. It's not a matter of class or not.

> if a company is shutting down, it obviously can't provide severance Not really true. The company is owned by its shareholders, and they may choose to use funds belonging to the company (after paying outstanding obligations) to pay severance, or they may divide the funds among themselves. If there are no funds, they can choose to invest more to pay severance. Obviously they're unlikely to want to do that, but it's n…

> choose to invest more to pay severance

This is not a thing that happens in reality.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#225

Post by ska »

adam_arthur wrote: post #207
ska wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the sake of argument, assume your contentions are true. Now how do you draw a line from that to the probability that the technical team that has been let go is not high quality?

I wasn't speaking to that point... excessive operating expenses are clearly a management failure. I was contending that this shutdown is not likely simply "through no fault of their own" People who can't asses fair value of a business from a discounted cashflow perspective shouldn't be running a company. It's usually financially ignorant people like this that lead the business down a dark path. The prior round valuat…

GP said

> Lot of talented folks in Seattle and beyond who'll be looking for new gigs.

Which you took issue with and suggested the failure was counter evidence. That was pretty clearly about the technical team that was just let go, so that idea doesn't hold much water.

Beyond that, the mere existence of failure doesn't mean that the plan wasn't reasonable; you need a lot more data to determine if the mgmt team was functioning well. I have no opinion on the particulars here because I don't know the details. But the contention that the fact of failure alone is clear indication is a bit silly, which is what I was pointing out.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#226

Post by sangnoir »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #204
dboreham wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if a company is shutting down, it obviously can't provide severance Not really true. The company is owned by its shareholders, and they may choose to use funds belonging to the company (after paying outstanding obligations) to pay severance, or they may divide the funds among themselves. If there are no funds, they can choose to invest more to pay severance. Obviously they're unlikely to want to do that, but it's n…

> they may choose to use funds belonging to the company (after paying outstanding obligations) to pay severance If they can do this, they can pay salaries another month. Making a go/no go call at the edge is difficult. It sounds like Convoy thought it was getting a loan that didn’t come through. Put another way: if the CEO shut down the company while loan negotiations were in place, it would have zeroed out the commo…

> If they can do this, they can pay salaries another month

If leadership decides to use the remaining funds on salaries rather than severance - then they should be judged on that! What good is buying one extra month for a doomed company? That month is more valuable to individual employees who can use it to look for new jobs

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#227

Post by mrguyorama »

pxx wrote: post #157
ctvo wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shutting down 3 months earlier, but everyone getting severance is an option. Let's not pretend it had to happen this way because it's a startup. They made the decision, if true, to use up every cent clinging on trying to find an exit or more runway.

The very nature of a startup, especially one funded like this, means that your whole existence is predicated on the hopes that you make it big. As such, spending your last cent to try to find a lifeline makes far more sense than calling it quits early. It's also certainly not in the interests of investors to just call things off.

>It's also certainly not in the interests of investors to just call things off.

And of course, we should prioritize a class of people who BY DEFINITION have significantly more resources available to keep themselves alive and safe and happy over the well being of 500 normal people.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#228

Post by hintymad »

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…

Any insights on how effective the CEO and the executives were? I'm very curious how successful executives from big companies like Amazon function in a startup.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#229

Post by idontpost »

Fordec wrote: post #167
sushid wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't realize wanting healthcare while getting let go from a company I worked for was desiring to be "coddled."

This is why dissolution isn't some whopsey-doodle word. When there's nothing left, there's nothing left. If that is a risk, including in that is your private healthcare provision, leave this stuff up to the 20 year olds that don't have the health concerns. Coddled might be too diminutive of a phrase, but if it's a risk you can't live with by your life expectations, don't get involved. Pick another job on the market.…

[dead]

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#230

Post by duxup »

psunavy03 wrote: post #216
duxup wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm confused as to what Convy "had" anyway. Was it largely spot rates, a bid board, and lots of small carriers? Customers easily could just get rates / carriers elsewhere and walk from Convoy? No other services making income keeping customers around? Rates are pretty fluid in logistics, very strange that they would rely on that alone if that was the case.

Everyone in startup world wants to come in and "hack" 3PL until they realize 3PL is a weird, complicated thing even if it's got a bunch of legacy players on legacy software. It's more or less like this: https://xkcd.com/1831/

Agreed.

The logistics industry is really old, backwards at times, and lots of penny pinches.

But supply and demand for carriers and capacity is pretty dang fluid too... market forces are already REALLY at play in logistics lands.

If covid showed anything it was that while there would be hiccups if people can't get to work ... stuff still flows through the system pretty efficiently.

If you want to be a 3PL you gotta manage your relationships with your customers / give them a reason to stick with you.

Post reply on HN