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A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)

thehustle.co

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Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)

#231

Post by HyperTalk2 »

Angostura wrote: post #202
notahacker wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More straightforwardly, the reputation for being massive cheapskates gets its target market of people who don't care about airlines at all and just want a good deal knowing who they are and going straight to Ryanair.com to buy tickets when they need to fly. Which means that (i) they'll lookup the price and be upsold a package on Ryanair.com rather than finding the price and a different hotel deal on some other price…

I used to use Ryanair... until I found out how they treated wheelchair users. I'm happy for myself to be treated like a piece of meat. Not other, more vulnerable users. Screw Ryanair.

No one knows what you're talking about. I'll hazard a guess. Is it the SINGLE INCIDENT ONE YEAR AGO where someone broke the rules by not folding their wheelchair because they didn't know how to do it? Something that no one else has ever complained about because people typically know how to fold their own wheelchair? Something that WASN'T EVEN A PROBLEM because the woman was later able to figure it out and was rebooked to the flight the next day for free?

Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)

#232

Post by WalterBright »

Loughla wrote: post #101
tyingq wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Diamonds, especially the recent craze around discolored ones might be a good comparison. They are valuable mostly because of years of shrewd marketing. If DeBeers started telling the truth, they could drop in value pretty quickly.

I was absolutely floored when I started seeing advertisements for 'chocolate' diamonds a few years back, and even more floored that people I knew just HAD to have them. I had dealt with 'chocolate' diamonds for years, I currently have hundreds in my wood shop! My father works as a machinist, and brown, low-quality diamonds are their abrasive of choice for many jobs. They're (or rather, they were) super cheap because…

Just look at the mania for wearing torn jeans.

Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)

#233

Post by scarejunba »

isostatic wrote: post #204
andrepd wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're 45m-1h by train from Central London.

Birmingham airport is 1h06 from Central London Brussels itself is only 1h54 from central London!

Okay, yeah, but if you were in London, you were flying out of Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, or rarely London City. It took longer for me to get from Tower Bridge to Heathrow than to Gatwick. I don't fly Ryan Air, though. Abhor the air line, but they let my parents take me to Europe when I was younger so there's that.

And that distance stuff is normal, because on the longer distances you're going on high-speed trains. If you were a Millwall (a London team) fan who lived just south of The Den and by some divine chance you were to play Arsenal (another London team) at The Emirates (god forbid), it'd take you just as long by transit to get there as it would take someone who's commuting from Market Harborough (80 miles North) to St. Pancras (London's big international rail terminus). But it's laughable to claim that Market Harborough is part of London or that either of the Emirates and the Den are not.

Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)

#234

Post by ascorbic »

walshemj wrote: post #133
throwaway6845 wrote: post #117

> Elon Musk (right) has drawn comparisons to Gerald Ratner in recent years The 1980s British businessman who Musk most reminds me of is not Gerald Ratner but Robert Maxwell.

Really I don't recall Elon doing any of the really shady shit that Maxwell did.

Most of Maxwell's really shady shit didn't come out til after he had died.

Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)

#235

Post by epylar »

refurb wrote: post #199
ArnoVW wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the issues I'm aware of: Ryanair pay their staff poorly. And that is not cheap enough, so they also employ them under employment law from "cheap countries", to try and circumvent income taxes and other charges of the local countries they service. Ryanair demand subsidies from local governments to fly to far-flung airports. They can hold these governments hostage, as often the airports fail if they stop their se…

People seem to be using the economic word “externalities” as “things I don’t like”.

That is what externality means -- "a side effect or consequence of an industrial or commercial activity that affects other parties without this being reflected in the cost of the goods or services involved." (unless this person is affecting the cost somehow as a result of this dislike)

In a sense, economics is entirely about what people like and dislike.

Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)

#236

Post by briandear »

isostatic wrote: post #154
fortran77 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. Fellow "cheapskates" who just want to get from Dublin to Edinburgh on a cheap flight probably admire his thrift.

Such cheap flights are possible because the airlines aren’t paying the externalities they cause. Ryanair don’t fly to London btw. Or Brussels.

What externalities are those and exactly how much are they worth? What is the precise monetary amount and how did you calculate it? And did you price in the value of that traveler to the destination? How about the value of the resources not consumed if that traveler would have stayed home?

It’s complicated. It isn’t so naïve as just “externalities of the airplane.”

Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)

#237

Post by sharadov »

fortran77 wrote: post #114

The modern examples cited weren't nearly as bad: - Lulumon didn't seem to be hurt by Chip Wilson. In fact, the "notoriety" made me aware they they sold men's clothes, too, and I went there and bought some great athletic wear. - Many customers appreciated Barclays' warning not to "pile up debts." That would give me a favorable opinion of a company that offers lines of credit, not a bad one.

Lululemon is genius, their quality is great, but the branding is even better! They revolutionized the exercise wear industry, were single-handedly responsible for "athleisure" and killing denim sales!

Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)

#238

Post by macintux »

WalterBright wrote: post #224
keiferski wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe from a marketing perspective, sure. But from a truthfulness perspective, I think you’ll find that most people are annoyed by the fake opinions that come from most businesses. Indeed a number of companies have been successful specifically because they talk like real human beings and readily admit the strengths and weaknesses of their products.

> Indeed a number of companies have been successful specifically because they talk like real human beings and readily admit the strengths and weaknesses of their products. I'm curious - can you name a couple?

Dominos used the lousy quality of their pizzas to market a revamped recipe.

Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)

#239

Post by Aperocky »

giarc wrote: post #162
keiferski wrote: post #161

This situation sounds like more of an indictment of the media and sensationalist journalism more than the entrepreneur himself. People make mistakes and say stupid things sometimes, after all, they’re human. Expecting leaders to be perfect 100% of the time will only result in leaders that are good at appearing perfect.

I think you can expect a CEO of a company not to call their own products "crap".

Why not, if it is crap, call it so.

The only problem is him being in the jewelry business. People buy jewelry for vanity, of course they didn't like that. Sundar Pichai can call youtube $INSERT_SUB_SERVICE crap and discontinue that, you'll still watch youtube. If he's joking, he can call the entire company crap and nobody would stop using Google or Youtube.

Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)

#240

Post by smolder »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #214
PopeDotNinja wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A Rolex and a Timex will both tell you the time. An iPhone and a $129 Android will do mostly similar things. A Toyota Camry and a Porsche will both get you to work. If your priorities are telling time, having a smartphone, and commuting to work, I agree with you. But I think the more expensive products you mention offer things the cheaper products don't. For example, I'd rather have a Camry if I needed a family car…

Alternatively, you can make a Camry with the same quality and cover it with glitzy trim, market it as a luxury car, and sell it at a premium...which we call a Lexus.

The Lexus LS400 debuted in 1989 with a very high tech v8, with the highest r&d budget of any car engine to date. The 1uz-fe was an outstanding engine however you look at it, and so were its derivatives made well into the 00s. Other auto makers including euro brands like BMW had to play catch up. Lexii weren't just glitzed up cheap cars, nor necessarily high margin. There were some models like that, though. The Lexus GS300 was a Camry, if I remember right. And Scion TCs are Toyota Corollas.
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