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Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

blackwellscap.com

231–240 of 280 posts

Re: Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

#231

Peloton just didn't wine and dine and wow Wall Street enough for them to consistently hype the stock and now it's the CEOs fault? Because he didn't create the "magic show" that Wall Street wanted to see? John Foley is a founder of the Peloton business and created value from nothing to a leading fitness technology company. Why should he have to justify anything he does to asset managers who have never created any valu…

Even though he is a founder, he kind of gave up part of his right of not having to justify anything on the day the company went public. And not by that much for that matter, as he seems to have a disproportionate voting right compared to other shareholders, and can still do pretty much what he pleases even after stepping down as a CEO. There is an option to be completely free from Wall Street's vagaries, and it's called not going public. Once you have taken in investors money, it seems fair to me to have to be accountable to them. The anomaly seems to me to be the other way round here, that people who put their money into the company and undeniably contributed to the company getting to where it is now have pretty much no say on how it should be managed. This lack of accountability might be one of the reasons why poor decision making went on unchecked and led to the current situation.

Re: Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

#232
post #4

While a brutal dressing down of the company, I have to admit that this is one of the most nicely made decks I’ve ever seen. What is the reasoning behind them sharing this publicly, I wonder?

Are we calling slideshows "decks" now?

The way I learned it, decks are slideshows that are information-dense and can thus be read independent of a presentation. But Googling it just now reveals that they're interchangeable words.

So... yes.

Re: Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

#233

So many words trying to obfuscate the simple fact that “We are a treadmill maker trying to masquerade as a tech company.”

I get that, but when a lot of what they sell is the subscription, and streaming content still takes some work, I think there's a non-trivial amount of tech that makes that happen.

Re: Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

#234
post #191

The fact is. Not every company can be a $12B company. Peloton might be a super successful $1B company, who slowly tries to creep into new areas for growth. And it sounds like Blackwell understand this, and instead of pushing for Peloton to focus internally on its product and get rid of the extra fat, they want a fast sale to a not-really-smart company. So they can at least get some ROI People talk about monthly fees…

Pouring money into building their own factories (even Apple doesn't do this at their scale, they pay Foxconn)

Is it possible to run a manufacturing business in the US without slave labor somewhere?

Re: Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

#235
post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a personally derived anecdote, just an observation. I just don't see people who aren't sufficiently motivated enough to go for a real bike or workout at a gym changing their mind because they consoomed a new $$ one. I do know some people who do, but they basically have no choice in the matter but to do something in winter. It's like buying an iPad pro and expecting yourself to find an interest in illustratio…

You aren't just buying an indoor "replacement" of an outdoor activity. You are also purchasing a coach/work out buddy. It's this latter part that is the differentiator between a normal indoor trainer/treadmill and what Peloton sells.

Right, because treadmills are exactly a boring replacement for an outdoor activity, and you need to augment that to convince people it's different and you should consoom their version.

Re: Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

#236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being a cyclist All my life i never understood those bikes you dont get fresh air or the navigation fun of finding new ways to explore :)

It depends on the climate of where you live. Some places just don’t have the right kind of weather year round.

What weather would make your bicycle unrideable?

I can only think of heavy snow if you don't have fat tires, or maybe sun and 40+ degrees celcius.

Re: Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

#238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Treadmills are a uniquely obtrusive, pointless, and expensive product

I dislike running outside and live somewhere that is freezing cold almost half the year. I use my treadmill daily. Even if I'm not doing a proper guided run workout, I'll just hop on the treadmill and walk for a couple hours while watching TV instead of just sitting on the couch. It's easily the best purchase I made during the pandemic. I'm not convinced the expensive peloton machines are worth it, but I'm rarely goi…

Well, that's more or less what I was saying in a sense, though I'm a little surprised that anyone would prefer that experience to running outside, supposing it wasn't mid-winter. I personally would prefer to spend the money on snowboarding or something, or living somewhere without winter, or somewhere more interesting to run, but I'm sure there are circumstances that you favour living in that place for.

Re: Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

#239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, apart from the fact that their treadmill kills kids, their products are exemplary.

Exemplary? Have you even tried other stationary bikes? You can get a BETTER stationary bike for less than the cost of a Peloton bike.

Heck, you can get a decent enough actual bike that you can actually ride places and a Wahoo Kickr for less.

Re: Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

#240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it seemed more like a niche product Yes. The Peloton 'model' reminds me of the gym model, at least in the UK. You always get a bunch of people sign up in 'fat' January for 12 months. They go to the the gym for a few weeks and stop. But continue paying £50pm or whatever for the next 11 months. Peloton feels similar in that people are made to want the shiny thing in the TV adverts, find that they don't have a room wi…

Being a cyclist All my life i never understood those bikes you dont get fresh air or the navigation fun of finding new ways to explore :)

Drive around Denver for a day and observe all the people on cell phones swerving into the bike lanes. I wouldn’t ride a bike around here at gunpoint.
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