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Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

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Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#251

Post by fermienrico »

bdcravens wrote: post #205

Developers at unicorns: even in the best of times, do you feel more expendable than you've felt at other jobs? We always are amazed at the number of developers at companies like this. (the numbers I've seen are old, but I guess out of 22,000 employees, it was something like 5000 engineers?) While that allows you to build in a more robust way than a smaller company, it seems like there's no shortage of developers work…

I don't understand your point, can you please elaborate more? I read it twice and your comment isn't making any sense to me:

1) Are you suggesting that developers should go join a smaller company so they are less expendible?

2) Are you suggesting that developers, now that they are laid off, go work on R&D projects, tooling and open source startups?

I am so confused. What is the take away?

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#252

Post by MattGaiser »

bradlys wrote: post #241
CydeWeys wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worth pointing out that Uber is no longer a unicorn. It is a large publicly traded corporation with a market cap of $58B. I suppose you're asking your question about large tech companies generally, not so much unicorns? Most unicorns are still quite small (revenue and employee count-wise) relative to large publicly traded corporations like Uber and the FANGs.

Am at a Unicorn. Engineering is 20-30 engineers total. This person is definitely confusing Unicorn with some generic big engineering heavy company. Many companies scale very differently. Some scale with large engineering efforts - mine doesn't. The change in number of engineers has barely moved in the last 2 years. That said - to the question about unicorns: You're always expendable. Same as any job - same politics -…

> "critical business function" gets shoved into the backlog to never be seen again.

Never worked for a unicorn, but everything from big corp to startup to government. "Urgent" provokes no reaction from me anymore because of this.

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#253

Post by mcculley »

ping_pong wrote: post #180
mattwad wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I worry the most about Scooters and AV as those are arguably core to urban mobility Scooters are a fad that was never needed. Bikes or mopeds like Revel are 10 times more useful. I don't think scooters replace anything of note, since you can pretty much walk the same distance. They're only fun for tourists and left in the sidewalk for everyone else to stumble over.

I disagree wholeheartedly. Electric scooters are fun and useful, especially for commuting in the morning from a drop off location like a train station. The real question is whether or not it can be profitable, which I highly doubt. I would rather just get my own if I needed it.

I live in downtown Orlando. Lime, Lynx, and Bird have littered downtown with scooters. I run almost every day and they are often left directly in the middle of the sidewalk, either upright or fallen over. A couple months ago I began relocating any rental equipment I find in my way on the sidewalk. I am not at all gentle about this and I'm sure I have damaged some of the equipment. I like the idea that people might use these more than cars, but investors need to figure out a better way to store them than in the sidewalk.

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#254

Post by breischl »

bhouston wrote: post #172
0zymandias wrote: post #145

It looks like Dara is executing the Jack Welch & General Electric playbook [1]. Essentially, it comes down to "Be the #1 or #2 company in the market or exit" You can debate whether it was successful at GE. The criticism of Jack Welch was that his approach improved short-term financials, but he left a hollowed-out company to his successor that became irrelevant and lost value relative to the S&P. The way I see this pl…

This strategy is the opposite of a portfolio play. It is great if your winners stay winners. I think if you are aligned well with the overall market direction that is great. Basically by only keeping the strongest you should get the highest rate of return until these is a failure. A portfolio play gives you more modest returns but more consistent over time -- you should still trim the losers who do not have potential…

I had never thought of it in those terms before, but this is similar to portfolio diversification in investing. There's the quip that when you're properly diversified there's always something to hate in your portfolio. Of course the flipside is that there's always something to love too.

All that compared to making concentrated bets where you can win big, or lose big.

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#255

Post by MattGaiser »

fermienrico wrote: post #251
bdcravens wrote: post #205

Developers at unicorns: even in the best of times, do you feel more expendable than you've felt at other jobs? We always are amazed at the number of developers at companies like this. (the numbers I've seen are old, but I guess out of 22,000 employees, it was something like 5000 engineers?) While that allows you to build in a more robust way than a smaller company, it seems like there's no shortage of developers work…

I don't understand your point, can you please elaborate more? I read it twice and your comment isn't making any sense to me: 1) Are you suggesting that developers should go join a smaller company so they are less expendible? 2) Are you suggesting that developers, now that they are laid off, go work on R&D projects, tooling and open source startups? I am so confused. What is the take away?

I do not think he is suggesting any course of action beyond awareness that their position is less stable than it might be in other jobs.

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#256

Post by JPKab »

jeremy_k wrote: post #197
mattwad wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I worry the most about Scooters and AV as those are arguably core to urban mobility Scooters are a fad that was never needed. Bikes or mopeds like Revel are 10 times more useful. I don't think scooters replace anything of note, since you can pretty much walk the same distance. They're only fun for tourists and left in the sidewalk for everyone else to stumble over.

I would argue this isn't true. I lived in Santa Monica when the scooters came about and once they removed the helmet law I loved the utility they provided. I lived about 2 miles away from downtown Santa Monica, which is totally walkable and I love walking, but sometimes I wanted to meet up with someone in a more reasonable amount of time. Instead of having to order an Uber for such a short trip, I would check Bird or…

Not wearing a helmet on a device whose front wheel is a fulcrum of a lever that can smash your head on the pavement at a moment's notice is monumentally reckless.

The helmetless riders are a real issue. And the injuries caused by the morons using them are a business model externality that isn't dealt with.

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#257

Post by rvz »

economicslol wrote: post #158

Remember when Dara predicted "profitability" by 2021? LOL, just another Softbank/VC funded money pit.

Lyft also set such pretentious goals for 2021 last year. Not sure what crystal ball they were basing their forecast on but, such jokes are meant to be reserved for a late night comedy show not in an earnings call. [0]

[0] https://www.wsj.com/articles/lyft-expects-to-be-profitable-a...

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#258

Post by three_seagrass »

ping_pong wrote: post #180
mattwad wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I worry the most about Scooters and AV as those are arguably core to urban mobility Scooters are a fad that was never needed. Bikes or mopeds like Revel are 10 times more useful. I don't think scooters replace anything of note, since you can pretty much walk the same distance. They're only fun for tourists and left in the sidewalk for everyone else to stumble over.

I disagree wholeheartedly. Electric scooters are fun and useful, especially for commuting in the morning from a drop off location like a train station. The real question is whether or not it can be profitable, which I highly doubt. I would rather just get my own if I needed it.

True, but that still makes them a market fad. Even if you got cities on board, the costs are fairly fixed, so while the scooters are fun, it was never a feasible business at scale.

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#259

Post by CydeWeys »

MattGaiser wrote: post #255
fermienrico wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand your point, can you please elaborate more? I read it twice and your comment isn't making any sense to me: 1) Are you suggesting that developers should go join a smaller company so they are less expendible? 2) Are you suggesting that developers, now that they are laid off, go work on R&D projects, tooling and open source startups? I am so confused. What is the take away?

I do not think he is suggesting any course of action beyond awareness that their position is less stable than it might be in other jobs.

Worth pointing that your position at a unicorn is probably more secure than at a random small startup.
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