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Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

bloomberg.com

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Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#31

Post by cityofdelusion »

sputknick wrote: post #6

start-up idea if anyone is bored: disrupt car shipping. When I moved from Seattle to Raleigh shipping my car was BY FAR the biggest headache. It's a 20th century business where you have to call people, who will bid for you, and you have no idea if your bid is accepted. Agents will promise a low price to get your business, then tell you a week later that bid was too low, you need to double it. I eventually just gave u…

Last time I moved a car halfway across the U.S. I just went online, submitted a request, got a quote, paid and it was all done. It was about as friction-free as something like that can be.

Just need to use a direct carrier like Intercity, NOT a broker. Brokers have infested Google SEO.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#33

Post by [deleted] »

jeffreyrogers wrote: post #18
renegade-otter wrote: post #12

"The appetite for venture funding of freight brokerages has been dead for over a year and is partially responsible for the reason Convoy has failed. VC investors have woken to the reality that freight brokerage is not venture-investible." So they WeWorked it. Instead of focusing on long-term growth strategy for a very good and sustainable business, the top management decided to get rich quickly, destroying the compan…

How would top management get rick quick with no exit? Equity presumably went to 0, so their compensation is the cash flow they got from their salary while Convoy was in business.

[deleted]

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#34

Post by dang »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #2

Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37931893 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37937165 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37935804 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37946017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37945817 (dang: feel free to macroexpand and replace my comment with yours if you happen upon)

The ones with comments:

Big layoffs coming at Convoy, a logistics startup backed by Bezos and Gates - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37937165 - Oct 2023 (3 comments)

Convoy cancels all shipments, load board is empty, announcement upcoming - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37931893 - Oct 2023 (6 comments)

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#35

Post by dyeje »

jeffreyrogers wrote: post #18
renegade-otter wrote: post #12

"The appetite for venture funding of freight brokerages has been dead for over a year and is partially responsible for the reason Convoy has failed. VC investors have woken to the reality that freight brokerage is not venture-investible." So they WeWorked it. Instead of focusing on long-term growth strategy for a very good and sustainable business, the top management decided to get rich quickly, destroying the compan…

How would top management get rick quick with no exit? Equity presumably went to 0, so their compensation is the cash flow they got from their salary while Convoy was in business.

It is possible to sell some of your equity during funding rounds, they may have cashed out a significant amount along the way.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#36

Post by Mistletoe »

From another article:

"Between the lines: The shipping and logistics markets have turned south since the pandemic era's boomtimes."

I think what you mean is this business makes no sense when interest rates aren't zero and investors aren't looking for places to stuff money.

>The trucking marketplace gained a lot of buzz a few years ago, raising over $670 million from top investors like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Capital G, Greylock, Y Combinator, and Fidelity.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#37

Post by encoderer »

jeffreyrogers wrote: post #18
renegade-otter wrote: post #12

"The appetite for venture funding of freight brokerages has been dead for over a year and is partially responsible for the reason Convoy has failed. VC investors have woken to the reality that freight brokerage is not venture-investible." So they WeWorked it. Instead of focusing on long-term growth strategy for a very good and sustainable business, the top management decided to get rich quickly, destroying the compan…

How would top management get rick quick with no exit? Equity presumably went to 0, so their compensation is the cash flow they got from their salary while Convoy was in business.

I have no knowledge specific to this company, but I did check and it looks like they last raised a “series e” round which suggests at least 6 rounds of funding.

It’s grown pretty normal over the last ~10 years for investors to enable founders to sell some of their own shares, thus taking some of the round directly into their pockets. Normally called “taking money off the table” the idea behind it is that a founder with a successful company should be able to participate in the success without forcing an early exit that might not be best for the investors.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#38

Post by dang »

renegade-otter wrote: post #12

"The appetite for venture funding of freight brokerages has been dead for over a year and is partially responsible for the reason Convoy has failed. VC investors have woken to the reality that freight brokerage is not venture-investible." So they WeWorked it. Instead of focusing on long-term growth strategy for a very good and sustainable business, the top management decided to get rich quickly, destroying the compan…

Please don't post this sort of reflexive denunciation to HN. Posting like this breaks HN's guidelines, at least in spirit and arguably literally:

"Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith."

"Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Of course, if you have specific information about fraud or other bad behavior in specific cases, that could be relevant to a discussion. But quoting something generic and then using it as an internet cynicism trampoline is quite a bit below the quality bar for what we're looking for in this forum. It just leads to repetitive, tedious, and ultimately ugly threads.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#39

Post by ghaff »

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #20
renegade-otter wrote: post #12

"The appetite for venture funding of freight brokerages has been dead for over a year and is partially responsible for the reason Convoy has failed. VC investors have woken to the reality that freight brokerage is not venture-investible." So they WeWorked it. Instead of focusing on long-term growth strategy for a very good and sustainable business, the top management decided to get rich quickly, destroying the compan…

Arguably Bed Bath is better described as privateer capitalism: they were already on their way out in a big way and while there were certainly better avenues they could've taken, odds are they were going out of business anyway between the overall drops in brick and mortar spending among consumers combined with the pandemic drought. And in the end, what do we expect? The executive classes show up, buy their way into th…

Linens and Things was a pretty similar chain that went out of business quite a while before. My sense is that, while there are some more cooking-centric retailers that are still doing OK, broader (often optional) midrange home accessories and decor has been a tougher category.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#40

Post by faefox »

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…

"As I just shared on our call, I think the world of you."

Just not enough to offer any severance or healthcare. #TruckYeah!

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