Bird, once valued at $2.5B, just filed for bankruptcy • Hacker News Board

Re: Bird, once valued at $2.5B, just filed for bankruptcy

#31

Post by troupo » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 7:54 PM UTC

rchaud wrote: post #8

Not a single word about revenue or profits, just about how much it was 'valued' at. A lot of VC money is just holding up Potemkin villages of 'innovation'.

Because that's the true "innovation" that has been coming out of Silicon Valley for the past 10 years or so: losing hundreds of millions or billions of dollars for years without as much as a hint of a plan to become profitable.

Re: Bird, once valued at $2.5B, just filed for bankruptcy

#32

Post by b112 » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 7:54 PM UTC

xeromal wrote: post #27

josefresco wrote: post #2

> The global shutdown of major cities in the Covid pandemic hit the scooter startup hard, forcing it to pull all of its scooters from US and European markets Why did something like COVID effect the use and "contactless" rental of scooters? Was this just collateral damage or did specific changes on laws/regulations cause the pull out?

We weren't allowed to go the beach here in SoCal. If you can't go outside, why would you need a scooter

Most places, outside of a few weeks here and there, were still a-ok with you going places. Just not all places.

But, another perspective.... do you want to take a bus, packed with people? Or even an uber, enclosed? Or, a scooter which you can wipe down the handlebars on?

I'd have thought scooters would have soared during the pandemic.

Re: Bird, once valued at $2.5B, just filed for bankruptcy

#33

Post by barryrandall » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 7:56 PM UTC

josefresco wrote: post #2

> The global shutdown of major cities in the Covid pandemic hit the scooter startup hard, forcing it to pull all of its scooters from US and European markets Why did something like COVID effect the use and "contactless" rental of scooters? Was this just collateral damage or did specific changes on laws/regulations cause the pull out?

The user base where I lived mostly consisted of tourists, commuters going from a parking garage to an office building, commuters going from apartments to office buildings, and unsupervised minors doing unsupervised minor things. All but the last group disappeared during the pandemic.

Re: Bird, once valued at $2.5B, just filed for bankruptcy

#34

Post by manmal » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 7:57 PM UTC

josefresco wrote: post #2

> The global shutdown of major cities in the Covid pandemic hit the scooter startup hard, forcing it to pull all of its scooters from US and European markets Why did something like COVID effect the use and "contactless" rental of scooters? Was this just collateral damage or did specific changes on laws/regulations cause the pull out?

Way less office workers and students went to work and school, and this made up a big part of their traffic.

Re: Bird, once valued at $2.5B, just filed for bankruptcy

#35

Post by wgjordan » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 7:57 PM UTC

Bird has raised $100M for electric scooter sharing - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16555913 - March 2018 (146 comments)

Re: Bird, once valued at $2.5B, just filed for bankruptcy

#36

Post by yowlingcat » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 7:58 PM UTC

mistrial9 wrote: post #11

maybe rental scooters at scale with tracking are not really a great market innovation?

I think the key is the "D word" here, which is distribution. The reason why Uber worked is because there was a giant inventory of vehicles owned would-be drivers ready to service a population looking for that service.

But there's no such parallel for rental scooters. In that case, the only capital efficient go to market would be to partner with brick and mortar partners who already have an extensive market presence (and ideally rental infrastructure); of course, that would've made Bird a fundamentally different company.

In the form in which it was conceived and went to market and subsequently folded -- I fully agree with you that no, it makes zero sense to build out all of that infrastructure from scratch and try to capture market share.

Re: Bird, once valued at $2.5B, just filed for bankruptcy

#37

Post by osierjtilsja » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 7:59 PM UTC

Hah. The last time I saw Bird in the news was when they were throwing a tantrum and leaving SF because "strangling government regulations" were ruining their business. Someone in SF city government pointed out that all their competitors were making record profits and said Bird was run by spoiled rich kids with very bad business sense. Goodbye Bird. I lived in Austin when you rolled out your terrible service there and I won't miss you at all.

Re: Bird, once valued at $2.5B, just filed for bankruptcy

#38

Post by candiddevmike » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 7:59 PM UTC

rchaud wrote: post #8

Not a single word about revenue or profits, just about how much it was 'valued' at. A lot of VC money is just holding up Potemkin villages of 'innovation'.

For Bird, they were sold on a SPAC at $154, so mission accomplished for the VCs. Retail is left holding the bag now.

Re: Bird, once valued at $2.5B, just filed for bankruptcy

#39

Post by danesparza » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 7:59 PM UTC

diogenescynic wrote: post #19

Good riddance, they've made cities worse and more dangerous. Can't tell you how many times some idiot on a Bird scooter going down a sidewalk has almost hit me or my kids. I've also seen several wipeout when going over track tracks.

Unfortunately, I don't think they're gone yet. They just filed for bankruptcy protection. Cities are still littered with their scooters - and no clear plan to clean them up.

We should probably publish COO Steve Schnell's address and send him all the scooters littering the cities. You know ... just as a drunken prank.

Reference: https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-coo-drunk-pretend-fired...

Re: Bird, once valued at $2.5B, just filed for bankruptcy

#40

Post by FirmwareBurner » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 8:00 PM UTC

troupo wrote: post #31

rchaud wrote: post #8

Not a single word about revenue or profits, just about how much it was 'valued' at. A lot of VC money is just holding up Potemkin villages of 'innovation'.

Because that's the true "innovation" that has been coming out of Silicon Valley for the past 10 years or so: losing hundreds of millions or billions of dollars for years without as much as a hint of a plan to become profitable.

Sounds like a pump and dump with extra steps. Hype up any obvious future failure to pump the stock to crazy valuations, then dump and leave the suckers holding the bags. All enabled by zero interest rates, and VCs were willing to fund some because they knew there's gonna be other suckers out there to enable them to raise the valuations.