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Bolt announces layoffs

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Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#471

Post by ryanSrich »

lazide wrote: post #403
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Realized it was one of those products. A product not intended for an SMB, but instead one targeted at large enterprises?

A product that may not even exist? Or require your own engineering team to make work?

Eh. Plenty of enterprise deals require services for implementation. None of this is shady. It’s incredibly common for sites to not have pricing. I wouldn’t chalk any of these up to Bolt being a mess. Their numbers and their founder does that for them already.

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#472

Post by e9 »

bogomipz wrote: post #266
johnzim wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By taking part in this program, you are essentially taking a personal loan, partially secured by your stock options which will vest later. If you don't happen to understand Stock options: At a later date you will have the OPTION to buy company stock at a set price (often referred to as a Strike price) So some entity is lending you money because they know you have Stock options and presumably will be good for the mone…

I was struggling to understand why someone would take a loan against options rather than just sell them on the secondary market like you mentioned and I think the key difference is that you can't sell an unvested option on the secondary market but with this Bolt program you could take a loan against an unvested option which is unique and kind of bizarre. Who would underwrite such a loan and how is the accounting for…

a lot of popular and semi-popular startups are hard for some VCs to invest in. So some of them like ESO fund (https://www.esofund.com) will give you money to exercise and pay taxes but on condition that they'll take a decent amount of profits when you sell the stock

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#473

Post by mdoms »

peripitea wrote: post #183
nathanaldensr wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Pre-profit companies" LOL. So that's what they're calling them nowadays? Talk about euphemisms...

Why is it a euphemism? Delaying profits as a primary objective has been a common startup strategy for decades.

No post body was provided.

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#474

Post by leoqa »

sgustard wrote: post #428
bartread wrote: post #248

> This is one of the hardest messages I’ve ever had to send. Layoffs are something of a fact of life but, seriously, executives need to stop saying things like this when they announce them. Nobody gives a damn how company leaders feel in these situations, least of all the people receiving the message - nor should they.

In March 2020 when the pandemic lockdowns hit, my CEO literally cried as he told us on Zoom we had to furlough our friends and take a pay cut. He did not hide it in an email or call attention to how it made him feel. What he did do was bust his ass to bring back every one of those employees a few months later. The actions of truly caring people are so much greater than the empty posturing of failing amateurs running…

I mean in the modern capitalist society is having a CEO cry when they fire someone required? I’ve survived many layoffs but wouldn’t have been upset if my manager or leadership simply stated the facts.

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#475

Post by mvdwoord »

Patrol8394 wrote: post #349
abraxas wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

40M in revenue for the year?! Jesus, my startup is making about half that with a good sales pipeline for this year and we are 55 employees total. We might hire additional handful this year but that's it. How do you even onboard when you double your workforce every few months?

I worked at a startup and the CEO was obsessed with hiring at all cost. We, engineers, were all wondering what the hell these new hires were supposed to do. We did not need them. Then they explained it to me. They needed to show growth through hiring in order to raise money. I mean, I couldn’t even blame them, if that’s a criteria for VC to hand you a check, well you gotta do what you gotta do. Needless to say this s…

Interesting and funny documentary from the dot com boom era in a finish company, riot entertainment. Great watch on the insanity of VC funding and growth.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g0lrIi0ce5E

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#478

Post by RektBoy »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #392
sparrc wrote: post #368

I'm a bit naive on this space so forgive if this is an ignorant question; Can anyone explain how any of these companies (Bolt, Fast, 1o) are doing anything different than "checkout with paypal"? What exactly is wrong with paypal that would make a merchant want to use Bolt instead?

The idea is that a central 1-click checkout provider will store your payment information, shipping address, and other details after the first time you use a site with their checkout. The next time you checkout on any website that uses the same 1-click checkout provider, they already have your information for “1-click” checkout. The investment thesis is that if 1-click checkout were to take off, it would become a winn…

Who wants to use 1-click checkout anyway? Souns like 1-click to say byebye to all of your money.

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#479

Post by hef19898 »

ryanSrich wrote: post #467

With YC, Craft, and Sequoia all urging their portfolio companies to operate at a When you’re small, and have revenue, it might only take a handful of layoffs to get to “default alive” as a startup. But once you go beyond a series A and start dumping gasoline on every part of your business to scale faster, the risk starts to grow exponentially. These companies with hundreds of employees are insanely inefficient, but t…

Couldn't agree more! Being at now-puplic start-up that needs somewhere north of, IMHO, 500 million to become somewhat profitable (industry specific, some hardware products simply cost a shit ton of money to develop) that is something I think a lot about lately.

Especially the, up until now, habbit of inefficiently thtowing money and people at a problem hoping something sticks. In hardware, so nothing that can be growth-hacked.

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#480

Post by lozenge »

xuki wrote: post #469
jjeaff wrote: post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience is that current investors want you to hire tons of people to shorten your runway so they can force you into another round where they can buy more shares and dilute the founders more.

That might be part of it, but also VCs are not interested in $100 mil exits, they rather you go all out and either capture the market or die trying.

Have they not heard of the mythical man month?
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