51–60 of 79 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
$68M/10000 employees = $6800/1 employee A lot? Not a lot? Don’t know anymore.
I've been to all hands where it probably cost that much just in travel: business class LHR to SFO, hotel for a few nights, dinners, drinks, entertainment, venue, guest speakers, and on and on. It doesn't seem excessive, the networking in these things is often really worth it
But anyway, as others have said, the tweet seems outrageous at first, but at $6800 per employee for a multi-day offsite, with hotels, travel, etc included, it doesn't seem excessive. I'm sure their salary for that month was significantly higher.
You can call it a 'party' if you want, but a company-wide in-person event is a) valuable, and b) expensive. Calling an all-hands a party without any supporting evidence feels willfully negligent.
$68M/10000 employees = $6800/1 employee A lot? Not a lot? Don’t know anymore.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How did they manage to spend 68M on it? Genuinely asking or is the number not accurate as it is clumped together with other stuff?
I don't know what event planning costs but running an event for ~10k people that includes flights, hotels, food, event space, etc. is expensive I guess.
Food $200 Data $150 Rent $800 Party $68,000,000 Utility $150 someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my company is dying
Often embezzlement cases include crazy expenses. Just put in my mind by the grift and corruption posts that are currently trending on HN front page right now.
No first hand experience ... just anecdotes and some news reports.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How did they manage to spend 68M on it? Genuinely asking or is the number not accurate as it is clumped together with other stuff?
I don't know what event planning costs but running an event for ~10k people that includes flights, hotels, food, event space, etc. is expensive I guess.
I'm curious how much they lost in the bitcoin crash.
Lost $234 million on that according to https://archive.ph/09kZr (link goes to FT.com)
Since they bought bitcoin while their stock was worth ~2-4x what it is today, I’d say the “arbitrage paper certificates for digital 1s and 0s” play worked out pretty well overall.
Bought btc for $10k and $51k (about 60/40 respectively) and it’s trading for $65k 5 years later. Dunno what other buying/selling they may have done.
From Wikipedia:
> In October 2020, Square put approximately 1% of their total assets ($50 million) in Bitcoin (4,709 bitcoins), citing Bitcoin's "potential to be a more ubiquitous currency in the future" as their main reasoning.[52] The company purchased approximately 3,318 bitcoins in February 2021 for a cost of around $170 million, bringing Square's total holdings to around 8,027 bitcoins (equivalent to around US$500 million in 2021, around US$481 million as of July 2024).[53]
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lost $234 million on that according to https://archive.ph/09kZr (link goes to FT.com)
That’s the mark-to-market change, no? Since they bought bitcoin while their stock was worth ~2-4x what it is today, I’d say the “arbitrage paper certificates for digital 1s and 0s” play worked out pretty well overall. Bought btc for $10k and $51k (about 60/40 respectively) and it’s trading for $65k 5 years later. Dunno what other buying/selling they may have done. From Wikipedia: > In October 2020, Square put approxi…
Describing it as a “party” feels misleading. It was a company-wide offsite for an essentially fully remote organization. Was it necessary? Probably not. But I found the in-person time valuable, especially with teammates I’d never met face to face. Source: I was there
And was the in person time more valuable than not having those people you met in your team moving forward?
He phrases it as due to redundant overhead for cashapp and square, plus a move to smaller, flatter teams as a result of AI. Not saying he's going to be right just that they're profitable and I believe this isn't a money thing.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been to all hands where it probably cost that much just in travel: business class LHR to SFO, hotel for a few nights, dinners, drinks, entertainment, venue, guest speakers, and on and on. It doesn't seem excessive, the networking in these things is often really worth it
In what business is everyone in the company going business class?