Magic Leap Raises $461M from Saudis • Hacker News Board

Re: Magic Leap Raises $461M from Saudis

#61

Post by tnoue0i9nt » Wed, Mar 07, 2018, 5:47 PM UTC

Zelphyr wrote: post #30

Regardless of whether Magic Leap is a Theranos level scam (and I personally think it is), this is additional evidence that there are massive amounts of investment money available out there.

I used to work with people who now work there. I can say for sure that they are both good at what they do and good people. If it is a scam, the employees I know there don't appear to think so.

Also, Theranos was lying to the general public about very important health issues that affect your daily life. So far, Magic Leap hasn't released a single product. Even if they do, at worst it will be a computer that isn't as good at playing games as they claimed it would be. Not really even in the same league as Theranos.

Re: Magic Leap Raises $461M from Saudis

#62

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Mar 07, 2018, 5:48 PM UTC

dalbasal wrote: post #48

philip1209 wrote: post #46

A16Z investor Benedict Evans's Twitter reply today to a skeptic: > Frontier hardware tech is expensive. And, the investors have actually seen the tech. As will you, pretty soon ;) source: https://twitter.com/BenedictEvans/status/971404194300141568

The magic leap demos that have raised all this cash, it might be the most successful demo in history.

[deleted]

Re: Magic Leap Raises $461M from Saudis

#63

Post by maxxxxx » Wed, Mar 07, 2018, 5:52 PM UTC

Has there ever been a company that sucked up huge amounts of investment, made vague and questionable claims over many years and then came out with tech that backed their claims? From my casual observation this type of company immediately fizzles out as soon as they take something to the market and people see the real product.

Re: Magic Leap Raises $461M from Saudis

#64

Post by untog » Wed, Mar 07, 2018, 5:52 PM UTC

philip1209 wrote: post #46

A16Z investor Benedict Evans's Twitter reply today to a skeptic: > Frontier hardware tech is expensive. And, the investors have actually seen the tech. As will you, pretty soon ;) source: https://twitter.com/BenedictEvans/status/971404194300141568

I dislike replies like these because they don't really add anything to the conversation - of course investors liked the demos! They wouldn't have invested otherwise. But this would hardly be the first instance of investors being distracted by flashy demos that cover up deep set problems.

Ultimately, we'll all just have to wait and find out.

Re: Magic Leap Raises $461M from Saudis

#65

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Mar 07, 2018, 5:53 PM UTC

walrus01 wrote: post #10

ModernMech wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not any good data, but I've had recruiters tell me that they don't pay very well (in SV terms), instead opting to sell employees on large options packages that will be "worth millions one day". It's a typical SV story, but one I wouldn't expect from a company that's valued at billions of dollars. That kind of behavior seems shady to me, so I wouldn't even consider working there.

not to excuse significantly lower pay from magic leap, but their compensation might be calculated based on their office location in Plantation, Florida which I presume has significantly lower real estate (rental or purchase) costs than the bay area. actual take home after rent or mortgage each month might be greater than something in mountain view. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantation,_Florida spending 20 seconds…

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Re: Magic Leap Raises $461M from Saudis

#66

Post by maxxxxx » Wed, Mar 07, 2018, 5:53 PM UTC

ahtu123 wrote: post #50

igloofoo wrote: post #17

Changing the world one murdered-by-starvation Yemeni at a time. How do you accept funding from oppressive, dictatorial, mysoginist regimes and then claim to “make the world a better place”? Sigh. The political implications are so ironically cringe-worthy

But but but they're our allies! There's definitely some selective enforcement of our ideals. As long as it doesn't get in the way of military or business it's fine. This is the country that financed 9/11. It's not "racist" to be skeptical of Saudi Arabia.

They buy a lot of expensive weapons so they are an ally.

Re: Magic Leap Raises $461M from Saudis

#67

Post by IshKebab » Wed, Mar 07, 2018, 5:53 PM UTC

Zelphyr wrote: post #30

Regardless of whether Magic Leap is a Theranos level scam (and I personally think it is), this is additional evidence that there are massive amounts of investment money available out there.

It's unlikely to be a total scam like Theranos, given that third parties have tried it and didn't go "omg this is shit". But it definitely seems to be a Faraday Future level of over-promising, growing way to fast and burning through all your money with nothing to show.

Re: Magic Leap Raises $461M from Saudis

#68

Post by walrus01 » Wed, Mar 07, 2018, 5:54 PM UTC

maxxxxx wrote: post #63

Has there ever been a company that sucked up huge amounts of investment, made vague and questionable claims over many years and then came out with tech that backed their claims? From my casual observation this type of company immediately fizzles out as soon as they take something to the market and people see the real product.

In telecom, Iridium spent close to a billion dollars but did actually succeed in building a truly worldwide (pole to pole) handheld satellite phone network which also supported SMS and low-data-rate M2M.

Then went bankrupt and was acquired. The tech was revolutionary at the time, 18 years ago (handheld phone size vs. 10 kilogram fat briefcase sized inmarsat terminal that didn't work above 60 degrees latitude), the revenue just wasn't there.

Re: Magic Leap Raises $461M from Saudis

#69

Post by maxxxxx » Wed, Mar 07, 2018, 5:55 PM UTC

walrus01 wrote: post #39

mlevental wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

their listed hq is in plantation but their offices are scattered around south florida (ft lauderdale and miami). i actually grew up right down the street from their plantation office and housing is very cheap but i guarantee most of their engineers live here in this neighborhood https://www.zillow.com/plantation-fl/in-Jacaranda-Lakes_att/

I am probably showing my anti-florida bias here. But if you google "jacaranda lakes gated community", real estate in Florida and other parts of the US southeast creep me out. In a civil society that is functioning properly it should not be necessary for people in the top 15% income earning bracket to isolate themselves off in burbclave-like gated communities (proto-snow-crash style). I have seen this also in Charlest…

A lot of people like gated communities. Not saying this is a good trend but there definitely is demand.

Re: Magic Leap Raises $461M from Saudis

#70

Post by IshKebab » Wed, Mar 07, 2018, 5:57 PM UTC

velominati wrote: post #27

walrus01 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if given the bulky size of the thing, the tech might be great, but it's just too early. For those people who are old enough to have been working in the tech industry in the dotcom 1.0 boom days, the business model proposed by the epic failure of Webvan was later validated by Amazon/Prime Now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webvan Look at all that money down the drain.

It's possible. The Apple Newton is a great case study of a good idea that was too early. And the inability to minitiarize it sufficiently to fit in a pocket was one reason for it's failure. A few years later the Palm Pilot was much more successful because it could fit in your pocket, especially the baggy jeans that were fashionable in the late 90's. Webvan's model hasn't yet been validated. The local delivery startup…

"A good idea too early" makes it sound like they were ahead-of-their-time geniuses. Reality is that everyone had that idea and knew the technology wasn't ready.

Ideas are the easy part.