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Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

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Re: Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

#71

Post by WastingMyTime89 »

While I could think of plenty of adjectives to describe this deck, amazing would certainly not be amongst them. It's the traditional hit piece from activist funds. It looks pretty. It reads well without having to think to much because well, it's not heavy on substance. They want the company to be sold but they fail to present a convincing case for why it's the correct strategic decision.

There is nothing on Peloton competitors, nothing on the market trend. They rightfully point that Peloton failed to properly forecast market demands but nothing on the future outlook and how Peloton production capacity and stock align with futur predictions. No real analysis of why the company which is profitable would be better able to produce value if it was bought out.

My key takeaway from it is that Foley is bad at PR. Gosh, I hate this deck and I really hate what activist funds are turning finance into.

Re: Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

#72

Post by indigochill »

olliej wrote: post #42
jdrc wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I kind of agree it's time to depedestalize "tech"founders. Every company is a tech company and their bosses can be just as scumbags. The religion that worships infotech as inherently unevil and idealistic needs to die.

The fawning over Steve Jobs (and I don't mean apple coolaid folk) is always bizarre, and I think really drove a lot of the "super star ceo" nonsense these days. I'm not saying he didn't save apple or whatever, I'm just unconvinced that being that particular model of arrogance was necessary part of said "saving". Obviously we can't roll back time and replace him with an identical clone with the only difference being t…

> I don't recall similar stories about Bill Gates

I don't know about yelling and vendettas, but he has a checkered relationship with the open source/hobbyist community because he imposed proprietary licensing on his BASIC implementation despite the computer hobbyists of the time working more on a FOSS model. When hobbyists copied his software despite the license, he wrote an open letter claiming they were stealing from him. However, the rampant copying also meant Microsoft Basic became the most popular variant which solidified Microsoft's market lead.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Letter_to_Hobbyists

Re: Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

#73

Post by aixi »

aljarry wrote: post #50

Do I read the decks properly, or do they have only 2331 subscribers for Q4 2021? This looks like a super low for such big valuations of their disruptive product.

hmmm, as a Peloton owner this would be a bit weird --- live classes tend to have thousand of participants, unless they are bots.

Re: Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

#74

Post by CamperBob2 »

brailsafe wrote: post #59
auggierose wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that similar to a video store masquerading as a tech company? Or a book store masquerading as a tech company? Or an apple masquerading ... Oh wait, that actually IS a tech company.

Treadmills are a uniquely obtrusive, pointless, and expensive product

You've never owned, or likely even used, a really good one.

I don't know if Peleton makes good ones, but Precor certainly does. That said, it was weird of Peleton to overpay for a company that makes expensive fitness equipment purchased largely by gyms, who probably aren't purchasing much of anything these days.

Re: Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

#75

Post by anthony_r »

adrianomartins wrote: post #13
rjtavares wrote: post #6

> Q: Is there anything about being CEO that you don’t like, that you like to delegate? > A: Finance. Our CFO does 99% of finance. I engage because I want to know how we’re doing. But to say I don’t add value to her operation is an understatement. You can also say the same with technology. Our CTO doesn’t get any help from me. I’ll go sometimes months without talking to our CTO, which as a CEO of a technology company,…

One might ask, if the CEO does 1% of finance, and 0% of technology, what does a CEO do? Office, HR, comms management?

The main job of the CEO is to manage the board of directors (i.e. the shareholders). And the main job of the board of directors is to decide when to fire the CEO.

Re: Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

#76

Post by sideshowb »

smorgusofborg wrote: post #62
sideshowb wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't gyms generally famous for cashing in on people who sign up for memberships they never actually use? Seems like a genius plan to disrupt that tried and tested business model with a more efficient alternative where users buy the gyms for you so you don't need to maintain them. (unless you want your job to be meaningful or something)

I think Richard Simmons already brought us this disruption, and you can pay what you want at the closest yard sale! The slide deck is comical in its defensiveness of the company itself, how does one compare video remote classes with boutique classes that had better have 8- students to explain $300/month?! Or is this people in LA assuming their local phenomenons are normal?

Second hand kit? Aren't you and your goals of self improvement worth more than that? ;-)

I do agree on costs, though. I'm a pretty keen cyclist (outdoors) and dabble in running. I have tried various fitness apps like Strava out of curiosity, even played around trying to analyze my own gps traces in Jupyter to figure out my aerobic threshold. But I don't see any of the apps as worth paying a subscription for [1].

[1] Except maybe trailforks, if I'm on holiday in an area I don't know that has unofficial mtb trails well documented on that platform. But now they've made it proprietary I'm far less inclined to contribute my own trails to the database, so go figure.

Re: Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

#77

Post by Aeolun »

nikanj wrote: post #69
ltfey wrote: post #68

I don't know anything about Peloton or its management, but the main takeaway from this deck is something I already knew: (1) private equity guys are assholes, (2) who are obviously compensating for something inadequate three feet below the nose.

How about we come up with a better way to insult men, rather than "hehehe peepee small"

We can call the thing two inch above the nose small? Or dysfunctional?

I don’t know, I don’t necessarily agree with the message itself, but I certainly agree with the sentiment.

Whoever made this deck is an asshole.

Re: Peloton – A call for action [pdf]

#80

Post by ltfey »

nikanj wrote: post #69
ltfey wrote: post #68

I don't know anything about Peloton or its management, but the main takeaway from this deck is something I already knew: (1) private equity guys are assholes, (2) who are obviously compensating for something inadequate three feet below the nose.

How about we come up with a better way to insult men, rather than "hehehe peepee small"

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