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

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

#71

Post by ToucanLoucan » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 11:29 PM UTC

johannes1234321 wrote: post #68

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly alongside everything else (people hated them and their chargers, they got stolen constantly, etc. etc. etc.) the scooters themselves have collapsed in price, you can pick one up at Best Buy now for like $500. And yeah that's a lot but most of the people who were interested in renting them were a little upmarket anyway, so once they became affordable(ish) why would you rent one when you could own one?

The one you own serves a different purpose. The rental ones take one a bit of the way (from Subway station to office etc.) or one way (to the bar, get drunk, taxi/public transport home) Doing that with your own one has downsides as you have to carry it along all the time.

I mean sure, owning it obviously has a lot of cons. But it also has a lot of pros:

- You know when you pick it up that it's going to function well, because you maintain it

- You know it isn't going to have sticky handlebars because the last person to use it was eating a candy bar

- You know it'll be charged, assuming you keep your devices charged

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

#72

Post by FooBarBizBazz » Thu, Dec 21, 2023, 1:01 AM UTC

huijzer wrote: post #61

hnburnsy wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

J need to start shorting these IPOs on day one.

If you want to do such a random approach then do buy a bit off all because then you‘re upside goes toward infinite while downside is at most 100%. If you short, your downside goes toward infinite. Plus the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.

I don't think people mean literal short positions. The safest way to do this would be to buy long-dated PUTs, and roll them if necessary. Not that that's free -- which goes to your "irrational longer than you can stay solvent" point.

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

#73

Post by kangaroozach » Thu, Dec 21, 2023, 6:27 AM UTC

ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #56

Did the founder and initial investors make money? This article says they didn't but usually that is the only real goal and rest is all a story sold to the next dummy. He does have properties in the 20 millions in Miami though. https://news.crunchbase.com/real-estate-property-tech/bird-f...

Any word on this? How much did they cash out before it hit the pavement?

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

#74

Post by kangaroozach » Thu, Dec 21, 2023, 6:32 AM UTC

This was inevitability was obivous to me when I realized that

A) It cost like $5-$10 to go just a short distance.

B) Any regular commuter could just buy their own scooter for basically the cost of a bicycle.

The economics just didn’t make sense.

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

#75

Post by ianbutler » Mon, Dec 25, 2023, 7:40 PM UTC

candiddevmike wrote: post #38

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.

Well spacs were heavily regulated over the last two years, that combined with the inflationary climate should mean things like this are done with for now.