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Valley VCs Sit on Cash, Forcing Startups to Dial Back Ambition

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Re: Valley VCs Sit on Cash, Forcing Startups to Dial Back Ambition

#81

Post by bragh »

ianstormtaylor wrote: post #55
TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is really interesting to me, because I've noticed the same thing in the Bay Area. I would conjecture that Uber constantly being under attack (i.e. having lots of negative articles about them) has played a significant role in this. So when people have to pick between Lyft and Uber, they go for the one that seems "less evil". Perhaps the reason Lyft doesn't come under fire as much is because they haven't grown eno…

Uber's problems aren't caused simply by being the frontrunner. They're cultural problems that come from straight the leaders of the company itself. They've repeatedly proven that they are misogynists[1][2][3], and that they don't have the same morals that most people value[4][5]. It's a disturbing trend that some of these unicorn startups are valuing growth at the expense of morals, and that VC's are complicit in pus…

I'm not American, so I'm probably missing a lot of cultural context with the last 2 quotes in [2]. With regards to 3), what's wrong with saying that you would much rather be at a fancy hotel than spending time arguing with city officials? Same for 4), I agree that it's not a good thing to say out memes in real life, but not something to the level of having to bring a PR person with you or have it quoted as proof of you being sexist in an article.

Re: Valley VCs Sit on Cash, Forcing Startups to Dial Back Ambition

#82

Post by Symbiote »

audleman wrote: post #39
sjg007 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will sell. It's just the beginning of the IoT revolution.

I took a look and it is very nice, but $1500 for a toaster oven? Holy shit no.

I've never seen a countertop oven, except as a "feature" of an expensive microwave. As I understand it, results for baking especially would be poor, as the oven has less air mass and less heat capacity.

(At least, that's the reason my mum gave for not using the feature on her fancy microwave. She used to be a professional cook.)

Re: Valley VCs Sit on Cash, Forcing Startups to Dial Back Ambition

#84

Post by chetanahuja »

justinlardinois wrote: post #14
gooserock wrote: post #6

> Valley VCs Sit on Cash, Forcing Startups to Dial Back Bullshit FTFY

This is amusing accurate. Wayyy too many startups, even YC funded ones, have products that are difficult to profit on, or worse, don't really have a market in the first place. For every "next Uber or Airbnb," there's hundreds of Shutdownifys.

"even YC funded ones"

  Hah... What makes you think YC funds significantly higher quality of startups overall compared to the general VC industry?

Re: Valley VCs Sit on Cash, Forcing Startups to Dial Back Ambition

#86

Post by freyr »

natrius wrote: post #60
subnaught wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but pretty much every Uber driver I've encountered also drives for Lyft and there doesn't appear to be any mechanism by which Uber can prevent that.

Uber is actively developing ride experiences like UberPool and UberHop that link multiple riders together in ways that can avoid a driver's car ever being empty. If the car isn't empty, they can't turn on Lyft.

Lyft Line does the same. As far as cars not being empty, during non-peak hours the streets of San Francisco are filled with Uber cars driving around with no passengers. I guess Uber Eats or whatever is supposed to fix this. No passenger? Stick a salad in the passenger seat.

Re: Valley VCs Sit on Cash, Forcing Startups to Dial Back Ambition

#87

Post by skuhn »

mindcrime wrote: post #68
AlwaysBCoding wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always take Lyft over Uber because they actually TELL YOU THE COLOR OF THE CAR on the app. Uber not showing you the color of the drivers car is one of the weirdest UI decisions I can ever remember.

I always take Lyft over Uber because they actually TELL YOU THE COLOR OF THE CAR on the app. Uber not showing you the color of the drivers car is one of the weirdest UI decisions I can ever remember. Yeah, that's one thing Lyft definitely go right. For the life of me, I can't understand why Uber doesn't do that as well.

It might stem from Uber's roots, since all of the Uber Black cars are by definition black. It is pretty annoying when using their billions of other offerings -- not everyone can spot a particular Honda Civic from two blocks away.

Re: Valley VCs Sit on Cash, Forcing Startups to Dial Back Ambition

#88

Post by seivan »

tarsinge wrote: post #77
seivan wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those sources say more about your credibility than they do about Ubers. I think Uber actually relies on people like yourself, you have to understand that it's slowly harming your validity more than theirs. To give you a comparison it's like those conspiracy theorists back in the days who claimed NSA was snooping on everyone and then later claimed the president is an Alien from planet Xenu.

This is ad hominem, anything substantial about the content of the sources?

You mean apart from their financial and personal incentives? No, not much else. I'm sorry, at some part you draw a line. My line is disparaging the clock that's not even right twice a day isn't considered ad hominem.

Same reason my source about racial discrimination isn't Stormfront, and my source about startups isn't Vox.

Also I wouldn't take what Breitbart has to say about sexist issues at face value either. I'm expecting you to be able to learn that soon enough, I mean you'd give me the same treatment if I shoved a bunch of Daily Mail articles at you. And rightly so.

Re: Valley VCs Sit on Cash, Forcing Startups to Dial Back Ambition

#89

Post by [deleted] »

patio11 wrote: post #56
freyr wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> unless it's a "network effect" situation like a social network, you probably don't need to grow fast. Uber seems like a weird example of this. It was said (and remains said) that they're operating in a winner-take-all space, and they expanded as if they were a social network. Despite the aggressive expansion and marketing, a majority of people I know in the Bay Area now use Lyft exculsively. The last few times I've…

Coke and Pepsi or, closer to the point, Coke and "sparkling water." Choice of how to reach your destination is less about product differentiation and more about personal differentiation. Some people don't want to be "the kind of person that uses an Uber."

[deleted]

Re: Valley VCs Sit on Cash, Forcing Startups to Dial Back Ambition

#90

Post by beambot »

freyr wrote: post #85
AI_Overlord wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fuck me. What does that stand for? I know =,==, but not ===

It's strict equality in JavaScript. 17 == "17" // TRUE 17 === "17" // FALSE

Heh, just looking at the code rather than the text, my first thought was "type error".

JavaScript. Wat? https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/wat

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