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Dog-walking startup Wag raised $300M, then things got messy

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Re: Dog-walking startup Wag raised $300M, then things got messy

#91

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

synaesthesisx wrote: post #70
loganfrederick wrote: post #16

What I don't get about the Vision Fund is how so many of its investments lack (pun intended) vision. Other than the ARM, Nvidia, and a few billion in biotech (about $3 billion[1]) investments, so much of the fund has gone into pretty "obvious" traditional startups. If I had a $100 billion fund, I wouldn't be swinging for these singles and doubles (which Uber and WeWork were by the time Softbank got involved, although…

Right - there are incredible cancer immunotherapy and other biotech startups that are on the cusp of HUGE things. Softbank is clearly at a point where it has more capital than sense.

I'm pretty sure $50Bn could get us Fusion. Instead it got us slightly better taxis.

We've only invested $1Bn in fusion (according to this article: https://www.greenbiz.com/article/fission-fusion-capital-flow...). Physicists have been saying "we're close" for like 70 years.

It took the Manhattan project the equivalent of $23Bn. If we had the same type of investment, we could have clean and (almost) free energy forever. Instead we spend like 20% of GDP on energy per year. And destroy our only planet...

It's not like the stakes are high or anything.

Re: Dog-walking startup Wag raised $300M, then things got messy

#92

Post by wolco »

xwdv wrote: post #80
outworlder wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't eat the bait. This will devolve into yet another pointless discussion.

Too late. Javascript would have made it far easier to hire talent, and develop a much better user experience without multiple page refreshes. In some cases it would even be easier to develop a cross platform mobile application if you use Javascript as well.

Ability to find php developers is usually a reason to choose php. It's actually harder to find good js developers.

Javascript frameworks work nicely with php acting as an api. An even better approach is a hybrid that allows you to use a framework like Vue/React or a libruary like jQuery but also allows you to use php to power your pages. This gives you the ability to have an spa per section.

A common approach is to use an api to deliver data to your mobile app. If you've built it in php that can be reused.

Re: Dog-walking startup Wag raised $300M, then things got messy

#93

Post by nemothekid »

loganfrederick wrote: post #52
threeseed wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that this isn't what Vision fund is about. What you are describing is more like a pre-seed/seed fund of which there are thousands around including YC. Sure they don't have the capital but that is often not the blocker for most of these companies. Vision fund is focused on taking successful companies global. And using their capital to knock out competitors and their experience in managing execution risk. And th…

Yeah, I get that and my post was kind of an implicit difference between what they "are" versus what I think they "ought to be" (admittedly easier to be in my armchair investor seat than Softbank's). But their returns from Uber, WeWork, and Wag kind of support my point, whereas ARM and Nvidia support yours/theirs. My broader point is that most informed technologists would've said three years ago that the ARM and Nvidi…

I’m unsure the point of the vision fund was to make safe long term bets. At the end of the day, it’s unclear to me how nvidia would use an extra 10B dollars - other than pour that into R&D (in which case does that really cost $10B - and if your thesis is R&D, universities tend to do a better job anyways).

The thesis for Uber (and wework) was simpler - assuming they had sound unit economics, give them $XB to repeat all over the world. In fact if Uber didn’t mistakenly give Lyft a second life, Uber might be in a much better spot.

I think the problem is, companies like Uber, Wework and Wag work really well in wealthy cities like SF and NYC, but not as well in other cities. I live in SF and WeWork “works” there are glut of companies coming in and out of the VC machine that need temporary space that end up needing to also scale up quickly. However that’s unique to SF and SF is such a large market, maybe it looks sound until it doesn’t.

Re: Dog-walking startup Wag raised $300M, then things got messy

#94

Post by codyb »

thecleaner wrote: post #81
loganfrederick wrote: post #16

What I don't get about the Vision Fund is how so many of its investments lack (pun intended) vision. Other than the ARM, Nvidia, and a few billion in biotech (about $3 billion[1]) investments, so much of the fund has gone into pretty "obvious" traditional startups. If I had a $100 billion fund, I wouldn't be swinging for these singles and doubles (which Uber and WeWork were by the time Softbank got involved, although…

A large part of this vision fund is basically Saudi oil money. These folks realize that oil doesn't have that much future if you think in terms of hundreds of years, so they are looking to diversify. Vision fund is not a tool to be on the cutting edge, its just a means to not be left behind. Hence they let VC market decide which horse is worth backing and then they swing their dollars around to see what happens.

I guess it’s just a different vision then. Theirs is the vision of a Saudi ruling family with enough capital to survive the collapse of demand for oil over time.

Re: Dog-walking startup Wag raised $300M, then things got messy

#95

Post by rrss »

loganfrederick wrote: post #16

What I don't get about the Vision Fund is how so many of its investments lack (pun intended) vision. Other than the ARM, Nvidia, and a few billion in biotech (about $3 billion[1]) investments, so much of the fund has gone into pretty "obvious" traditional startups. If I had a $100 billion fund, I wouldn't be swinging for these singles and doubles (which Uber and WeWork were by the time Softbank got involved, although…

FYI I'm pretty sure the vision fund dumped its entire stake in nvidia. Maybe they'll sell arm next.

Re: Dog-walking startup Wag raised $300M, then things got messy

#96

Post by Izkata »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #29

These on demand - fulfilled by gig contracting platforms can _only_ provide value if there has been a big technological change that undermines expertise in a job. Uber works because of google maps knowing a faster route than even the 20 year veteran tax driver. There hasn't been a revolutionary technology in dog walking, just people who need cash but dont know pets. There hasnt been a revolutionary technology in groc…

Just give it a few years: drone-based dog walking.

Re: Dog-walking startup Wag raised $300M, then things got messy

#97

Post by baobabKoodaa »

loganfrederick wrote: post #16

What I don't get about the Vision Fund is how so many of its investments lack (pun intended) vision. Other than the ARM, Nvidia, and a few billion in biotech (about $3 billion[1]) investments, so much of the fund has gone into pretty "obvious" traditional startups. If I had a $100 billion fund, I wouldn't be swinging for these singles and doubles (which Uber and WeWork were by the time Softbank got involved, although…

When you have $1M to invest you have a ton of options. When you have $100B to invest, your options are more limited.

Re: Dog-walking startup Wag raised $300M, then things got messy

#98

Post by wolco »

RandallBrown wrote: post #79
PetahNZ wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is php old? Is c++, c#, Java etc considered old and should not be chosen too?

The point isn't that those choices are older and therefore worse, it's that there are now more choices. They should be able to say why they went with PHP over something else that was available at the time they started.

Why would you ask that and expect an answer? Was the person who orginally wrote the application in the room?

Did you think to ask why they were using windows instead of macs? Or why leather seats?

What were you hoping to get out of your question? Did you want to show the interviewer how hype you were? Were you hoping that you could educate them why using a javascript would be better? This was at an interview correct (not over beers with friends)? Curious how did your next interview go? Have you found work in the field? Are you working with a js framework.

Re: Dog-walking startup Wag raised $300M, then things got messy

#99

Post by manigandham »

loganfrederick wrote: post #16

What I don't get about the Vision Fund is how so many of its investments lack (pun intended) vision. Other than the ARM, Nvidia, and a few billion in biotech (about $3 billion[1]) investments, so much of the fund has gone into pretty "obvious" traditional startups. If I had a $100 billion fund, I wouldn't be swinging for these singles and doubles (which Uber and WeWork were by the time Softbank got involved, although…

It's just a nice name. It's a generic fund to invest mostly oil money and designed to focus on tech for the higher returns. The problem is that the fund is massive and there's a limit to how much capital you can efficiently deploy at once, especially with such a disconnected leadership team.

The size was originally used as a brute-force growth tactic and competition clearer, but now it's clear that it's just leading to unviable business models and vastly inflated valuations while hurting more promising companies that have to compete in this bubble environment.

Re: Dog-walking startup Wag raised $300M, then things got messy

#100

Post by Barrin92 »

i know there is this meme about all software companies just bundling and unbundling things, but can we please stop putting tens of milllions into startups that are literally just:

"App for Y that know allows you to work like before but without labour rights"

and invest money into stuff that actually deserves to be called an invention. Idk cure cancer, flying cars, making infrastructure cheaper, something that actually gets productivity up in the long term

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