3 ms·

I admittedly wasn't a huge fan of Wag ever because it always seemed like taking the lowest available bidder to walk your dog (instead of someone who truly loves

I admittedly wasn't a huge fan of Wag ever because it always seemed like taking the lowest available bidder to walk your dog (instead of someone who truly loves dogs and has years of experience training them), but I'm curious how much of an influence Softbank has been since their investment. Everybody talks about how Softbank is the smartest money in Silicon Valley. Obviously time will tell, but I feel like Softbank is actually the dumbest money and just has more cash to throw around than anyone else. That said, this is really an unnecessary tangent to what is truly a horrible incident and I grieve for the dog owners.

james_s_tayler 8y ago
To expand a little on your first point - the market of people who truly love dogs, or love them enough to think of walking them to earn money outside of the Uber for X economy, is probably tiny. Most people just have regular jobs and/or don't need the money that much and/or don't love dogs that much. You can scale the access to being a dog walker but you can't scale the "I give a shit about dogsness". Maybe the sharing economy model is just a poor one in certain cases?
gnulinux 8y ago
Haha a little off topic but I'm curious. I work in a Softbank invested startup (not Wag). Could you elaborate about Softbank being the most silly part? Is it silly in this case, or in general about companies Softbank invests in?
- Judgmentality 8y ago
  I'm just unimpressed by their investments, and their ridiculously large sums of money thrown into companies which may not need it. I worked at a Softbank company before, and while the fundraise was heralded as a brilliant move at the time the few in the know realize that the company likely would have shut down had Softbank not put up their ridiculously large sum of money (the public and media still love this company and knows nothing of this). Obviously this is just my opinion on their investment strategy and time will tell - they make money or they don't. But I have insider information that at least one of their bigger deals is definitely going to fail.
- tomaskafka 8y ago
  1. Get reasonable investors for a risky adventure. 2. Investors sense it's going to turn bad, they sell over to Softbank. 3. It takes a while, but Softbank realizes what they bought and sell it to an even dumbest last instance buyer - some Dubai state oil-funded venture fund. 4. The company finally crashes.

james_s_tayler 8y ago

To expand a little on your first point - the market of people who truly love dogs, or love them enough to think of walking them to earn money outside of the Uber for X economy, is probably tiny. Most people just have regular jobs and/or don't need the money that much and/or don't love dogs that much. You can scale the access to being a dog walker but you can't scale the "I give a shit about dogsness". Maybe the sharing economy model is just a poor one in certain cases?

gnulinux 8y ago

Haha a little off topic but I'm curious. I work in a Softbank invested startup (not Wag). Could you elaborate about Softbank being the most silly part? Is it silly in this case, or in general about companies Softbank invests in?

Judgmentality 8y ago
I'm just unimpressed by their investments, and their ridiculously large sums of money thrown into companies which may not need it. I worked at a Softbank company before, and while the fundraise was heralded as a brilliant move at the time the few in the know realize that the company likely would have shut down had Softbank not put up their ridiculously large sum of money (the public and media still love this company and knows nothing of this). Obviously this is just my opinion on their investment strategy and time will tell - they make money or they don't. But I have insider information that at least one of their bigger deals is definitely going to fail.
tomaskafka 8y ago
1. Get reasonable investors for a risky adventure. 2. Investors sense it's going to turn bad, they sell over to Softbank. 3. It takes a while, but Softbank realizes what they bought and sell it to an even dumbest last instance buyer - some Dubai state oil-funded venture fund. 4. The company finally crashes.