5 ms·

that is an absurd valuation ... you're telling me a pre-revenue company is worth comparable amount to Lyft or United Airlines.

xfitm3 7y ago
The alleged value stems from its IP, right? They’re at 1500 engineers or so.
sonnyblarney 7y ago
Forget 'pre revenue' they are 'pre business model, pre product, pre complete IP' ...
YjSe2GMQ 7y ago
Isn't Lyft also essentially a bet on autonomous driving? With (probably) an even shorter time horizon to burn all their cash? Otherwise it's hard to see them making enough profit to justify a 17B valuation.
- CPLX 7y ago
  > Isn't Lyft also essentially a bet on autonomous driving? No. It’s an app-based taxi hailing service.
  - YjSe2GMQ 7y ago
    Yeah right. But other than self driving cars I fail to see how they'll un-dig themselves out of the money losing setup before burning through all the fresh cash collected in the IPO. Hopefully I'll be wrong.
    - kenneth 7y ago
      I see this criticism about Lyft and Uber all the time, but I don't understand how both companies could not at some point simply raise their prices to make the unit economics work. Sure, they'd lose some business… but given there is almost no fixed costs to running their business, they'd still have large profitable businesses. The only reason they don't is they're fighting for marketshare with each other while in growth mode. But once both companies have established their places in the world, saturated their markets, I don't see why they wouldn't simply raise their prices accordingly. Revenue would drop, profit would rise. Eventually, the market reach an equilibrium. Note they could also just raise the share they take for themselves and prices simultaneously. If prices go up 20% and they up their fee from 20% -> 33%, their income goes up 60% and their unit economics look a LOT better.
      - hef19898 7y ago
        Well, up to now the mainly compete on price and booking comfort (apps) with traditional taxis. So taxi prices are somehow giving an upper price limit, maybe plus something for the better CX.
    - CPLX 7y ago
      If they invented a high temperature superconductor that could ease their money problems as well, but neither of these ideas have anything to do with their current business model.
beambot 7y ago
You mean the airline that went through bankruptcy in an industry with lots of bankruptcies?
atupis 7y ago
But moat is also absurd big if they get working product and start scaling.

xfitm3 7y ago

The alleged value stems from its IP, right? They’re at 1500 engineers or so.

sonnyblarney 7y ago

Forget 'pre revenue' they are 'pre business model, pre product, pre complete IP' ...

YjSe2GMQ 7y ago

Isn't Lyft also essentially a bet on autonomous driving? With (probably) an even shorter time horizon to burn all their cash? Otherwise it's hard to see them making enough profit to justify a 17B valuation.

CPLX 7y ago
> Isn't Lyft also essentially a bet on autonomous driving? No. It’s an app-based taxi hailing service.
- YjSe2GMQ 7y ago
  Yeah right. But other than self driving cars I fail to see how they'll un-dig themselves out of the money losing setup before burning through all the fresh cash collected in the IPO. Hopefully I'll be wrong.
  - kenneth 7y ago
    I see this criticism about Lyft and Uber all the time, but I don't understand how both companies could not at some point simply raise their prices to make the unit economics work. Sure, they'd lose some business… but given there is almost no fixed costs to running their business, they'd still have large profitable businesses. The only reason they don't is they're fighting for marketshare with each other while in growth mode. But once both companies have established their places in the world, saturated their markets, I don't see why they wouldn't simply raise their prices accordingly. Revenue would drop, profit would rise. Eventually, the market reach an equilibrium. Note they could also just raise the share they take for themselves and prices simultaneously. If prices go up 20% and they up their fee from 20% -> 33%, their income goes up 60% and their unit economics look a LOT better.
    - hef19898 7y ago
      Well, up to now the mainly compete on price and booking comfort (apps) with traditional taxis. So taxi prices are somehow giving an upper price limit, maybe plus something for the better CX.
  - CPLX 7y ago
    If they invented a high temperature superconductor that could ease their money problems as well, but neither of these ideas have anything to do with their current business model.

beambot 7y ago

You mean the airline that went through bankruptcy in an industry with lots of bankruptcies?

atupis 7y ago

But moat is also absurd big if they get working product and start scaling.