I always assumed Scoot's model was to iterate until they'd really polished the product, and then get an infusion of cash (ideally just a loan though probably VC

I always assumed Scoot's model was to iterate until they'd really polished the product, and then get an infusion of cash (ideally just a loan though probably VC money) and start expanding to a lot more cities. The fact that Bird got 10x as much VC money and targeted hundreds of cities from the get-go doesn't make Bird any better, it just means Bird went the "large funding" route.