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If there were a scooter every single time I wanted to use a scooter, then it would make sense. But that's not reality. The reality is that trying to get a scoot

If there were a scooter every single time I wanted to use a scooter, then it would make sense. But that's not reality. The reality is that trying to get a scooter is haphazard at best. You need to walk around and find one. And during rush hour, it won't be at the Caltrain station because they're already taken and distributed around the city. It's clear as day that there's no way this is going to work at scale in order to justify a multi-billion dollar business.

floatrock 7y ago
Wait, so in a thread about a company raising more money for the VC blitzscaling playbook, you're complaining that popular demand for this service appears to be outstripping supply? Lyft and Uber have shown that you can improve matching logistics by bolting on games like demand charges and utilizing various supply-side nudges to direct assets to where you need them to be. These are solvable problems. It seems like you're saying you would happily use the service if there was more of it available.
- ashelmire 7y ago
  If only scooters could drive themselves to your doorstep... Hey wait a second, that could be it! I'll start my self-driving scooter company today.
  - siphon22 7y ago
    Random billionaire looking to invest here. Email?
- docker_up 7y ago
  No that's not what I said. I said the only way it unlocks a new market is if there is guaranteed availability, which is functionally impossible. It doesn't take much effort to show that if the scooters start from an area that is very useful, then end up in random locations around the city, and once they are in an unuseful location, they stop getting revenue. And even worse there's the additional cost of getting them charged and then picked up overnight and redistributed by hand. You need to flood the market with scooters so that people get scooters when they want it but cities won't allow it. Plus, it's cost prohibitive. Creating a new market is NOT a solvable problem, especially at the scale of funding that they have received. You can't throw a billion dollars and expect that a new market will create itself. That's why Bird is going to die, probably by the end of 2020.
- JeremyNT 7y ago
  > It seems like you're saying you would happily use the service if there was more of it available. Which is a problem when the scooter companies lose money on every single scooter they put into the world. Being popular alone is enough to grift SV investors who have money to burn, but when that well dries out they can't afford to subsidize these things to the extent required to keep them useful to people. If you can't find scooters they lose their utility, but the companies won't be able to afford leaving so much excess capacity around.
jonlucc 7y ago
Where I live, this is not much of a problem. The only time I have trouble getting a scooter if I want it is during some large conventions and after large sports events. It would not take that much effort to plan appropriately for those events and make many more scooters available. Also, the scooters have widened my options for lunch from maybe 3 choices within walking distance to something like 50. Sure it's a luxury, but for a few extra dollars, it is nice to be able to get a pita or burger instead of always a burrito.

floatrock 7y ago

Wait, so in a thread about a company raising more money for the VC blitzscaling playbook, you're complaining that popular demand for this service appears to be outstripping supply? Lyft and Uber have shown that you can improve matching logistics by bolting on games like demand charges and utilizing various supply-side nudges to direct assets to where you need them to be. These are solvable problems. It seems like you're saying you would happily use the service if there was more of it available.

ashelmire 7y ago
If only scooters could drive themselves to your doorstep... Hey wait a second, that could be it! I'll start my self-driving scooter company today.
- siphon22 7y ago
  Random billionaire looking to invest here. Email?
docker_up 7y ago
No that's not what I said. I said the only way it unlocks a new market is if there is guaranteed availability, which is functionally impossible. It doesn't take much effort to show that if the scooters start from an area that is very useful, then end up in random locations around the city, and once they are in an unuseful location, they stop getting revenue. And even worse there's the additional cost of getting them charged and then picked up overnight and redistributed by hand. You need to flood the market with scooters so that people get scooters when they want it but cities won't allow it. Plus, it's cost prohibitive. Creating a new market is NOT a solvable problem, especially at the scale of funding that they have received. You can't throw a billion dollars and expect that a new market will create itself. That's why Bird is going to die, probably by the end of 2020.
JeremyNT 7y ago
> It seems like you're saying you would happily use the service if there was more of it available. Which is a problem when the scooter companies lose money on every single scooter they put into the world. Being popular alone is enough to grift SV investors who have money to burn, but when that well dries out they can't afford to subsidize these things to the extent required to keep them useful to people. If you can't find scooters they lose their utility, but the companies won't be able to afford leaving so much excess capacity around.

jonlucc 7y ago

Where I live, this is not much of a problem. The only time I have trouble getting a scooter if I want it is during some large conventions and after large sports events. It would not take that much effort to plan appropriately for those events and make many more scooters available. Also, the scooters have widened my options for lunch from maybe 3 choices within walking distance to something like 50. Sure it's a luxury, but for a few extra dollars, it is nice to be able to get a pita or burger instead of always a burrito.