8 ms·
Samsara S-1
- mrfusion 5y agoAnyone want to share a blurb on what they do?
- alliao 5y agoAI assisted fleet management for utilities, waste etc. Not sure if they're in the reefer space. they basically have their own physical sensors installed on clients' assets and do fancy stuff with all that data.
- mushufasa 5y agothat's a really impressive growth rate and amount of revenue. never heard of them!
- finolex1 5y agoTheir main customers are in blue-collar industries (transport, utilities, etc.), so they are pretty unknown outside that world.
- nemo44x 5y agoGreat to see a startup figure that works out. Underserved in many ways as are small business. Lots of opportunity out there for a founder that is willing to learn about “the other half” and the opportunities to add efficiency to these types of businesses.
- nicolashahn 5y agoInterviewed with them back in 2017. Was very impressed with what they were doing and the apparent talent of their team. Didn't get an offer because I hadn't leetcoded enough but left a good impression on me.
- atian 5y agoHaving interacted with members from Samsara’s team nonprofessionally, I also hold them in high regard.
- rueynshard 5y agoSamsara's founders also previously started and sold Meraki to Cisco for $1.2 billion. Pretty rare to have founded 2 unicorns in ~15 years.
- tomrod 5y agoI believe it simply shows they have understood their market(s).
- someonewhocar3s 5y agoNotice both are 'networks and devices'
- szundi 5y agoSimply.
- davedx 5y agoMy quick stab at FA: Pros - Revenue growth and gross margins are really impressive - Big sales and marketing spend that seems to be effective at growing top line - Costs under control - loss from operations decreasing with an obvious path to profitability while still scaling up very fast Cons - "We face intense and increasing competition", combined with - $55B total addressable market Assume Samsara manages to reach 20% market share of this market, that means they will be able to grow a maximum of 20x after IPO. Compare this with TSLA who had $15M and grew to $31B (2000x). Probably not the best comparison, and TAM is growing too, but it makes me wonder how much further this company can grow? And at this growth rate? It is quite a niche industry (IoT).
- throwawaysea 5y agoIt also notes a 21% CAGR from 2021-2024 for the TAM, so their growth ceiling may be higher than it looks initially.
- danvayn 5y agoIoT will definitely continue to grow, and with it will likely come opportunities for Samsara to reach that 20% market share. Also, I don't think any company's growth can be really fairly compared to Tesla's.
- hazemotes 5y agoSaṃsāra, in both Buddhism and Hinduism, is something to be escaped. The connotation is either downright negative or at least sobering. Why name your company this?
- erulabs 5y ago> Saṃsāra (संसार) is a Sanskrit/Pali word that means "world" I am not a Buddhist, but is "the world" something to be "escaped"? I can't find a matching definition for it to imply escape.
- ottomanbob 5y agoIn buddhism, "the world" is material, personal, and full of suffering. It is something to let go.
- ethbr0 5y agoDoesn't this accurately describe IoT implementations? You're looking at transcending the physical, while simultaneously being trapped by and having to deal with its messy realities. Seems a pretty apt metaphor.
- stewbrew 5y agoMaybe, some people prefer nirvana.
- denton-scratch 5y ago"Nirvana" means extinction - the same word is used to refer to snuffing out a candle. I learned the fourth Noble Truth as "Nirvana is bliss"; but I never figured out how to unpack that.
- cko 5y ago> 153. Through many a birth in samsara have I wandered in vain, seeking the builder of this house (of life). Repeated birth is indeed suffering! https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/dhp/dhp.11.budd.html https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/dhp/dhp.11.budd.... I happen to have this as a tattoo actually. A relic from my Buddhist days.
- larrywright 5y agoI've never heard of them EXCEPT for the fact that for months I saw their ads before every video I watched on Youtube. I kept wondering why I was seeing them because it's a product that I clearly have no use for.
- missedthecue 5y agoIve always wondered why companies do that. I've gotten adverts for Airbus and Lockheed Martin but I can assure you I am in no position to buy a fighter jet.
- DevKoala 5y agoMaybe bad targeting or perhaps brand recognition. The conversion model works. It is about convincing as many individuals this is a reputable company so that when the person signing the check asks around nobody bats an eye.
- vultour 5y agoAre you in Washington DC? I heard the ads around there can get wild.
- robryan 5y agoSome of it is about improving their public perception. We get a bunch of ads in Australia from mining companies trying to let everyone know they are digging up materials for renewable projects and not just coal.
- jrvarela56 5y agoBrand awareness. After exhausting predictable growth channels, companies pay money to stay in society’s top-of-mind. I think the best example of this is Coca Cola but tough to compare to LM/Airbus. Imagine paying money so people think you’re legit/respectable. Companies have tons of money so they spend on this.
- dougSF70 5y agoYou never know, 2022 might be your year.
- bradleyjg 5y agoAnother case of a company “going public” but insiders retaining total control. I guess we’ll have to wait for the next market crash to get rid of these fake public companies.
- ttul 5y agoA significant number of publicly traded companies — and not just new ones in tech - are tightly controlled by founding shareholders who have special shares. This is not an unusual practice even for public companies. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with taking your company public and retaining troll through special shares. Anyone who is able to do that massive built a pretty great company, otherwise the market would not support it.
- bradleyjg 5y ago> Anyone who is able to do that massive built a pretty great company, otherwise the market would not support it. In a normal market, I suspect many of these would not be supported, or would at least have to take a big discount to PE. But we are in the era when money pours into doge coin. You can’t conclude anything in such an environment.
- JumpCrisscross 5y ago> we’ll have to wait for the next market crash to get rid of these fake public companies Given the lack of evidence for founder-controlled companies underperforming the market, I wouldn’t hold my breath. Particularly if the business is not reliant on outside capital (e.g. Uber under Kalanick, who was ousted despite having super-voting privileges).
- bradleyjg 5y agohttps://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=492353 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=492353
- echelon 5y agoHow was Kalanick ousted when he had super-majority voting? I know he was scandalous, fostered a toxic and sexist culture, and was abusive to employees, but how did he get removed if he had all the power?
- Invictus0 5y agoI listened to Sanjit speak at HackMIT several years ago. He is a really brilliant man and a real innovator. I'll definitely be investing in this IPO.
- sjaak 5y agoThere is a beautiful movie by the same name. Go see it if you haven’t! https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0770802/ https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0770802/
- moltenguardian 5y agoThe best piece of advice I heard for reading financial reports: start at the bottom, read your way up. All the juicy stuff is hidden in the bottom (like losses), while the pretty, extrapolated ARR graphs are up at the top.
- 1123581321 5y agoNot bad, although I assume you’d want to grab the standard financial statements on your way to the last page for some context. The important thing is to actually read the report, and bring a lot of context to the read from your other studies so you can make a better decision (or improve your contextual knowledge for the next report.)
- nemo44x 5y agoReally excellent numbers. Anyone there before their Series C (and probably many even up to D) is going to make life changing money. Congrats to the builders of this company.
- swayvil 5y agoIs this for real or is this a metaphor?
- lostmsu 5y agoDDG: Samsara provides equipment monitoring.
- tybit 5y agoAnyone else surprised that they managed to get the IOT ticker? I would of thought that would have been taken already.
- hizxy 5y agoTruck drivers hate them!
- relbeek2 5y agoI interviewed with them in 2018 for a position within there industrial gateway/plc group. There product was neat but certainly not revolutionary, they completely missed the mark on understanding the factory automation and controls space. They only wanted controls engineers to write in a text based scripting language, and required all data to go to the cloud. I was perfectly clear with them about why I had concerns for the product and obviously didn’t get the job, though now it appears to be hurried in there products page. I guess they realized what I told them a few years later.
- techtitan2000 5y agoClassic HN