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Unions and Mapbox is a very sore topic and now the subject of a NLRB lawsuit for firing the union organizers. https://www.protocol.com/bulletins/mapbox-sued-fir

Unions and Mapbox is a very sore topic and now the subject of a NLRB lawsuit for firing the union organizers. https://www.protocol.com/bulletins/mapbox-sued-firing-union-organizers https://www.protocol.com/bulletins/mapbox-sued-firing-union-... But the union drive came far too late to help the larger problem. The big change happened in 2017 when Softbank invested $164M into MapBox. In retrospect it was far too much money with too many expectations. And with the ugly side effect of salting the earth for any other map startups. It only got worse in 2021 when MapBox's attempt to go public via a SPAC failed. They're plodding along now but it's hard to see what a good final outcome is going to be.

chx 4y ago
This is not the first time I see Softbank as a net negative. Too much money loosely controlled. Is there an example of Softbank doing good?
Doctor_Fegg 4y ago
> And with the ugly side effect of salting the earth for any other map startups I'm unsure on that. Mapbox built a bunch of good tech (mostly around vector tiles), open-sourced it, and then lost interest in smaller customers in their rush for the petrodollar. This has been genuinely great for bootstrapped map businesses. You can easily list a dozen who are using .mvt tech right now and making a good living out of it. True, it wasn't good for Mapzen. But I can't weep too many tears for something funded with Samsung Accelerator magic money, much though they did hire one of the smartest teams in the business - Softbank vs Samsung is not a battle I can bring myself to care about. I 100% agree with you that Mapbox went too far, too fast. But on balance I think their trajectory has (unintentionally) been good for wider mapping tech.
erlich 4y ago
Why do people always think it’s a good idea to unionize when a company is fighting for survival?
- Tostino 4y ago
  Because the people doing the work want a say in the overall direction of the company?
  - xvedejas 4y ago
    This sounds like a case for different corporate governance, yeah?
- Apocryphon 4y ago
  Maybe because the leadership is actively undermining the survival? From this case alone, it seems possible that the Mapbox leadership is chasing a hopeless strategy by focusing on the auto industry, which is dominated by other much larger companies.
  - erlich 4y ago
    And a committee of employees has a better strategy for profitability? I don’t see it. The employees have dramatically less incentive than the owners and management to earn the owners an adequate return on their investment.
    - Apocryphon 4y ago
      Perhaps the employees who are actually executing a faulty business strategy can see its first errors up front.
      - simondotau 4y ago
        I’m sure that’s true some of the time. I wouldn’t say it’s true most of the time.
        Apocryphon 4y ago
        Perhaps your supposition should be put to the test.

chx 4y ago

This is not the first time I see Softbank as a net negative. Too much money loosely controlled. Is there an example of Softbank doing good?

Doctor_Fegg 4y ago

> And with the ugly side effect of salting the earth for any other map startups I'm unsure on that. Mapbox built a bunch of good tech (mostly around vector tiles), open-sourced it, and then lost interest in smaller customers in their rush for the petrodollar. This has been genuinely great for bootstrapped map businesses. You can easily list a dozen who are using .mvt tech right now and making a good living out of it. True, it wasn't good for Mapzen. But I can't weep too many tears for something funded with Samsung Accelerator magic money, much though they did hire one of the smartest teams in the business - Softbank vs Samsung is not a battle I can bring myself to care about. I 100% agree with you that Mapbox went too far, too fast. But on balance I think their trajectory has (unintentionally) been good for wider mapping tech.

erlich 4y ago

Why do people always think it’s a good idea to unionize when a company is fighting for survival?

Tostino 4y ago
Because the people doing the work want a say in the overall direction of the company?
- xvedejas 4y ago
  This sounds like a case for different corporate governance, yeah?
Apocryphon 4y ago
Maybe because the leadership is actively undermining the survival? From this case alone, it seems possible that the Mapbox leadership is chasing a hopeless strategy by focusing on the auto industry, which is dominated by other much larger companies.
- erlich 4y ago
  And a committee of employees has a better strategy for profitability? I don’t see it. The employees have dramatically less incentive than the owners and management to earn the owners an adequate return on their investment.
  - Apocryphon 4y ago
    Perhaps the employees who are actually executing a faulty business strategy can see its first errors up front.
    - simondotau 4y ago
      I’m sure that’s true some of the time. I wouldn’t say it’s true most of the time.
      - Apocryphon 4y ago
        Perhaps your supposition should be put to the test.