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To add to that list of factors: it's also the end of the decades-long ride in Technology stocks which drove a lot of FOMO sentiment that made that money so easi
by airstrike 4y ago
To add to that list of factors: it's also the end of the decades-long ride in Technology stocks which drove a lot of FOMO sentiment that made that money so easily available... nobody wanted to miss out on the next Facebook, the next Uber, the next Airbnb, the next Theranos--wait
The quality of the assets for these moonshot unicorns declined over time (IMHO partially because they were increasingly moving away from pure-bits to bits-and-atoms, making business cases much harder to execute and expensive to fund) and then the macro backdrop soured and here we are
Bonus: here's what StableDiffusion drew for "A dream of moonshot unicorns, 4k trending artstation" because why not... https://i.stack.imgur.com/sFxIw.png https://i.stack.imgur.com/sFxIw.png
- datavirtue 4y agoUber and Airbnb have made money?
- amanj41 4y agoAirbnb had an adjusted EBITDA of ~$230m in Q1, so Airbnb has turned a profit once. Not sure about Uber
- spywaregorilla 4y agoAdjusted means you made a profit if you ignore the fact that you made a loss.
- Oxidation 4y agoEspecially when servicing interest on debt (the I) isn't nearly as cheap as it used to be, unless the debt is locked in at a lower interest rate. Even if it is, but the term ends, a rosy-sounding EBITDA can turn ugly.
- ctchocula 4y agoUber has been adjusted EBITDA profitable since 2021 and is close to GAAP profitability (might reach it this year or 2024).
- zinekeller 4y ago"Adjusted" EBITDA is frankly a sign that the company is making "magic" (read: misrepresentations) on its balance sheets. It's not surprising that Airbnb, Lyft and Uber are the only prominent companies using them.
- kurthr 4y agoThey did for the early investors >:^P
- rtpg 4y agomy understanding is that Uber has a knob they can turn to just be profitable, and have chosen not to because they keep on wanting to grow and have access to more money.
- lumost 4y agoMany firms have been saying this for a long time… it’s unclear how easy it is to turn this knob. Investors seem to be demanding cash returns from mega caps now. At a minimum - if Uber has to raise money again, we’d expect it to be in worse terms.
- danielmarkbruce 4y agoFolks who have spent time working in SV tech companies know that for many companies (AirBnB is absolutely one) there is a knob which can be turned. The cost structures have a lot... fat. The spending in many of these places is beyond belief.
- lumost 4y agoSure, but twitter is somewhat of a litmus test for this. When twitter started trying to cut fat they also crashed their revenue. Organizations love to accumulate fat, I don’t think anyone really has a clear idea of what is necessary fat and what isn’t. Your best bet would be getting consultants in to figure it out… who probably don’t know a heck of a lot about running a tech company.
- danielmarkbruce 4y agoAdditional tests will be Salesforce, Twilio, Docusign, Facebook - all have promised efficiency from here on out. My guess is they'll all start putting up very good numbers. Somewhat fair point. But there are entire areas (like product initiatives) that are extremely speculative and just pet projects which can be cut at many places. Google for example wasted a billion here or a billion there like it was nothing, on things that made little sense, years ago.