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After seeing one of his other press interviews, I've now changed my mind from thinking he might have a point in a cynical way to thinking they're doomed. https
by astrange 3y ago
After seeing one of his other press interviews, I've now changed my mind from thinking he might have a point in a cynical way to thinking they're doomed.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna89700 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna89700 (sorry for the AMP link…)
> In an interview Thursday with NBC News, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman praised Musk’s aggressive cost-cutting and layoffs at Twitter, and said he had chatted “a handful of times” with Musk on the subject of running an internet platform.
> Huffman said he saw Musk’s handling of Twitter, which Musk purchased last year, as an example for Reddit to follow.
I guess if all the other VCs jump off a cliff your board will also want to jump off a cliff.
- nocoiner 3y agoI haven’t liked Reddit’s actions so far, but I figured that they were just taking a heavy handed approach toward achieving profitability or a state where they could take the business public. But to hear that they’re looking at social media management that’s resulted in the destruction of tens of billions of dollars of equity value as the path forward … wow. I’m way too cynical to think Reddit is doomed but even as a for-profit venture this is just seemingly increasingly ill-conceived. Also lmfao at the letter to RIF. You tear up your contract with them and THEN you tell them they’re required to respond within 48 hours? LOL get bent.
- dredmorbius 3y agoI'm starting to reach the view that VC have decided that Reddit must either see a large liquidity event or die trying. Given the present investment environment, it's time to close off taps. That's not the risk perspective I face, and I'd prefer to see Reddit accede to community demands (though I've long since abandoned much hope they'd do so, my own personal subreddit's been all but dormant for about five years on just that basis, though I've continued to mine it for links on topics I'd posted previously). I'm not certain what Reddit's end game is should the IPO fail, or fizzle, but it would seem that preparing for an alternative online presence might well be a good idea.
- nocoiner 3y agoYeah, I think you’re exactly right. My guess would be that as a public company, Reddit looks a lot like Lyft - not a terribly differentiated product, cost structure out of control, poorly performing stock, but still a multi-billion dollar company. I think I read somewhere that Reddit had taken like $1.7 billion in VC money. Even if its current valuation is way down from what it appears to have peaked at ($15 billion), there’s still plenty of cushion for the VCs to get their money out and give the employees some liquidity. They’ll probably torch the franchise in the process, but at least for a brief moment, they have created some real value for the shareholders.
- hgsgm 3y ago> but at least for a brief moment, they have created some real value for the shareholders. Not yet.
- dredmorbius 3y agoSpoiler: <https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VzgIUW49PWQ/U3LSp6iN0xI/AAAAAAAAAuY/fbTGFLACX30/s1600/Scan+1.jpeg https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VzgIUW49PWQ/U3LSp6iN0xI/AAAAAAAAA...>
- bombcar 3y agoI think the VCs blame Reddit leadership for not somehow developing ChatReddit and becoming instant bazillionaires. And management is scrambling to show they can still have a profitable exit.
- jacquesm 3y agoThat's one take. The other is much simpler: it has been communicated that investors will no longer bankroll Reddit and so now they will have to make ends meet, one way or another.
- dredmorbius 3y agoThat would be a part of my assessment. What your response omits is the consideration of an IPO, what potential valuations might be achieved, and the fact that VC manage a portfolio of assets. The net risk of an (increasingly unlikely) large liquidity event, vs. a wash, still sees its upside in the big-pop IPO. Which is to say: it really is rational for investors to pursue a course with a high probability of killing the goose, as the alternative is still little or no return. The post-IPO Reddit would still be on its own, though it might be able to capitalise somewhat on the IPO itself for a time. That it will eventually have to make it on its own as a business does seem clear. And frankly, increasingly unlikely.
- Atotalnoob 3y agoWhere is the letter to RIF?
- grawlinson 3y agoI assume it’s here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36362737 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36362737
- IshKebab 3y agoI think some of Musk's actions do make sense. Their staff and infrastructure costs were way out of control. They could have been reliably profitable every year just by cutting those costs. That's kind of insane. The rest of his changes - stopping moderation and the API price changes are stupid. Has Reddit cut staff? Seems like they're just copying Musk's mistakes.
- more_corn 3y agoYou think firing 70% of a company is sane? How about alienating your advertisers? On an advertising funded platform. Railing against work from home and then stopping paying you office lease? The first eviction was ordered today. How long till the flagship office doors are chained shut? No part of the twitter debacle is sane. Modeling any part of one’s strategy on it would be laughable.
- genmud 3y agoNot OP, but he did caveat it with saying some decisions, which I assume he meant that cutting costs on an overstaffed org is a good idea, but maybe cutting 70% before you have a good idea what they do might have been a bad way to do it. You can make the sane/rational decisions, yet implement those decisions in the most insane way possible.
- __pache__ 3y agoTwitter cost cuts seem amazing...?
- mnky9800n 3y agoYou didn't see that video of the girl who worked at Twitter but didn't seem to do anything other then drink coffee and go to yoga class? I think if the company is not making a reliable profit then maybe there's some costs that could be cut.
- 3y ago
- fragmede 3y agoSeriously. Elon Musk might be able to pull something off but that doesn't mean you can, because you're not Elon Musk. Spez saw Musk do a thing and tried to copy him, only to find out that he isn't Elon Musk.
- astrange 3y agoThe problem is that it's not working for Elon either, Elon is just insulated from bad decisions because he can pay for them.
- spicymaki 3y agoAre you sure he can pay? https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/06/judge-ruled-twitter-must-be-evicted-from-colorado-office-over-unpaid-rent/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/06/judge-ruled-twit...
- astrange 3y agoRefusing to pay your vendors is actually a surprisingly common (small) business strategy. Notice nobody else has shut them off yet, even GCP or their main office landlord.
- brohee 3y agoTranslations briefly disappeared. I strongly suspect money wiring was involved in getting them back.
- astrange 3y agoThey're still gone for me, but only maybe 75% of the time, so I suspect a bug that nobody has tried to fix. (Especially because the way it fails involves a "(null)" string being returned instead of the translation.)
- trogdor 3y agoWasn't an eviction order just issued in relation to their Boulder office?
- ThePowerOfFuet 3y agoWhy post the AMP link when you really didn't have to? https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/reddit-blackout-protest-private-ceo-elon-musk-huffman-rcna89700 https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/reddit-blackout-prote...
- astrange 3y agoCuz there wasn't a way to de-AMP it on my phone.
- dcchambers 3y agoI hate this timeline where all these tech CEOs now aspire to follow in Musk's footsteps and be assholes with zero empathy. Yes, many tech companies are bloated. You (CEOs and other execs) did that yourself. You can at least be empathetic and have some tact when your actions drastically alter your employees lives.
- mikrotikker 3y agoSay what you will but Musk wanted to take it in a different direction, one that didn't need to pay activists to meddle with the algorithm and censorship, and didn't need to pay rent in it's buildings