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What would a buyer have even been purchasing in this scenario? A bunch of talented employees? Cool, they are all on the market anyway. A bunch of tiny commodi

What would a buyer have even been purchasing in this scenario? A bunch of talented employees? Cool, they are all on the market anyway. A bunch of tiny commodity contracts? Why? A pile of code? Is it particularly hard to recreate? Valuations are having a big wake-up call across the industry. While a company can be more than the sum of its parts, VC-backed tech companies have really struggled in industries where unit-economics rule.

fullshark 3y ago
Probably patents mostly, perhaps around some novel hardware the buyer wants to utilize.
- i_am_jl 3y ago
  They run a freight exchange platform linking truck drivers with people who need freight shipped. What hardware patents did they have?
  - fullshark 3y ago
    Nothing apparently which is (seemingly) why no one bought them.
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Johnie 3y ago
In addition, you take on the debt and the loan portfolio that it's responsible for.
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e2e4 3y ago
> What would a buyer have even been purchasing in this scenario? > A pile of code? Is it particularly hard to recreate? I think you are buying time. Yes, code could be written, but would probably take at least a year. Additionally, money-wise what matters is net, even if something is overpriced, all that matters in the end, can you make more than you've spent. p.s. thanks for the interesting question to ponder and discuss
acyou 3y ago
Another example industry where you can see this well is manufacturing with Protolabs, Xometry sucking wind for the last several years. Surprising, you would have thought that large amounts of capital and economies of scale would beat out competition (they were planning on grinding incumbents into the dirt by now). Are we seeing a case where innovation is not restricted to automation and software? Incumbents are also leveraging decades (or centuries) of investment in land, people, technologies to win in some cases.

fullshark 3y ago

Probably patents mostly, perhaps around some novel hardware the buyer wants to utilize.

i_am_jl 3y ago
They run a freight exchange platform linking truck drivers with people who need freight shipped. What hardware patents did they have?
- fullshark 3y ago
  Nothing apparently which is (seemingly) why no one bought them.

deleted 3y ago

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Johnie 3y ago

In addition, you take on the debt and the loan portfolio that it's responsible for.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

e2e4 3y ago

> What would a buyer have even been purchasing in this scenario? > A pile of code? Is it particularly hard to recreate? I think you are buying time. Yes, code could be written, but would probably take at least a year. Additionally, money-wise what matters is net, even if something is overpriced, all that matters in the end, can you make more than you've spent. p.s. thanks for the interesting question to ponder and discuss

acyou 3y ago

Another example industry where you can see this well is manufacturing with Protolabs, Xometry sucking wind for the last several years. Surprising, you would have thought that large amounts of capital and economies of scale would beat out competition (they were planning on grinding incumbents into the dirt by now). Are we seeing a case where innovation is not restricted to automation and software? Incumbents are also leveraging decades (or centuries) of investment in land, people, technologies to win in some cases.