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How Tilt Went From Hot $375 Million Startup To Fire Sale (fastcompany.com)
tedlistens writes: Not long ago, social payments company Tilt seemed to have it all -- a hot idea; cool, young founders with Y Combinator pedigrees; and $67 million in funding -- not to mention a $375 million valuation. But Tilt was more successful at cultivating its user growth and fun, frat-tastic office culture than at nailing down a viable business model. When Tilt finally ran out of cash, the party ended with the company's sale at fire-sale prices to fellow Y Combinator alums Airbnb in an aqui-hire deal. Where did it all go wrong? Here's an excerpt from the report: "Tilt was based on the premise that 'something like PayPal and Facebook would collide,' Tilt founder and CEO James Beshara says. The company aspired to be a social network for money -- instead of sharing photos and videos, users exchanged digital cash for birthday ragers and beer runs. During Tilt's early years, the pitch was simple, and carefully calibrated for Silicon Valley boardrooms: 'Let's prove that we can dominate the globe.' [...] By early 2013, millions in venture dollars were pouring into Tilt's coffers. Investors were lured by the same strong social metrics (viral coefficient, for example, a measure of user growth) that had marked Facebook as a winner. But the hopes embedded in Tilt's $375 million valuation came crashing down to earth last year. Beshara hadn't built a business; instead, he had manufactured a classic Silicon Valley mirage. While investors were throwing millions of dollars at the promise of a glittering business involving 'social' and 'money,' their Mark Zuckerberg-in-the-making was basking in the sunny glow of Bay Area praise and enjoying the ride with his bros. Revenue was not a top priority -- a remarkable oversight for any company, and a particularly galling one for a payments company. Eventually, with cash running low, Tilt went looking for a buyer..."
5) Don't worry about a business plan. You can think about questions like "How do we make money?" later. Right now, just focus on more important priorities like establishing a cool company culture and getting a huge pool table for the breakroom.
6) Open floor plans. Cause that's supposed to help, somehow.
7) "Millennial Brand Recognition," or some shit.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Can Uber and Lyft be far behind? They're cab dispatchers without the cabs. That's it. It is impossible to be worth $28 billion just by shaking down cabbies for a couple of years.
Agree on Snapchat, Tesla is a different story in my opinion. Sustainable transport is the future according to wall street, ea Tesla, GM is done, the new Nokia. Besides Tesla is delivering products, its model 3 is coming out and its preorders are off the chart. And most important, you mainly invest in the founder and with Musk running 3(!) dollar companies, compared to Spiegel, HA. Naa Snapchat will be the next Twitter, I'm more positive on Tesla. My 2 cts
That's venture capital for you though. Their modus operandi seems to be 'invest in many startups -> grow customer base as fast as possible -> sell for higher price to next investor'. VCs are trying to profit from capital gains made during the growth phase of a company. Therefore growth is the top priority. Most investments will be a write-off, some break even, and one or two may be the next Google or Tesla and make up for all the other losses. Another type of investor will take over once a company reaches break-even.
Human Rights, Article 12: Freedom from Interference with Privacy, Family, Home and Correspondence