Today's discussion about the news
Comments
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Yes, I think they do, the buzz word over the last decade seems to have been "scale". The amount of times I have heard in meetings, "how quickly can we scale this?"
A similar principle has been at stake in more established industries as well. Cycling and restaurants in particular, where hedge funds and other backers have forced massive growth in fledgling businesses (and those more established on occasion). It rarely ends well, but the investor has made their cash and exit by then so they don't care.
RC makes a valid point that management should push back, but I think they see the money and the ego boost of their business becoming a known brand and roll with it.
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Anyone really - it's any private investor. In reality it's usually private equity - of which VC is an arm.
Don't over think it. It's basically anyone who the current owners are happy to sell to.
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Thanks, I think. That shows a disconnect between the value placed and management. Doesn’t strike me as a robust system.
The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
I am not sure. You have no chance.Veronese68 wrote:PB is the most sensible person on here.0 -
SME needs investment. Investors invest, for shares. CEO answerable to shareholders. SME goes out of business unless it gets the next round of funding before money runs out. Next round is of funding contingent on investors. Investors set benchmarks that would induce further investment. The investors hold all the cards.
What are they going to push back with?
This is sometimes what we see, anyway, from afar. Even if round N+1 of investment is different people, they tend to ask how things have been going. Can be a bit of a catch 22, and fundamentally decent concepts fail to get to market for want of more patience.
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Do people not just take out loans these days?
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
I work with a lot of pre revenue companies. I tend not to know in detail, but either I don't think so or both.
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I agree they don't have much leverage, and the investment and push to see a return usually overrides good business practice. However, good management has a duty to the business, as well as your investor. If you feel the push for growth will lead to eventual collapse, you need to try and put the brakes on and reset the level and speed of the growth (and explain the rationale to investors).
I fully appreciate that in practice this is unlikely to ever actually happen though!
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You can't secure a loan with an idea that's going to lead to world domination.
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1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
Iran’s president and foreign minister killed in a helicopter crash is probably going to bring about some finger pointing although the weather looked terrible.
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Couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke.
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]1 -
What's he doing flying a very old american helicopter when there are sanctions on, amongst other things, american made helicopter parts.
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I see the International Criminal Court has arrest warrants for Netanyahu and top Hamas leaders for war crimes.
Sounds about right.
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The contaminated blood thing is obviously a massive scandal but I still can't work out why it is such big news over 30 years after the last case. Surely an Inquiry should have happened in the immediate aftermath as the causes were addressed decades ago, it feels like it has just confirmed what was already known and to start setting the scope of compensation, why wasn't that done years ago? The BBC are going big on it with their new trend of having loads of those affected in the Breakfast studio every morning and discussing it for ages, it seems to be something they started after missing out on the Post Office scandal and then feeling they had to get everyone who ran a sub-Post Office into the studio.
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Cazoo's gone bust.
Was valued at £5bn in '21.
(its US equivalent, Carvana, is making money hand-over-fist. What is going on).
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What is Cazoo?
Perhaps that's the problem.
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Looked it up. No barrier to entry in that market, and so success is mostly down to brand familiarity. That business model relies on the site not being tumbleweed or it implodes.
We have webuyanyoldshit.com (a brand that is too ironicpy British to be relevant anywhere else) and carwow. Probably there's just not space for another.
Similar issue with the housing market isn't it. We have Rightmove and Zoopla. If you aren't on those, who cares.
The US has ReMax, which flopped here because no one needs it and can't be arsed to check another site just in case.
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Where though?
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Amazed that Ken Clarke's legal advisor didn't suggest he adopt a less dismissive tone.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
This, as per the fintech discussion the other day, is the problem though. These businesses are often just a valuation on a computer screen (often massively over inflated). It bears little relation to the actual operational viability, governance, and ultimately cash flow of said business.
When you strip away the grossly exaggerated numbers of many of these businesses, you start to see they are often worth nothing.
It is not much different to private individuals claiming they are millionaires, how many of them could actually liquidate assets and stick £10million on the table tomorrow? The very wealthy, both companies and people, tend to exist on very long lines of credit and not much else, when it goes t!ts up and the debts are called in they are usually in serious trouble.
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why? because an inquiry helps delay/prevent attribution of guilt or any real punishment
standard script...
terrible thing happens that government and senior civil servants knew about or should have known about if they were doing their jobs
people realise something seems to be wrong, perhaps over many years
cover up, deny, stall, obfuscate, lie, destroy evidence, persecute/ignore whistleblowers
years pass
when the outcry gets too big to ignore, stall, propose an inquiry to 'establish the truth', 'learn lessons', 'make recommendations', etc.
inquiry starts
years pass
inquiry concludes, sometimes giving a pre-publication gander to senior people who might want a bit of rewording/fluffing in their favour
inquiry results published: terrible things happened, all very terrible, let's learn these lessons, here're recommendations
government digests, spouts platitudes, maybe compensation (funded by taxpayers, not those responsible), rarely any true accountability, certainly no one banged up or bankrupted to cover some of the costs for the terrible thing they did or enabled
my bike - faster than god's and twice as shiny1 -
There may be trouble ahead...
"Water firms ask for bill rises of between 24% and 91%".
The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
I am not sure. You have no chance.Veronese68 wrote:PB is the most sensible person on here.0 -
Yebbut, they need to fund the shareholders. Duh.
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I have a cunning plan sir.
What is it Baldrick?
I know we only need 15%, but if we ask for 91%....
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True, but the pitchforks can't be far off.
The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
I am not sure. You have no chance.Veronese68 wrote:PB is the most sensible person on here.0 -
Seems to vary a lot by company. Bad news if you're with Thames or Southern:
I think I should be able to stand my bill going up from £24 a month to £33.
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
So the counter to the water problems that the private companies make is that they already invest quite a bit, but in order to invest what's necessary and not go bust they need raise prices but the regulator won't let them.
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As a thought exercise, how much of the shortfall would be made up if they weren't paying dividends and bonuses?
- Genesis Croix de Fer
- Dolan Tuono0
