People are saying that one of the founders sold $150m+ of their equity and the vc's couldn't stop them... and proceeded to get a 70 foot yacht. With no remaining incentive to build the business, it's no wonder they are out.
“Once in the dear dead days beyond recall, an out-of-town visitor was being shown the wonders of the New York financial district. When the party arrived at the Battery, one of his guides indicated some handsome ships riding at anchor. He said, ‘Look, those are the bankers’ and brokers’ yachts.’
‘Where are the customers’ yachts?’ asked the naive visitor.”
“The financing solution is a little bit like hardware financing, but much more efficient because it's on a trading platform and diversified,” Hurst explained.
So maybe the loan was to jumpstart this trading program?
I’m no cryptoeconomist but that looks to me like one of those “better, because blockchain” ideas for people who can’t even get predatory traditional loans.
In my opinion, they should also have told customers.
My company is very careful about choosing vendors, and we choose not to do business with anyone involved in crypto (for fraud/stability reasons), especially mining (for environmental reasons).
I respect being cautious near risky business, but that's hardly unique to crypto. And caring about the earth is a good thing, but in no way unique to crypto.
It’s really simple guys, their investors need to come out sooner than later to establish the truth. This news seemed to be strategically issued post FTX so the news would be out but FTX would still be the center of attention. Something fishy definitely happened. Their story doesn’t make sense.
Easy: an overabundance of buzzwords. No industry makes it easier to just throw out words that impress investors but mean nothing. And nobody involved, including the ones doing the pitch, has to have any idea what it is they are talking about.
> You see, this is where <buzzword> could be used to improve everything.
> Super smart people are doing amazing things with <buzzword>, there are thousands of applications (no I won't name any). You should invest now!
It's easy to blend in when confidence and signaling are the driving forces of valuations, hiring, funding, etc. You can fake it until you make it if you don't break the law too much and you make it to success (Uber's IPO, Tesla's ongoing financial stability and having reached escape velocity). You cannot if you end up not making it, or your break the law too much. Sequoia (supposedly sophisticated investment managers) got snowed for $210M with FTX, Softback lost somewhere between $10B and $20B on WeWork, not a great sign!
I didn't think your comment deserved to be flagged, it is a legitimate ask and observation (WeWork, Theranos, FTX, Lichtenstein and Morgan's bitcoin theft, possibly these "little fry lies", etc), but I am unable to vouch.
toomuchtodo|3 years ago
https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/22/pipes-founding-team-steppi...
pain_perdu|3 years ago
charliermarsh|3 years ago
https://twitter.com/joshmangel/status/1595872694549069827
https://twitter.com/zallarak/status/1595873700846440453
jzmorganchase|3 years ago
from afar the fact they all stepped down before finding a replacement CEO was already a massive red flag.
lern_too_spel|3 years ago
jonthepirate|3 years ago
vba616|3 years ago
‘Where are the customers’ yachts?’ asked the naive visitor.”
imkhalil|3 years ago
“The financing solution is a little bit like hardware financing, but much more efficient because it's on a trading platform and diversified,” Hurst explained.
UncleEntity|3 years ago
I’m no cryptoeconomist but that looks to me like one of those “better, because blockchain” ideas for people who can’t even get predatory traditional loans.
smt88|3 years ago
My company is very careful about choosing vendors, and we choose not to do business with anyone involved in crypto (for fraud/stability reasons), especially mining (for environmental reasons).
andirk|3 years ago
jt8506|3 years ago
colesantiago|3 years ago
2pEXgD0fZ5cF|3 years ago
> You see, this is where <buzzword> could be used to improve everything.
> Super smart people are doing amazing things with <buzzword>, there are thousands of applications (no I won't name any). You should invest now!
toomuchtodo|3 years ago
I didn't think your comment deserved to be flagged, it is a legitimate ask and observation (WeWork, Theranos, FTX, Lichtenstein and Morgan's bitcoin theft, possibly these "little fry lies", etc), but I am unable to vouch.
ChrisMarshallNY|3 years ago
There's your answer, right there...
unsupp0rted|3 years ago
… I can’t currently think of any.
xenospn|3 years ago
dang|3 years ago