WeCash-out, before IPO

WeCash-out, before IPO

The WSJ today reported on how WeWork co-founder and CEO Andrew Neumann has extracted $700,000,000 in share sales and loans from his money-losing, pre-IPO unicorn. So far Neumann has purchased 4 homes around New York, funded an elementary school his kid goes to, and paid $14,000,000 for a 13,000 squarre foot crib in the Bay area that has a guitar-shaped romper room. He also buys properties and leases them back to WeWork. All very confidence instilling for…

Read More

Munchery is over.

Munchery is over.

On demand food delivery start-up Munchery is bankrupt and shutting down effective immediately. They’ve burned through $125 million in VC, their last round was $87 million in 2015 at a $300 million valuation. Apparently the early effects of this are bare shelves in Amazon’s Go Stores. It’s like a Lehman Brothers moment which could cascade throughout the entire dime-a-dozen mobile food-on-demand-delivery service start-up sector. Read more.

Read More

Canada’s “Disrupted”, eh

Canada’s “Disrupted”, eh

The inaugural post of this blog was a review of Dan Lyon’s “Disrupted”, which put a point to the unicorn economy, where money losing companies crowd out real businesses by sucking up all the oxygen in the space. That bubble hasn’t popped …yet, although it may this year. In the meantime, here is another personal account of life within some VC-darling branding darling, this time up here in Canada. Read it here…

Read More

What went wrong at Social Capital?

What went wrong at Social Capital?

“Social Capital arrived in Silicon Valley seven years ago with a charismatic co-founder, former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya who also owns a piece of the Golden State Warriors. It raised more than $1 billion and made early bets on companies like Slack.” …and then it all went to shit. This Axios article tracks the implosion. (Sometimes I think by building a real company that actually has a real service and a customer base for 20…

Read More

Mad Catz delisted from NYSE, files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy

Mad Catz delisted from NYSE, files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy

Peripheral maker Mad Catz has thrown in the towel after unsuccessfully scouring for (pick one), bank financing, an equity infusion or sale of assets. Apparently after enjoying a fairly solid business as a peripheral and game controller manufacturer during the  Playstation Era, the company tried to expand into publishing with an ill-fated JV with Harmonix to release Rock Band 4. The rest is, as they say, history, but in a more literal and fatalistic sense….

Read More

Answers.com files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Answers.com files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Answer Corp, parent company to Answers.com has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a maneuver to jettison close to half-a-billion in debt. Top creditors are: Yahoo, Inc. with an unsecured claim of $545,209.34. Taboola, Inc. with an unsecured claim of $411,754.97. Facebook with an unsecured claim of $295,000. Don Morrison, former vice president of Foresee, with a severance claim of $217,000. Amazon Web Services, Inc. with an unsecured claim of $200,000. This on the heels…

Read More

‘Sup’ is down.

‘Sup’ is down.

The ‘Sup’ app, whose “boil the ocean” mission was to help people figure out which of their friends are nearby, and possibly available to hang with, will be shutting down. Despite being touted as “a really cool app” by the likes of Richard Branson and Steve Wozniak, it’s come up short: “We saw growth but we didn’t see the hockey stick growth that we needed to see to actually make it a viable billion dollar business and…

Read More
1 2 3 4