Tag: first time

The innovation business

AIAugust 1, 2019

“What we’re trying to do is impossible,” says Paulo Dimas, VP of Product Innovation at Unbabel. The crowded room of engineers, designers and...

The First Commercial Carrier Rocket By China’s Private Companies Launched Into Orbit

AerospaceJuly 25, 2019

I-Space, one of China’s private aerospace companies, launched the carrier rocket SQX-1 Y1 containing multiple satellites and other payloads from Jiuquan Satellite Launch...

Download Automotive IQ’s eMobility Trends 2019 report

AutomotiveJuly 23, 2019

Download Your Copy We respect your privacy, by clicking "Download Your Copy" you will receive...

Download Automotive IQ's eMobility Trends 2019 report

AutomotiveJuly 23, 2019

Download Your Copy We respect your privacy, by clicking "Download Your Copy" you will receive...

You say it best when you say nothing at all

AIJuly 11, 2019

Paula and Eduardo met in Maritime College. She was 19, he was one year her senior. Both were majoring in Electrotechnical Engineering and...

French Air Force deputy talks strategy, Brexit and future fighter jets

DefenseJune 16, 2019

PARIS — As deputy chief of staff for plans and programs with the French Air Force, Maj. Gen. Frédéric Parisot is the go-to person...

Why invest in an IPO?

SPACSMay 29, 2019

The post Why invest in an IPO? appeared first on ClickIPO.

2 new Bitcoin & Ethereum ATM’s in Dublin and Cork

BlockchainMay 14, 2019

Bitcoin ATM’s are few and far between in Ireland, but we’ve recently got an email in from a company called Boinnex which has...

Is “Freight-Tech” the future or Has Uber and Lyft Killed the Dream?

Supply Chain & LogisticsMay 11, 2019

While I personally was unable to attend the annual Freightwaves Transparency19 conference this year I did watch a lot of the clips and I was fascinated by the shear volume of "Freight-tech"(I will abbreviate FT) companies coming out of the woodwork to help shippers ship product. We are in the "golden age" of FT launches, venture capital money and potentially IPOs.

Or, as the title stated, has Uber and Lyft killed the dream? More on that later but first, let's remind ourselves "how business works".

An entrepreneur comes up with a great idea and tries to get it to scale with a series of private fundings. Venture capitalists get in early, generally get seats on the board and hope for an eventual big pay day when the company is either sold or goes public. The company is built to scale (meaning it is generating cash - hopefully - or has a path to be cash flow positive. Then, the early owners need to take money out of the company for a variety of reasons by going public or selling. Here are the reasons they may want to extract money:

Family wealth planning - they generally have a lot of their wealth in the company and they need some back.
Pay Employees - Many early stage company employees are paid with options and they eventually want and need that money. This is a warning to many employees who get in too late in the game. If your options are valued right before the IPO then a lot of the time you are under water when it goes public (as are many Uber and Lyft employees).
All the juice is squeezed and the VC people want out. - Venture capitalists do not hold companies and eventually they want their money back. Once they believe they have "squeezed all the juice out of they idea they will want to exit.

Now, let's get back to Uber and Lyft and while I did not read the S-1 for the Lyft before it went public I did read the S-1 of Uber (skip the glitz slides and read the words) and it caused me to ask the question: "Who the hell would invest in this company"? Let's look at what the S-1 (The S-1 is a required SEC filing before the company goes public and it generally is the first time you get to see their financials - it is required reading if you are going to invest in IPOs) taught us:

Uber has lost over $3Bl in the last three years. And that is if you count a gain on divestiture and "other investments". If you look at just operations, in the last three years Uber has lost almost $10bl.
They continually discuss incentives paid to the drivers and to the customers. They are paying on both sides of the transaction.
There is very little path to profitability. They "sold" the IPO to the retail investor at exactly the right time (for them.

Now, what are the learnings from e-commerce? What we are starting to see is the "bricks and clicks" (Especially Wal-Mart) is the model to win. Unfortunately, Wal-Mart took far too long to "get in the game" and it may be too late. But, if Wal-Mart had responded back in 2013 as I had suggested when I wrote The Battle for Retail Sales is Really The Battle of Supply Chains, they would have killed it. Once Wal-Mart woke up I welcomed them back in 2017 in the article, "Welcome Back Wal-Mart. We Missed You Over the Last 5 Years".

Which brings me to J.B. Hunt and their work with Box and J.B. HUNT360. That is the winning formula! It is the "Bricks and Clicks" of the freight world. Like retail, eventually everything gets down to assets. Someone needs to build stores and warehouses in retail and in freight someone needs to own the boxes, trucks and have drivers. J.B. Hunt is showing they learned the lesson of Wal-Mart (Don't cede any ground to the tech guys), they jumped in early, they disrupted their own business and they are now the leader in this space for the asset players.

What will come of all this? I believe J.B. Hunt will continue to drive their leadership position further and the asset guys, to catch up, will have to buy a number of these FT companies. Which means the VC population will get what they want but the asset guys will pay a huge premium for not getting in early.

So, let me summarize:

Too much money chasing too few ideas... the "new" ideas are starting to be "me too's" (How many apps can have a competitive algorithm just to find an available truck)?
The FT VC population will want to sell.
The Asset guys will find out they are getting killed by the "trucks and clicks" model of J.B. Hunt and this will drive them to pay exorbitant prices to get the tech quick to catch up.
JBHunt, by innovating early and fast will win this game big just like they did with intermodal.

Finally, in the UBER S-1 we get our first public glance of UBER Freight and I am amazed at how small it is. Now that UBER is public we will get to see more and more of their financials. They believe the industry is moving to an "On-Demand" industry. I find this hard to believe as big shippers need predictable freight and solutions like the J.B. HUNT 360Box where you get access to trailer pools. I could be wrong, but I do not see a huge future for this.

Daimler joins Xilinx at XDF Frankfurt to Disclose its new AI Interior Technology

SemiconductorMay 8, 2019

Thomas Kaelberer, Manager of Intelligent Interior, DaimlerThis week at the Xilinx Developer Forum keynote in Frankfurt, Ivo Bolsens, Xilinx CTO, was joined...

France’s Societe Generale Issues First ‘Covered Bond’ Worth $112 Million Using The Ethereum Blockchain

BlockchainApril 24, 2019

Societe Generale Group, a leading French lender, has reportedly issued a $112 million bond via a security token offered on the Ethereum blockchain. The financial provider announced the development on Tuesday, April 23, noting that its subsidiary Societe Generale SFH issued the security token bond labeled OFH. The company’s OFH (obligations de financement de l’habitat) […]

Source link: France’s Societe Generale Issues First ‘Covered Bond’ Worth $112 Million Using The Ethereum Blockchain

Announcing the 2019 Summer Unplug Retreat 🏔

BlockchainApril 16, 2019

June 26th-29th, Val di Rabbi, ItalyStefano Bernardi·FollowPublished inToken Economy·4 min read·Apr 16, 2019--TL;DR: Unplug 2019. June 26th-29th. The best people in crypto. Request invite...

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