Postmates Secures $141M in a ‘Super, Super Difficult’ Fundraising Effort

I was in Austin just after Uber and Lyft had left. There was a company called Fasten which had promo codes on seemingly every lamppost in the city. It worked just like Uber, and I believe it pays the drivers better. I don't know if they're still around and still have the market to themselves, but if they do I imagine they could become entrenched there.

I live in Austin and I'd be shocked if all the new ride share companies (Fare, Fasten, GetMe, RideShare Austin, etc) did 100mm a year in revenue combined. I think RideShare Austin has the best chance of sticking around here. They're set up to be a non-profit. So their intent is to follow local regulations carefully and stick around for the long haul. We'll see what happens.

Actually, they need to hire customers, drivers AND partner restaurants. Makes it quite difficult having to 'manage' three individual parties.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply Uber as a competitor to Postmates-etc/DoorDash-etc/dry-cleaning-delivery etc. I just meant Uber as also being in a class which has only moderate barriers to entry. I agree with you that these delivery companies have little competitive advantage or particularly good business models.

I don't really see what advantage Uber has over Lyft, Didi etc except the balance sheet and using it in the hope of doing the largest, fastest land grab possible. To draw a tenuous analogy, it's hard to say that the 17th-19th century European land grabs worked out that well in the long term.

Dropbox has a mild network effect, as soon as people use it to share files with their friends and colleagues. Once Dropbox gets established inside a business (often because it's easier to use than internal IT), they're probably quite secure.

That's why they're avoiding the public markets. Their valuations will take a pounding once they're put up for everyone to scrutinize

I would think AirBnB has a pretty big network effect, in the same way as e.g. eBay.

> The tax rate is not >100%

Lol welcome to New York. Even ignoring the cost of preparing reams and reams of paperwork, a flat $4 tax on, say, bagels could very well flip margins negative.

It's not clear to me which side of EBITDA we're arguing on, but as a generalized statement capital expenses for which you cannot claim a full immediate deduction could put you in debt -- the full tax claim is deferred over the life of the asset. You could earn $10,000 of revenue -- spend $10,000 on a server and then still owe some 20-30% income tax because you cannot claim the full $10,000 deduction in that first year. For my server example that may be 3-4 years, some plant and equipment can be much longer.

This is also based on Australian tax, I assume it's similar elsewhere but don't know the intricacies.

EBITDA really only makes sense for businesses with large capital assets, like dams or runways.

Uber Eats are charging $5 per delivery now in Melbourne. Be interesting to see how this impacts them.

Source: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/272512

Who are these people who have shifted? Are you living in a bubble yourself? I certainly haven't seen this shift happening among my group of friends.

I feel this is more of a he said she said kind of argument. Would love to see some data here (in terms of whether these deliveries are net additions vs. replacements of existing chains that deliver) but unfortunately, Postmates hasn't published anything yet.

Never had missing items via Caviar. I order dinner about once a week from them, the only mistake I've had was a restaurant confusing pepperoncinis for pepperonis (I'm vegetarian so that's kind of a big deal to me), which I can totally see happening in a busy kitchen by mistake.

I find it bizarre that you're consistently using a service which is bad 33% of the time. I feel like I'd have given up after a couple of weeks - because honestly convenience is what you're paying for and only getting some of what you order is the opposite of convenient.

I order almost daily from Postmates & DoorDash. I have about the same hit rate as you with either orders cancelled an hour in or missing items.

Edit: I think a big part of the problem is they don't read the order notes

I didn't downvote you, but the blasé and pedantic tone to this comment is probably why you're getting downvoted.

Pretty sure it's like the Lyft coupon they're handing out around here -- free for a certain amount to incentivize you to keep using their service.

All orders were $20 off including free delivery for the last week here. Still free delivery now that it's over.

Previous to that were free uber rides, free uber helicopter rides and all while still paying the drivers the same amount.

It is a shame to me, because we are a small city in a relatively remote location that had been incubating it's own smaller scale food delivery services. Some really cool platforms that could compete with Uber in all metrics but one: the ability to spend big to create incredible brand presence.

Everyone is now super excited about UberEats because it is cheaper and makes us feel like we're just like the cool kids in San Fran. Meanwhile these smaller companies will likely fizzle out, as our city just doesn't have the capital to invest and compete.

Which, if one is honest, is what makes America work.

I disagree with Thiel. Sixty percent of Americans see similarly [1]. But guess what: democracy depends on tolerating--and reconciling--different views.

In Evelyn Beatrice Hall words, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" [2]. The same fraction of Americans who disagree with Trump agreed with interracial marriage as recently as the 1990s [3].

Democracy is messy. If you like overruling others with force, don't pretend to like our system. You're lazy, trading liberty for security, and in turn deserve neither.

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/09/14/si...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Beatrice_Hall

[3] https://mechanicalbrain.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/interrac...

I'm all for "business is business" but it just gets irritating when these startups pretend to have an ethical approach but then that approach goes out the window when money is involved.

Not sure how they expect us to swallow it.

So you are not going to use facebook?

Here's a list to make it easy for you: http://foundersfund.com/portfolio/

Makes sense.

Especially as the founder of Asana is spending millions supporting Clinton against Trump

People on HN like to complain (expected from the 18-25 year old crowd). But at the end of the day, they realize business is business and will do what's necessary to survive.

Boycott Thiel in front of your friends (a public position) but continue secretly dealing with him (a private) position. Sound oddly familiar...

We are a YC S16 company and will not take money from Peter Thiel. May not be the majority's opinion, but that seems irrelevant.

On the issues - as my HN comment history shows - I am firmly on the democrats side - pro abortion, pro gay marriage, for sensible gun ownership, taxes on the rich, investment in infrastructure and education, single payer health care and so on.

And yet - the zealotry and fanaticism on the left to extinguish any kind of "wrong" thoughts, deviation from the norm, or perceived transgression is extremely off putting - around the time the Eich drama unfolded - I realized that these people are at least as dangerous as the conservative Christians when they had the upper hand in the discourse. They are against all and any forms of discrimination - unless the people discriminated disagree with them.

Destroying someone's livelihood just because they don't have the "right" values showed me that the new cultural overlords are the same as the old one. So I support Trump just to piss them off.

So I would not be surprised if a lot of Trump/Thiel boycotters are Jedi in the streets, Sith in the sheets - because real hackers always have a rebellion streak in them - and right now the left is "The Man"