Hacker News Reader

Comment by travisjungroth | Hacker News Reader

> I'm probably missing something, but I think the company is going down and they're pulling an exit scam.

Your concerns about the future of the company are reasonable, but to call a profitable company going public an “exit scam” is ridiculous.

View on HN

I don't think it's ridiculous statement considering their profits are rather fragile as that's before regulation and the size of the last years earnings equals about half the current valuation by NASDAQ's median P/E.

It is proper to call it an exit scam. Blue Apron has lost 90% of its value since IPOing 2 years ago.

Day one investors transfered virtually all of their value to company insiders.

From Blue Apron's SEC filing:

> We have experienced net losses in each year since our inception. In the years ended December 31, 2014, 2015 and 2016, we incurred net losses of $(30.8) million, $(47.0) million and $(54.9) million, respectively.

Blue Apron and AirBnB are not comparable.

“profits are rather fragile” != “exit scam”. I think you just don’t know what this term means. An exit scam is where an established business keeps taking orders, but stops delivering product and pockets the difference. It’s also sometimes used (especially in cryptocurrency) when someone takes all the held funds and runs off. Do you really believe Airbnb’s IPO meets either of these criteria? They’re going to keep delivering services, and I really doubt the founders are going to empty the bank accounts and run off.

Well, let's say I use the term "loosely" ... I believe they're going to go bust in the coming years with coming regulation and shrinking market and there is no more growth of principal for the shareholders, in fact it's overvalued. To successfully dump it on retail, you need a "story" and a good marketing and presenting the stock as something that it's not in this case, and I think people involved are aware of it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com