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Comment by onion2k | Hacker News Reader

All your comment really shows is how little you know about how many people it takes to run a large business, and that you don't really understand what Peleton do.

Peleton design and manufacture their own equipment, they ship it globally, they have their own buyers and supply chains for that, They also build the tech that runs their business, from the customer portal to the video integration in the products. They make programs that include CGI and motion graphics. They do sales, and support, for nearly 6 million customers. On top of that there's payroll, and admin, and HR, and ... it's a very long list, that requires a lot of people.

We're bad at estimating large numbers so our first impression is usually wrong. It's important to factor that into any reaction to a number that sounds way too high. It's always worth taking a step back and thinking about why it might actually be correct.

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Just to clarify they are in 4 countries. They also appeared to be doing the last mile delivery in these countries themselves (at least I could confirm in the USA) which probably helped with their premium brand.

That said, I still agree with the above post. Fitbit has 1,600 employees and actually ships globally. This was excessive.

They definitely were not doing last mile delivery themselves. They use an outsourced delivery company. Those vans you saw with their logos on them were just part of that deal.

As I said, I could confirm they were. I was reselling their bikes to SE Asia in my last company. You can also google this: https://www.businessofbusiness.com/articles/peloton-in-housi...

They use XPO Logistics.

Coincidentally, I was (also) going to jump in this thread to say that at Fitbit we never employed even near 2800 people.

Of course, per the standard corporate model nowadays, Fitbit in its time as an independent company didn't directly employ the people who do the manufacturing, logistics, retail sales, or front line customer support (nor of course the people who do janitorial services, security, food service, etc for those folks.)

So I don't think it was fair of GP to say:

> All your comment really shows is how little you know about how many people it takes to run a large business

Although perhaps it was more fair to say:

> you don't really understand what Peleton do

Personally, I concluded from the headline that there must be an interesting story there.

I mean, Fitbit had 2000 people when we sold to Google.

The Peloton stores are the wildcard factor that likely gives them a much larger number.

Those thing need people, and for that size makes sense.

What doesn’t make sense is why do all of that themselves, instead of using third party providers.

Bringing more things in house often doesn’t even make sense if you’re a huge behemoth. But even then, it’s a great way to make your company fail, as you lose focus on what value you’re providing.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if they do outsource some of those things. For example, they probably use ADP or similar for payroll. And they probably use outside production companies and trainers for their videos. But you still need internal people to manage vendors and deal with problems and people to manage those people.

It's a pretty common reaction to scratch your head and wonder what all those people in $DEPARTMENT are doing all day. Some of them are probably wondering the same thing about your department.

I don't question what people in $DEPARTMENT are doing all day. I question why $DEPARTMENT exists at a company that's a single trick pony.

Will they still be able to do what they do with 2800 fewer people? If so, what does that say?

Your question implies that there were just 2800 people too many. That might be the case but I think it's unlikely. No matter what you think of a given company, and how lazy people outside of tech are, most people actually do do something during their working hours.

It's more likely that they'll do all the things they planned, but slower.

Or they're ramp up the amount of work the remaining staff have to do.

Or they'll cancel some things that would have happened without the reduction in headcount.

I have no idea. I don't work for Peleton. I do work for a large, global company that makes things though, and I do see how the manufacturing things, legal things, digital things (me!), retail things, support things, and admin things all come together and require a lot of work from a lot of people.

Most execs think kind of like tcp "linear increase/exponential backoff". No doubt they panicked and cut too many people.

They definitely do not ship globally.

Do they own factories and heavy assets? If they contract out the amount is still absolutely humongous for what they do.

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