[HN Gopher] Etsy to buy fashion reseller Depop for $1.63B
___________________________________________________________________
Etsy to buy fashion reseller Depop for $1.63B
Author : pseudolus
Score : 230 points
Date : 2021-06-02 10:29 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.reuters.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.reuters.com)
| alexander-litty wrote:
| My partner is a top seller on Depop. We send and receive packages
| pretty much every day, it's been great for them during the
| pandemic.
|
| Depop has done a great job fostering a more human experience than
| other platforms. That's definitely a huge factor in their
| success.
|
| Buying and selling is pretty involved. Haggling is super common.
| If you're selling many items, people will message you and ask for
| bundle deals. If you're a regular, sometimes people will just
| throw you a discount. If you just buy something silently, you'll
| often get a short thank-you message.
|
| There's a culture around the packaging, too. People tend to put
| candies, stickers, hand-written thank-you notes, extra things the
| seller doesn't need anymore. It's fun to open packages coming in,
| and it's fun to pack them out with little surprises.
|
| My partner has made a lot of friends that way, which has led to
| trading of talents and services. Sometimes it's just people
| helping people, sometimes it's commissions, sometimes it's
| bartering, but all originating from the platform.
|
| I definitely see why Etsy's interested.
| brobdingnagians wrote:
| I once bought a bottle of expensive fountain pen ink for my
| sister as a present; the thing that struck me most about it was
| that they included a hand-written thank you note in the
| packaging. It was a family business, and I remember it, years
| later, because it was such a pleasant surprise, and an
| unexpected one from all of the other commercial encounters I
| have. It taught me the value of the personal touch and
| attention to detail for customers.
| xmprt wrote:
| And as a note to any big companies thinking of doing this, it
| has to be personal. I've gotten tons of cards and brochures
| in packages from big companies that I instantly throw away
| because it's usually just corporate jargon about how much
| thought was put into making this product "just for me".
| Nextgrid wrote:
| Just wondering, is it profitable? I believe the Depop fee is
| 10% plus payment processing fees, which to me doesn't sound
| like a great deal, but then again I'm not really familiar with
| that whole market.
| an_opabinia wrote:
| Definitely not if you account for time.
|
| Sellers are making subminimum wage profits per hour.
|
| On the one hand, a medical resident also makes very close to
| minimum wage.
| gnopgnip wrote:
| The market for used things is not very liquid, selling online
| is often the most profitable choice. Selling locally directly
| to consumers mostly means not finding any buyers or greatly
| reducing the price. Reselling used clothing to a brick and
| mortar store, or to be consigned will vary. It often takes
| 80-90% for children's clothing, 50-70% for most women's
| clothing, as low as 20% for very valuable items like designer
| purses. There are other online markets but most of them
| charge more in fees, and really only Ebay has as much traffic
| from buyers
| ckdarby wrote:
| I have a family member who just left her banking job to
| expand more into Depop and yesterday she mentioned she hit
| the milestone of making more than her bank job now.
| tinco wrote:
| My sister runs a succesful shop on Depop, she's the starving
| artist type, and the income from her Depop puts her suddenly
| at a decent median income. I don't know how sustainable it
| is, who knows for how long her artistic taste aligns with
| Depop's target market, but it does seem like a great way to
| run a business.
|
| It is very surprising to me that it's as low as 10%. I bet
| that even if it were 30% or even 40% it would still be
| profitable. The way she operates is she buys lots of second
| hand clothing from Japan, for lets say $5 and then from that
| lot she sells a pair of jeans for $50. So her profit is $40
| on the lot. Maybe she makes 15 sales per week, and boom
| there's a decent wage.
|
| Numbers are all extrapolated from when I talked to her about
| her business one weekend a couple months ago. I have no idea
| how much she actually sells or makes at the moment.
|
| Maybe also interesting to note that this is a scale up from
| what she already did locally. She's been trading second hand
| clothing for years now. The Depop thing is new and it
| transformed her business from being a side gig to a primary
| source of income.
| sjg007 wrote:
| I've been listening to Galdwell's audiobook Outliers and he
| talks about the NYC garment industry in the late 19th and
| early 20th century. There's a lot of parallels with today.
| You might find it interesting.
| alexander-litty wrote:
| Anecdotally, this platform gives liquidity to your otherwise
| unsellable clothes, and that is the big appeal.
|
| If you have a dress you'll no longer wear, you have a few
| online platforms to sell it on, but they're not known for
| fashionable clothing. Nobody will be looking for your clothes
| on there organically. It drives the price of your clothes
| down, if you're even able to sell them at all.
|
| A lot of people use this to recycle interesting fashion and
| keep their closets and outfits interesting at a really low
| cost, as my partner does.
|
| You do have flippers of course, it's common enough that they
| call Depop-flipped items "repops". I suspect this can be
| profitable, but you need to source your items at a great
| discount.
| antihero wrote:
| I mean now Etsy is interested I'm sure it won't take long to
| become another wasteland of shit-tier mass produced products
| from Chinese sellers.
| matsemann wrote:
| Isn't that also how Etsy was, before it became a drop shipping
| marketplace?
| JohnWhigham wrote:
| Pretty much. I remember someone showing it to me in 2010 and
| I was floored at all the cool vendors on it. Expect Depop to
| be gutted soon like every other startup purchase.
|
| But then again, those were probably the founder's plans.
| 45ure wrote:
| >Depop has done a great job fostering a more human experience
| than other platforms.
|
| You paint a pretty picture; the camaraderie of buying, selling,
| haggling in an online cobbled internet town square, make for an
| idyllic setting. The tug-and-pull of reuse/recycle, vintage vs
| fast fashion are noble principles.
|
| However, there is a murky side, which is infused with extreme
| expectations, toxic and churlish behaviour e.g. Amazon Prime
| type service, petty haggling over a few pennies, sellers
| abusing their privileges, limited understanding of fees and/or
| how PayPal works, unnecessary spats and an appallingly high
| level of entitlement etc.
|
| Nevertheless, there is synergy, but have doubts about long-term
| prospects - Depop might just become another case study in
| acquihire or perhaps just a blot, as there is no shortage of
| other contenders nipping at their heels e.g. Vinted.
|
| https://www.instagram.com/depopdrama/
| waynesonfire wrote:
| looks like an expensive online goodwill
| nly wrote:
| Reading the headline "<Business I've never heard of> selling for
| $<N>bn" is become an increasingly common occurrence for me
| nkrisc wrote:
| I mean this in a completely good-natured way, but after looking
| at their site I'm not surprised that someone who would write
| "<Business I've never heard of> selling for $<N>bn" has never
| heard of them. You don't strike me as their target audience.
|
| That said, neither am I. Looks like you can't even view any
| merchandise on the website, it's basically an app-only
| experience it seems. That's a huge turn-off for me.
| darkr wrote:
| Try signing up/signing in on web and you'll get a whole new
| experience.
|
| Anonymous browsing/guest checkout might be an avenue that we
| take another look at in the future; but yes - historically we
| have been focussed on our mobile apps as first-class
| citizens.
| [deleted]
| anentropic wrote:
| Yes you can, just scroll down
| nkrisc wrote:
| I did, I didn't see anything that looks like the start of
| an ecommerce sales funnel. Maybe I missed it, I was just
| expecting something obvious. I expected the main menu (on
| mobile) to have some kind of inventory taxonomy. I'm well
| aware I'm not the target audience and it shows.
| input_sh wrote:
| After clicking on "Vintage t-shirts", I got no products
| available.
|
| After scrolling a bit more down, I've noticed I can click
| on what I'm assuming is individual sellers, but that
| returns 500 internal server error.
|
| And this thing is being sold for a billion dollars.
| jeromegv wrote:
| "This thing" is a hugely popular marketplace for second
| hand clothing. Probably the first platform to finally
| crack second hand clothing online, lots of billion
| dollars being spent on clothes.
|
| The disdain some people have for what is not their niche
| is crazy. Not everything needs to be a SAAS. It's pretty
| clear this is meant to be used as an app and it looks
| like you did your best to ignore it.
| input_sh wrote:
| > It's pretty clear this is meant to be used as an app
| and it looks like you did your best to ignore it.
|
| Not clear at all. I looked up the company, opened the
| website, and there are some "get the app" buttons, but
| the website does not indicate that the product is an app-
| first experience at all.
|
| The submitted article even mentions it as a "shopping
| site", not an app. And looking at play store reviews, it
| doesn't look like the app is any better. It's filled with
| various technical issues and 1 or 2 star reviews.
|
| So excuse me for having this crazy assumption that if
| something is being sold for over a billion dollars, it
| should at least somewhat work.
|
| If I were Etsy, I would probably buy it for the community
| and marketing talent, fire every single dev and start
| from scratch.
| dmitriid wrote:
| You do have to admire them for being as popular as they
| are, and not actually being _good_.
|
| Their app can't even properly show me clothes based on my
| preferences:
| https://twitter.com/dmitriid/status/1400084936372199429
|
| It only goes to show how horrendously bad the original
| market was.
| sandworm101 wrote:
| Ok boomer. Nobody uses websites anymore. For the proper
| shopping experience you must install the app. Your
| precise browsing history and phone location will be used
| to tailor a bespoke peer-to-peer shopping experience.
| Don't like a shopping app running 24/7 in your pocket?
| You just don't get modern fashion.
| z29LiTp5qUC30n wrote:
| But I was born in 2002 and I still don't get this crap.
| It is like people are begging to be psychologically
| controlled for max financial extraction...
| sandworm101 wrote:
| >> people are begging to be psychologically controlled
| for max financial extraction
|
| "Shut up and take my money!" Futurama s06e03 - Attack of
| the Killer App (2010)
| input_sh wrote:
| Pretty sure they were being sarcastic.
| TheGigaChad wrote:
| Hang yourself millennial subhuman.
| dunkeylim wrote:
| Depop is hugely popular. Every 20s girl knows about Depop. HN
| is just not the demographic.
| varsketiz wrote:
| 4m buyers and 2m sellers according to the FT.
| Item_Boring wrote:
| The website works fine for me - searching e.g. Celine shows
| 126 products.
| KoftaBob wrote:
| Very _HN_ way of calling someone a fellow nerd, I love it.
| andrewingram wrote:
| It's actually one of the reasons I left the company. On paper
| I was hired (back in 2015) to build the website, but spent
| most of my tenure building internal tools. When I finally did
| get to build it, thankfully I had another web developer
| working with me by then, but it was also clear there was no
| interest from the rest of the business in making the website
| anything more than a lead generator for app downloads.
|
| This was probably a good business decision given their key
| demographic, but it didn't make me feel good about what my
| role was, especially as (according to the soon-to-be-CTO) I
| was one of their stronger engineers. It felt weird to have
| expertise and constantly feel side-lined. There were
| definitely some challenging years in the middle, but they
| seem to have turned it around.
| shankr wrote:
| I suppose you don't hear often about all the market/advertising
| companies buying each other. Even though I work in this field,
| I am almost always clueless about who are these companies.
| hardtke wrote:
| Advertising companies have a natural size limit since they
| generally can't work for competing companies. Agencies reach
| about $500M in revenue and then get sold off to a holding
| company. It's almost inevitable there are a whole bunch of
| deals.
| zachrose wrote:
| To think that one day Etsy was one of those businesses, and now
| they have $1.63B to spend on the new thing
| Ekaros wrote:
| I'm always surprised in number of these 1B+ businesses... Like
| is there really this many of them, or is there something weird
| going on...
| elorant wrote:
| They fly under the radar. They keep their heads down and do
| their job without trying to attract attention in order to
| avoid unwanted competition. There are myriads of such
| companies out there we've never heard of.
| bertil wrote:
| Depop is very much the opposite of flying under the radar.
| They are a key player in fashion and love nothing but
| flashy promotions, they'd love to be associated to any big
| brand. They are not as big as Farfetch (disclaimer: where I
| worked) but both companies are pillars of fashion-tech
| scene in London.
|
| Their marketing and social media presence is as large as
| they can get it (I know their former Head of Social media
| and VP Product). Being successful there is a first step to
| becoming an influencer. As a second-hand market, they've
| been carried by the environmental trend lately, deservingly
| so. Their audience is younger, more female and fashion-
| forward and in that very seeked-after demographic, they
| have incredible numbers. There are American companies, like
| Vestiaire Collective, that offer a similar service but
| Depop is making strides around the world.
|
| There might not be a lot of overlap with your interest, or
| those of many people in Hacker News -- and that's fine.
| But, to fin equivalents, saying that TikTok or Tampax are
| "under the radar" brands says more about your curiosity
| than it says about a product used by half of the
| population.
| elorant wrote:
| They're not a "key player in fashion". A key player in
| fashion is Prada or D&G. They're a niche company dealing
| with second hand streetware items.
|
| How on earth does Tik Tok or Tampax relate with Depop?
|
| P.S. As a general rule of thumb we try to avoid personal
| remarks in here when replying to a person. Just to keep
| the place a bit more civilized.
| colinmhayes wrote:
| Depop really isn't a niche company. It's effectively
| instagram but the clothes are for sale. Companies relate
| to the consumers the same way they do with instagram
| influencers, product placement.
| nly wrote:
| I suppose it's not that much really. If you stick a P/E
| multiple of 20x on it then it's only annual earnings of $80M.
| greesil wrote:
| You only get that multiple if you're publicly listed.
| Usually for M&A the price is discounted from that, but this
| also varies widely by industry. Never do a hardware
| startup, for instance :)
| ludamad wrote:
| What is clothing but low tech wearables
| greesil wrote:
| E-commerce
| JohnJamesRambo wrote:
| Yes something very weird is going on.
|
| https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M1SL
| JohnWhigham wrote:
| It's a byproduct of all the VC funny money being thrown
| around.
| CamelCaseName wrote:
| My guess is that it's driven by multiple inflation.
|
| Prior to August 2018, there were no trillion dollar
| companies, now there are at least 5 (MSFT, AMZN, AAPL,
| Aramco, Google) and more on the way.
| RC_ITR wrote:
| Sure there's multiple expansion, but also significant
| earnings growth...
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| > Prior to August 2018, there were no trillion dollar
| companies, now there are at least 5 (MSFT, AMZN, AAPL,
| Aramco, Google)
|
| This observation seems more likely to be driven by Aramco
| not being a _public_ company before 2018 than by Aramco not
| _existing_ before 2018.
|
| Just because it's a little harder to see something doesn't
| mean it isn't there.
| rahoulb wrote:
| I've always felt one of the fallacies of the startup culture
| that we surround ourselves in is that winning involves
| "taking over the world".
|
| There are so many "niche" businesses out there - that will be
| enough to bring in millions in revenue - simply because there
| is such a variety in what people want and need. And we'll
| never hear of them unless our interests happen to coincide
| with that particular niche.
|
| Case in point - I've just started working for a company that
| is an upstart small player in the area of document management
| for construction companies. You'd think document management
| was a solved problem and there wouldn't be room for
| specialists in that area - but no, there are several multi-
| million dollar businesses that do nothing but. And there's
| still room for small companies like ours to grow into.
| wintermutestwin wrote:
| Interesting that you used the term "document management" as
| opposed to "content management." I cut my teeth as a
| "document management" consultant in the early 90s, when it
| was really just documents. I thought the "content
| management" term took over.
| ghaff wrote:
| Way back when I was a computer systems product manager, I was
| constantly struck by the random customers that would come
| through the executive briefing center who were some random
| boring business (making milk bottles or whatever) and it would
| turn out they had 75% of the US market or something like that.
| (This was before really widespread globalization.)
| nly wrote:
| I would be super interested in ways to visualize or learn of
| these 'background realities'.
| arashi99 wrote:
| Congrats to the team!!! Used to sit across them in CW in
| London... way to go
| werber wrote:
| At the risk of misusing Gen Z slang, Etsy is "Cheugy" and depop
| is "no cap fire". Depop has the cache of being cool enough that
| celebrities (Doja Cat and Princess Nokia come to mind) whereas
| Etsy is more "mom crafts", with that being said I'm a big Etsy
| shopper. This feels a lot like the aqquistion of Instagram by
| Facebook in terms of buying a company for not just utility but
| social capital.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| I was under the impression that it all eventually turns into
| AliExpress? I do not see how one can trust these "individual"
| sellers on Etsy or Depop or whatever to do quality control. If
| they do, and the reputation of the "market" is good, then there
| will exist arbitrage opportunity for other sellers to resell
| AliExpress stuff.
| FireBeyond wrote:
| A few years ago, Etsy claimed that they were on a big mission
| to remove resellers and only allow individual, bespoke
| sellers.
|
| I haven't seen a whole lot of evidence that they have, or
| have been successful.
| randycupertino wrote:
| I've heard it akin to Etsy is where your aunt buys her "Live
| Laugh Love" signs and Depop is for kids to shop for cool
| college outfits.
|
| I do a lot of thrifting myself and have been comparative
| shopping on Ebay, Depop and Poshmark for the best deals.
| Sometimes the same products are on all three!
| ehnto wrote:
| Today I learned about the word Cheugy, and wish I hadn't.
|
| The wikipedia page for it reads like satire:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheugy
|
| > While it has been compared to "being basic",[3] some sources
| have suggested that it is "not quite 'basic'."
|
| What do you mean?! What are you trying to say to me!? Use real
| words damnit! We have so many!
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| The point of using that lingo is not to try to communicate
| with you, but amongst their own tribe members. It's probably
| been happening since language has been around, and it happens
| in all sorts of groupings
| (age/business/profession/location/race/education/etc).
| subpixel wrote:
| I'd be interested in reading about how Depop did what dozens of
| other startups have tried to do: build a giant business around
| the used clothes market.
| colinmhayes wrote:
| Depop is more similar to instagram than a resale site. It has
| influencers and a "for you" page.
| jasonladuke0311 wrote:
| Don't be like Grailed is a good start. Can't believe how badly
| that site has managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of
| victory.
| FlyingSaucer wrote:
| Depop isn't alone in this, Vinted[1] has a current valuation of
| $4.5B and is hugely popular in Belgium, Netherlands and France
| (maybe more places, but those i can definitely say).
|
| In both platforms there is influencer-heavy marketing. Many
| fashion influencers(i really dislike this term, but it is the
| nomenclature) sell clothes that they wore very little in
| Instagram advertisements. This is a great business model for
| them, people follow them more tightly because they are actually
| able to buy for (mostly) affordable prices some of the clothes
| they see in pictures and they also get some additional under-
| the-radar cash.
|
| [1] : https://www.vinted.com/
| sweeneyrod wrote:
| It's interesting that they have a much higher valuation (and
| from some cursory research, moderately more users) than
| Depop, despite (AFAIK) being completely obscure in the US/UK.
| matsemann wrote:
| In Scandinavia I think Tise is similar. For purchasing used
| clothing and stuff, but the listing is more akin to Instagram
| than on a normal listing site. You follow people with a style
| you like and buy their stuff, and then sell it on.
|
| https://tise.com/
| subpixel wrote:
| I found it.
|
| "But the real secret to Depop's success is that it allows users
| to amass two of the most valuable modern currencies: money and
| clout. Becoming a top seller on Depop is a springboard to fame
| on YouTube or Instagram. It also provides built-in monetization
| for a future career as an influencer."
| andrewingram wrote:
| They also doubled-down on it. They flirted with branching out
| into other markets and demographics but it didn't really stick.
|
| There was a bit of luck in getting their initial traction (they
| were definitely not prepared for the growth spurt and spent
| years getting to the point that the backend wasn't just falling
| over constantly), but they executed really well on capturing
| their core market.
| Nextgrid wrote:
| I don't think Depop did anything special per-se. It's a
| combination of luck and the right investors bankrolling it for
| ages.
|
| It is a very marketing-heavy operation, as the platform itself
| doesn't offer that great of a deal to sellers - they charge a
| 10% commission plus payment processing fees (PayPal takes 2%,
| though now I believe there's an option to use a different
| processor), so high-volume sellers are unlikely to use it. I
| wouldn't be surprised if up until this day they were spending
| more on marketing that they would've made back from most
| customers.
|
| The business itself is quite low-margin (support & fraud/scams
| cuts into that), has decent competition (Mercari, StockX) and
| can be trivially replicated by the likes of Facebook (Depop is
| basically an Instagram but where you can buy & sell - something
| FB can trivially replicate if they wanted to).
|
| It makes sense for Etsy to buy it for access to the userbase
| and to integrate it into their existing business, but as a
| stand-alone business it's not that great IMO because of the
| aforementioned points.
| weird-eye-issue wrote:
| "a combination of luck and the right investors"
|
| I don't think that would be fair and that it is 100% likely
| there was a great deal of deliberate strategy involved as
| well.
| Nextgrid wrote:
| My point is that I believe the strategy was a very risky
| bet (way too risky in my opinion, but then again I'm not a
| startup CEO for a reason).
|
| This is a very marketing-heavy operation that I don't think
| could stand on its own and be sustainable, and so the only
| possible outcome is to stay afloat long enough (by
| reinvesting a significant chunk of revenue into more
| marketing) to get gobbled up by a bigger fish.
|
| They had the right investors that believed in it and
| bankrolled it for long enough and it paid off, but it's
| ultimately still a stroke of luck IMO.
| yaitsyaboi wrote:
| I doubt FB could replicate this. Fb itself is a non-starter
| the people who use this app haven't been on Fb in years.
| Okay, so Instagram. If they could, they would've.
|
| I think there are problems with making Instagram seem tacky
| by clobbering on a marketplace. It would make it look cheap
| and shilly. Right now it's the most rarified space to share
| pictures of your awesome lifestyle. I think you can either
| have that very cool, chic vibe or the amazon marketplace
| vibe.
|
| I think that despite their enormous resources, there are
| places that brands can't go.
| alex_g wrote:
| Instagram already has marketplace features, and personally
| it lost its rarified space vibes to me a long time ago.
| numair wrote:
| Depop is an excellent example of using lots of domain expertise
| in an area that investors etc would write off as a "lifestyle
| business" or "not likely to achieve a high ROI" to create what is
| now a billion-dollar exit.
|
| The founders of Depop have been in the fashion, and fashion
| retail, business for a long time. They started Retrosuperfuture,
| which was a cult hit in the sunglasses business (they probably
| did a lot more, but I never really bothered investigating). The
| knowledge and expertise they got from that cult hit -- along with
| the credibility and the network among fashion's "cool kids,"
| particularly in Milan -- gave them a bit of an "unfair advantage"
| when they went after the at-that-time-already-getting-crowded
| used clothes business. They also executed pretty well in building
| exactly what their users wanted.
|
| If you don't get this business, how it is worth this much money,
| who they are, etc -- no, you're not some sort of genius humble-
| bragging that you're blissfully unaware of such petty little
| things. You're just demonstrating that you feel compelled to
| comment on things you don't understand and dismiss them because
| they don't fit into your myopic worldview of "what's important."
| Fashion is an industry, and one of the largest in the world;
| anyone who cares about global commerce / the environment / etc
| should be paying attention to that industry, and to the
| "circular" trend that remains in its infancy.
|
| I hope the combined company continues to innovate, and that this
| isn't just some sort of depressing market consolidation play.
| This space has a LOT of room for growth.
| k-mcgrady wrote:
| I'm surprised anyone would write this off. It's a trendy eBay
| for a specific niche (used/"vintage" clothes). If you can get
| it to scale (obviously not easy) it seems like it's an easy win
| and easy to monetise. On the surface a much better investment
| opportunity than a lot of the stuff we see on HN.
| jazzkingrt wrote:
| I've used depop a fair amount, I think it's a big leg up over
| eBay because of it draws some useful features from social
| media.
|
| The feed allows you to follow and discover sellers whose
| style suits you, and stay informed of their offerings. You
| can see who they follow, and so on.
| nr2x wrote:
| Website looked like it had some cool stuff. Hard to find good
| streetwear.
| jonplackett wrote:
| If they can just get the search to work properly I'd use it a
| lot more!
| krrrh wrote:
| I'd never visited the site but it looks very nicely executed,
| especially at creating a consistent vibe out of user-uploaded
| photos, which isn't easy.
|
| A neat thing about businesses like this is that it takes a
| skillset that a lot of underemployed people have (cool hunting
| in thrift stores), and gives them a path to making part of
| their living out of it aside from the ancillary benefits of
| that come with being fashionable and cool. It also provides
| access to wider markets and price discovery for vintage shops
| in the same way that abehbooks did for used bookstores a decade
| or two ago, or eBay did for junk sellers at flea markets.
|
| The inevitable downside is that it further compresses globo
| youth culture and makes it harder to develop a scene, but that
| horse left the gate a long time ago.
| spoonjim wrote:
| I don't dislike fashion because I'm a humble bragging genius. I
| dislike it because I think it's bad for the world. It preys on
| and fuels women's insecurities to sell them throwaway products
| made by borderline-enslaved Cambodians. A guy making $1.63
| billion doesn't change that -- the mentality that "it makes
| money so it's good" is precisely the sick mentality behind this
| whole blight upon the world. I know you are right that there is
| more growth in this industry, but that growth is going to make
| the world a worse place.
| flatline wrote:
| That's a pretty cynical take. Much the same could be said of
| any industry that relies on manufacturing and marketing. I
| think there's value in _society_ at large - we are social
| creatures and relating to each other, mimicking each other,
| and other forms of communication are deeply tied to how we
| get along as human beings. I 'm not saying fashion is itself
| necessarily useful at large, and it certainly has the issues
| you described, but it's at least a byproduct of other things
| that are highly useful.
| germinalphrase wrote:
| Perhaps much of the same _should be_ said of other
| industries.
| akarma wrote:
| > It preys on and fuels women's insecurities to sell them
| throwaway products made by borderline-enslaved Cambodians.
|
| It sounds like you've never used Depop or learned about it
| before writing this comment. Depop is the exact _opposite_.
| It 's a solution to what you're framing as a problem. Depop
| is a way to recycle clothing rather than throwing it out and
| buying more - it is actually a reaction to the exact fast
| fashion you're complaining about.
| Jackpillar wrote:
| Unfortunately that's not necessarily the case. People run
| full on dropshipping businesses on Depop under the guise of
| handmade/second hand clothing. There is also widespread
| "thrift hauls" on Depop where 20 something rich people
| ransack thrift stores which are staples in low-income
| communities and sell on Depop for 10x. Depop doesn't do
| anything to counter the hypercapitalist and wasteful
| fashion industry - its just another component to it.
|
| https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22396051/thrift-store-hauls-
| et...
| CPLX wrote:
| This comment is pretty reactionary and maybe doesn't
| deserve a reply but I've seen variations on this
| criticism before and as someone that's worked in this
| space it doesn't make any sense:
|
| > There is also widespread "thrift hauls" on Depop where
| 20 something rich people ransack thrift stores which are
| staples in low-income communities
|
| This complaint seems to be based on a profound delusion,
| which is that the social mission of thrift stores is to
| provide cheap clothing for people who don't have much
| money.
|
| The charity aspect of thrift stores, at least
| historically, has been _the money that you give them_
| when you buy stuff there.
|
| So in fact _the whole point_ of the enterprise is to have
| people who have stuff they don 't need donate it to a
| worthy cause, who sell it to _people with money_ who want
| it, and then they take _the money_ that they make this
| way and give it to _people who need money_ or use it to
| provide needed services etc.
|
| Nobody is "ransacking" a charity by doing the exact thing
| the charity is hoping people will do, which is _giving
| the charity money_ that can be used to further charitable
| activities.
| subpixel wrote:
| > The charity aspect of thrift stores, at least
| historically, has been the money that you give them when
| you buy stuff there.
|
| That's actually completely backwards. The public good
| that a thrift store provides is to make cheap, essential
| things accessible to people who can't afford anything
| else. Goodwill is a nonprofit because there is no profit
| in making cheap, essential things accessible to people
| who can't afford to anything else.
| azornathogron wrote:
| I don't know anything about Goodwill, but in the UK there
| are several charities that run shops and their purpose is
| as the parent describes - the shops generate revenue for
| the charity to carry out its work.
|
| The first sentence on the wikipedia page on Charity shop
| [1] (and "Thrift shop" redirects to the same page) says:
|
| > A charity shop (UK), thrift shop or thrift store (USA)
| or opportunity shop (others) is a retail establishment
| run by a charitable organization to raise money.
|
| The Goodwill.org page About Us > Our Vision for
| Transformation [2] has a section "HOW LOCAL GOODWILLS
| DELIVER IMPACT" the third item of which starts:
|
| > Goodwill retail operations generate revenue that
| supports our mission work. [...]
|
| So, it's possible these things are dual-purpose and
| intended to meet both goals, or that some thrift stores
| have the goal of raising revenue and some have the goal
| of making recycled items available cheaply. But
| _certainly_ parent 's point is not backward - _at least_
| many thrift stores explicitly operate in order to
| generate revenue as a form of funding for charitable
| ventures. People with money buying things from charity
| shops helps the charities. It 's what they want.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charity_shop [2]
| https://www.goodwill.org/about-us/our-vision-for-
| transformat...
| samhh wrote:
| The first R is reduce. The second is reuse. Our cultural
| obsession with fashion completely bypasses each of these.
| Quinner wrote:
| Depop is reuse. Progress is made on the margins.
| Absolutist judgement of something a lot of people like
| does nothing to help.
| rland wrote:
| I think depot would count as reuse, right?. Honestly, I'm
| stoked whenever we manage to make it past "recycle."
|
| I'd be happier if they announced that recycling was fake
| and everything you throw in the blue bin is trash.
| SV_BubbleTime wrote:
| Oh, but those R's are hard and not fun.
|
| What's really fun is throwing all anything plastic
| including wrappers, #5, #7, any metal, any paper
| basically anything but food into the blue recycling tub
| that someone comes to pick up and then I can smuggly look
| down on people that "don't even care about the planet",
| I'm doing my part by blankly assuming all my "recycling"
| isn't going into a landfill!
|
| ... I wish I would still count the number of people that
| think that, but it's too many.
|
| I try to "not buy shit", and Im pretty sure it's a lot
| harder than wishcycling.
| spoonjim wrote:
| I'm not talking about Depop, I'm talking about why I hold
| the fashion industry in low regard.
| krustyburger wrote:
| Your whole original comment just seems pretty
| anachronistic in 2021. Especially as Pride month kicks
| off, I'd caution you against holding on to antiquated
| views that the fashion industry is only something for
| women or has to do primarily with their insecurities.
|
| Whatever else it is, fashion to me is about both
| aspiration and inspiration. It is something that is
| creative not just for designers, but also their fans and
| customers. It is fundamentally about encouraging people
| to imagine themselves in new ways.
|
| It is emphatically not just some one-way broadcast aimed
| at a certain, supposedly more impressionable, gender.
| akomtu wrote:
| I like to compare greed with steam and capitalism with a
| steam engine. It's noisy and inefficient, but that's the only
| tech we have right now.
| aiisahik wrote:
| oh ... wait till you hear about the car industry.
| [deleted]
| hellomyguys wrote:
| >throwaway products made by borderline-enslaved Cambodians
|
| Well good thing Depop helps consumers avoid buying brand new
| clothing items and encourages giving life to old clothes.
|
| >I don't dislike fashion because I'm a humble bragging
| genius. I dislike it because I think it's bad for the world.
|
| All of fashion is bad for the world? Is that really your
| take?
| spoonjim wrote:
| Yes, that is really my take.
| reaperducer wrote:
| So, nudity is the answers. Also ban tattoos and hair
| styles while you're at it. And all self-expression, since
| that's also subject to the whims of fashion.
|
| Thank you for enlightening us, Mr. Mao.
| sovnade wrote:
| I guess at a high level, nearly everything humanity does is
| bad for the world. If that's your starting point then it
| makes sense?
| goldenchrome wrote:
| Fashion is self-expression and your own personal connection
| to culture. I don't think nerds on HN generally grok those
| concepts but many other people in the world do. It's very
| important to lots of people and it's a lot of fun once you
| know what you're doing.
|
| The fashion world has abundant problems but it's still an
| important industry. Preying on insecurities and using cheap
| labor is sort of a way of looking at all consumerism though.
| spoonjim wrote:
| Don't assume that because I don't like it, I don't
| understand it. I do understand the venal emotions of
| mankind. That doesn't mean I respect the people who stoke
| and exploit those emotions for profit. A lot of consumerism
| is ecologically destructive but only a small amount of it
| depends on actively harming your customer's mental well-
| being. Fashion, Facebook, sensationalist media, etc. are
| all industries that depend on making people feel worse.
| goldenchrome wrote:
| Frankly, you don't understand fashion. Fashion is not a
| new industry, nor is it parasitic. It's one of the oldest
| forms of self-expression and it makes lots of people feel
| better, not worse. Fitting in is always going to be
| stressful, but it's stressful because it's so important
| for social creatures like us. Fashion is simply a tool
| that helps people fit in. If you figured out a way to fit
| in that doesn't involve fashion, then power to you, but
| that doesn't invalidate thousands of years of people
| enjoying clothes.
| MonaroVXR wrote:
| I want to know more about this, but I have no clue. No
| clue if I'm fashionable at all. It's more like "Yes" and
| "No"
| CharlesW wrote:
| > _I do understand the venal emotions of mankind._
|
| Thank you, this is now my new catchphrase!
| paxys wrote:
| People will often say "I don't care about fashion", then I
| point out that by wearing a dark monochrome tshirt,
| "silicon valley" hoodie, zip-up vest etc. you are showing
| that you are most definitely up to date on fashion trends.
| ceilingcorner wrote:
| Fine with me. If a bunch of smart people are going to lock
| themselves out of a multi-billion industry because they are
| too "enlightened" to bother, awesome. Less competition.
| biztos wrote:
| > it's a lot of fun once you know what you're doing
|
| It's also pretty useful if you have an open mind and no
| idea what you're doing.
|
| I don't really "do" fashion but I'm grateful for my
| cerulean sweater!
|
| https://youtu.be/vL-KQij0I8I
| tomp wrote:
| If your main "self-expression" statement is that you want
| to look like others, is that really self-expression, or
| were you just brainwashed?
| Daishiman wrote:
| If your interpretation of fashion is "looking like
| others" then it means that your last encounter with
| fashion was when you were a high school teenager.
| goldenchrome wrote:
| I think you're mixing up self-expression and being
| completely unique. Self-expression is about fitting in as
| much as standing out. It's about figuring out who you
| are, and how you fit into society. Fashion is about
| telling the world "this is who I am". It's a really good
| way to connect with like-minded people.
|
| If you wear a business suit, you'll find company with
| conservative business people. If you wear all black,
| heavy boots, and band t-shirts you'll find company with
| people who are into the local music scene. If you wear
| Patagonia vests or startup hoodies you'll find company
| with people who want to code into the evening.
| burnished wrote:
| This statement is really kind of funny, because its so
| stylized, so absolutely stereotypical that there was no
| way for you to possibly come to it creatively and
| originally.
|
| Is some one buying momjeans on depop brainwashed, or is
| it you? If you aren't the one who is brainwashed why is
| your reply so ritualistic?
| vmception wrote:
| I like fashion because of the creativity
|
| I also like that I know where to find people that have the
| bodies that less attractive women say are not real
|
| Just don't say anything at the tech company, or nod and agree
| so that your coding academy graduates or state mandated board
| member doesnt axe your entire division, and then go get
| greeted by your bubbly atmosphere models after work
| ty___ler wrote:
| I think you have bigger fish to fry than a niche reseller
| app. www.walmart.com
| delaynomore wrote:
| Come on now, mens fashion is also a multi-billion industry
| majormajor wrote:
| > I don't dislike fashion because I'm a humble bragging
| genius. I dislike it because I think it's bad for the world.
|
| We could play that game for days, about most industries that
| feature prominently on HN. This looks like just the sort of
| narrow focus the original poster was talking about. Why are
| fashion products worse than new smartphones coming out every
| year? Because we personally like gadgets more? And if we were
| talking about a used tech toy marketplace, comments about how
| new manufacturing was bad would be similarly out of left
| field, since here's an example of reuse.
| hobs wrote:
| This article was about fashion, so it seems relevant. Other
| discussions about companies harmful practices often do
| sound off in the threads about those companies or fields.
|
| I dont think anyone said one was worse than the other until
| you did - we can actually be against more than one thing at
| a time and maintain various levels of concerns across more
| than one thing at a time without constantly bringing up a
| list of all the bad things in the universe.
| tomp wrote:
| According to my reading, HN is full of complaints about new
| phones (and everything else, e.g. washing machines) being
| built with "planned obsolescence" as a goal, and praise for
| Apple for being by far the best in supporting old devices
| (but of course they could still improve!)
| twoknee wrote:
| FWIW the iPhone 5s from Fall 2013 is still receiving
| regular security updates.
|
| https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212341
| shard wrote:
| Planned obsolescence goes beyond whether phone software
| gets updated or not. It covers changing designs so that
| you can tell one generation from another, so that there
| is social pressure to upgrade despite the phone working
| fine.
| SV_BubbleTime wrote:
| > We could play that game for days, about most industries
| that feature prominently on HN.
|
| Do you have a moment to discuss my new crypto coin? It is
| specifically good at taking dinosaurs and making them money
| launder for drug dealers, murderers, and slavers.
| tmhrtly wrote:
| I know it's not exactly the be-all-end-all solution to the
| problem, but it does feel like good quality used marketplaces
| for fashion (like Depop) could help to counter that flow of
| 'throwaway products'. In addition, in the long run having a
| more liquid market for potential resale might encourage
| people to buy better, longer lasting clothes at the offset
| (but that might be a pipe dream on my part).
| bsder wrote:
| > "lifestyle business" or "not likely to achieve a high ROI" to
| create what is now a billion-dollar exit.
|
| Why would you believe this? Fad businesses chasing the tweens
| and 20-somethings is _ABSOLUTELY_ the kind of business that VCs
| salivate over.
|
| And fashion rises and falls in cycles. Have we forgotten
| fashion darlings like ModCloth?
|
| The key to the fashion business is knowing when to _cash out_.
| intricatedetail wrote:
| Why exit is thought of as a success? It's kind of like a pump
| and dump scheme. Does it mean founders suddenly lose their
| vision and abandon their customers to become an actual product
| for shareholders?
| tinco wrote:
| It is a success because it is a concrete milestone that shows
| the founders have fulfilled their roles to satisfaction. An
| exit is not the only success, you could also simply
| transition into being a successful private company, but then
| there's no clear finish line. Now it is clear, no can argue
| the founders success, it's written in black and white and
| made public for all to see, they achieved an undeniably great
| thing.
|
| Customers are always a product for shareholders, that doesn't
| suddenly change when a company is sold to other shareholders.
| And anyway, it could be a good thing, obviously Etsy has
| great experience with taking care of their customers and
| their partners and with running a huge business. Who says
| anyone was abandoned?
| Judgmentality wrote:
| > Now it is clear, no can argue the founders success, it's
| written in black and white and made public for all to see,
| they achieved an undeniably great thing.
|
| No one can argue the founders' successful _profit_. I know
| nothing about this company and have no opinion on it one
| way or the other, but I know companies that are borderline
| fraudulent (and I am aware that is a strong claim) that are
| going public via SPACs and the founders are getting rich
| despite not having a product or paying customers.
| arkitaip wrote:
| They have exactly 1.63B reasons to sell. You don't get to
| judge them with zero insight into their business and visions
| for their lives.
| richardwhiuk wrote:
| Not all of that money will go to the founders.
| andrewingram wrote:
| Most of it won't, there's only one founder and from what
| I understand his share is less than what you'd expect. I
| imagine all the early employees did pretty well from this
| though.
| ashtonkem wrote:
| Also, I would openly laugh at anyone who claims that they'd
| personally turn down 1.63B to keep their business pure.
| That is an overwhelming amount of money, in the "none of
| your descendants needs to work" range.
|
| I'd sell out for much, much less money.
| marc__1 wrote:
| Apparently there were many other billion dollar
| acquisition bids turned down
|
| Mark Zuckerberg Turned Down Yahoo's $1 Billion
| https://www.inc.com/allison-fass/peter-thiel-mark-
| zuckerberg...
|
| Discord reportedly rejects Microsoft's $12 billion
| acquisition offer https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/busin
| ess/microsoft-12-bill...
|
| Amazon and Alibaba have approached 5-year-old startup
| Wish, but the CEO seems to want more than $10 billion
| https://www.businessinsider.com/wish-rumored-to-reject-
| acqui...
| ashtonkem wrote:
| It's obviously not impossible for someone to turn down a
| billion dollar offer because they think it's not enough,
| or to maintain control over their company. But I think
| people _drastically_ underestimate how easy it would be
| to not sell out and walk away. The kind of people who
| will look at that offer and say "no thanks" are far and
| few between. There is a non-trivial chance that most of
| us have not met anyone like that.
| CyberDildonics wrote:
| Mark Zuckerberg also turned down a $15 Billion dollar
| offer from Microsoft.
| alksjdalkj wrote:
| But there's a difference between turning down a bid
| because you want to maintain control over your vision and
| because you think your company is just worth more than
| the offer. The point is just that if you get what you
| think is a fair offer, and it's a very large offer, it
| would be hard for most people to say no.
| alex_young wrote:
| Also of note: Groupon turned down $6B from Google. They
| now have a market cap of $1.6B 11 years later.
|
| https://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/win-win-
| daily/win%C2%AD-wi...
| chevill wrote:
| On the contrary if I ever built a business that was worth
| 100 million or more I'd take far less than my share of it
| if it meant that I could get a clean exit and not have to
| stay on as an executive for a few years.
|
| Perhaps my mentality is part of the reason why I will
| never build such a thing.
| derefr wrote:
| The context of the parent comment is what _investors_ think.
| Investors -- especially VCs -- like acquisitions; they get
| them paid out at the 10x they were looking for, within their
| fund 's time-horizon.
| numair wrote:
| This is actually a very valid question. Every situation is
| different -- usually I'd agree with you, and I actually
| hesitated when describing the success as due to the exit. In
| this case, however, the exit is likely due to the ability for
| the combined entity to execute the original vision better
| than before, and it also allows us to put a dollar number on
| the value of a space / business that unsophisticated
| bystanders continue to dismiss as "not a real business" (even
| on this page!). That makes it a net win for the overall
| resale platform / circular commerce ecosystem, and makes
| future innovation in this space easier to finance.
|
| A similar situation occurred with the acquisition of MySpace,
| which immediately boosted the value of all the other social
| networks at the time -- the space had gone from being a bunch
| of "worthless websites," to important next-gen media
| platforms that might crown the next emperor.
| Recruitment/funding/etc became a LOT easier after that.
| purple_ferret wrote:
| because they suddenly have tens of millions in their and
| their shareholders' pocket.
|
| Let someone else worry about growth as you cash out
| AznHisoka wrote:
| Nothing against the business, but if one were to start a
| lifestyle business, I can't think of a worse one than a
| marketplace, where you have to deal with refunds, inventory,
| legal issues, tons of advertising, upfront losses, etc. You're
| probably better off actually selling your stuff in these
| marketplaces, if you wanted a lifestyle business.
|
| When I think of lifestyle businesses, I think of Pinboard, or
| Appointment Reminder, or a Depop/Poshmark/Etsy storefront.
| dblooman wrote:
| Congratulations to the team, I spent a few years at depop, great
| to see them getting the recognition.
|
| For those interested, it is a scala shop, all terraform and AWS
| on the backend
| halfmatthalfcat wrote:
| Warms my heart to hear about more Scala in the wild.
|
| We're they leveraging Akka too by chance?
| darkr wrote:
| Bits and pieces of Akka in a few places, but not commonly
| anentropic wrote:
| and of course... good old Django :P
| darkr wrote:
| of course, old faithful will be around for a while yet..
|
| Let's go for a beer soon!
| denis1 wrote:
| I think it's mostly Play Framework on top of RDS in terms of
| Scala usage.
| whimsicalism wrote:
| Of course, Play is on top of Akka
| denis1 wrote:
| You can use Play and not care about Akka that much. I
| think the original question was about using Akka
| directly.
| desarun wrote:
| Not for long. A few services are moving away from scala to
| kotlin (ktor), probably more to follow.
| raviisoccupied wrote:
| This is a great move from Etsy. I believe the future of fashion
| is high quality items being bought, resold, or rented.
|
| I don't think this because it's better for the environment
| (though it is), it's because I think young consumers genuinely
| want to consume fashion this way. They want to be seen in higher
| quality clothing, and the Depop model of buy and sell is the way
| to attain that.
| reader_mode wrote:
| >I believe the future of fashion is high quality items being
| bought, resold, or rented.
|
| What kind of fabric that can withstand the stress of wearing,
| washing, drying and still be comfortable to wear and retain the
| look ?
|
| Sure rugged outdoors stuff or comfort clothes that you don't
| care about stretching out and discolouring. But stuff like
| sweaters, jeans, etc. doesn't seem to matter how much money I
| pay - I get a more comfy fabric and better production quality -
| but durability wise it's nowhere near close to the jump in
| price.
| Bayart wrote:
| >What kind of fabric that can withstand the stress of
| wearing, washing, drying and still be comfortable to wear and
| retain the look ?
|
| Whool, if you know how to care for it. Suits can easily last
| decades.
|
| Everything made out of cotton, including bespoke shirts, is
| by default more or less a consummable and doesn't really
| enter the range of long term/valuable fashion.
| reader_mode wrote:
| I think suits last decades if you wear them occasionally -
| but I doubt you'll get daily use out of pants without
| wearing them out.
|
| And having to care for things (special washing etc.) isn't
| really practical for most things which is why I doubt we
| will get this shift in trends.
|
| Maybe if we get some new revolutionary fabrics.
|
| I wonder if there was an innovation where you'd get a comfy
| and super durable fabric but it costs 10x of regular
| clothes - would people go for it.
| Bayart wrote:
| There's plenty of fabric innovation going on. Not just in
| techwear (where you get your high end outdoors stuff),
| but also in more traditional fashion. Off the top of my
| head I've seen the Techmerino stuff from Zegna (which
| fits the bill of your super fabric, including the cost),
| the nylon/spandex hybrid Seagale uses (don't know who
| makes that), the technical wool/silk/polyurethane blends
| from VBC (they call that line _Earth, Wind and Fire_ ).
| addicted wrote:
| What do you think the vintage fashion market is?
|
| Vintage clothing is more expensive than the fast fashion
| stuff you can buy for 2 reasons. The clothes are more durable
| (they've lasted at least 2-3 decades) and they are less
| cookie cutter.
| dmitriid wrote:
| Yes, and they are unique one-off items that managed to
| survive out of millions items from the same eras/decades
| that didn't.
|
| That's why they are expensive.
| ArtWomb wrote:
| Congrats! Amazing synergy. Fashion resale marketplace expected to
| be worth a jaw-dropping $51B by 2023.
|
| https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/retail/etsy-buys-...
|
| Etsy is a GCP case study in public cloud infra migration, moving
| from 2000+ on-prem bare metal servers
|
| Etsy: Migrating to Cloud (Cloud Next '19)
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gdm5Jcoajg
| grouphugs wrote:
| the problem with the nazis needing their serfs to support
| themselves is there's an absurd amount of pipelines which are now
| directly production line to garbage dump in a year or less. it's
| cool and all that to give people homegrown alternatives to
| support themselves that rely less on corporations or subjecting a
| large portion of the population to unethical and often illegal
| working conditions. we're running into global issues where we
| really need to slow down production and relax necessity for work.
| there's already enough resources to do it, but there's some
| pretty clear and loud obstacles there
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| I don't follow it that closely because I'm not buying a lot of
| second hand or whatever but my impression of depop the last say 5
| years was that it was used alot in UK but no one in North America
| yesimahuman wrote:
| Good timing because it seems like Facebook marketplace now
| supporting shipping (and they syndicate your store through IG,
| etc) is set to disrupt this space, based on some people I know
| that are selling a ton more on FB lately and complaining about
| not selling anything on Depop. Will be interesting to watch how
| this plays out.
| avipars wrote:
| I'm wondering who leaks these deals and the valuations early?
| Doesn't it ruin negotiations
| failwhaleshark wrote:
| Younger _hipsters._ :)
|
| I guess it makes sense considering Etsy is geared to customers
| like hippies, yuppies, yippies, punk bartenders, tattoo artists,
| bicycle mechanics, and hipsters roughly 27-50.
|
| Expand the demos: build vs. buy. If you have the cash, buying is
| faster. If you don't, sweat equity build-out into adjacent
| categories and demos but it's slower.
|
| Edit: Oooh, the hipsters don't like being called "hipsters."
| Trigg-ered. :DD That's okay, I'm half-hipster and half-yippie.
| doomslice wrote:
| I can't downvote yet, but your comment doesn't add much to the
| discussion and is very hard to understand. And your edit is
| likely to attract even more downvotes since it just completely
| detracts from anything you were trying to get across.
| failwhaleshark wrote:
| Huh? Businesses need to expand by demographics or by
| categories. This is what Amazon did. They started with books
| and then continually inched their way into new categories,
| new businesses, and new demographics. Zero to 1, then 1 to N.
| That's how to grow a platform, or at least the holding
| company that comprises a collection of platforms. Keeping
| brands separate also reduce objections: Disney and (what was)
| Touchstone, Toyota and Lexus, Technics and Panasonic, Trader
| Joe's and Aldi.
| jokethrowaway wrote:
| I knew about Depop since they were a tiny startup and I never
| thought they would grow so much!
|
| Well done!
|
| And that's a humbling reminder I'm crap at picking startup
| unicorns and the equities I'm negotiating as employment are
| probably worthless.
| berkes wrote:
| > the equities I'm negotiating as employment are probably
| worthless.
|
| In this phase, it is all about spread. VCs and the likes invest
| in, say, 100 startups, because they know only one needs to
| success so they can write off the other 99.
|
| You, as employee, however, cannot work at 100 startups and get
| paid in equity. So statistically, the equity you receive from
| the company you work now, is quite probably worthless.
|
| At least, that is how I treat it: nice addition, interesting to
| keep me and my co-workers focused on revenue, but statistically
| worthless in the long run.
| fatfox wrote:
| Back in 2016, Depop's founder, Simon Beckerman, was on an episode
| of BBC's The Bottom Line podcast about "The Youth Market" [1]. He
| explained his motivation behind starting Depop (app-driven
| alternative to eBay with a social element) and I thought it was
| quite insightful.
|
| [1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b080xk99
| ultim8k wrote:
| I've heard he's now building an app with similar philosophy
| about food.
| dominotw wrote:
| https://www.delli.market/
| wdb wrote:
| Ah the company that requires you to sign a NDA before you can
| enter their office, and think it still hasn't been voided by
| them. Not a fan
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2021-06-02 23:00 UTC)