[HN Gopher] Shopify lays off 10% of staff
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Shopify lays off 10% of staff
Author : Gadiguibou
Score : 32 points
Date : 2022-07-26 13:18 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (news.shopify.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (news.shopify.com)
| jacinabox wrote:
| Back in 2021 I guessed that Shopify was overvalued because it
| didn't benefit from the same network effect that Amazon benefits
| from. (Also I preregistered this prediction so you know I'm
| telling the truth lol no I didn't.) Shopify has an app that app
| lets users buy from web stores that are Shopify built if they
| have the address. This difference is reflected in the size and
| staying power of their B2B customer base.
| alldayeveryday wrote:
| Irritating to me that we live in a system that rewards
| irresponsible spending and debt accumulation - both on the
| individual level and on the corporate level.
| tempsy wrote:
| how are individuals rewarded for this?
| alldayeveryday wrote:
| Examples: buying a much larger house than you need, taking
| out mortgages on several homes, debt arbitrage (taking out
| loans and then investing the money in vehicles with higher
| returns than your interest on the loan). Examples where
| taking on debt results in rewards. Have you not been paying
| attention to the economy for the last decade? Zero or low
| interest loans have created a perverse incentive to
| accumulate debt and burn cash.
| tempsy wrote:
| I wouldn't consider being able to take out a big mortgage a
| reward, it's just a thing that is possible to do.
| alldayeveryday wrote:
| 10% equity in a house that is 200k, vs 10% equity in a
| house that is 500k. Which is bigger?
| tempsy wrote:
| What does this have to do with being rewarded in the same
| way a corporation was being rewarded for irresponsible
| levels of spending and cash burn in low rate environments
| which is what you saw with Shop and others?
|
| Using cheap money to buy appreciating assets is a good
| use of debt. Using cheap money to spend extravagantly on
| headcount and perks is not.
| alldayeveryday wrote:
| > Using cheap money to buy appreciating assets is a good
| use of debt.
|
| Yeah, right up until the point that those assets suddenly
| diminish in value.
|
| > Using cheap money to spend extravagantly on headcount
| and perks is not.
|
| The financial system seemed to disagree and rewarded the
| behavior, ala stock price increases for extended period
| of time, up until the point where it didn't.
|
| See the similarity now? You are merely saying that "good
| use" of debt is when you are winning in the game, and
| "bad use" is when you are losing. The financial system
| has for too long rewarded speculative gambling rather
| than value generation.
| tempsy wrote:
| you're trying to frame taking out a standard mortgage on
| a house as irresponsible gambling so no don't see how
| that's similar to a corporation who burned billions using
| cheap money and ended up trashing their company
| alldayeveryday wrote:
| No, re-read my comments. I said taking a mortgage on a
| much larger home than you need, or taking out multiple
| mortgages, or doing debt arbitrage (all, risky moves).
| You threw in the word "standard" as a means to
| misrepresent my argument.
| [deleted]
| nh23423fefe wrote:
| Seems like you are just improperly reifying everything to
| create a locus of accountability. Isn't this really just
| expressing outrage, not actually describe the world as it is?
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