keccers
@keccers.eth
It cannot be understated how many failures I’ve been involved in. Part of it is bad luck and part of it is this mindset I have to have a job no matter what The only people that benefit from failure are the owners. You just look like shit. Never understood this but it is what it is. Everyone is bullshitting. One of the most spectacular failures I’ve ever been involved with was a grocery delivery company. They had a profitable business since the 90s Internet bubble. The only thing constraining them was their capacity. So they got in bed with PE and made a deal. Built a massive new facility. I got hired as part of “digital transformation” under a new CMO and started right when the new space opened. The transition to the new facility was an unmitigated disaster. Everything went wrong. To the point the PE guys came in one day to an all company meeting. They put up a video of money being lit on fire and told everyone “this is what you are doing to teachers retirement money”
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keccers
@keccers.eth
The environment for grocery delivery at the time was incredibly competitive. The company I worked for used to be the only player in the game. All of a sudden there were 3-5 competitors, all flush with VC cash and ready with very generous acquisition offers to new customers (aka free groceries). Meanwhile my company was torching their longtime loyals. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg at this place. It’s sad because I learned so much, but 0 of it is legible. I just look like a shit for brains with short tenure. Like I said, only the owners get to win from that kind of a loss. They are doing fine now. The company almost died but it was saved by COVID. Grocery delivery.
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Jake Casey
@jakeacasey
"The company almost died but it was saved by COVID." is such a hilarious business thing to happen. Like you have this company that is basically getting saved through no fault of their own by a global catastrophe.
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keccers
@keccers.eth
What saved them is a famous consulting firm called Alix Partners, if you want the truth Hahahaha @dwr.eth via Pmarca has this lens on business that’s like “market/team/product”. In this case, the product was fine, it was always fine. It was really bad when I was there because of operational issues but they brought in a lady from Alix Partners to fix it. The team was dogshit when I was there but again, Alix Partners fixed that too, within reason. Instilled better habits. The market when I was there was what it was but really grew in competitive intensity. When they were the only one it didn’t matter. When the product suffered they lost it. COVID completely transformed the market. Tons of all new demand, so much so that commercial food distributors started doing grocery delivery and it still wasn’t enough. And they had improved team and product enough by then to meet the moment If they had not at least fixed the product COVID wouldn’t have helped
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