
Leaked Postmates financials suggest company might be doing better than thought - joshjkim
http://techcrunch.com/2016/04/25/leaked-postmates-financials-suggest-company-might-be-doing-better-than-everyone-thought/
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palakchokshi
So let's get this straight. 1\. There was negative pressure on PostMates'
business model sustainability

2\. Speculation that the numbers didn't work

3\. PostMates is in the process of raising new funding

4\. It is in PostMates' best interest to get a positive news buzz going about
its business model and numbers to raise valuation of the company in a new
round of funding.

5\. Financials are "leaked" that show the numbers look better than expected.
(Thank you TechCrunch)

6\. New round of funding is closed at a higher valuation than what it would
have been if these documents were not "leaked" (Speculation based on how
investors follow herd mentality)

7\. PostMates founders do a high five (Speculation on my part)

8\. Mission Accomplished

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FLUX-YOU
I don't get it. What does this gain over just releasing it themselves? Are you
limited in how often you are able to release financial statements?

~~~
auganov
One could argue a "leak" creates more buzz? A bigger sense of momentum and
out-performance? Also they'd face less scrutiny if the there's some creativity
in the numbers. "It's just an internal document, you can't blame us".

I could also think of a scenario where there's some internal conflict and
somebody wanted to get the numbers released. Tho ofc it wouldn't be "in
PostMates' best interest" anymore perhaps.

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dublinben
"Leaked" financial information that reflects positively on the company isn't
leaked at all. It was deliberately released by someone internal.

~~~
zbowling
Nah. This looks like a legit leak. There is no sane reason to do leak that.
You are just validating the market for your competitors. Your investors are
going to already have this data.

~~~
forgetsusername
> _" There is no sane reason to do leak that_

"nearly $500 million valuation. They are now in the process of raising new
funding"

That's the reason. Positive buzz. Are you of the opinion that _all_ these VCs
and investors are geniuses that do intense due diligence? Or do they herd
follow into what turn out to be terrible businesses (note: not saying
Postmates necessarily is) _all the time_? I'm certainly in the camp of the
latter.

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panic
If Postmates wants to keep doing well, they need to improve their customer
service. A restaurant significantly overcharged me (or the driver bought
dinner for himself?) and they wouldn't refund any of it. There are tons of
similar comments on the app.

~~~
bastian
Postmates co-founder here. That is a sentiment and an observation i totally
agree with. We're working hard to get this done and we're seeing some first
positive signs. It will likely take us a good part of Q2 to get where we want
to be though. It is a challenging aspect to our business but i'm 100%
confident that we will succeed in making our CS interactions more meaningful
and rewarding.

I should point out that we're really talking about two types of customer
service experiences here. When it comes to our Plus merchants, we're facing
way less challenges simply because we're interacting with them via tablets or
electronic ordering. Where we don't succeed yet, is the customer service part
of our Anywhere product. Here we don't have integrations with all merchants
and the error rates are higher and so is the level of complexity when
something goes wrong.

~~~
panic
_I should point out that we 're really talking about two types of customer
service experiences here. When it comes to our Plus merchants, we're facing
way less challenges simply because we're interacting with them via tablets or
electronic ordering. Where we don't succeed yet, is the customer service part
of our Anywhere product. Here we don't have integrations with all merchants
and the error rates are higher and so is the level of complexity when
something goes wrong._

That's great, but it's your responsibility to manage this complexity. You
should refund the money to your customers when there's an error, not give
excuses.

~~~
refulgentis
"Don't explain why you're not doing this today, just shut up and keep me
waiting and complaining"

What ever happened to civility?

~~~
EdHominem
Whatever happened to holding someone to task?

The co-founder acknowledged problems but offered reasons instead of a
solution. I don't care how hard their job is, I care if they offered a
solution for the specific person who complained. (They did not.)

If they know they're unable to cope with load they should auto-refund
customers who ask rather than waiting till they ramp up their CS team.
Misaligned incentives or what?

~~~
sk5t
Exactly, this is not a company fighting against some force-of-nature problem,
curing the sick, or fighting poverty... Explanations for why Postmates doesn't
execute well on self-made problems shouldn't hold a lot of water.

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icedchai
Isn't this the place with the CEO that doesn't know how to use email?
[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/16/bastian-
lehmann_n_3...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/16/bastian-
lehmann_n_3935802.html)

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a_small_island
"The files, dated last fall, show a glimpse at Postmates’ rapid growth"

"We’ve also obtained more recent numbers that suggest that the growth has
continued."

I'm confused. Why wouldn't they release the most recent numbers if they have
them. This read like a press statement, fwiw.

~~~
forgetsusername
Exactly. Apparently they have the data, but they're saying things like "might
be this", or "suggests that". You have the paperwork, how about you tell us
what the numbers _actually_ say? Or is the financial literacy so lacking in
the Valley that a mainstream tech blog can't figure these things out from the
financials?

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makmanalp
Not to be that guy, but isn't this one case where we need to question the
ethics of reporting on leaked documents? Especially when the files themselves
seem to be leaked only to Techcrunch. So the cat isn't out of the bag yet, and
there really is no public interest / whistleblowing that TC is serving when
they post numbers here. Seems sketchy at best to me. Unless they were "leaked"
deliberately, which isn't much better, but for different reasons.

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cehrnrooth
I'm impressed by their plan to 5X their top-line in one year and improve their
margin at the same time (which would indicate either raising prices or
reducing subsidies).

~~~
swyman
Or getting more API partners or converting more suppliers to use the
sponsored/promoted placement within the app.

And 5x top-line growth in a year isn't completely crazy at all for a growth-
stage startup of Postmates's size. Aside from normal organic/word-of-mouth and
paid growth, they can also launch in new markets.

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downandout
This is admittedly anecdotal, but they seem to be driving at least some of
their growth through dodgy tactics. Last time I stayed in a Vegas hotel, I
went down in the morning and found a Postmates flyer on my car encouraging me
to use their service while I was in town. I'm fairly certain that no large
casino would give them permission to do this.

If they are doing this kind of thing in cities everywhere, I can see them
growing pretty fast, as long as no one sues them or otherwise stops their
"growth hacking" plans.

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drudru11
Hmmm. Just today Amazon announced their starting to support San Francisco with
1 hour restaurant delivery for Prime customers.

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rdl
I'm curious how far one could go toward leaking false information.

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pbreit
What are the "Salaries" under the Operational Expenses?

~~~
BukhariH
I think those are the founders, developers and other central team member
salaries since their couriers are 1099 contractors.

