
SoftBank Vision Fund Employees Depict a Culture of Recklessness - yarapavan
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-12-18/softbank-vision-fund-employees-depict-a-culture-of-recklessness
======
paulsutter
Softbank isn't perfect, but its disappointing to see such a snarky/dismissive
tone coming from Bloomberg.

This is ridiculous:

> Three months later, Zume has yet to revolutionize food production or to be
> profitable

I've worked with Jeff Housenbold. They got his intelligence right, but this
nonsense sounds like Gawker not Bloomberg

> Jeff Housenbold,... Acquaintances describe him as smart and arrogant and
> almost entirely lacking in self-awareness

And when did random company gossip become news reported as fact? How does
publishing the denial make it OK to report anonymous smears as fact?

> Navneet Govil, told a Mormon employee to “go back to Utah to get more
> wives.” The employee left the company. Via a spokesman, Govil denies making
> such a statement. Around that time, Govil also berated a young accountant in
> front of a group, bringing her to tears. She later quit. And at a work lunch
> a few months later with several colleagues, Govil remarked that “Chinese
> people sound stupid,” according to two people who heard the comment. Via a
> spokesman, Govil denies making such a statement or berating the employee;
> SoftBank says it has no record of these events.

~~~
Pigo
> the Vision Fund’s Zambia-born chief financial officer, Navneet Govil, told
> a...

Make sure you say where someone is from that way you can judge how upset you
should be about their comments.

~~~
berniepebbles
You can’t even mention someone’s place of origin in our politically correct
world without a racist accusation.

The above suggestion is a shame. It appears to be a victim “woke” mentality.

Is it possible Bloomberg was describing where the individual was from for
reasons outside what you suggest?

~~~
SeanAppleby
While I agree that it should be possible to mention nationality without being
labeled racist, what legitimate value do you think his nationality adds to
that sentence other than to preload whatever preconceptions people have about
African businessmen onto that person? I just don't see how it adds any
substance.

~~~
jgalt212
It's certainly notable to any US domiciled person. How many Zambian born CFO's
do you know? How many Zambian born people do you know?

~~~
larnmar
None! I also don’t know anyone from Mason City, Iowa. But everybody’s gotta be
from somewhere.

Seriously, if you’re writing a whole article about someone it seems worthwhile
to mention if they’re from Zambia, but if you’re writing a single sentence
it’s a bit off putting.

~~~
jgalt212
look, in essence, I hear what you are saying, but when considering the
readership of Bloomberg News, Mason City, Iowa and Zambia is a false
equivalency.

------
jahlove
All this from Bloomberg, who published an explosive piece on Chinese spies
infiltrating "America’s technology supply chain". [1] Then when it became
clear that the story was bogus, refused to admit they made a mistake. [2]

[1] [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-10-04/the-
big-h...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-10-04/the-big-hack-how-
china-used-a-tiny-chip-to-infiltrate-america-s-top-companies)

[1] [https://pxlnv.com/blog/one-year-after-big-
hack/](https://pxlnv.com/blog/one-year-after-big-hack/)

~~~
wnevets
you say bogus, I say its entirely possible.

[https://www.wired.com/story/plant-spy-chips-hardware-
supermi...](https://www.wired.com/story/plant-spy-chips-hardware-supermicro-
cheap-proof-of-concept/)

~~~
jdminhbg
Lots of things are entirely possible; many fewer have any tangible evidence
that they actually happened.

~~~
wnevets
If you trust Edward Snowden (a lot of HN users appear to), wouldn't his leaks
be tangible evidence?

~~~
jdminhbg
Those would be tangible evidence that it's _possible_ , again, not that it
happened in the Chinese supply chain as alleged in the Bloomberg story that
hasn't been retracted yet.

------
danso
This is comedy gold:

> _After Vision Fund invested $375 million in Zume Pizza Inc., whose mission
> to use robots to automate pizza making had shades of Silicon Valley
> frivolity, CEO Alex Garden expanded his mission to include rethinking the
> entirety of U.S. food production. Employees were unnerved. “Are we the next
> Theranos?” went one anonymously submitted question at an all-hands meeting
> over the summer_

edit: More info about Zume and the investment:
[https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/11/21/20974979/zume-pizza-
so...](https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/11/21/20974979/zume-pizza-softbank-
fundraising-four-billion)

~~~
dragontamer
> The four-year-old company has largely pivoted to an enterprise model where
> it works with restaurants that have no storefront and prepare their food in
> shared centralized kitchens, or “cloud kitchens”; with delivery providers
> like DoorDash and Postmates; and with existing pizza companies to build a
> hub-and-spoke model for the entire delivery industry. The company has been
> trying to morph into a data and logistics provider, part of an effort by
> founder Alex Garden to become “the Amazon of food.”

So they want to become... a commercial bakery?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UjUWfwWAC4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UjUWfwWAC4)

Once again proving that SV companies do no market research before making their
ideas...

I'm not in the food industry. I've talked to a couple of food engineers
though, and its apparently a very difficult space to work in, with a variety
of safety regulations to prevent disease (and if disease does break out,
provide a mechanism to track where it came from).

Ignoring that, the space of commercial kitchens / commercial bakeries already
produces tons of bread for a variety of companies. From my understanding,
these commercial bakeries are flexible enough to change the recipe and create
different breads / doughs for a variety of companies. That is to say:
commercial bakeries are already "hub-and-spoke" models that centralize
production for McDonalds / Burger King / Grocery Stores / etc. etc.

\-------

If you're entirely focused on logistics / sales of products from a kitchen to
a variety of restaurants, that job is called a Food Broker
([http://www.foodbrokers.org/](http://www.foodbrokers.org/)). Its kind of the
opposite of a commercial kitchen: if a small kitchen makes a particular food
that probably has mass-appeal, a food-broker will distribute that food in a
wide area. Food broker work for many kitchens, delivering food to many
commercial locations.

In effect: the food industry is already filled with "hub-and-spoke" style
businesses. Food Brokers, Restaurants, commercial kitchens, etc. etc. Ever
think why your cheap chinese food all tastes the same despite coming from 10
different restaurants?

~~~
refurb
Cloud kitchen? Are you serious?

Is Silicon Valley now at the point where they are inventing things that
already exist, but they aren't yet aware of because of the bubble they are
stuck in?

~~~
steveklabnik
Some people call them "dark kitchens" or "ghost kitchens" instead.

It's what Travis Kalanick is up to these days, incidentally. Saudi Arabia's
sovereign wealth fund has supposedly put 400MM into his new company at a 5B
valuation.

~~~
geodel
I think next big thing will be 'Dish as a service' where one does not have to
know how kitchen works, or the quantities of ingredient combined in what
proportion. One can just order a sandwich platter or a pasta tray for 100
people without ever being bothered about how it is done. Now that would be
revolutionary.

~~~
Lich
Catering?

------
duxup
This article reads like some authors found a popular topic and just tried to
use it to push it's own little unrelated insults, insinuations, and agendas.

It reads like silly the "rome fell because <insert topic i care about>"
articles that were semi popular a while ago.

SoftBank might be reckless, but I've no idea what the metoo movement or the
random insults have to do with it.

~~~
deminature
It's popular to hate Softbank-backed companies at the moment, so even an
extremely thin article that is basically gossip and anecdotal character
assassination strung together into a narrative can get eyeballs.

------
omarhaneef
This article turned out to be a lot more contentious on here than I would have
expected.

Nonetheless, I will add one perspective from the inimitable Matt Levine:

[https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-12-18/the-
st...](https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-12-18/the-story-doesn-
t-match-the-vision)

Of course, you could gain infinite karma votes on here just by posting his
article every day, but he has some interesting things to add to this article.

Specifically, its not clear if Softbank is doing all that badly and maybe
Masa's gift is this meta ability to get people to think bigger.

Levine is always also a little cynical.

------
resters
I met with SoftBank one time as part of due diligence. They had virtually no
substantive questions about the tech. The person who led the deal was soon
fired. I lost respect for SoftBank after that.

------
Disruptive_Dave
This is so shoddily written:

> At a portfolio meeting in October, Housenbold defended his performance by
> arguing he’d been trying to back female CEOs. Then he seemed to blame the
> #MeToo movement for limiting his ability to maneuver, bewildering at least
> one attendee.

What? This gives absolutely no specifics, no quotes, even softens the shit
sandwich the author is attempting to feed us by saying "seemed to." And it's
supposed to matter because it "bewildered" one unnamed attendee. God almighty
I need to stop reading shit like this.

------
tempsy
I wonder if Nuro will be swept up in all this...it seems like a legit
opportunity but left wondering with the SB investment.

------
RiOuseR
>The strategy that Son and his all-male phalanx of managing partners followed
seemed less about any specific technology than about placing large bets on the
buzziest startups...

What does his staff being male have anything to do with how he runs his fund?

~~~
JumpCrisscross
> _What does his staff being male have anything to do with how he runs his
> fund?_

For one, there is research on all-male trading and investment teams taking
more risk than mixed-gender teams. For another, we have documented cases of
overt sexism among SoftBank-backer founders (most notoriously, Adam).

~~~
thedogeye
Is the team all-male?

When I met Lydia Jett I assumed that she is a woman but I did not ask.

[https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydiajett](https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydiajett)

~~~
JumpCrisscross
> _Is the team all-male?_

On this, I have no information. Was just justifying citing an all-male team,
within the context of a group with poor controls and a history of losing money
due to taking unchecked risk, as a risk factor.

------
trianglem
“All-male run”

This article is trash.

~~~
RiOuseR
Too true.

Terrible management comes in all forms. Look at Stephanie Korey or Elizabeth
Holmes.

~~~
sterkekoffie
The problem is the dearth of women, not the presence of men.

~~~
trianglem
The dearth of women is not a problem. We mostly have equality of opportunity
in America.

~~~
sterkekoffie
It's a material problem, not a moral problem. Workplaces with gender parity
function better, as evidenced by the article about securities fraud linked by
elliekelly that you ignored.

