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Drone operating system startup Airware today suddenly informed employees it will cease operations immediately despite having raised $118 million from top investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Google's GV, and Kleiner Perkins. The startup ran out of money after trying to manufacture its own hardware that couldn't compete with drone giants like China's DJI. The company at one point had as many as 140 employees, all of which are now out of a job.
A source sent TechCrunch screenshots from the Airware alumni Slack channel detailing how the staff was told this morning that Airware would shut down.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/14/airware-shuts-down/
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Drone startup Airware crashes, will shut down after burning $118M –
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Fascinating is a word I use for the unexpected.
-- Spock, "The Squire of Gothos", stardate 2124.5
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @10:06AM (4 children)
Is that why you are cratering? To me it seems not enough motivation and actual know-how how to run a business. Been there, done that. Running a business is not about technical side of things - it's about everything. That's why even strip clubs have accountants. But you can't run strip club with accountants alone.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday September 16 2018, @10:27AM
It is exactly why I am cratering.... I am a one-trick pony... and one trick ain't enough!
Hence why I posted about so many factors having to be in play to make the whole shebang work. And I am about 50 cards short of a full deck.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday September 16 2018, @11:07AM (1 child)
I re-read my original post about what you picked from it, and I had omitted that in the cases I had seen the management problems, it was subsequent to a buyout, where an investor group just thought they could buy their way into a fully functional business. The people who brought the business up in the first place were top notch... they knew exactly what they were doing.
The "investment people" who bought the place generally brought the place down. They did not seem to know what we did. We were a cash cow, and their paradigm seemed to be cut here, cut there, until the thing dies.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday September 17 2018, @10:47AM
That's valuable insight. I read a study in the Harvard Business Review about six months ago that found that in nearly every case MBAs drove companies into the ground; an MBA is good for the income of the person getting it, but for companies hiring an MBA is a net negative nearly 100% of the time. But the study was looking from the top down, and didn't have the bottom-up insight you gave.
Put together, it says that we don't have a technology or science problem, we have a management and financial problem. Plenty have tremendous technical skills and the creativity to go with them, but they keep falling prey to the vampire squid business and finance culture that has taken over.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday September 16 2018, @11:43AM