You’ve just spent $400 on a baby monitor. Now you need a subscription | Once upon a time there was a company called Miku who wasn’t making quite enough money…::Once upon a time there was a company called Miku who wasn’t making quite enough money…

  • anon_8675309@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I forget the name of it, but a number of years ago, there was a startup that wanted to make communication devices for hikers. They could transmit short messages to each other. Anyway VCs came in and asked, where’s the MRR? We’re not investing unless there’s monthly revenue.

    It’s all just greed. You can’t just have a device and be good. Investors are constantly chasing the quarterly growth.

    It’s disgusting.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s modern capitalism.

      Making 10 million a month for 10 years isn’t as good as going from 1 million a month up to 10 over five years.

      The important part isn’t the total profit, it’s the increase in stock price.

      This leads to a churn of companies as they’re pushed past the breaking point because by then investors have sold and moved on to the next.

      The only companies that survive are huge corporations that buy up smaller ones to do the same process.

      • hansl@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        American society decided that the GE model was not only working, but needed to be generalized.

    • Madison420@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Aprs already exists and is optimal for hikers. A relatively lightweight base station at good height can get you hundreds of miles pretty reliably or tens of thousands of miles if you really really try and get lucky.