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Big-Cockroach-5986 OP t1_iud4630 wrote

Reply to comment by bingosherlock in Anyone confirm if Fifth Season is shutting down their business? by Big-Cockroach-5986

That's disappointing, was really hoping it would work for them and their employees. Also, thought other local media outlets may pick up on the fact a second ai-based Pittsburgh tech company laid off a 100 or so employees in the span of a week. Local effect of economic trends impacting growth start-up companies?

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bingosherlock t1_iud64fp wrote

> Local effect of economic trends impacting growth start-up companies?

yeah i think if you're funded by VC money right now and aren't looking at being profitable in the short term, you might be in for a rough time. i get that fifth season was generating revenue, but that might not be enough to justify ongoing R&D costs or even enough to cover operational costs at the scale they were working in (pure, pulled-from-ass speculation here, please don't take it as fact.)

a lot of companies / investors seem to be bracing for the worst. couple that with interest rates rising and i wouldn't be looking for employment at VC backed jobs anytime soon.

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war321321 t1_iudmct0 wrote

Yep there’s a lot of cold feet in this investing world right now due to the political climate, Ukraine, inflation, etc etc. It’s not the golden age of investing like it was a few years ago

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Willow-girl t1_iuhjzya wrote

I also wonder about the viability of a lot of these business models and whether investors got all razzle-dazzled with the 'tech' aspect.

I mean, take something like food delivery -- if there was actual money to be made there, don't you think stores and restaurants would have been delivering their goods all along?

Throwing an app into the mix evidently makes it sexy enough to warrant investment, but ... color me unconvinced.

I think the next couple of years are going to see a lot of these ventures go belly-up ... in fact, it has the potential to be the next crash.

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PGH-RealEstate t1_iug1s2e wrote

People are still sitting on mountains of high value cash, but the risk appetite is super low at the moment. Add that to financials finally catching up the tech that all of this capital was funding and here we are.

And let’s be honest, vertical farming is far less efficient than just actual farming in a country with nearly unlimited arable soil.

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