Bolded the important part.
You won't get investors if you don't at least have a reasonable chance for a payoff. Most likely, investors looked, but didn't buy into what was being touted.
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Electric Motorcycle Startup Mission Motors Ceases Operations After Losing Talent to Apple
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Bolded the important part.
You won't get investors if you don't at least have a reasonable chance for a payoff. Most likely, investors looked, but didn't buy into what was being touted.
I'm amazed how little Zero Motorcycles is mentioned in this thread. They have had now five model years of all electric motorcycles. Their exec crew is a Who's Who of motorcycle companies and they are doing quite well. There is even an app for their motorcycles similar to the Tesla app.
Then there is the HD Livewire. That got a lot of positive press.
There is nothing unethical about contacting people and offering them jobs at a better pay. It is what happens all the time. If you have a sufficiently interesting profile on LinkedIn you get multiple hits per week by headhunters and competing companies. In this case Apple will not have hired 100s of people from this company, but probably offered 2-3 people a job and in a start-up this can be critical.
It might have been unethical 10 years ago, but it is now a standard of operation by any corporate recruiter to contact competitor employees directly. People whine about it, but it is normal now. To not play that game, is to be slowly killed yourself. The same goes for patent lawsuits.
I love how a start-up from 2007, with a bad business model, lousy business model and clearly a poor product, wants to blame Apple for people jumping ship.
My view is Mission was constantly a day late and a dollar short. With their key talent gone, they lost their dogs in the fight.
While they had a nice design, execution was always following the steps of Zero, Brammo and even Lightning Motorcycles.
Maybe if our country didn't graduate engineers with a 6-figure debt, those engineers wouldn't be as so desperate to work for whichever mega corporation is paying the most, and instead would have the freedom to choose to work for a small business or a startup which is clearly much much cooler.
Startups like this will get venture capital, and some will succeed while others will fail. Apparently this is one of the failures.
Where would Datapoint be today without venture capital? Answer: The same place it is today.
On the contrary! Apple was sued and paid millions for agreeing on non-poaching from competitors. You are blaming a company for offering better pay in a free market economy. How is this worse than being a monopoly that's abusing it's market share?
There were many investor passes on Mission. Of all things, several did not want to invest in a San Francisco vehicle company for fear of high turnover, crazy driving habits of the city and almost random city inspector rules.
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Funny how that bit seems tacked on to the end of this sentence, when it seems a rather fundamental point. In the original article, it's even more stark:
You know that if you had a job and somebody in a dick move gave you a ton of money
to leave your job you would take that new job in a heartbeat.
I wonder what they were trying to do differently from Zero Motorcycles that made them appear to not have a viable business model.
Sad but go Zero! It's a rocking bike, the Tesla on two wheels. Available now and after 2 days on this bike, never going back to gas.
Electric motorcycle startup Mission Motors has ceased operations after losing some of its key talent to competitors such as Apple, and failing to develop a viable business model, according to Reuters.The report claims about six engineers from the San Francisco-based startup were recruited by Apple since last autumn, and the company's assets are now controlled by its largest investor Infield Capital.
Mission Motorcycles, a related company created to sell the electric motorcycles, is reportedly in the process of filing for bankruptcy.
Apple never attempted to acquire Mission Motors outright, according to Kaufman, instead drawing from its pool of specialized engineers working on electric drive systems and battery algorithms for charging and cooling.
Mission Motors was founded in 2007 with ambitions to create a world-class electric motorcycle, and it launched an early prototype in 2013 to positive reviews. The company was reportedly often cash strapped, however, and some investors backed out as engineers left for competitors.
Mission Motors never released an electric motorcycle for sale to consumers.
Apple has been rumored to be working on an electric vehicle, codenamed "Project Titan," for several months, with its secretive automotive team reportedly including former employees from Tesla, Ford, GM, A123 Systems, Samsung and other competitors. Earlier this year, it reached a settlement with A123 in a poaching lawsuit.
Article Link: Electric Motorcycle Startup Mission Motors Ceases Operations After Losing Talent to Apple
From being a part of a startup (that eventually failed), I can attest that the sort of people who work for a startup are incredibly loyal. Not just to the company, but their other team mates. They usually see themselves in the same way a military unit does - "leave no man behind".
It is only after things seem to have gone sour, and it appears as if the startup is stuck going nowhere that people typically leave.
These folks probably all saw the writing on the wall, and when Apple contacted them. They probably made a really hard decision in leaving (though probably helped with Apple's undoubtedly very generous offers).
It is only after things seem to have gone sour, and it appears as if the startup is stuck going nowhere that people typically leave.
These folks probably all saw the writing on the wall, and when Apple contacted them. They probably made a really hard decision in leaving (though probably helped with Apple's undoubtedly very generous offers).
Unfortunately, if Apple ever releases a motorcycle, it will most likely be about as exciting as a Prius. Too bad Apple did not purchase Mission as a entity, a think tank, to retain the integrity of concept.
Just like the iWatch was. We knew everything about it ahead of time, except for what it would look like, what it would be called, and what it would do.This rumoured Apple Car has to be the worst kept secret.
And even more mind boggling how people here reflexively do the same.
I want to see you stay at a company when "Electric motorcycle startup Mission Motors has ceased operations after losing some of its key talent to competitors such as Apple, and failing to develop a viable business model, according to Reuters."
Not Apple being the bad guy at all.
The engineers saw the handwriting on the wall and jumped ship. Automotive power engineers are in high demand. I understand completely why they would jump ship from a company that had a shaky future to one that was solid and would pay them more. I work for a small company that has a team of engineers. We have a core that sticks around year after year but there is an outer layer that cycle in and out. Several have even come back. Engineers like many kinds of talented professionals, can be quite mercenary.
Really? The motor business is a homogenous one. One of prototypical homogenous American industries/companies too.
If this bothers you I suppose we shouldn't tell you that Ford Motor Company also hired away the GM guy (and executive staff) that designed and launched the 1963 Corvette to work on their new for 1969 Mustang. They were blasphemous even back then!
A lot of key products and ideas came to be due to people jumping ship, care to guess how many people were lured away from Atari and HP to Apple?
If this bothers you I suppose we shouldn't tell you that Ford Motor Company also hired away the GM guy (and executive staff) that designed and launched the 1963 Corvette to work on their new for 1969 Mustang. They were blasphemous even back then!
A lot of key products and ideas came to be due to people jumping ship, care to guess how many people were lured away from Atari and HP to Apple?