Bitcoin News Australia

Even by the fail-fast, break-things standards of Silicon Valley, Lime’s prospects for long-term success appeared outrageous.

• Founded in 2017, the company littered cities with expensive but flimsy rental bikes and scooters in hopes it might gain market share over competitors like Bird, all the while alienating local governments and harming pedestrians.
• In 2020, consumer scooter spending fell by ~100% amid the pandemic. People were not even renting scooters to throw them into rivers or set them on fire anymore.

Now, the scooter company — or, as Lime likes to be known, “micromobility company” — claims it had its first profitable year in 2022, according to TechCrunch.

Seriously, how did this happen?

We know. It’s wild. But Lime has found success improving its unit economics (i.e., making more money off every single e-bike and scooter).

The key is the battery. Last year, the company rolled out its Gen4 e-bike, which uses a swappable battery that can be replaced without having to take the bike off the street — reducing operational costs and increasing their availability to users. Lime’s scooters use the same battery.

As of last year, Lime had ~5m active users across ~200 cities.

CEO Wayne Ting told TechCrunch the company will seek to IPO in the near future.

Meanwhile…

E-scooter competitor Bird, which recently merged with a Canadian licensee, is struggling. The company admitted to overstating earnings from 2020 to 2022. Unlike Lime, Bird has outsourced the development of its equipment.

Since going public through a SPAC in 2021, Bird’s stock has fallen from a peak of $8.40 to ~$0.20.

Things have gotten so grim for Bird that the company is seeking unpaid funds from past customers who owe less than $1.

On Sept. 13, 1984, as stocks wavered through a bear market, a regional electronics chain held a hyped initial public offering.

That first day, investors purchased ~2m shares of Crazy Eddie for $8 apiece, under the ticker CRZY. By year’s end, the stock would climb 25%, far outpacing a flat market and boosting Crazy Eddie’s plans for greater expansion.

If it seems odd that a purveyor of VCRs and stereos could make investors swoon, remember that this was the 1980s and people were getting pumped about cellphones the size of microwaves.

And know that this electronics company was Crazy Eddie — a brand that, in so many ways, was breaking the usual rules.

The previous fiscal year, Crazy Eddie’s annual revenues were ~$134m (~$372m today). More impressively, the 43-store, New York City-area chain led the electronics industry in sales per square foot and profit margins.

There was just one major problem.

Crazy Eddie had been lying about its numbers since its inception — and the higher the stock soared, the further founder Eddie Antar went to maintain the illusion.

Duh: Workers love a four-day workweek. And apparently, so do companies, per the results of the world’s largest pilot to date.

The study included ~2.9k employees across 61 UK organizations of various sizes and industries from June to December 2022.

Of those organizations, 92% have decided to continue with shorter weeks.

Where does this info come from?

New Zealand-based nonprofit 4 Day Week Global has been conducting pilots around the world, of which the UK study is the largest.

Workers agree to use a “100-80-100” model, which means they receive 100% of their pay for 80% of the time, but commit to 100% of the output.

Bloomberg notes that, while the studies are well-designed, they aren’t randomized because companies volunteer.

Now, the data

The pilot found consistent benefits across industries:

• Revenue rose by an average of 1.4%
• Staff turnover dropped by 57%

Employees apparently loved it, with 90% saying they definitely wanted to continue and 15% claiming no amount of money would motivate them to go back.

Employees also reported less burnout (71%), improved mental health (43%), greater satisfaction with their time (73%), and an increase in their abilities at work (55%).

Interestingly, women generally reported greater improvements, while men were able to contribute to their households more, including 27% who spent more time caring for their children.

What do people use the time for?

Not other paid work. Instead, they took on leisure activities, hobbies, and housework.

The latter may not sound fun, but one participant told CNN the “life-changing” model allowed her to get all her chores done on Friday and actually enjoy her weekend.