Postmates’ new IPO delay indicates Wall Street is turning against Silicon Valley

Re:Postmates’ new IPO delay indicates Wall Street is turning... by twblalock on Tuesday October 08, 2019 @10:09PM (#21199325)

Delivery of this kind is a three-agent problem: the company needs to coordinate between the restaurant, the driver, and the customer to make the whole thing work. This includes matching the customer to a driver who is in a good position to deliver on time. Keep in mind that the dispatcher, restaurant, driver, and customer may have no prior relationship.

You can do that at a small to medium scale without a lot of technology, e.g. taxi dispatch in a city can be operated by a small group of people in an office. But to scale such a service across an entire country, or the world, operating 24/7, is a massive coordination problem where technology can have a huge impact.

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Re:Postmates’ new IPO delay indicates Wall Street is turning... by yesplorer on Wednesday October 09, 2019 @02:23AM (#21200586)

Well, you can watch 100km from point A to point B. Or you can ride a horse. If you're rich enough, you can get someone to carry you on their back or you can buy a car to make the whole thing easier because of the technology breakthrough in transport.

That doesn't make Ford or Honda a tech company. They're automobile companies and Postmate is a delivery company.

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