A long or short term rental discoverability platform with payments, dispute resolution, and an availability calendar is really all that was needed. All of the experience stuff seems nice but really feels like a distraction. Airbnb for so long was so good at a very simple and useful thing.
Genuinely, I wonder why this happens. Is this because companies raise too much money that they have to morph into some "experience" company that ever offers more and more to get more and more revenue growth until they eventually bloat to the tech equivalent of a department store? I see it repeatedly with not just tech companies but DTC brands that pretend to be tech companies as well. Is the pressure from VC money that you have short term opportunity but you eventually will mutate into a blob of a company that isn't really good at anything like so many old-world companies that die?
Genuinely, I wonder why this happens. Is this because companies raise too much money that they have to morph into some "experience" company that ever offers more and more to get more and more revenue growth until they eventually bloat to the tech equivalent of a department store? I see it repeatedly with not just tech companies but DTC brands that pretend to be tech companies as well. Is the pressure from VC money that you have short term opportunity but you eventually will mutate into a blob of a company that isn't really good at anything like so many old-world companies that die?