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Comment by palakchokshi | Hacker News Reader

So let's get this straight. 1. There was negative pressure on PostMates' business model sustainability

2. Speculation that the numbers didn't work

3. PostMates is in the process of raising new funding

4. It is in PostMates' best interest to get a positive news buzz going about its business model and numbers to raise valuation of the company in a new round of funding.

5. Financials are "leaked" that show the numbers look better than expected. (Thank you TechCrunch)

6. New round of funding is closed at a higher valuation than what it would have been if these documents were not "leaked" (Speculation based on how investors follow herd mentality)

7. PostMates founders do a high five (Speculation on my part)

8. Mission Accomplished

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There was the same "horrible" thing going on with Uber's financials a while back. The last sentence by TechCrunch back then "...If the readings....are correct though, Uber is in fantastic shape...". PR nicely done.

[1] http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/04/leaked-uber-numbers-which-w...

I guess if you don't pay for the journalism, you shouldn't expect them to provide services like "not being a propaganda mouthpiece".

Not trying to single out TechCrunch; it's a major public goods problem that was solved pre-internet by the difficulty of copying newspapers, so companies could profit by doing thorough research and fact-checking. I hope they solve it by some kind of "one payment, all-you-can-eat, payout-in-proportion-to-views" system.

I don't get it. What does this gain over just releasing it themselves? Are you limited in how often you are able to release financial statements?

Well for starters "leaks" are a hell of a lot more interesting than financial statements regarding generating buzz.

One could argue a "leak" creates more buzz? A bigger sense of momentum and out-performance? Also they'd face less scrutiny if the there's some creativity in the numbers. "It's just an internal document, you can't blame us".

I could also think of a scenario where there's some internal conflict and somebody wanted to get the numbers released. Tho ofc it wouldn't be "in PostMates' best interest" anymore perhaps.

Private companies generally prefer to keep their financial statements secret. If your default policy isn't "we never share" then people will assume the worst unless you share. "Leaking" gets around that.

Also, if a company is doing much better than expected, they don't want their competitors to see their margins.

Postmates declined to comment on this story.

"They are now in the process of raising new funding, although we’re told they have at least half of the financing from the last round in the bank. Existing investors are expected to participate. Some are hoping that the company could eventually even IPO."

Yap, well done. A bit transparent and obvious though.

This is how government disseminates some news They are "leaked" via "unnamed govt officials". Doing it via a "leak" works in some cases better.

The other use of leaks is to public opinion. "Leak" a little bit of a story. See how public reacts. If doesn't react well, re-phrase. If it does, do a full release.

Everything is a Dog and Pony Show but sometimes you want to bark but you don't want the Show that goes with barking.

So you leak the bark and maintain an official "No Barking" policy.

Known as a trial balloon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_balloon

Except it was not leaked by Postmates. Full stop.

On the broader subject, even if numbers are quite good, there are many reasons why private companies do not want this data to be out in public. Any investor who needs to see the data on Postmates will be seeing it as they fundraise, as that is a relatively small pool of people.

Additionally, if you want to freak out the competition & their investors and leave them wondering, this is one approach. :)

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