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Their CEO, Francis Davidson, Forbes 30 under 30. Strikes again.

Unicorn status (1 billion) in 2020, to bankrupt in 2025. Another Zero Interest Rate Phenomenon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonder_(company) https://www.linkedin.com/in/francisdavidson/

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> Forbes 30 under 30

Really amazing how much of a reliable indicator this has become.

Time Man of the Year is even worse. That’s like being led up a ladder into a big wicker man.

TIME naming everyone Person of the Year in 2006 is really what started us down this twisted timeline

To be fair, Person of the Year is a prize that is more "This is a person who impacted the world", not necessarily "This is a good person that deserves praise". Both Stalin (twice!) and Hitler been Person of the Year.

Forbes 30 under 30 seems to be a bit more interesting for narcissists, as it really focuses on their "great achievements".

I'm not 100% sure - there's quite a few YC founders who have been on the Forbes 30 under 30. As we're commenting on one of their sites, I feel obligated to point out how great it is as an accelerator as well!

I know of a startup founder (I think YC) who "won" the 30 Under 30 and now goes to great lengths to hide this fact, i.e. it's never mentioned on their LinkedIn or any online profile that they have control over.

Probably can't stop search engines from indexing Forbes.com but still.

I’ve received a dozen offers to buy my way into a feature in Forbes. Seems like a good way to ensure that every single person on there is unethical and committing fraud.

> Forbes 30 under 30

Isn't this one of those pay-to-play accolades?

Oh 100%. If you actually browse through one of the lists a lot of people are nominated because they raised a bunch of investment to do X, not because they've actually done X. Venture capital sponsors brand events, forbes in return selects their prospects for marketing. Lists plural too, there are so many categories that I counted 1230 30u30 winners last year.

was this a case where a 1bil valuation in 2020 was increased because of covid (people wanted hotels that didn't require any human interaction) OR they were valued at 1bil pre-covid and covid killed their momentum when travel stopped?

They IPO'd in 2021 and were worth about 22 billion until Jan 2022. Then a precipitous fall to about 2.2 billion in 2023, 220 million in 2024, and now 22 million.

>They IPO'd in 2021 and were worth about 22 billion until Jan 2022

No, they IPOed via a merger with SPAC in January 2022, and almost immediately the price of the company took a dip. 2021 was probably when the SPAC was founded/IPOed, and the relatively flat price prior to 2022 was because it was basically a pot of money.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonder_(company)#History

Ah, makes sense. But then the nearly geometric decline began.

I was at some Forbes 30 under 30 party a couple years ago - as in, I started noticing a large number of guests were that - and I started offering myself up as a future character witness

Sounds like something Michael Malice might say. Or P.J. O’Rourke.

If you haven’t heard of him, check him out in his podcast ‘Your Welcome’, spelling intentional.

That's such a red flag by now. That and a Softbank investment. And I'm not sure which is worse.

Hope he cashed out by dumping his shares in the private market.

Dude ejected himself 4 mo ago to "work on something new"? Nice one.

He's just hoping to be the next Altman.

You're thinking of Neumann, Altman will be in the same in the future, though. New equals old.

Didn't Altman fail upward multiple times before working at YC?

yea paul graham knew with 10 mins of meeting teenage sam that sama is going to be the next bill gates .

True story from silicon valley ( real one not HBO one)

Likely split the minute his lockin ended.

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