I think the buzz right now is about Knock laying off 45% of its staff, pulling its plans to go public, etc. Look at the comments on Inman, and you can see the general sentiment out there.
I think I’ll try to address this in more detail and in more depth in a future post, but I just wanted to say how great it is that Sean Black, the founder and CEO, was so completely transparent about what went down in a lengthy post on his personal blog: Knock’s Wild Ride from $2B to $220M in 12 Months. Not since Glenn Kelman’s diary on going public have we been treated to the inside story on a startup’s struggles and journey through the financial markets. This is great, and it’s interesting as hell.
What I do want to point out, and I suppose give away the takeaway from a longer analysis post, is that Knock still raised $220 million in new funding, with $70 million of that in equity and $150 million in debt. In this insane market.
Dude, that’s not Knock getting knocked out. At best, it’s Knock getting knocked down for an 8 count. That’s Knock being a victim of global events not of its own making, just like Opendoor was punished back in 2019 for WeWork and Softbank’s missteps. And even with all that, they raised a bunch more money to keep things going. I have every confidence in the iBuyer value proposition (and “Power Buyer” is also an iBuyer, as I always say) and I have confidence in Sean Black and that team.
Like I said, more later after I’ve researched things a bit more.
-rsh
