[twelve40]

not the parent, but they probably meant "compared to typical vc-funded startup expected margins". most faangs don't need to ship tons of steel to anybody and their margins are around 25%.

can you disrupt used cars given all the logistics of the physical world? maybe, I don't know, but people here report both carmax and carvana having severe business issues, why?

[hn_throwaway_99]

Don't disagree with the sentiment that selling physical products is a lot more intensive than a SaaS app, but to this point, "people here report both carmax and carvana having severe business issues" is definitely due to the whiplash in the used car business due to COVID. That is, both new and used car prices skyrocketed due to supply chain issues, so CarMax and Carvana had to pay a ton for their inventory. Now car prices are "normalizing", so both of these companies have high priced inventory that they now need to sell in a low(er) priced market.

[freeopinion]

Typical vc-funded startups have negative margins.