Canoo spent double its annual revenue on the CEO's private jet

If the reimbursements were solely for corporate travel, it might not be a concern.<p>The CEO here sold his previous company for $6.5 billion [1], so he already owned the jet before starting Canoo. The company reimburses him for corporate travel on it.<p>What&#x27;s concerning is that Canoo is stacking big losses and living on the edge...it seems like excessive spending for a company that hasn&#x27;t even made a dime of profit.<p>But hold on, this same CEO has spent over $230 million(!) buying Canoo stock from his personal funds [2], so he is significantly in the red no matter how much he gets reimbursed for air travel.<p>Always dig into the details and avoid getting suckered by clickbait...<p>1- <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reuters.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;idUSL1N11J0PS&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reuters.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;idUSL1N11J0PS&#x2F;</a><p>2- <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.secform4.com&#x2F;insider-trading&#x2F;1399053.htm" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.secform4.com&#x2F;insider-trading&#x2F;1399053.htm</a>

The headline is relatively clickbait-y. Its double their revenue because their revenue is basically 0. Their actual expenses are hundreds of millions, of which this 1.7 million is a drop in the bucket. Once their upfront expenses are paid they will (presumably) be making hundreds of millions&#x2F;billions in revenue, which means this 1.7m is not particularly important.<p>You can talk about standard complaints of CEOs with private jets, and I&#x27;d probably agree with you here, but there isn&#x27;t anything particularly egregious here.

&gt; Under a deal reached in November 2020, Canoo reimburses Aquila Family Ventures, an entity owned by the CEO (Tony Aquila), for use of an aircraft. In 2023, Canoo spent $1.7 million on this reimbursement — that’s double the amount of revenue it generated. Canoo paid Aquila Family Ventures $1.3 million in 2022 and $1.8 million in 2021 for use of the aircraft.<p>I&#x27;m surprised there are any employees left at the company. If I saw that the CEO is actively funneling funds out of the company where we work, to their family&#x27;s company, I&#x27;ll be long gone.

Tony Aquila is the CEO of both companies - Canoo and Aquila Family Ventures. I&#x27;ll never understand why it&#x27;s okay for CEOs to have multiple concurrent jobs, while one of the biggest fervors of the pandemic was when employees were found to have... multiple concurrent jobs.

Wow, it’s bad enough if they were NetJet fees.<p>This is WeWork level sketch: “ Canoo reimburses Aquila Family Ventures, an entity owned by the CEO, for use of an aircraft”<p>This is a PUBLIC company??

I&#x27;m beginning to think the vast majority of corporate governance is a facade and that this is just a way to blow millions of dollars with no real accountability.

Where is the BOD? The amount of self-dealing and conflicts of interest that everyone allows is just absurd.

I should quit my job and become a CEO, seems like a pretty sweet gig.

The boss already owns the jet. Now he makes his company rent it from him, so he can zoom around in the plane he already owns, and that he would be zooming around in even if he weren&#x27;t the Canoo boss.<p>I don&#x27;t think a company should be paying for the boss&#x27;s jet, if the company isn&#x27;t near break-even. I&#x27;d say the boss doesn&#x27;t believe the company has legs, and he&#x27;s extracting cash while he can.

I slightly mis-read the headline. Here&#x27;s what&#x27;s going on:<p>&gt;Canoo reimburses Aquila Family Ventures, an entity owned by the CEO, for use of an aircraft. In 2023, Canoo spent $1.7 million on this reimbursement.<p>CEO owns a plane. CEO uses the plane (for business, one presumes). Business reimburses CEO for plane. That looks like a poor use of funds, but not <i>necessarily</i> self-dealing?<p>I mean, in their position he should probably be flying coach - maybe he&#x27;s <i>so good</i> that he&#x27;s <i>totally worth</i> spending seven figures for his travel (though I doubt it) - but it&#x27;s <i>technically</i> no different than reimbursing any other travel expense.<p>Better system: they could reimburse the minimum airfare, and he could cover the difference himself. Everyone has that figured out for us peons, when we request a more convenient flight. (Want to bet they imposed that on their employees?)

the ceo invested $230M+ of his own money into the company. if the guy wants a market-rate jet benefit, give the man the jet.

&gt; avoid the same fate as other EV startups, like recently bankrupt Arrival.<p>Talking about other EV startups, I wonder how much longer Aptera can remain in a state somewhere in between not having gone bankrupt and not having started production yet. They do seem to be forever inching closer toward the latter [1].<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;electrek.co&#x2F;2024&#x2F;04&#x2F;01&#x2F;aptera-showcase-solar-ev-tech-uae-as-preps-first-production-intent-builds-video&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;electrek.co&#x2F;2024&#x2F;04&#x2F;01&#x2F;aptera-showcase-solar-ev-tech...</a>

&gt; The company generated $886,000 in revenue<p>Plenty of companies spend more than that on just AWS egress fees.<p>I’m not saying money spent on a private jet is right or wrong.<p>But when a company is not profitable, you could compare this to anything. Like the headline could have easily been “Canoo spent double its annual revenue on AWS egress fees”

I love startup culture. The CEO of my company flies commercial, and we&#x27;ve have thousands of employees, have been around since the 1940s, actually ship products, and make a shit-ton money.<p>But startup CEOs leading companies with 800 employees that can&#x27;t ship hardly anything are movin &amp; shakin so startupfully between plays and deals that they ain&#x27;t got no time for that.<p>$1.8 million per year for travel is $5,000 per day. That&#x27;s more than a day-of round-trip first-class flight on ANA ($20k today) from NYC to Tokyo every week.

&quot;Family Foundation&quot;<p>I wonder when the public wakes up and understands that rich people don&#x27;t own anything &quot;personally&quot; so you can increase VAT and income tax just as much as you like to tax the rich.

I also love when startups brag about headcount. You know what&#x27;s impressive? Revenue, followed by profit, and also <i>profit per employee</i>. Having 500 people and no revenue leads to the graveyard.

Canoo the car company, not Canoo the welcome-to-Canada app.<p>In case you are confused by the headline, as I was

on the one hand, it&#x27;s obviously stupid and a preposterous waste of resources, on the other hand, it&#x27;s a moral good to incinerate VC money if the VC are so fucking stupid as to give it to idiots like this guy.<p>so who&#x27;s to say which is better.

<i>Loss to revenue ratio of 350 to 1</i><p>Well, shoot. I thought the truck looked really cool.

End of ZIRP was supposed to deal with shit like this. Looks like money is still too cheap.<p>I&#x27;ve seen people saying rates are going higher from here back in 2022. While this isn&#x27;t my base case, it certainly isn&#x27;t impossible.

It’s OK because Elon uses a private jet and look at Tesla!

&gt; Under a deal reached in November 2020, Canoo reimburses Aquila Family Ventures, an entity owned by the CEO, for use of an aircraft.<p>Any guess how much of that money actually went into operating the aircraft, and how much was skimmed by the CEO? Madness either way, but we can&#x27;t have it filed under the wrong kind of madness, right?