Sonder Won’t Enter Cash Flow Positive Territory in 2023
Photo Credit: A living room in a Sonder rental. The company is desperately trying to cut costs and boost revenue per available room. Source: Sonder Sonder
Skift Take
The banking crisis and the macroeconomic environment are new headwinds for Sonder. Optimists and fans would say the company is making modest progress, but it is taking considerably longer than the company expected last year.
Sonder executives put a positive spin on how the business is trending, but there is evidently very little hope of achieving its previously articulated goal of positive free cash flow in 2023.
In the struggling hospitality company's first quarter shareholder letter that it released Wednesday, co-founder and CEO Francis Davidson pointed to a $21 million improvement in free cash flow compared with the year-ago period. But that free cash flow stood at negative $41 million at the end of the seasonally weak January through March period this year.
"This is far better than the average $15 million reduction we saw in the 3 quarters since we announced our shift from hypergrowth to cash flow positivity," Davidson wrote, adding that he expects further improvements in the second quarter, and better results in the second half of 2023.
Sonder, which faces a potential delisting if its share price lingers below $1 per
