Pick a fight

Hi there,

Was reading a great article entitled "10 Inglorious Years of Bootstrapping" (see The Blurb at the bottom), and in it, the author Dave Gooden writes about the value of having an enemy.



When we started, our enemy was Dow Jones. Their product is now irrelevant so we've moved onto much bigger targets who are part of the Pundit Industrial Complex. Hopefully, we get there.

Do you have an enemy?


All gold everything

We took a look at Goldman Sachs' strategy by tying together data from its investments, M&A, patents, partnerships, hiring activity, and more.

Based on Goldman’s hiring activity (46% of the firm's job postings are in technology), mobile consumer banking apps look to be next for the company’s Digital Finance offerings as it actively seeks mobile developers.

Got milk?

We previously discussed a startup whose CEO banned the drinking of milk in meetings a few weeks ago, and the story got some of you fired up.

You wrote in saying you were disgusted that adults drink milk at meetings.

We had no idea folks had such strong views on this topic.

So we polled all of you to see if drinking milk in a work meeting was really terrible or if this was a vocal minority.

While not many of you drink milk in meetings (<10%), you appear to be ok with others doing it. You are lactose tolerant. 




Drone disruption

Drone technology has been used by defense organizations and tech-savvy consumers for quite some time. However, the benefits of this technology extend well beyond these sectors.

From disease control to waste management to sports, check out the ways companies are harnessing drone technology across industries.

You got jokes

Here is an updated look at CEOs and top executives who minimized disruptive threats when they appeared. When asked about these smaller players at the time (and even now) some companies have remained woefully dismissive.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had this to say about the iPhone’s lack of a physical keyboard:




Dangerous advice

An angel investor named Jason Calacanis was recently profiled in The New York Times.

He is trying to get 10,000 people to become full-time angel investors and thinks that the wealthy and middle class should be investing in startups if they don't want to get left behind.

The tweet below properly summarizes the idea nicely.



The article has tons of "interesting" insights.

A few are below and the whole article is linked in The Blurb.

Insight #1 - Angel investing might help us avoid a revolution.



Insight #2 - The MJ of angel investing



Insight #3 - I believe this is called talking your book



Another good insight from Modest Proposal about the idea.




The Industry Standard

CB Insights data is the most trusted by those in the industry and the media. A few recent hits.

Business Insider. Frank Chaparro (@fintechfrank) digs into Goldman Sachs' tech-related job listings and references data found in the CB Insights Goldman Strategy Teardown.

CNBC. Aditi Roy (@aditiroycnbc) reports on Impossible Foods' new manufacturing plant in Oakland, CA and references CB Insights funding data.

Wired. Erin Griffith (@eringriffith) digs into hardware startups and references CB Insights research on why hardware startups fail.

Goldman Sachs strategy teardown: Goldman attacks Lending Club & Prosper, courts Main Street

 

30 big industries drones could disrupt

37 quotes from big corporate execs who laughed off disruption when it hit

The Blurb