Hi there,

I know 2019 was a long time ago, but I wanted to start with a personal story about how the last year ended. I hope you like it.

Don't worry, you'll still get your research and data fix.  

But back to 2019.

For New Year’s Eve, the family was in Montreal.

The evening started out poorly, as the restaurant where we had a reservation couldn’t seat us. So at 9 pm, we scrambled to find a place that could seat 4 people (2 being kids).

OpenTable to the rescue.

We found a restaurant called Alex H and hailed an Uber.

The Uber came and the driver said he couldn't take us, as our 4-year-old didn't have a car seat. We had already taken 10+ rides during the trip with no issue, so we figured we’d find someone else.

Three more came.

Same story.

So we decided the night was a bust.

I called the restaurant, told them the situation, and apologized for cancelling so late. The guy who answered was super nice.

We started to walk back to the hotel with plans to hit up a McDonald’s we saw along the way.

Then I got this text.

RIP 2019
 

Lest we forget, 2019 was a bad year for tech IPOs. 

But here’s to 2020 — see our predictions about the most promising startups that could go public this year.

What?

So I saw that text from Edward and thought: 

I responded by thanking him but told him we didn't want to inconvenience him.

He insisted that it was not a problem.  

Ultimately, we exchanged a few more messages. We didn't take him up on the food offer, but I was def pretty curious about Edward.

She has the range, darling

The $250B bottled water market. Luxury goods in video games. Amazon's retail playbook. Ingestible beauty cos. Livestream and voice shopping.

Feeling the FOMO yet? We've got you covered. Check out our roundup of the best consumer and retail research of 2019. 

NY love

Edward responded.

I know this story has little to nothing to do with tech (although it does mention Uber, OpenTable, and Airbnb, and it all transpired over iMessage), but I thought it was remarkably kind and unexpected, so wanted to share as it made a bust of a night really quite awesome.

And finally, if you live in Montreal or are visiting, go check out Edward’s restaurant, Alex H. I hope you’ll order a ton and tip well 🙂

Wishing you an amazing 2020.

Putting Bob the Builder out of a job
 

Construction is a $1T market in the US, but it's facing a tremendous labor shortage: 80% of construction cos are struggling to recruit and hire people. 

Reuters. Alec Macfarlane (@AlecMac11) predicts Hong Kong will be a hotbed for IPOs in 2020 and cites CB Insights data.

Wall Street Journal. Lev Borodovsky (@SoberLook) summarizes global macroeconomic trends in the Daily Shot newsletter and uses CB Insights data. 

Nikkei Asian Review. Yifan Yu (@YifanYuNews) covers venture predictions for tech in 2020 and references our annual financial services CVC report.

P.S. Tomorrow we'll have more on our collection of Gartner Magic Quadrant companies, but in the interim, clients can check it out here. 

P.P.S. We've added 5 new speakers to our all-star lineup for our fifth annual Future of Fintech (June 14-16, SF). See them here.

“Burning for months to come.” The Australian wildfires have burned more acres than the California, Amazon, and Siberian wildfires have, combined.

ABC

’Bout my coins like Mario. Here’s why it’s so hard to replace cash.

MIT Technology Review

Retail's grim reaper. The retail apocalypse has created a new job: the store closer. 

Wall Street Journal

It's okay to not have 2-day shipping. Designing for the 2020s will center on fixing our excess in the last century.

Fast Company

Let’s be honest: have you kept up? Here’s how to actually stick to a New Year’s resolution.

New York Times