The stories of the early days of Airbnb, who recently filed to go public, are the stuff of legend including how the founders turned to selling themed cereal to survive.
The cereals were called “Obama O’s, the Cereal of Change,” and “Cap’n McCain’s, a Maverick in Every Box.” – a throwback to their first success housing delegates of the Democratic National Convention in 2008. It was also what got them a spot on Y Combinator.
A fascinating and thought provoking read on why it is the category leading brick and mortar retailers who will be the real winners in the post Covid era.
In one word – omni-channel.
“Wal-Mart’s digital revenue in Q2 was an annualized $42 billion, growing 94% — faster than Amazon … Perhaps the simplest way to express what has happened during Covid is to note that Amazon has actually lost share in e-commerce during Covid.”
A nice quote – “nothing accelerates change like success“
“[The] mission of the company is to be the most creative, the most innovative and the most efficient entertainment company — not interactive entertainment company, entertainment company — on earth,“
Apple silicon performance improvement has been staggering – “Whilst in the past 5 years Intel has managed to increase their best single-thread performance by about 28%, Apple has managed to improve their designs by 198%, or 2.98x (let’s call it 3x) the performance of the Apple A9 of late 2015.“
40% of new (straight) relationships in the USA started online.
Due to Covid this is likely higher today than in 2017 where the data ends.
“The intensity with which singles are swiping and chatting is visible across all Match Group dating apps, which include Tinder, OKCupid, Match.com, Hinge and Plenty of Fish. Amarnath Thombre, the chief executive of Match Group Americas, said that messages were up 30 to 40 percent on most of the company’s apps compared with the same time last year.”
“A great meeting has three key elements: the desired outcome of the meeting is clear ahead of time; the various options are clear, ideally ahead of time; and the roles of the participants are clear at the time.“
“I think that’s the single largest source of optimization for a company: the makeup of their meetings. To be clear, it’s not about fewer meetings because meetings serve a purpose. Rather, it’s key to improve the meetings, themselves. A lot of my efforts focus on teaching people this framework. Ironically, I find that most people are just challenged by that stuff.“
Very comprehensive post on the landscape of companies involved in financialising new asset classes or democratising access to existing ones and creating markets.
“Whether it’s the long tail of “alternative alternative” assets, venture-backed company shares, software contracts, or sport teams the financialization of everything is on its way.”
