The holiday weekend is coming up, so short and well, ok, maybe not so sweet. No surprise there.
Crypto meltdown, Celsius crash deepen rift between Web3 fans and skeptics, PitchBook recently noted. “Proponents of Web3 hope that this new iteration of the internet, characterized by decentralized platforms based on blockchain technology, will eventually overturn the “evil” of big tech and traditional banks, allowing all users—not just founders, investors and employees—to benefit financially from their participation.”Read More...
What Do Quicky Vegas Weddings and VC Funding Have in Common?
Back in 2010, Mark Suster penned a blog post entitled Invest in Lines, Not Dots and like many investors, Suster has sat on both sides of the table. It a must read for entrepreneurs, especially if you plan on raising money from investors, now or any time in the not-too-distant future, or ever. It’s also a great explanation of the importance of establishing relationships with investors before you need the money – and gives you something of an idea of a good investor’s mindset.
Why can’t investors simply understand what a monster company you’re building and just write the bloody check?
As Suster points out, “We want to make sure we’re in love. This sometimes frustrates entrepreneurs who just want to “get back to running the business.” But if you understand it you’ll see that it is perfectly rational and it should also influence how you form relationships with investors. And remember, if we get married you’re stuck with us, too.”Read More...
Although you might believe that we meant to say ‘Meta,’ no, we meant Facebook, which is a division of Meta.
According to Techcrunch, Meta says its metaverse biz lost another $3B in Q1 – but the 2030s will be ‘exciting’ and damn the torpedoes. Make no mistake about it and according to Input, Mark Zuckerberg is hell-bent on the metaverse — and getting you to work in VR, pointing out that “The Facebook CEO…sees it as the “successor to the mobile internet”…The big question is if anyone will follow Zuckerberg into the metaverse.”
Certainly not Sheryl Sandberg. According to the Wall Street Journal, “One of the world’s most powerful executives became increasingly burned out and disconnected from the mega-business she was instrumental in building. That dovetailed with a company investigation into her activities.Read More...
We have entered a new era of tech. Web 3.0, including blockchain/the distributed web, cryptocurrency, the metaverse, 5G and before too long, quantum computing (The Need, Promise, and Reality of Quantum Computing), which will certainly be a huge game-changer.
After all the loss of privacy we’d experienced during Web 2.0h???, as we now like to call it, as capturing all our personal data was supposedly all in the name of selling us yet another pair of, say, sneakers. Oh, and connecting the world through social, too, as it was the social web after all, no matter how anti-social it became over time. But considering how much more the next era in tech is promising – and let’s not forget robotics, connected glasses, eg the upcoming Apple Glasses, the Internet of Things, AI, Smart Cities, Smart Agriculture, et al are also in the mix – what a wonderful era of promise awaits us! We’re finally going to get it all right and in fact, to help you prepare, head’s up: “To succeed in the future, you MUST learn web3, @Mishadavinci tweeted. These 7 world-changing concepts get you up to speed.”
Just a reminder that June is the year’s midway point and always a good idea to take stock of where we are so far.
The big tech stocks have all taken a long-overdue hit, as has the rest of the stock market and the word is that it has become harder to raise funding. It’s true that investors aren’t writing checks at the rate that they did, but then again, we’re coming off a 13-year tech high, and many people who cashed out or who were acquired suddenly became investors. But were they qualified? All things considered, that’s part of the broken VC model. Do they add value, or just money? There is a difference, and the distinction is important, especially in times like these.
Even the so-called high-flying seasoned investors are feeling the pain. It’s one thing to be a genius in the good times. We’ll see who the true outliers are moving forward.Read More...
While we’ve all had a lot of fun being distracted by Elon Musk and his Twitter takeover, which may or may not be on hold, at least for now, there are a few things that you might have missed. We may also be at the juncture of a new era in tech.
In case you haven’t been following it, the stock market has been taking a huge hit, especially in the tech sector. Truth be told, tech stocks have long been overvalued, and although no one wants to mention the word, let’s go there: the bubble is finally bursting. It’s overdue. Waaay overdue.
Consider: Facebook revenue slows but user gains boost stock. Strange math, what, eh? “The company shares had fallen by about 44 percent in addition to recording a $400 billion loss in market value,” TechStory reported. But the stock was up! But not for long. Of course, Zuckerberg has assured us that his metaverse will be hugely profitable by 2030, no matter that it lost $3B this past year. The hype machine, it seems, is alive and well.Read More...
What Does a Guy Have to Do to Acquire a Media Company Around Here?
Tech has been long overdue for a correction, and it certainly hit this week, with a vengeance and on all fronts, and especially in the stock market, where Jeff Bezos lost $13B in just a few hours. He’s still one of the wealthiest people on the planet but, hey, a billion here, a billion there, before you know it, it adds up to real money
Elon Musk had been battling for Twitter for weeks. The board scoffed at his initial offer. Twitter workers freaked out over Elon Musk in internal Slack messages (“Physically cringy watching Elon talk about free speech,” wrote one site reliability engineer, and for fook’s sake, doesn’t the South African-born billionaire realize that he’s in America now!!!). Now that Musk has more or less been handed the keys, the tech press is up in arms, too, that yet another billionaire owns a media company. Or so it was reported by MSN (backed by billionaire Bill Gates), in a Bloomberg opinion piece (owned by billionaire Michael Bloomberg) published in the Washington Post (owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos).
With all of those forces against him, makes you wonder what a guy has to do to acquire a media company in this day and age?Read More...
According to all reports, we’re in the midst of a Great Resignation. People are leaving their jobs in great numbers, but what it is actually all about?
“Workers aren’t just looking for higher pay, more time off, or more days at home (though those things would surely help in the short term). They’re actually questioning the whole meaning of the daily grind. Why do we put so much of ourselves into our careers? And are we getting a fair deal from our employers in return for all this stress and heartache?,” said Inc. “The period of prolonged uncertainty of a year and a half is going to make people consider their priorities on many, many levels, including the work they do.”Read More...
You gotta love Elon Musk, whether you’re a fan or not. Or at least give him the fist bump of respect for his – going there – elan. No one has that flair for shaking up the tech landscape quite like him, and one never quite knows what his next move will be, or why.
So, what’s with Musk’s focus on Twitter, be it as a majority shareholder or actual owner? At the end of the day, does it really matter? Forest through the trees: every tech cabalist owns a media outlet: Apple has Apple News and Apple TV; Google has Google and YouTube, Meta has Facebook and Instagram; Amazon has The Washington Post. With Twitter, power influencer Musk now has his. Period.
The Twitterverse has gone wild since Musk announced his takeover plans, especially Twitter employees. OMG! He’s threatening to restore freedom of speech! Can you imagine??? Yet, “Several employees noted in internal messages that Musk, who considers himself to be a champion of free speech, has appeared to express disdain for the use of gender pronouns,” The Washington Post reported. Or is controversy the tool he uses to shine a light on hypocrisy? Hmmm….Read More...
