Video of the week:
Honorable mention:
(I’ve previously recommended Mauboussin’s book so if you haven’t read it yet, the talk should serve as a good summary)
Podcast of the week:
Edward Snowden on the Joe Rogan show.
Honorable mention:
Season 1 of the Dream. Good story-telling around how multi-level marketing (MLM) works (how this doesn’t get prosecuted as a Pyramid Scheme is still beyond me)
Article of the week:
Don Valentin, founder of Sequoia and pretty much the modern VC industry, passed away earlier this week. Thus, it is a great time to read these semi-biographical interviews he did a few years back with UC Berkeley. They start off a bit slow but informative throughout
Honorable mention:
How one of Europe’s most promising healthtech startups failed to scale
Startup successes are valorized too much in current popular culture. Great analysis from Sifted on Min Doktor, a European startup that failed to scale despite raising loads of money from seasoned VCs
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Statistic of the week:
Top 10 Cities by population (2035 estimates ):
Honorable mention:
Stock returns since IPO:
Microsoft: +144,651%
Adobe: +120,171%
Amazon: +89,840%
Cisco: +63,855%
Nike: +50,499%
Apple: +42,552%
Starbucks: +24,720%
Netflix: +24,984 %
Disney: +17,222%
Mastercard: +5,774%
Tiffany & Co: +5,156%
Salesforce: +3,400%
Visa: +1,516%
Facebook: +391%
Quote I’m reflecting on this week:
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” - Robert A. Heinlein
Honorable mention:
“The fundamental delusion - there is something out there that will make me happy and fulfilled forever." - Naval Ravikant
Book recommendation of the week:
Over the past couple of years, I’ve found the FirstRound blog to be a great resource on startup and business advice. They’ve now compiled the most popular posts into a free eBook. download here. (Physical book is paid)
Start-up of the week:
UK-based ‘experiences’ marketplace Pollen. I’m a big believer in buying experiences over physical products; naturally, I am quite excited to see where this goes. They also raised a $60M round last week
Tweet of the week:
It's pretty wild that Facebook blue is growing at or above Twitter and Instagram is growing at or above Snapchat, despite being 12-15x larger Instagram is going to grow a Twitter + Snapchat next year
Honorable mention:
(see full thread)
Image of the week:
Honorable mention:
Question of the week:
Ask yourselves this:
“How many opinions do you accept simply because you fear saying “I don’t know”?
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