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Tag: #Entrepreneurship

The Dangers of Founder/C-Suite Myopia

The Dangers of Founder/C-Suite Myopia

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Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

The tech times, they are a-changing. Companies are laying off big time and basically across the board, meaning companies large and small, or are in hiring freeze mode. Google employees weren’t happy when they were told that their travel and swag budgets were being cut. Oh, in case you didn’t see the memo, the days of Tech Entitlement are over, too. The economy isn’t what it was during the halcyon days of tech and, news flash – the tech sector is not immune.

Speaking of behemoths, Amazon Abandons Home Delivery Robot Tests in Latest Cost Cuts, Reuters reported. Called Scout, “The slow-moving devices, accompanied by human minders during tests, were designed to stop at a front door and pop open their lids so a customer could pick up a package. Amazon said the battery-powered robots were part of an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in its delivery operations.”

Amazon is feeling the slower sales, too. Then again, the lockdowns are over, and people can go past their doorsteps once again and shop. With many smaller stores shut down in the lockdown era. Amazon was a go-to, and boom! Hockey stick growth. Now, not so much and they’re cost-cutting too, given their now ‘slow growth.’ Did the company think they’d maintain lockdown-level growth or conditions forever? Even hockey sticks have an end point – something tech and tech investors could seemingly never quite grok. Read More...

Tech: The Half-Year in Review

Tech: The Half-Year in Review

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Image by Stux at Pixabay

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...

That Seldom Discussed Reason Why So Many Startups Fail

That Seldom Discussed Reason Why So Many Startups Fail

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We visited NYC recently and stayed at our apartment for the first time in over 18 months. We all know that the city has changed. Many people left, and have no intention of coming back, from what they’ve said to us, including founders, investors, developers and everyone in between. Their reasons are varied. The weather. The lifestyle. The changing school curriculum – and the policies in place for their children to be able to even show up. Not easy keeping rambunctious younger children in masks all day – what to speak of the possible long-term health effects. Ironic, since if you enter NYC from downtown, you’ll see New York Harbor where the Statue of Liberty stands as a welcoming beacon, with the words ‘yearning to breathe free,’ inscribed on the base. And thanks for playing.

Even though we’d lived in NYC since our college days, we were on terra incognita. Even our apartment felt foreign.  After having imbibed in only artisanal water for well over a year, the NYC tap water tasted horrible. Salty, with a distinct chemical-y flavor. Isn’t NYC tap water supposedly among the best in the world? Had that changed, too?

In-person networking events are back, and although we didn’t have time to attend any, papers required? Echoes of Nazi Germany and while it may be the new normal in NY, not required where we are and it felt disturbing. We’ve also gotten feedback from investors and readers who’ve attended the in-person events, commenting that they’ve changed. Not the same energy. And not the same level as they were prior to the exodus. Read More...

Entrepreneurship and Natural Instinct

Entrepreneurship and Natural Instinct

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Our cat died late last week. Her name was Paris. She was 17 – a long life, in cat years. Although technically, she wasn’t our cat. Technically, she belonged to the super in the building next door when we’d had our ground floor Manhattan office, but as a tiny kitten living with three grown cats and a dog, all of whom would not let her get near the food, she had other ideas about staying put. And acted on them. Without hesitation. A true entrepreneur/go-getter so take heed, entrepreneurs and budding entrepreneurs: when you see a gaping need and find a solution/opportunity, go for it.

Our ground floor office had a huge walled in backyard. Little did we know that ground floor spaces in NYC tend to be overrun with mice and rats. Especially ones with large outdoor spaces. No matter how many accesses we plugged up and traps we set, they seemed to proliferate. We needed a cat – a mouser – but we didn’t live at the office, so getting a cat was a non-starter. Exterminators didn’t help much in our situation, either. Read More...

How to Make Money in Tech Without Starting a Company

How to Make Money in Tech Without Starting a Company

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Elon Musk is now worth $230 billion—as much as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett combined, and he has even surpassed Jeff Bezos. But, hey, a billion here, a billion there, why quibble? What was not mentioned in the CNBC piece is Elon Musk’s secret? Taxpayer money. His two companies that helped him to achieve that status – Tesla and SpaceX – “together have benefited from an estimated $4.9 billion in government support (subsidies),” according to the LA Times.

 

Considering that it’s lawmakers who decide who gets what, many of them have coincidentally done quite well picking stocks, even though we know that insider trading is illegal – at least for the rest of us. Still, congress is required to disclose their stock transactions. According to NPR, the “STOCK Act is a law that was passed and signed in 2012, (that) requires more disclosures by federal lawmakers when they trade, they purchase, they sell stocks. It also criminalizes trading on inside information.” Read More...

Why Preparedness Matters

Why Preparedness Matters

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There was a time when penny loafers were very popular, especially for school children. The shoes had a slot up top in each, into which perfectly fit a penny, and many children actually did insert a pennies. Of course, was also once such a thing a candies and gum balls which also cost a penny, so if perchance you were passing a store that did sell penny candies, you were prepared.

True story: we once knew a guy named Kurt had worn penny loafers ever since his mother had gotten him his very first pair upon entering kindergarten. Much to her chagrin, Kurt insisted on placing dimes into the slots. Why should she fork over dimes instead of pennies to a child who didn’t understand the value of money, but little Kurt was adamant. His mother had drilled it into him that he should always be prepared, and since he was not a big fan of candy – what to speak of the fact that penny candy had gone the way of the dodo – where would a penny get him despite the somewhat eponymously named shoes, but in those days, public telephones abounded and cost to make a call? Ten cents. Even little Kurt knew that, having witnessed his mother using said phones. At least with dimes, he reasoned, he’d be prepared for something. Exasperated, she gave in.

Penny loafers eventually went out of style with seemingly everyone but Kurt, who wore them into adulthood and continued to place dimes in the inserts of each new pair. To place a call from a public phone was still ten cents, and one just never knew… Read More...

The Video Revolution in the Age of Remote

The Video Revolution in the Age of Remote

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While we are well aware of the fact that people have been untethering from television for quite some time, viewership has also been plummeting when it comes to the various mainstream news services. The numbers are in a free fall.

While the term ‘fake news’ has been bandied about ad nauseam and has become so much part of the patois that social media also affixes ‘potential fake news’ labels on tweets and posts that are not in lockstep with the media talking points. But no matter what’s reported, note to self: who can’t grab a photo or video with their phone these days? What the media reports, thanks in no small part to editing and green screen, and what onlookers post can sometimes seem like alternate realities and given this, even the major news outlets no longer have a monopoly over the message.

Publications are no longer necessarily authentic in their reporting, either. Prior to the last election, we’d do our usual perusal of tech articles, and noticed that the reporters always added a political aside which would have nothing to do with the story itself or the technology that was being featured. We began unsubscribing: How could we trust a reporter who was writing about, say, a dating app, then slipped in, say, a climate change aside, which had nothing at all to do with said app? The trust was gone.  So long, and thanks for all the fish. Read More...

Jesus Was a Blackbelt: A Lesson in Moving Forward

Jesus Was a Blackbelt: A Lesson in Moving Forward

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Image by Artistraman on Pixabay

Last week, Twitter removed US President Donald Trump from the platform, tweeting that “After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.” Never mind that Twitter Allows ‘Hang Mike Pence’ To Trend. Violent groups and terrorists have been using the platform for years to coordinate their activities, but we cover technology, not politics, and are more focused on the implications of Twitter’s move – as well as those of tech cabal members Google, who removed Parler from their app store, as did Apple, and Amazon, which eliminated Parler app from its servers.

As actress Emily Ratajkowski warned: If Mark Zuckerberg Can Shut the President Off Facebook, He Can Shut Any of Us Off. History will remind us that no one is truly immune.

There’s no doubt that censorship is alive and well and spreading – unchecked – and it’s not simply to do with politics but also having opinions that are not in lockstep with those of the cabal or the prescribed talking points. Example: Big Tech censors COVID-19 video featuring doctors, YouTube REMOVES viral video of two California doctors questioning stay-at-home orders  and Facebook declares war on anti-vaxxers as it pledges to remove conspiracy theories, never mind that Hundreds (were) Sent to Emergency Room After Getting COVID-19 Vaccines, and “Thousands of people self-reported being unable to work or perform daily activities, or required care from a health care professional, after getting one of the doses from the first tranche,” as the Epoch Times reported. Read More...