Podcasts about after amazon

Tyler Wallis spent seven years at Amazon, leading teams in Consumer Electronics, Home Improvement, and Marketing for Amazon Canada. In that same time, he scaled from intern to team leader. After Amazon, Tyler founded TripleLine, an agency helping “better-for-you” CPG brands scale profitably on Amazon, and launched this podcast (Think Like Amazon) to share insights on applying Amazon's leadership principles beyond the company. In this episode, it was now Jorge's turn to interview Tyler, as he shares his journey from corporate leader to entrepreneur, reflecting on key lessons and practical takeaways:How Amazon's Ownership principle shaped his career, including driving to Canada to gather critical data firsthand.The transition from corporate life to entrepreneurship and how Amazon's principles guide his business approach.Why being a generalist prepared him for entrepreneurship's diverse challenges.Practical advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, including building a diverse skill set within your current role. Whether you're curious about Amazon's culture, entrepreneurship, or scaling a business, this conversation is packed with actionable insights. Mentioned in the episode:Tyler's LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/tylermwallis/Learn more about Triple Line: https://triplelinebrands.com/Profit and Purpose Podcast: www.profitandpurpose.show/ Follow us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/think-like-amazon-podcast

Photographer is artist-in-residence at Cold Spring cafe Two years ago, photographer Urban Karlsson ordered heavy paper from Amazon. Instead, in a snafu, he received sheets of canvas typically used by painters. Rather than return the order, the Philipstown resident experimented with it, discovering that printing photos on the thick cotton surface added an ethereal edge to his preferred subjects: flowers, landscapes, street scenes and root vegetables. Named for Pope Urban V, who died in 1370, Karlsson is a native of Sweden who wears an ABBA pendant around his neck. He is the artist-in-residence at Cozy Corner Cafe in Cold Spring (formerly Hudson Hil's), where an exhibit of his work, Summer Happiness, is on display. He also has a pop-up store at 137 Main St. through July 31. Inspired by Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, Karlsson plans to rotate his exhibit at Cozy Corner every three months. To celebrate summer, the flower motif is flowing. "Being a creative person means that I've never been bored in my life," he says. "I'm always making something or exploring an inspiring thought." The artist, who is 60 and lives across Main Street from the restaurant, got the gig by strolling into the newly opened cafe and presenting his portfolio to co-owner Jessika Martinez, who has an interior design degree. Martinez selected photos that she said enhanced the space's feng shui. Before hanging the photos, she painted the beige walls in powder blue and white. "I was looking for happy colors and a calm vibe," she says. At the cafe, real flowers are positioned on each table and in boxes on the porch. Rose petals infuse the lemonade. To gussy up the waiting area outside a bathroom, Martinez placed a flowery wreath between two eye-high posters depicting wildflowers. Karlsson's photos of yellow roses, blue hydrangea and poppies on a wall inside the restaurant entrance look like they're made of porcelain. On the left is an array of purple flowers with green backgrounds. He shoots with his iPhone 13. "I want to be able to take advantage of the moment, and I don't like dialing in any settings," he says. The cafe photos were conveyed to canvas with an inkjet printer and appear to have been manipulated with drawing or brush strokes to create a hazy texture. Also untouched are the pictures of Storm King and a plum tomato carved with imperfections, which hang in the smaller, darker dining room. Karlsson's take on a pile of carrots resembles imperfect candles with wicks or sticks of dynamite with fuses. He did, however, dab paint over a blurry composite of images depicting fruits and vegetables jammed close together in bright green pint containers. His addition of white light sometimes makes it difficult for people to determine the subject, he says. The one shot on long-term display depicts the cozy cafe and its corner at night surrounded by streaks of light. He calls it the "Miracle on Main Street." Karlsson also crafted canvas shades for the tabletop lamps, to which he added strips of decorative burlap lace. A veteran of the fashion industry, he worked for a Swedish clothing company and moved to Garrison part-time in 2001 before relocating to Cold Spring last year. His studio is called Urban Karlsson Living, or U.K.L., and he works with photos, oil paint, mixed media - and food. His website cookingwithurban.com has recipes. His business card, a compact and foldable canvas square cut from a defective or poorly printed work, would make a colorful placemat in a child's tea set. After Amazon's mistake with the paper order, Karlsson leaned into the happy accident. "Things come to me that I may not have been looking for," he says. "But I stay open to them because it's probably meant to be."

After Amazon and Google signed a $1.2bn contract to launch Project Nimbus, providing cloud technology to the Israeli government and the military, tech workers started to notice more Israeli use of artificial intelligence against the Palestinian people.Many of those engineers have become activists for “No Tech for Genocide”, including Zelda Montes, who was one of the dozens of Google staff who were recently fired for protesting against their company's involvement with Israel.Montes and tech entrepreneur Paul Biggar, who founded Tech for Palestine, tell host Steve Clemons why they refuse to build technology used for oppression, surveillance, warfare and apartheid.

Bill Carr is the co-author of Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon. With a background at Amazon of over 15 years, Bill played a pivotal role in shaping the company's global digital music and video ventures, including Amazon Music, Prime Video, and Amazon Studios. After Amazon, Bill was an Executive in Residence with Maveron, an early-stage, consumer-only venture capital firm. He later served as the chief operating officer of OfferUp, the largest mobile marketplace for local buyers and sellers in the U.S. Today he's the co-founder of Working Backwards LLC, where he helps companies implement Amazon's time-tested management strategies. In this episode, we discuss:• What exactly “working backwards” is, and how you do it• Why having “single-threaded leaders” is so effective• Inside Amazon's intense product review process• How to actually follow the “disagree and commit” principle• The thinking behind the principle “Leaders are right, a lot”• Input vs. output metrics• Fostering a culture of risk-taking and innovation• The role and responsibilities of a “bar raiser” in your hiring, and how it significantly improves the success rate of new hires—Brought to you by AssemblyAI—Production-ready AI models to transcribe and understand speech | Coda—Meet the evolution of docs | Wix Studio—The web creation platform built for agencies—Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/unpacking-amazons-unique-ways-of-working-bill-carr-author-of-working-backwards/—Where to find Bill Carr:• X: https://twitter.com/BillCarr89• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-carr/• Website: https://www.workingbackwards.com/—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Bill's background(04:26) Amazon's workplace evolution(09:54) Amazon's “fitness function”(11:44) Single-threaded leadership(18:07) Implementing a program orientation with single-threaded leadership(20:16) The GM model vs. single-threaded leadership(21:31) Functional countermeasures needed for single-threaded leadership(25:22) Embracing the “disagree and commit” principle(30:22) Understanding disagreements(32:41) Deciphering Amazon's “Leaders are right, a lot” principle(35:25) An explanation of the working backwards framework(41:16) PR FAQ process: Amazon's innovation engine(44:47) Deconstructing the PR FAQ structure(43:49) The concentric circle model for sharing PR FAQs(44:55) The customer problem-solution statement(47:52) Create a product funnel, not a product tunnel(51:19) How Amazon promotes action vs. talk(54:35) Amazon's flywheel and input metrics(1:00:51) Signs you've got a good input metric(1:04:23) How mistakes can still be made with working backwards(1:06:54) Why disagreements aren't necessarily signs products will fail(1:08:02) Examples of failed Amazon projects(1:09:55) Cultivating risk-taking and accepting failure(1:13:57) Amazon's “bar-raiser” practice for hiring(1:18:21) Selecting Amazon's bar raisers(1:20:41) Advice on implementing practices from Working Backwards(1:23:10) Bill's work as an advisor(1:26:05) Lightning round—Referenced:• Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Working-Backwards-Insights-Stories-Secrets/dp/1250267595• Jeff Bezos on X: https://twitter.com/jeffbezos• D.E. Shaw: https://www.deshaw.com/• Eric Ries's website: https://theleanstartup.com/• GM business model: https://fourweekmba.com/general-motors-business-model/• Rick Dalzell on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richarddalzell/• The Effective Decision by Peter F. Drucker: https://hbr.org/1967/01/the-effective-decision• Template: Working Backwards PR FAQ: https://www.workingbackwards.com/resources/working-backwards-pr-faq• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others/dp/0066620996• The Amazon flywheel: https://feedvisor.com/resources/amazon-trends/amazon-flywheel-explained/• Sixsigma: https://www.6sigma.us/• Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries: https://www.amazon.com/Loonshots-Nurture-Diseases-Transform-Industries/dp/1250185963• Andy Jassy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-jassy-8b1615/• Implementing Amazon's Bar Raiser Process in Hiring: A Quick Guide: https://www.barraiser.com/blogs/implementing-amazons-bar-raiser-process-in-hiring• Microspeak: The As-Appropriate (AA) interviewer: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20231017-00/?p=108897• The Practice of Management: https://www.amazon.com/Practice-Management-Peter-F-Drucker/dp/0060878975• The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done: https://www.amazon.com/Effective-Executive-Definitive-Harperbusiness-Essentials/dp/0060833459• Steve Jobs: https://www.amazon.com/Steve-Jobs-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1451648537• Seveneves: https://www.amazon.com/Seveneves-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0062334514• A Gentleman in Moscow: https://www.amazon.com/A-Gentleman-in-Moscow/dp/0143110438• Dune on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/Dune-Timoth%C3%A9e-Chalamet/dp/B09LJXY4PH• A Spy Among Friends: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15565872/• Zipp 303 Firecrest tubeless disc brake: https://www.sram.com/en/zipp/models/wh-303-ftld-a1• The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization: https://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Discipline-Practice-Learning-Organization/dp/0385517254—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

For this episode, let's revisit a Case Interview & Management Consulting classics where we interviewed the former Amazon Digital Media VP, Bill Carr. Bill is the coauthor of Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon, an insider's breakdown of Amazon's approach to culture, leadership, and best practices from two long-time, top-level Amazon executives.  Bill Carr joined Amazon in 1999 and spent more than 15 years with the company. As the former Vice President of Digital Media, Bill launched and managed the company's global digital music and video businesses, including Amazon Music, Prime Video, and Amazon Studios. After Amazon, Bill was an Executive In Residence with Maveron LLC, an early-stage, consumer-only venture capital firm. Bill later served as the Chief Operating Officer of OfferUp, the largest mobile marketplace for local buyers and sellers in the U.S. Today, Bill is the co-founder of Working Backwards LLC where he coaches executives at large and early-stage companies on how to implement the management practices developed at Amazon. Bill holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Colby College and a Masters in Business Administration from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. Get Bill's book here: Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon. Bill Carr and Colin Bryar. Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic where we interviewed the former Amazon Digital Media VP, Bill Carr. Bill is the coauthor of Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon, an insider's breakdown of Amazon's approach to culture, leadership, and best practices from two long-time, top-level Amazon executives.  Bill Carr joined Amazon in 1999 and spent more than 15 years with the company. As the former Vice President of Digital Media, Bill launched and managed the company's global digital music and video businesses, including Amazon Music, Prime Video, and Amazon Studios. After Amazon, Bill was an Executive In Residence with Maveron LLC, an early-stage, consumer-only venture capital firm. Bill later served as the Chief Operating Officer of OfferUp, the largest mobile marketplace for local buyers and sellers in the U.S. Today, Bill is the co-founder of Working Backwards LLC where he coaches executives at large and early-stage companies on how to implement the management practices developed at Amazon. Bill holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Colby College and a Masters in Business Administration from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. Get Bill's book here: Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon. Bill Carr and Colin Bryar. Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

On This Week's Edition of New York NOW: New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing former President Donald Trump over allegations of business fraud in New York. We'll tell you more. After Amazon workers on Staten Island became the first of the company's workers in the country to unionize, a new effort in the Albany area has gained steam. Photojournalist Thomas Connolly reports. A decision from New York state during the pandemic has left businesses with a new bill that industry leaders say could have a huge, and lasting, impact. We'll explain. Learn More: nynow.org

In many ways, Jeff Bezos would seem to have it all. But when is enough enough? In the new book, "Career Self-Care: Find Your Happiness, Success, and Fulfillment at Work," Inc. magazine columnist and Seattle-area author Minda Zetlin points to the Amazon founder's push for financial incentives in the company's search for a second headquarters as a prime example of "the dirty little secret about success." After Amazon's choice of Queens, N.Y., backfired due to objections over financial incentives, a report by Bloomberg News revealed that Bezos and Amazon had originally been motivated in part by envy over the incentives that Elon Musk and Tesla were getting from Nevada for building their gigafactory there, despite much different circumstances. Zetlin sees in this anecdote a lesson for the rest of us. "We spend our whole lives pursuing success. But where is that spot, exactly?" she says. "If you're the richest person in the world, which he was at that time, and you're still not satisfied, you're still not happy, you're still jealous of somebody else, it just seems to illustrate that there is no there there." Zetlin's book draws on her reporting, interviews and experiences to examine self-care with the underlying assumption that, for many of us, work and the rest of our  lives are now inevitably intertwined. she joins us on this episode of the GeekWire Podcast to talk about these topics and more from her book. With GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop. Audio editing by Curt Milton. Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After Amazon's free games for May were revealed yesterday, we've today learned what May's Games With Gold will be for the Xbox platform. The list is headlined by Yoku's Island Express but also features the banger spin-off of Viva Pinata, Viva Pinata: Party Animals.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Amazon's use of Alexa as a wake word for its voice assistant turned the name into a command, impacting daily interactions for people with the name – including The Washington Post's own Alexa Juliana Ard.Read more:Nearly 130,000 people in the United States have the name Alexa. It gained popularity after singer Billy Joel and model Christie Brinkley named their daughter Alexa in 1985. In 2015, more than 6,000 baby girls in the United States were named Alexa, according to a Washington Post analysis of Social Security Administration data.After Amazon chose Alexa as the wake word of its voice service, the name's popularity plummeted. In 2020, only about 1,300 babies were given the name. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)Post video editor Alexa Juliana Ard reports on the impact of Amazon's choice on Alexas - including her. Watch Alexa's video about Alexa Jade Morales. She was named after her father, Alexis Morales Jr., who was murdered on Oct. 1, 1992, just three and a half months before she was born. When Amazon made the name Alexa a wake word for its voice service, she experienced people treating her like the bot.Right now you can get the best deal we've ever offered on a subscription to The Washington Post – a year for just $9.99. Go to washingtonpost.com/subscribe.

Colin Bryar joined Amazon in 1998, four years after its founding and spent the next 12 years as part of Amazon's senior leadership team as Amazon grew from a domestic seller of books to a global, multi-dimensional powerhouse and innovator. Colin served as Vice President at Amazon, and for two years was Chief of Staff to Jeff Bezos working directly with him advising on technical and business areas.After Amazon, Colin relocated to Singapore where he served as Chief Operating Officer of the e-commerce company RedMart, which was subsequently sold to Alibaba. Colin is now co-founder of Working Backwards LLC where he coaches executives at both large and early-stage companies on how to implement the management practices developed at Amazon.Check out Colin's new book, Working Backwards which is an insider's break down of Amazon's approach to culture, leadership, and best practices: https://amzn.to/3t9wFWbOur conversation discusses the principles applied by Amazon to achieve rapid growth from the early stages. We discuss the factors which make a company truly successful from scalability and operationalisation to the product development lifecycle and customer obsession. Lastly, Colin offers his advice for young professionals navigating their career at the moment.Timestamps:(00:00) Introduction(03:52) Colin Bryar's background & Working Backwards(07:15) Amazon & Jeff Bezos/scalability/long term strategy(10:22) Customer centric focus/competitive edge/leadership principles(13:11) How to scale successfully/creating & inventing(17:22) Single threaded leader & Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) (21:33) Taking risks/failure/product development lifecycle(26:56) Defining metrics & success criteria(29:48) Core principles & repeatable processes(32:37) Competition/capital/finding a niche(35:51) COVID-19 shift towards e-commerce/Brexit/regulation(40:57) Careers advice/building on your interests/passions(47:30) When to change company & find new challengesFollow Kickoff Sessions on Spotify to keep updated with new sessions!If you enjoyed this episode, please consider sharing the session on Instagram or leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. Tell everyone I'm a semi-decent guy and it really helps to grow the show!For show notes and more episodes, visit Kickoff Sessions website. Sign up to the Kickoff Sessions email list for regular updates and content.Follow me on LinkedInFollow Kickoff Sessions on This episode is sponsored by Sons. Please support the podcast and get 40% off your first order by using the discount code KICKOFFSESSIONS40. Sons IE: sons.ieSons UK: sons.co.ukSons are a men's health care brand that offers clinically proven, licenced hair loss treatments for less than the cost of a cup of coffee per day. - ExpressVPN: ExpressVPN.com/kickoffsessions and get 3 extra months free- Buzzsprout: Buzzsprout.com and receive a $20 Amazon Gift CardSupport the show

Episode 135 of the Business Bookshelf - Colin Bryar - Author of "Working Backwards" Today our guest is Colin Bryar. Colin joined Amazon in 1998 -- four years after its founding -- and spent the next 12 years as part of Amazon's senior leadership team as Amazon grew from a domestic (US-only) seller of books to a global, multi-dimensional powerhouse and innovator. Colin served as a Vice President at Amazon, and for two of his years he was "Chief of Staff" to Jeff Bezos, AKA "Jeff's shadow", during which he spent each day attending meetings, traveling with, and discussing business and life with Jeff. After Amazon, he and his family relocated to Singapore for two years where Colin served as Chief Operating Officer of e-commerce company RedMart, which was subsequently sold to Alibaba. Colin is co-founder of Working Backwards LLC where he coaches executives at both large and early-stage companies on how to implement the management practices developed at Amazon. Colin is the co-author of the book “Working Backwards”. Working Backwards is a practical guidebook and a corporate narrative, filled with the authors’ in-the-room recollections of what “Being Amazonian” is like and how it has affected their personal and professional lives. They demonstrate that success on Amazon’s scale is not achieved by the genius of any single leader, but rather through commitment to and execution of a set of well-defined, rigorously-executed principles and practices―shared here for the very first time. The book can be purchased here - https://amzn.to/3mM0gmg. Colin's company Working Backwards can be found here - www.workingbackwards.com. The host is Lance Peppler and can be emailed at lance@ideastorm.co.za or visit www.businessbookshelfpodcast.com. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/businessbookshelf/support

Episode Title: How To Work Backwards In this episode, we talk to Colin Bryar (Co-founder of Working Backwards LLC) as we discuss his new book, his time at Amazon under Jeff Bezos, and the work he and his co-founder Bill Car do at Working Backwards, LLC.  Purchase his book Working Backwards here **More On Colin** Colin Bryar joined Amazon in 1998 — four years after its founding —  and spent the next 12 years as part of Amazon's senior leadership team as Amazon grew from a domestic (US-only) seller of books to a global, multi-dimensional powerhouse and innovator. Colin served as a Vice President at Amazon, and for two of his years was "Chief of Staff" to Jeff Bezos, AKA "Jeff's shadow", during which he spent each day attending meetings, traveling with, and discussing business and life with Jeff. After Amazon, he and his family relocated to Singapore for two years where Colin served as Chief Operating Officer of e-commerce company RedMart, which was subsequently sold to Alibaba. Colin is co-founder of Working Backwards LLC where he coaches executives at both large and early-stage companies on how to implement the management practices developed at Amazon. Written by: Dominic Lawson  Executive Producers: Dominic Lawson and Kenda Lawson Music Credits: **Show Theme**  Behind Closed Doors - Otis McDonald  **Break Theme** Cielo - Huma-Huma  www.funkymedia.agency/calendar to book an interview. 

Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon by Colin Bryar, Bill Carr Working Backwards is an insider's breakdown of Amazon's approach to culture, leadership, and best practices from two long-time Amazon executives. Colin started at Amazon in 1998; Bill joined in 1999. In Working Backwards, these two long-serving Amazon executives reveal and codify the principles and practices that drive the success of one of the most extraordinary companies the world has ever known. With twenty-seven years of Amazon experience between them, much of it in the early aughts―a period of unmatched innovation that brought products and services including Kindle, Amazon Prime, Amazon Studios, and Amazon Web Services to life―Bryar and Carr offer unprecedented access to the Amazon way as it was refined, articulated, and proven to be repeatable, scalable, and adaptable. With keen analysis and practical steps for applying it at your own company―no matter the size―the authors illuminate how Amazon’s fourteen leadership principles inform decision-making at all levels and reveal how the company’s culture has been defined by four characteristics: customer obsession, long-term thinking, eagerness to invent, and operational excellence. Bryar and Carr explain the set of ground-level practices that ensure these are translated into action and flow through all aspects of the business. Working Backwards is a practical guidebook and a corporate narrative, filled with the authors’ in-the-room recollections of what “Being Amazonian” is like and how it has affected their personal and professional lives. They demonstrate that success on Amazon’s scale is not achieved by the genius of any single leader, but rather through commitment to and execution of a set of well-defined, rigorously-executed principles and practices―shared here for the very first time.About Colin Bryar Colin Bryar joined Amazon in 1998 -- four years after its founding -- and spent the next 12 years as part of Amazon's senior leadership team as Amazon grew from a domestic (US-only) seller of books to a global, multi-dimensional powerhouse and innovator. Colin served as a Vice President at Amazon, and for two of his years he was "Chief of Staff" to Jeff Bezos, AKA "Jeff's shadow", during which he spent each day attending meetings, traveling with, and discussing business and life with Jeff. After Amazon, he and his family relocated to Singapore for two years where Colin served as Chief Operating Officer of e-commerce company RedMart, which was subsequently sold to Alibaba. Colin is co-founder of Working Backwards LLC where he coaches executives at both large and early-stage companies on how to implement the management practices developed at Amazon. Colin holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Engineering degrees in Operations Research from Cornell University.

For the next episode, episode 17, we speak to Colin Bryar, an early employee at Amazon and co-author of the book Working Backwards: Stories and Secrets from Inside Amazon. Colin joined Amazon's leadership team in 1998 - only four years after its inception. He worked side-by-side with Jeff Bezos as his Chief of Staff (and “Shadow”) for 2 years. Colin was instrumental in bringing several Amazon businesses to life, including Kindle, Amazon Prime and Amazon Web Services. After Amazon, Colin relocated to Singapore and served as Chief Operating Officer of e-commerce giant RedMart, which was subsequently sold to Alibaba."Just always be curious. I love learning new things. I made a lot of mistakes but I've also learnt a lot. So just be curious. It's what makes life fun." - Colin Bryar See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For episode 17, we speak to Colin Bryar, an early employee at Amazon and co-author of the book Working Backwards: Stories and Secrets from Inside Amazon. Colin joined Amazon's leadership team in 1998 - only four years after its inception. He worked side-by-side with Jeff Bezos as his Chief of Staff (and “Shadow”) for 2 years. Colin was instrumental in bringing several Amazon businesses to life, including Kindle, Amazon Prime and Amazon Web Services. After Amazon, Colin relocated to Singapore and served as Chief Operating Officer of e-commerce giant RedMart, which was subsequently sold to Alibaba. In this episode, Colin discusses the importance of always having a customer-first mindset, the benefits of Amazon's unique narrative meeting culture, his key lessons for early-stage founders, and lots more. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Welcome to the What's Next! podcast with Tiffani Bova. This week I am absolutely thrilled to bring you a special BONUS episode of the What’s Next! Podcast, an encore of my LinkedIn Live chat with former Amazon VP Colin Bryar! Colin joined Amazon in 1998–four years after its founding–and spent the next 12 years as part of Amazon's senior leadership team as Amazon grew from a domestic (US-only) seller of books to a global, multi-dimensional powerhouse and innovator. Colin served as a Vice President at Amazon, and for two of his years, he was "Chief of Staff" to Jeff Bezos, AKA "Jeff's shadow", during which he spent each day attending meetings, traveling with, and discussing business and life with Jeff. After Amazon, he and his family relocated to Singapore for two years where Colin served as Chief Operating Officer of e-commerce company RedMart, which was subsequently sold to Alibaba. Colin is co-founder of Working Backwards LLC where he coaches executives at both large and early-stage companies on how to implement the management practices developed at Amazon. Colin holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Engineering degrees in Operations Research from Cornell University. I am so excited to bring you this episode with Colin Bryar on the What’s Next! Podcast!     THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR… anyone who wants to learn from Jeff Bezos’ former “Chief of Staff” at Amazon–whether you are an entrepreneur, a start-up, a midsize business, or a large business, this is a can’t miss episode of the What’s Next! Podcast!    TODAY’S MAIN MESSAGE… In this episode, Colin discusses how you can work backward and toward success! How do you stay customer-focused without becoming customer-obsessed? (What is the difference?) Well, the first thing you have to do is be comfortable discussing failure. If you want to be an inventive company, you have to accept the fact that there will be some mistakes along the way. It’s not an experiment if you know it’s going to work! You also have to know when to be stubborn and push to innovate, and when you need to move on and try something completely different. Have a long-term mindset, this type of thinking, more often than not, can get you to your end goal faster! Colin is here to answer the questions the What’s Next! audience had and share some of the secret sauce that made an organization like Amazon so successful.    WHAT  I  LOVE  MOST… This unfiltered access to some of the practices that contributed to one of the largest and most successful organizations in the world!    Running time: 39:59     Subscribe on iTunes     Find Tiffani on social:  Facebook  Twitter  LinkedIn     Find Colin online:  Twitter  LinkedIn  Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon Book

Colin Bryar started at Amazon in 1998; Bill Carr joined in 1999. With twenty-seven years of Amazon experience between them, much of it in the early aughts—a period that brought products and services including Kindle, Amazon Prime, Amazon Studios, and Amazon Web Services to life—Bryar and Carr joined us, in conversation with Chris Devore, to offer unprecedented access to the Amazon way as it was refined, articulated, and proven to be repeatable, scalable, and adaptable. Bringing recollections from their book Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon, these two long-serving former Amazon executives shared how Amazon’s fourteen leadership principles inform decision-making at all levels and reveal how the company’s culture has been defined by four characteristics: customer obsession, long-term thinking, eagerness to invent, and operational excellence. Bryar and Carr explained the set of ground-level practices that ensure these are translated into action and flow through all aspects of the business, and offered replicable steps for applying it at your own company. Join Bryar and Carr as they presented a practical guidebook for finding corporate success. Colin Bryar joined Amazon in 1998 — four years after its founding — and spent the next 12 years as part of Amazon’s senior leadership team. After Amazon, he and his family relocated to Singapore for two years where Bryar served as Chief Operating Officer of e-commerce company RedMart. Colin is co-founder of Working Backwards LLC where he coaches executives at both large and early-stage companies on how to implement the management practices developed at Amazon. Bill Carr joined Amazon in 1999 and spent more than 15 years with the company. As Vice President of Digital Media, Carr launched and managed the company’s global digital music and video businesses, including Amazon Music, Prime Video, and Amazon Studios. After Amazon, Carr was an Executive In Residence with Maveron, LLC, and, later, the Chief Operating Officer of OfferUp. Today Carr is co-founder of Working Backwards LLC where he coaches executives at both large and early-stage companies on how to implement the management practices developed at Amazon. Chris DeVore is Managing Partner of Founders’ Co-op and the former Managing Director of Techstars Seattle. As a community volunteer, Chris co-chaired the City of Seattle’s Economic Development Commission, partnered with the University of Washington to create Startup Hall (a commercial innovation space located on the UW Campus). Buy the Book: https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/book/9781250267597  Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation online click here. 

In their new book “WORKING BACKWARDS: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon” (St. Martin’s Press, February 9, 2021.) Bill Carr and Colin Bryar share Amazon’s secrets.   They had a front row seat for most of Amazon's history, and they are sharing what they learned in their new book. Not only is Amazon one of the most valuable companies in the world, it has succeeded across a stunning array of categories from web services to movies.  So it’s hyperbolic, but possible to make the case that this is the most important business book….ever. “Like being in the room with Jeff Bezos” Working Backwards is a practical guidebook and a corporate narrative, filled with the authors’ in-the-room recollections of what “Being Amazonian” is like and how it has affected their personal and professional lives. They demonstrate that success on Amazon’s scale is not achieved by the genius of any single leader, but rather through commitment to and execution of a set of well-defined, rigorously-executed principles and practices—shared here for the very first time.   The authors you’ll spend some time with on this episode:   Bill Carr joined Amazon in 1999 and spent more than 15 years with the company. As Vice President of Digital Media, Bill launched and managed the company's global digital music and video businesses, including Amazon Music, Prime Video, and Amazon Studios. After Amazon, Bill was an Executive In Residence with Maveron, LLC, an early-stage, consumer-only venture capital firm. Bill later served as the Chief Operating Officer of OfferUp, the largest mobile marketplace for local buyers and sellers in the U.S. Today Bill is co-founder of Working Backwards LLC where he coaches executives at both large and early-stage companies on how to implement the management practices developed at Amazon.     Colin Bryar joined Amazon in 1998 — four years after its founding —  and spent the next 12 years as part of Amazon's senior leadership team as Amazon grew from a domestic (US-only) seller of books to a global, multi-dimensional powerhouse and innovator. Colin served as a Vice President at Amazon, and for two of his years was "Chief of Staff" to Jeff Bezos, AKA "Jeff's shadow", during which he spent each day attending meetings, traveling with, and discussing business and life with Jeff. After Amazon, he and his family relocated to Singapore for two years where Colin served as Chief Operating Officer of e-commerce company RedMart, which was subsequently sold to Alibaba. Colin is co-founder of Working Backwards LLC where he coaches executives at both large and early-stage companies on how to implement the management practices developed at Amazon. Working Backwards https://workingbackwards.com/ Something Ventured https://somethingventured.us/

In this episode we talk to Colin Bryar (Co-founder of Working Backwards, LLC) as we discuss his new book, his time at Amazon under Jeff Bezos, and the work he and his co-founder Bill Car do at Working Backwards, LLC. Purchase his book Working Backwards here **More On Colin** Colin Bryar joined Amazon in 1998 — four years after its founding — and spent the next 12 years as part of Amazon's senior leadership team as Amazon grew from a domestic (US-only) seller of books to a global, multi-dimensional powerhouse and innovator. Colin served as a Vice President at Amazon, and for two of his years was "Chief of Staff" to Jeff Bezos, AKA "Jeff's shadow", during which he spent each day attending meetings, traveling with, and discussing business and life with Jeff. After Amazon, he and his family relocated to Singapore for two years where Colin served as Chief Operating Officer of e-commerce company RedMart, which was subsequently sold to Alibaba. Colin is co-founder of Working Backwards LLC where he coaches executives at both large and early-stage companies on how to implement the management practices developed at Amazon. Hectic is an all-in-one business management software built specifically for freelancers who are just getting started or looking to take their freelance business to the next level. Sign up at gethecticapp.com/thestartuplife Follow The Startup Life Podcast Facebook Page Want gear from The Startup Life? Check out our gear! Check out other great podcasts from The Binge Podcast Network. Written by: Dominic Lawson Executive Producers: Dominic Lawson and Kenda Lawson Music Credits: **Show Theme** Behind Closed Doors - Otis McDonald **Break Theme** Cielo - Huma-Huma

In this episode, we talk to Colin Bryar (Co-founder of Working Backwards LLC) as we discuss his new book, his time at Amazon under Jeff Bezos, and the work he and his co-founder Bill Car do at Working Backwards, LLC.  Purchase his book Working Backwards here **More On Colin** Colin Bryar joined Amazon in 1998 — four years after its founding —  and spent the next 12 years as part of Amazon's senior leadership team as Amazon grew from a domestic (US-only) seller of books to a global, multi-dimensional powerhouse and innovator. Colin served as a Vice President at Amazon, and for two of his years was "Chief of Staff" to Jeff Bezos, AKA "Jeff's shadow", during which he spent each day attending meetings, traveling with, and discussing business and life with Jeff. After Amazon, he and his family relocated to Singapore for two years where Colin served as Chief Operating Officer of e-commerce company RedMart, which was subsequently sold to Alibaba. Colin is co-founder of Working Backwards LLC where he coaches executives at both large and early-stage companies on how to implement the management practices developed at Amazon. Hectic is an all-in-one business management software built specifically for freelancers who arejust getting started or looking to take their freelance business to the next level. Sign up at gethecticapp.com/thestartuplife Follow The Startup Life Podcast Facebook Page Want gear from The Startup Life? Check out our gear! Check out other great podcasts from The Binge Podcast Network. Written by: Dominic Lawson  Executive Producers: Dominic Lawson and Kenda Lawson Music Credits: **Show Theme**  Behind Closed Doors - Otis McDonald  **Break Theme** Cielo - Huma-Huma 

Bill Carr - entrepreneur, executive coach, author, and former Vice President of Digital Media at Amazon - discusses practical, proven methodologies that Amazon invented to bring products and business to market successfully (including the Narrative-based approach to communication, the PR/FAQ document to guide product development, and the Bar Raiser program for hiring). In this conversation, Bill shares insights and perspectives gleaned from both successes and failures during his 15 years at Amazon. He talks about his reasons for writing Working Backwards (with co-author and former Amazon executive Colin Bryar), the creation of the digital media business at Amazon, the role that Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos played as the “Chief Slowdown Officer,” Amazon's use of time as a competitive advantage, the way the company puts into practice its 14 Leadership Principles, and the exemplar organizations Amazon itself looks to in order to improve its own processes and operations. Bill punctuates the narrative with candid and honest stories of his own intrapreneurial experiences as a leader who played key roles in developing Amazon Music, Prime Video, and Amazon Studios. How do you make decisions as an executive? What does it really mean to start with the customer and work backwards? What can you learn about the applicability to your organization of Amazon's successes across so many different categories of GDP? How do you design products and services to ensure success?Guest Bio:Bill Carr joined Amazon in 1999, where he spent more than 15 years. As Vice President of Digital Media, Bill launched and managed the company's global digital music and video businesses, including Amazon Music, Prime Video, and Amazon Studios. After Amazon, Bill was an Executive In Residence with Maveron, LLC, an early-stage, consumer-only venture capital firm. Bill later served as the Chief Operating Officer of OfferUp, the largest mobile marketplace for local buyers and sellers in the U.S. Today Bill is co-founder of Working Backwards LLC where he coaches executives at both large and early-stage companies on how to implement the management practices developed at Amazon.  Building Blocks:Think about what kind of mechanism your organization could employ to slow down now to move fast later. Maybe it is the written narrative or the PR/FAQ. Maybe there's a piece around how you evaluate talent, which Bill hit on today in which he talks about in his book. But maybe those things inspire you to think of something different that you want to go build. It could be a tool or a process or a way to help your teams get more of a competitive advantage out of their time, like we talked about with Bill today.Helpful Links:Colin Bryar & Bill Carr's book, Working Backwards: https://www.amazon.com/Working-Backwards-Insights-Stories-Secrets/dp/1250267595/Working Backwards LLC: https://www.workingbackwards.com/Additional advice on applying Amazon's Working Backwards PR FAQ process: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/applying-amazons-working-backwards-process-leaders-ian-mcallisterForbes article about how Amazon encourages intrapreneurship: https://www.forbes.com/sites/innovatorsdna/2017/08/08/how-does-amazon-stay-at-day-one/?sh=44e97d0b7e4dA16Z's podcast featuring Colin Bryar and Bill Carr: https://a16z.simplecast.com/episodes/working-backwards-amazon-bezos-memos-releases-narratives-innovationTomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Harvard Business Review, on the value of being an intrapreneur: https://hbr.org/2020/03/why-you-should-become-an-intrapreneurAmazon Leadership Principles: https://www.amazon.jobs/en/principlesAbout the Andon Cord: https://kanbanzone.com/resources/lean/toyota-production-system/andon/

Bill Carr joined Amazon in 1999 and spent more than 15 years with the company.  As Vice President of Digital Media, Bill launched and managed the company's global digital music and video businesses, including Amazon Music, Prime Video, and Amazon Studios. After Amazon, Bill was an Executive In Residence with Maveron, LLC, an early-stage, consumer-only venture capital firm. Bill later served as the Chief Operating Officer of OfferUp, the largest mobile marketplace for local buyers and sellers in the U.S. Today Bill is co-founder of Working Backwards LLC where he coaches executives at both large and early-stage companies on how to implement the management practices developed at Amazon.Kim Scott is the author of Just Work: Get Sh*t Done Fast and Fair and Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity and co-founder of the company Radical Candor. Kim was a CEO coach at Dropbox, Qualtrics, Twitter, and other tech companies. She was a member of the faculty at Apple University and before that led AdSense, YouTube, and DoubleClick teams at Google. Kim managed a pediatric clinic in Kosovo and started a diamond-cutting factory in Moscow. She lives with her family in Silicon Valley.Gurdeep Pall leads the Business AI Group at Microsoft, a team comprising Research Scientists, Engineers and Business Leaders bringing digital transformation to business tasks through the power of AI, including a recent effort to train Autonomous Systems with Reinforcement Learning efficiently. He is also responsible for Microsoft Garage and Hackathon, a hyperscale grass-roots innovation program. Prior to this, Gurdeep was responsible for Skype, Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams efforts, including starting Lync (now Skype for Business) and developing it into a multi-billion-dollar business. Gurdeep's favorite technology moment was demonstrating the world's first live real-time spoken language translation within a Skype call at the Code Conference in 2014. Gurdeep joined Microsoft in January 1990 as a software design engineer after graduate school at University of Oregon. He has worked on many breakthrough products in his tenure. Pall was part of the Windows NT development team, working on the first version of Windows NT 3.1 in 1993 as a software design engineer, all the way through Windows XP in 2001 as general manager of Windows Networking. During his work on Windows, he led design and implementation of core networking technologies such as PPP, TCP/IP, VPNs, Internet Routing, and Wi-Fi, and parts of the operating system. Pall co-authored the first VPN protocol in the industry - Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) - which received the prestigious Innovation of the Year award from PC Magazine in 1996. He also authored several documents and standards in the networking area in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standards body in the mid-1990s. Since then, amongst other things, Gurdeep has led Conversation-as-a-Platform, Microsoft Speech, Tellme, and Bing Maps initiatives. Gurdeep Pall has been a keynote speaker at many industry conferences over the years. He was named one of the "15 Innovators & Influencers Who Will Make A Difference" in 2008 by Information Week. He co-authored "Institutional Memory Goes Digital," which was published by Harvard Business Review as part of "Breakthrough Ideas for 2009" and subsequently presented at the World Economic Forum 2009 in Davos. Pall holds 25+ patents in networking, VoIP and collaboration areas. He has served on the board of trustees of Ashesi University, Ghana.

Welp, it happened. As expected, Amazon shattered all of its own records to take some of the biggest pay-days in company history over Cyber Monday AND Black Friday in 2020.The article goes on to say, While Amazon didn’t disclose total sales figures for Black Friday or Cyber Monday, it did say in a blog post that customers have been shopping early for gifts and seasonal items, making it “our biggest holiday season to date.”“In a holiday season unlike any other, it’s clear that customers still want great deals on gifts for their loved ones or a little something extra for themselves, and we’re glad to help deliver smiles throughout the season,” Amazon Worldwide Consumer CEO Jeff Wilke said in the blog post.Amazon DID disclose how its beloved third party sellers are doing. Might want to grab a hold of something for these stats….Independent businesses selling on Amazon surpassed $4.8 billion in worldwide sales from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, Amazon said, noting that the figure was up 60% on last year. Some 71,000 small and medium-sized businesses have seen sales above $100,000 so far this holiday shopping season.Holy crap. It’s a literal holiday Gold Rush!Having “boots on the ground” with our 10,000+ students, we are also seeing the exact same thing on the seller side…For instance, AndObviously these are just new accounts. People that have been selling for a while often see 2x-10x increases during Q4, and will likely see higher than that this year…Here’s someone seeing a nice ramp up headed into the holidays…Actually I lied here’s one more new seller account…CRAZY how much traction new sellers are getting right now…Those that said “Amazon was dead..” LIED. -And here’s a big dog starting to break out to new highs in Q4Anyway, I share these things with you not to brag about how awesome we are at teaching people how to sell on Amazon. Even though we are quite awesome :)I’m sharing it because honestly it’s SCARY that some people still aren’t taking advantage of this….I’m not a psychologist, so I don’t know what to call it. So I’ll just make a name for it. I think it’s called the..PUNISHING MYSELF FOR MISSING OUT ON SOMETHING I KNEW WOULD HAPPEN-ITIS :) Seriously that’s what it is. Two quick examples and I’ll let you go. 1) Here’s a guy I told about Bitcoin on July 4th of this year. Lectured him.(he’s a very smart millionaire who could have easily invested 7 figs)Know what he said? "hahaha, seems like a scam to me…”Here was the price of Bitcoin on July 4th. 9,084.23Yikes. Here is the Bitcoin price today…19,000So, he literally could have DOUBLED his money in 4 months…That’s tough to swallow. So, what does he do?He texts me about buying some, but says he still won’t buy any “unless it dips again”…Not making fun of him, he’s a great guy. It happens to all of us. That’s why “PUNISHING MYSELF FOR MISSING OUT ON SOMETHING I KNEW WOULD HAPPEN-ITIS” is SO REAL!And the WORST part of it?It turns a SMALL mistake into a BIG mistake. it makes you continue to repeat the SAME MISTAKES OVER AND OVER AND OVER until it is REALLY TOO LATE!2) SAME THING HAPPENS ALL THE TIME WITH AMAZONWHY AM I WRITING IN ALL CAPS?BECAUSE I LITERALLY HAVE HAD TO ANSWER THIS QUESTION EVERY DAY FOR THE PAST 4 YEARS OF MY LIFE.I’M KIND OF GETTING SICK OF IT!! ;-)READY FOR THE QUESTION?“Kale, is it too late to start Amazon???”I’m guessing you know the answer to that question….And the OVERALL reason I’m writing this letter today. After Amazon just SHATTERED all of its OWN records. And our students, many of whom LITERALLY JUST STARTED SELLING…Are ABSOLUTELY SHATTERING RECORDS….IS BECAUSE WE ALL KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN!!!Don’t sit there and lie to me. You knew it. The SECOND that Corona hit. Holy shi*.People are going to buy LITERALLY everything on Amazon. We all knew it. Hell, MY LITERAL GRANDMA texted me in MARCH telling me that. My Grandma can’t even turn on a computer!!!I’m serious. So now, once it has happened, we have 2 choices. 1) GET OVER OURSELVES and TAKE ADVANTAGE of this TREND that isn’t GOING AWAY (Amazon and online shopping)2) Continue to succumb to “PUNISHING MYSELF FOR MISSING OUT ON SOMETHING I KNEW WOULD HAPPEN-ITIS”If you missed out in the past?SO WHAT. Quit being a wuss and forward this letter on to someone who needs to read it. Post it on your facebook timeline for all I care. I’m personally sick of all the excuses. But mostly, I’m sick of people PUNISHING THEMSELVES for PAST MISTAKES.The past is in the past. It’s time to look at this new digital world we are in with OPEN EYES.And take advantage of it. Whew. Rant over. See you subscribers tomorrow. Kale Get on the email list at thekaleletter.substack.com

After Amazon announced another record quarter last week, it's easy to forget that there are other companies helping the world to shop online. In this week's episode, Luke and Albert take a look at four other e-commerce companies experiencing the tailwinds of online shopping during the coronavirus pandemic, and consider their prospects going forward ----- If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing to the Telescope Investing website at https://telescopeinvesting.com/subscribe/ Or you can contact the hosts Luke & Albert at https://twitter.com/LukeTelescope https://twitter.com/AlbertTelescope

After Amazon confirmed Prime Day will be Oct. 13-14. Target and Walmart announced online sales to run concurrently Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After Amazon's unveiling of some 12+ new products this week, Jefferson Graham and Voicebot.ai's Bret Kinsella answer the big questions: what's the one product we most want?

Our first story for today is about the DJI Mavic 3. Drone enthusiasts are eagerly waiting for DJI to release an all-new Mavic. Recently, there were some "DJI Mavic 3" images being circulated on the internet. But is this really the DJI Mavic 3? Tune in to find out what Paul and Haye have to say about this. Additionally, we also reveal some latest industry news which has impacted the release date for the DJI Mavic 3. You will learn how the current US-China standoff is impacting the world's largest drone manufacturer, DJI. Next, we have some exciting news to share about the drone delivery industry. After Amazon, another retail behemoth, Walmart is actively looking to commence drone delivery operations. While in the UK, Tesco has tied up drone service provider, Manna. Certainly, using drones will help retailers deliver goods even faster and possibly, at lower costs. It remains to be seen whether administrations across the world see the writing on the wall and proactively work on coming out with more progressive drone laws. Other stories discussed in today's show include latest updates about the Ronin RS2, information about Prism - a new drone platform by Watts Innovation, and much, much more… We hope you enjoy this show! Whether you are just getting started or looking to increase your revenue stream, our drone service providers are ready to help you achieve your most ambitious goals. Check out all our classes for 2020 by going here - http://bit.ly/mapclass2020 Recently crashed your drone? Unable to find trained technicians who can repair your drone quickly and at a reasonable rate? Don't fret. The cool folks at Fortress UAV can help you get your drone back up in the air in as little as 7 days! Use Promo Code “DroneU” to get 25% off. Drone U Members get an extra 5% off on total repair costs. Check them out now! Get Your Biggest and Most Common Drone Certificate Questions Answered by Downloading this FREE Part 107 PDF Make sure to get yourself the all-new Drone U landing pad! Get your questions answered: https://thedroneu.com/. If you enjoy the show, the #1 thing you can do to help us out is to subscribe to it on iTunes. Can we ask you to do that for us real quick? While you're there, leave us a 5-star review, if you're inclined to do so. Thanks! https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ask-drone-u/id967352832. Become a Drone U Member. Access to over 30 courses, great resources, and our incredible community.Follow us:Site - https://thedroneu.com/Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/droneuInstagram - https://instagram.com/thedroneu/Twitter - https://twitter.com/thedroneuYouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/droneu Timestamps [00:56] DJI Mavic 3 or X7 gimbal? Are the latest images on the internet really authentic? [02:48] After Amazon, Walmart jumps on the drone delivery bandwagon; to conduct tests in North Carolina [05:29] UK retailer, Tesco ties up with drone delivery company, Manna [09:03] Should the FAA allow BVLOS drone deliveries if flying with strobes? [11:17] University of Rhode Island uses drones with thermal cameras for monitoring ground water level [12:52] Drones used for tracking wildlife in Australia [15:12] Launch date for Ronin RS2 pushed to October; much-awaited gimbal to come in two variants [17:42] Prism, the new drone platform by American drone manufacturer, Watts Innovations comes with variable propulsions and payloads

Our first story for today is about the DJI Mavic 3. Drone enthusiasts are eagerly waiting for DJI to release an all-new Mavic. Recently, there were some "DJI Mavic 3" images being circulated on the internet. But is this really the DJI Mavic 3? Tune in to find out what Paul and Haye have to say about this. Additionally, we also reveal some latest industry news which has impacted the release date for the DJI Mavic 3. You will learn how the current US-China standoff is impacting the world's largest drone manufacturer, DJI. Next, we have some exciting news to share about the drone delivery industry. After Amazon, another retail behemoth, Walmart is actively looking to commence drone delivery operations. While in the UK, Tesco has tied up drone service provider, Manna. Certainly, using drones will help retailers deliver goods even faster and possibly, at lower costs. It remains to be seen whether administrations across the world see the writing on the wall and proactively work on coming out with more progressive drone laws. Other stories discussed in today's show include latest updates about the Ronin RS2, information about Prism - a new drone platform by Watts Innovation, and much, much more… We hope you enjoy this show! Whether you are just getting started or looking to increase your revenue stream, our drone service providers are ready to help you achieve your most ambitious goals. Check out all our classes for 2020 by going here - http://bit.ly/mapclass2020 Recently crashed your drone? Unable to find trained technicians who can repair your drone quickly and at a reasonable rate? Don’t fret. The cool folks at Fortress UAV can help you get your drone back up in the air in as little as 7 days! Use Promo Code “DroneU” to get 25% off. Drone U Members get an extra 5% off on total repair costs. Check them out now! Get Your Biggest and Most Common Drone Certificate Questions Answered by Downloading this FREE Part 107 PDF Make sure to get yourself the all-new Drone U landing pad! Get your questions answered: https://thedroneu.com/. If you enjoy the show, the #1 thing you can do to help us out is to subscribe to it on iTunes. Can we ask you to do that for us real quick? While you're there, leave us a 5-star review, if you're inclined to do so. Thanks! https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ask-drone-u/id967352832. Become a Drone U Member. Access to over 30 courses, great resources, and our incredible community.Follow us:Site - https://thedroneu.com/Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/droneuInstagram - https://instagram.com/thedroneu/Twitter - https://twitter.com/thedroneuYouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/droneu Timestamps DJI Mavic 3 or X7 gimbal? Are the latest images on the internet really authentic? After Amazon, Walmart jumps on the drone delivery bandwagon; to conduct tests in North Carolina UK retailer, Tesco ties up with drone delivery company, Manna Should the FAA allow BVLOS drone deliveries if flying with strobes? University of Rhode Island uses drones with thermal cameras for monitoring ground water level Drones used for tracking wildlife in Australia Launch date for Ronin RS2 pushed to October; much-awaited gimbal to come in two variants Prism, the new drone platform by American drone manufacturer, Watts Innovations comes with variable propulsions and payloads

Today, I am sharing my biggest failure as an entrepreneur. Today I share my experience launching my business "NE Lounge". An Amazon FBA product that resulted in a $16,000 loss.That's a lot of money! I wrote about this over at Failory, where I shared my entire experience. Below is a snippet from the article I wrote for Failory explaining why I failed and lost $16,000 from an Amazon FBA product:In the end, it came down to profit. I just could not turn a profit. No matter what I did. My marketing effort, trying to rank for my keywords on Amazon, was not working. No matter how many 5-star reviews I got, and no matter how many discounted items I sold, my Best Seller Ranking was not climbing fast enough to rank on the first page of Amazon.I was in over my head. I chose an expensive product ($20 per unit), I was trying to sell at a premium price ($50 per unit) but no one was buying. The only buyers I was getting were the people buying through JumpSend at a 50% discount. After Amazon fees, I was taking a loss on those JumpSend sales and it wasn't even helping my organic ranking!In the end, I sold more inflatable loungers at a discounted rate through JumpSend then I sold organically at full price. I was essentially paying money for people to take these inflatable loungers from me.After accounting for the initial investment, marketing fees, Amazon storage fees, Amazon sales fees, JungleScout fees, professional photography, and graphic design the end result after selling 500 units of NE Lounger inflatable loungers was a loss of $16,000.I shut the business down in April 2018 after selling all 500 units (for a loss). The nail in the coffin came when I brought the dilemma to my mastermind group, a group of entrepreneurs I trusted and had been meeting with on a weekly basis for over two years. I asked them if I should re-order more inventory to try and turn a profit, or cut my ties and walk away. I got a lot of great feedback from an outside perspective; it was eye-opening.The choices were clear, spend another $16,000 and maybe turn a profit or double down on my other online businesses and scale those to reach my goal of $10,000 income per month. It was an easy decision. In the end, I decided not to re-order the next round of inventory. I shut down NE Lounge and walked away with a $16,000 learning lesson.I can point to a number of reasons why this business failed. First, I suffer from shiny object syndrome. I jumped in too quick after just learning how to launch an Amazon FBA product. I saw the profit potentials, and I was really pushing myself to generate a little extra money so I could leave my 9-5 job and pursue entrepreneurship full time. I chased the shiny object when I could have doubled down and scaled my successful businesses.Second, I chose the wrong product. I chose an expensive product to manufacture, one with lots of competition, one that is known to break (and get bad reviews), one that is a fad product that I had never personally used or even heard of before researching niches on Amazon. I should have chosen a simpler item for my first FBA product, one that was less costly and cheaper to manufacture on a per-unit basis. I was in trouble right off the bat when I dropped over $10,000 just to manufacture my inflatable lounger. I put myself in a hole from the beginning. I should have started smaller, and started cheaper for my first attempt. It would have softened the blow of this failure.Third, I didn't fully understand Amazon. This was my first Amazon product. I didn't understand the fees, I was learning about manufacturing, I didn't understand importing, and I didn't realize how hard it was to rank a product organically on the Amazon search platform.

This is a special bonus episode about the recent Amazon announcement that they were pulling out of the NY second headquarters. I predicted that Amazon might take this step despite the public announcement back in November. The major political objection was the tax incentives that were negotiated with Amazon as part of the overall decision to locate in the NY area. On the surface, you could spin the story to say that the government was caving to the interests of big business and handing the richest man in the world a check for $2.5B dollars. But there is another narrative that is equally valid. Before the Amazon announcement, there were no 25,000 jobs and none of those people were paying federal and NY state income tax and NYC property tax. After the investment of $2.5B by Amazon, getting a $2.5B tax break, the 25,000 employees would pay an estimated $875M a year in taxes each year, every year. When the 2.5B in initial tax breaks are exhausted, then Amazon corporate becomes an even larger contributor to the tax base. It’s pretty simple math. Before Amazon there was no tax income to the government. After Amazon arrives in NY there would have been $875,000 a year in new tax income, and going up from there. The handful of very vocal politicians who opposed Amazon coming to town are not business people. How do I know this? Because they cannot do the most basic of grade school arithmetic. Before Amazon no $875 million in tax. After, $875 million in tax. It’s pretty simple math. The most vocal opponent has been senator Mike Gianaris. In this case he decided that jobs coming to his area was a bad idea. He didn’t want more investment coming into the area. He opposed gentrification. It’s kind of like the person who is in a fight with someone else. But you drink the poison hoping the other person gets sick. The other nuance to this story is the boom and bust cycle in the area resulting from the boom that never happened. Over $500M of Real estate changed hands since the November announcement. Some of that may have been under contract prior to the Amazon announcement. The biggest loser is the owner of the Citigroup tower who now needs to find a tenant for close to 1M square feet of space that Citicorp is vacating in 2020. The big winners will likely be Virginia, Nashville, Austin and Dallas.

In today’s global business news headlines: Zimbabwe’s travails are back in the headlights this morning with the Financial Times of London declaring the country is heading for a Venezuela style meltdown. After Amazon’s share price rose strongly ahead of the release of its December quarter’s results, the stock fell in after-hours trading to $1 635 a share, slightly slightly down on Thursday’s close. US president Donald Trump has called for another summit with “my friend”, his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, to put the seal on a reworked trade arrangement between the countries. In South African related news, a fresh challenge is looming for its mining companies after the Church of England Investment body was joined by other fund managers in calling for a thorough review of all slimes dams worldwide.

After Amazon announced its uninspired new headquarters locations, the columnists are surprised to find they agree on the danger of the website's monopoly, for different reasons. David Leonhardt is baited into playing the "neo-liberal shill." Ross Douthat debates pro-Trump writer Daniel McCarthy over whether the president is actually good for the Republican party. And Michelle Goldberg suggests you soothe your political anxieties with CBD gummies.For background reading on this episode, visit nytimes.com/theargument

The FBI investigation into Kavanaugh leaves unanswered questions. After Amazon, Bernie plans to take on the banks. A ridiculous Ben Shapiro argument. Singer-songwriter Greyson Chance, Activist Yvonne “Tiny” Decory on raising awareness of issues facing the Lakota Tribe in South Dakota. Democrats unleash an aggressive attack ad, and the NRA has almost stopped pretending. Co-host: Jules SuzdaltsevGuests: Greyson Chance,  Yvonne “Tiny” Decory See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jason Crawford How did the journey begin? Jason worked at Amazon, this is when the seeds for Fieldbook started getting planted. It was surprising to him that companies dedicated so much time developing internal tools. Amazon focussed on building a system that helped track their internal recruiting. Years later, Jason joined a startup where he built internal tools for them too which was a data collection workflow tracking system. The problem with spreadsheets is that very quickly you end up using the system for things like project tracking, inventory and CRM, when in reality Spreadsheets are more specifically for those in finance.  Jason worked at Amazon, this is when the seeds for Fieldbook started getting planted. It was surprising to him that companies dedicated so much time developing internal tools. Amazon focussed on building a system that helped track their internal recruiting. Years later, Jason joined a startup where he built internal tools for them too which was a data collection workflow tracking system. The problem with spreadsheets is that very quickly you end up using the system for things like project tracking, inventory and CRM, when in reality Spreadsheets are more specifically for those in finance.  What did you learn from startups and what was instrumental to your learning when you were first starting out? Jason always wanted to start his own company, but over the years the motivation changed. Initially he didn’t want to work for anybody else, but as he matured he realised there’s a lot of people he could learn from. For Jason, running a company was the ultimate challenge and as he got more experience, he slowly shifted in the direction of running a startup all without a plan. From companies like Amazon, he learnt a lot about processes and vision. After Amazon, the startup in Seattle called: “Pelago” was a location based social network pre-iPhone. While working at the startup, he wrote software for feature phones like the Motorola Raze.  A lot of lessons from this, this was right around the time the lean startup movement was getting off the ground in 2008, Jason realised the value that Eric Ries was bringing and some of the lessons were really working well for Jason including doing monthly iterations of softwares instead of weekly.  Click Here For: Eric Ries Blog What is Fieldbook? Fieldbook is a simple online database that anyone can use as a spreadsheet. Fieldbook is a better solution for those use cases where you may be logging inventory, project management and using spreadsheets as a CRM. How did you validate the business case for Fieldbook? Validation goal is not something that happens once, it’s an ongoing process. It’s constant testing against users in the market. Before they had a demo or prototype, he went around asking people to show him their spreadsheets. Asked a number of questions that identified what people did with it, problems, what they used it for, etc.  After initial conversations, make a quick demo that shows people the concept that gets better feedback. What are the problems that people need to solve. Get people to try it. Start well before you think the product is ready, but start with your closest friends and family. Show it to people who know you the best and will forgive you how bad it is.  There’s a couple of perspectives on this, Reid Hoffman says that if you’re not embarrassed with the first prototype then you left it too late, others say well if why would you ever try and get feedback on a half baked product, but it’s important to remember both of these arguments are based around “launch time”, there’s really not a particular launch time because you’re constantly getting feedback. Your immediate network will give you your first 100 users. Then you go can go to BETA List which a platform specifically for products in BETA phase. When you have something a little more substantial you can launch your product on Product Hunt. There’s all sorts of ways to get people in, keep trying new things out and keep testing it.  At what point do you stop testing and you get ready for that launch? Look at both qualitative and quantitative metrics. Ask smart questions like: are people sticking with your product? Are people paying for your product? etc. The data you look at depends on your platform. For example, a SaaS platform you look at conversions, paying customers etc. For a social network you look at engagement, virality etc.  Andy Jones: Sustainable Growth = Top of Funnel (getting people on the product) + Magic Moment (when people see value in your product) + Core Product Value (on going value you deliver that keeps people retained). You want to start by proving Core Product Value before Top of Funnel and you’re not great at Magic Moment, because this teaches people what you’re doing will be worth it. Initially you’ll have to hand hold people through the process, at this point it doesn’t matter if things scale or not because you’re just proving core product value.  A lot of Entrepreneurs see the big launches that people are doing and go for big fancy launches but this results in premature launches, which means that people go into a leaky bucket.  How did you find investors? Finding investors is a lot like creating a product. Jason has raised a few early stage funding rounds now. It’s about starting with people you know, put together a pitch and show it to your closest friends and family. When you do this you’ll get great feedback on the opportunity, holes, and areas you need to work. Eventually you’ll be in a place where you’ve asked a lot of people and you’ve filled many of the loop holes that are present.  Then reach out to people in your immediate network, this may be angel investors or people that know angel investors. Ask them if they wouldn’t mind spending some time to review your pitch, if they are happy with it, they will pass it to others in their network or better yet, invest themselves.  Remember, if you can convince angel investors, you can convince larger venture capital companies.  What makes a successful pitch? Cover the basics, you need explain what you do clearly, quickly and concisely. Investors need to be able to tell what you’re doing very fast for them to be interested. Other things you want to consider include: explain the opportunity, explain the market, compare yourself and your alternatives and even compare yourself against those that aren’t competition but alternative solutions.  It’s important to know who your target market is and how they are solving the problem today. There’s always going to be different pitches for different businesses so don’t be too formulaic about it.  Resources:  Sequila capital Pitch Deck Template Fred Wilson AVC — Best Seed Pitch Ever Jason Lemkin Pitching Advice How did you get onto the App Sumo Platform? App Sumo actually approached Fieldbook. The deal they offered was very above board, they ensured that they aligned the incentives and it was scheduled months in advance. App Sumo understands what would be a good deal, and they write the copy once you provide them with screenshots, demo videos etc.  What are some of the pitfalls you would avoid if you had to start the process again? At some points they got distracted and lost sight of the original vision, you often do this as a you’re looking for a silver bullet, and then you realise there’s no silver bullet, there’s no a tonne of lead bullets! Success lies in the ability to do day to day execution, and staying true to the vision. As Jeff Besos says: stay stubborn to the vision and flexible on the details. Make progress and incrementally through daily execution.  How do you continue to get feedback now that the product is launched? Fieldbook built a waitlist and then got people off the waitlist if they agreed to do a user test. This worked better than usertesting.com because had an incentive to do the user test which in turn gave them invaluable feedback.  This is a great opportunity to ask a lot of questions. When users are using your product for the first time sign up, be the silent observer don’t help them because then you’ll understand how a user interacts with your product. There’s a catch 22 between Marketing and Building Product. What do you focus on and when? It’s an iterative process, as you iterate you’re going to capture more people who are going to be your user testers. At one point, nobody was even interested in testing the product and that’s when they realised that they are not pitching an interesting concept, so they needed to change the way they market the product. They iterated their way to a demo video to get people excited and then they built a product around what excited people.  Some people create a landing page like a one page site, but you can always use platforms like Product Hunt and a section called upcoming where you can use it to collect user subscriptions. It’s also important to start with a community, this could be a blog or a Facebook Group.  When people weren’t receiving the product well, how did you know it wasn’t the product but it was the marketing instead? Honestly, it’s about your vision. Some products start from a tech trigger. In the success business, you need a market, a technology that enables the product, price point the market is willing to pay and the right channels to reach the correct people.  You don’t need to start in one place you just need to ensure it comes together in the end It’s like seeing a mountain so far in the distance you don’t know how you’re going to get there, but at the same time it’s so huge that you don’t need to worry about the small details on how you’re going to get there Seeing that mountain in the distance and having the drive is what get you there You talk about everything coming together as a symphony, but how do know which area of the symphony isn’t working? There’s no formulaic approach to this. There can be all sorts of problems that could occur and it can be very difficult to find out where the issue is. You need to work on keep going to a deeper level, i.e. if your ad copy is not working, try change this, if there’s no results go to a deeper level and choose a new channel, see how things progress, if there’s no change here then question the market. Whatever you do, just keep going deeper. What have you seen that is best practice when it comes to creating a SAAS product? Your Marketing is your promise to the users and you win if you deliver on that promise. Just ensure you ask people what they are hoping to get out of the product or service. Success is getting people to that magic moment.  An interesting talk is about Josh Elman is that Twitter actually increased the number of steps it takes to complete your profile but it was successful because it was clearer and more intuitive. Twitter found that more steps actually led to higher conversions, so it’s important to be very clear in the steps when creating a SAAS Platform.  To hear a talk by Josh Elman click here.  Everyone needs to learn different lessons, but the top three takeaways are: Have the closest possible connection to the users Be data driven and be qualitative. Ensure there’s weekly iterations to the products.  Keep the momentum going and have a strong vision. 

This episode catches up on the latest e-commerce news: Upcoming Industry Events Etail west 2/26 – 3/1 Palm Desert Path to Purchase Summit – March 12-14 – Chicago* IBM Think 3/19-22 Las Vegas ShopTalk 3/18-21 Las Vegas* Adobe 3/25-3/29 Las Vegas NPD Idea 5/15-17 Austin* SAP Sapphire June 5-7, Orlando IRCE, June 5-8 Chicago Shop.org, Sept 12-14, Las Vegas* * Denotes shows Scot and Jason will be attending and broadcasting from. Register for the Jason's Webinar on AI in Commerce, Thursday March 1st. Register to join Jason & Scot at the Path to Purchase Summit in Chicago March 12-14 Amazon News Amazon acquires Ring for $1.1B Funny article about clues to the selected city for Amazon HQ2 Amazon Go to expand to 6 more stores Listener Question:  What happens to Fresh when Amazon delivers from Whole Foods? Walmart News Walmart reports slower than anticipated e-commerce growth Gartner blog on Walmart Pricing Walmart new apparel brands Walmart unveils Allswell home brand of mattresses, bedding Specialty Home redesign Walmart in-store mobile app redesign Other News Target CEO Squak-box interview Don't forget to like our facebook page, and if you enjoyed this episode please write us a review on itunes. Episode 118 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Tuesday, February 17th 2018. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, SVP Commerce & Content at SapientRazorfish, and Scot Wingo, Founder and Executive Chairman of Channel Advisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing.   Transcript Jason: [0:25] Welcome to the Jason and Scott show this is episode 118 being recorded on Tuesday February 27th 2018 I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scott Wingo. Scot: [0:40] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason and Scott show listeners Jason you have a big webinar coming up this week that I think listeners would love to hear about the also it's live video so listeners will actually get to see you, that's exciting. Jason: [0:55] I know I know I feel like I do have a face for podcast so that you know is not necessarily a good thing but I'm a little disheveled right now I sort of torn apart my office to set up a little, video set up because I'm doing the webinar on artificial intelligence in Commerce, with episerver and I'm doing it on Thursday morning, and the reason we're mentioning it on the show is because the last big webinar that they did I had this author I really like and I am embarrassed to say I don't exactly know how to pronounce his name but I think it's near y'all and he wrote this great book called hooked which is a lot about, how people form habits and and he's a super interesting cognitive psychologist but he did the last webinar and I'm desperate to. Get a better attendance than him so I think I just passed him in pre-registration and you know hopefully I'll bring it home on Thursday morning for the Jason and Scott show. Scot: [1:57] Awesome we're counting on you also it's it's starting to be season here of trade shows and we have I think 3 or 4 we're going to be there together which is pretty exciting going on right now and neither of us were able to attend Izzy tail West so bummer on that one. Jason: [2:12] Yeah but shout out to everyone enjoying the good weather in Palm Springs. Scot: [2:15] Yeah yeah can't can't blame me for one down so once we're going to get together March 12th to 14th in your hometown Chicago we're going to get the path to purchase Summit, and it will be at shop talk in Las Vegas and then in PD ID in Austin March 18th to 21st, and it be the idea is May 15th to 17th so it's going. Jason: [2:37] Exactly and I'm I'm speaking at shoptaw Canton PD but I'm particularly looking forward to Pat the purchase cuz I'm just going to be in the audience heckling you. Scot: [2:45] Yeah yeah I look forward to your heckling it'll be funny usually want to do that no one realizes who you are and it's Robert so it's always good. Jason: [2:53] Even when they know who I am it's generally super awkward. Scot: [2:55] Psych episode of the office but looks stretched out and more painful. So since we're hitting the traits of circuit and we do that we do have a lot of guests lined up we're going to the Sobe we missed last week due to me I was on a little bit of a holiday so this week we're going to catch up on news and then, it'll be a little bit of a news coverage drought so we need to kind of knock this one out and of course when it comes to news it wouldn't be a Jason Scott shows without. Amazon news new your margin is there opportunity. [3:38] Big news today it's been kind of timely that what you were going to do the podcast today which is good we appreciate Amazon working this out for us then else one of their biggest Acquisitions ever they are spending a billion dollars to acquire ring. Rings cool as in October I think Rings kind of classic case study there for other option verse so the CEO the founder went on Shark Tank and was rejected by all the sharks I thought it was, terrible idea admittedly the name wasn't that good was called doorbot. They just kind of her like you know we can't see how or why anyone would use this thing so just goes to show you that sometimes when all these experts and your is reject you that you need to just kind of hang in there then they caught the eye of Richard Branson and he invested some like $38 I guess he really, saw used for the product Amazon was an investor to the Alexa fun and they raised a considerable amount of VC. [4:32] Rivers word that they were out raising Capital at kind of what's called a unicorn valuation or north of a billion dollars and Amazon has picked him up for a billion bucks. What do you think about the new station. Jason: [4:44] Yeah they I really appreciative of Amazon getting all the news in before our go on their deadline I think that's always very considerate of Jeff, number one listener thanks again, and I think it's it it seems like a checks a lot of boxes for Amazon I think Amazon his has had a major push into devices and smart home obviously they have you know this huge put on hold with the, the Alexa but you know they, they bought that camera company not long ago I mean I feel like just as a consumer product space they've been particularly interested in that space and then you add to that that this that ring could be an integral part of, giving Amazon delivery people and Home Service people access to the home like it you know it suddenly is synergistic with their supply chain and reverse Logistics Ambitions and so it seems like. It's pretty it's a pretty clever investment and you know a lot of us were talking about after the big Whole Foods acquisition, then maybe we wouldn't see another big retailer acquisition but that you know didn't necessarily mean that Amazon wasn't going to continue to be aggressive so to me this is. [5:55] Another great example of them. Trying to be in a build or own a consumer brand that has even competitive differentiation in the marketplace. Scot: [6:06] Yeah that really cons pros got let down if you can't think about the other, folks really active in the space you have apple who's really playing catch-up they just kind of came out with their smart speaker and as we discussed on the show it's, not not really clear that's going to be a big hit and it really doesn't do much more than be a speaker and then you have Google and. Google is just kind of frantically also playing catch-up they acquired Nest which gave them the thermostat and they put Dropcam into that cycle of a camera and then they have the Google Home Smart speaker. You pointed out to me that those things actually don't really work well together which is kind of funny you know it's cuz they're all it in the Google House of devices. And then you know they there was talk of Nest coming out with a ring competitor, so no now Amazon has bought the number one doorbell device Irene was working on a cool security camera which I tried the private label ish kind of Amazon home. Cameron is not very good so I'm hoping that the the new ring camera will displace that or or at least have a better offering in that category so it's going to be pretty. [7:14] I agree with you at the cut checks a bunch of boxes for Amazon so you know I get into the. Alexa ecosystem will be great it kind of helps with home automation security which is this huge area that no one's really conquered yet, then you have the delivery you know and and then another area I watch her the clothes that Amazon seems to be encroaching and more and more is home services so imagine some kind of an Amazon either. Either, Marketplace from services with like a cleaning service or Amazon actually does it themselves through employees. You know you could have all this time together and in one seamless experience so you could have it kind of. The Holy Grail experience would be you you order your groceries through you know that your Alexa wish list they are delivered to youth from at Whole Foods. And then you your do all this while you're at work and then you've authorized ring to allow access to your house to certain folks and maybe there's some. [8:11] Maybe they hold up a QR code or some kind of authorization there with the ring device that doesn't even require you to answer your phone and see who it is and they place the items in your house so it really kind of. Thinking through this user experience in connecting the dots and in a really interesting way that is so far ahead of everyone else is getting a little scary to be honest with you. Jason: [8:30] Yeah and you know when when you said I didn't immediately think of but the, you know I think it's another big Synergy for Amazon you know most of these cameras are inside your house right so inside your front door or in your new Nursery or whatever the case is that the primary ring camera is, on your porch and you know of course there's there's this huge problem in e-commerce of porch piracy where where you know bad people are are coming to people's houses and stealing their packages and that that happens frequently enough that it's a it's a major, problem for some consumers that are frayed to buy stuff and have it delivered to their home so it literally is a limiting factor for Amazon and so having a, an army of these devices that you don't have the potential did dissuade porch Pirates you know is even another synergistic thing with Amazon. Scot: [9:20] Yeah you could even do some cool stuff with a I wear a ring on her I don't have one they're telling the there's some neighborhood alert feature and so you can almost see you know if there is a. Porch pirate out there you know a I could, detected and then turn on all the ring cameras within a 3-mile radius and and you sit all the video to the police kind of a little scary there on the Privacy side but you know when you do think about these use cases is pretty interesting Amazon has all the pieces to do something like that, actually relatively easily right so think about all the AI and the face mapping and everything inside of the ghost tour, you're so they could easily apply those out rhythms to detecting hey this package was picked up by someone that's not the owner. [10:01] So it's really interesting to think about all these Lego blocks that they're putting together and all the internet use cases to have. Jason: [10:07] Absolutely. Scot: [10:09] Another kind of kind of more on the Whimsical side hq2 search 220 cities, I'm in is really funny that they kind of went into an in da mood where you know they kind of had this huge hoopla about what's going on in and now all these folks hurt the states there negotiating with her under NDA sermons trying to read the tea leaves and. You know I think some of the funnier ones that you noticed conspiracy theories I guess I would call them that are out there. [10:37] There's one that says that Amazon gave a clue that they're going to Austin and if you remember that Super Bowl spot that you and I both kind of thought really won the Super Bowl you know. It kicks off with the lady asking Alexa what the weather is in Austin so a lot of people have kind of tied into that as a clue and then there's a couple other kind of you know Easter eggs in there that there, Canyon to sellers country music that plays in the in the thing this little bit of a stretch but evidently. Austin is has an affinity with peacocks and at the end Anthony Hopkins is sitting there feeding that peacock so I don't people have kind of used the Super Bowl ad is kind of saying is Amazon sending us a subtle clue. Jason: [11:18] Yeah most of those a lot of people are from Austin for the record but yeah. Scot: [11:26] And then another one I saw it was funny is a lot of people were kind of saying oh they're going to. Los Angeles and what would happen is actually a local reporter here they're able to file an information act kind of thing and they got. At least a cover letter for for how the proposal was sent from of a city in North Carolina and it called it project golden. [11:50] And so then a lot of people said they said there's more evidence was found other other reporters kind of took this q and they were able to file these freedom information act. Request get some information mostly cover letters ricewood was redacted. Okay it's called project golden that's like. The Golden State which is Los Angeles or yeah so then everyone but what happened is the person that's just kind of. Gathering Together The Proposal so their last name is golden, who played around this hq2 so even though it's in super quiet mode and in a way it's actually causing more more kind of strange things going on. Jason: [12:34] Again it's it's evilly brilliant PR and you know they they got all these municipalities to you know, drop their drawers and in demonstrate exactly you know how deep their willing to do in terms of Economic Development incentives to get Amazon there and you know whoever Amazon picks for the hq2 they know how much money is on the table from these other cities and you can imagine they're going to use all that in negotiation when there, opening fulfillment centers are other pieces of infrastructure in those cities do you have a front runner in your mind. Scot: [13:07] For the longest time I thought Austin. [13:11] Is it it for me it has a lot of the the elements are looking for so so I can think of this is Amazon's retail business from a people perspective is really well-built out, so I think hq2 is going to be maybe 5 or 10% what you and I would think of is the retail business and the rest is going to be. AWS mom so that's where you let things growing like 60% year-over-year, maybe you put some add business there but but still it's kind of different footprint than the retail business so and and in the proposal and talk about it being largely engineering, so I think it's going to be kind of these y'all hiring cloud-based engineer types so that really made me think Austin because you have three or four engineering schools right there, I'm cost of living infrastructure all those things get checked and it's close to Whole Foods which you know I think if I'd spent 14 billion dollars being near that would be. Pretty nice wind is well within the one thing that is suede me is Scott Galloway has been meeting up making a pretty. Compelling case for the DC area so three of the 20 are in the DC area Bezos just bought like. Largest residence in the DC area and it goes on the DL and then it leaks somehow. Jason: [14:24] How many owns the Washington Post to. Scot: [14:26] News Washington Post is like a toy project and you know they're if you do think about the only thing I see that could cause any kind of existential crisis for Amazon is the government. And I do think you're having the influence, being there getting some of those key virginia-maryland folks in your pocket is pretty interesting so so. I kind of see it as a race between those two Austin if it's a kind of really leaning towards talent and they don't really worry about the government thing I think Austin wins and if they're at the government thing is kind of looming large with them that I think the DC area makes a lot of sense. Jason: [15:01] Yeah no I am I tend to lead towards the DC area as well like you if you sort of think of them. In many ways like Amazon is the next Generation Walmart you know Walmart said really invest in there a lobbying in there and their government relations and, you know like the guy running the government relations program for Walmart is like Dan Bartlett who's the, with the press secretary for George Bush and you know there was a bunch of political news a couple weeks ago I had the number three person at the Department of Justice resigned and she resigned to take a VP job at Walmart so I Walmart building these, this table is like really credible, Washington folks and if that's important to Walmart like you know odds are it it already is or should be important to Amazon and sew in, the proximity make some sense when they are just from the odds perspective you got you got three sites so that seems logical the one thing that. [15:56] Makes me a little dubious of Professor Galloway's. [16:02] Evaluation is he also throws in New York is the front-runner and is why Jake is because everyone wants to live in New York and I kind of called him out on Twitter he he. Took the high road and then respond that only people that live in New York want to live in New York that's a little it's a little bit of a reality bubble that New Yorkers have. Scot: [16:20] Yeah yeah and you know Newark is on there that's like an no way they. Jason: [16:25] Hey that seems like a non-starter to me. Scot: [16:27] Yeah yeah you just can't get text out and some of the things that I have and then you saw some interesting news around the go store. Jason: [16:35] Yeah I think Jason Del Rey broke this on recode but it appears that they're getting ready to scale that out and open six more of those. Stores in Time Turner member but I think they they even identified or speculated some of the the potential for sites was. Austin one of them if I'm remembering right. Scot: [16:59] Yeah I think that carved out another couple already in the Seattle area at which makes sense that's what they did at the bookstore stay I think they open to in Seattle and then they went like San Diego Chicago New York kind of thing. Jason: [17:10] Yeah if you're really going to Market and try to you know Drive traffic to it it it it's much my door to open multiple sites in the same city because then you can buy. Geographic marketing Vehicles like newspaper ads and radio ads in television ads you know opening one store each in a bunch of different cities is much more expensive for traffic generation. Scot: [17:29] Coon and since this is kind of a clever Segway into the grocery last week in our reader question or listener question segment we did run out of time for one of the ones that came in to Twitter and it was from long-term listener Michelle Grant, and she asked do you think Amazon will close fresh and Charlie what do you think about the moose and so I think what she's referencing there is so Amazon did do a little bit of a layoff a couple hundred folks and I think it was the fresh team you know cuz now Amazon essentially has there's a lot of irons in the fire when it comes to a grocery store they have Prime now, they have even like the what is it Warehouse or the the big box thing they have fresh which was the, jewelry that have go and and the Nets Go curbside thing so it had it in and of course at Whole Foods and now they're doing, same day delivery they're on their own how do you reconcile all those things. Jason: [18:28] So I do think fresh as a standalone fulfillment center, model probably does go waste of you if you think about it like. Amazon Fulfillment centers that they generally ship products from them or do One Day deliveries with their Flex drivers from, they've got these Prime now for filament centers which have a much smaller SKU assortment but you know really optimized for that one and two hour delivery, in the fresh cities they have a separate fulfillment center that has a lot more cold storage and accommodations for perishable in the drivers, deliver out of the limited assortment of the fresh profillment Center which was different than the prime now fulfillment center which is different than a, fulfillment center and now they're announcing that they're going to start delivering inventory straight from Whole Food stores and so what I think is going to happen is that that fresh. Fulfillment center as a standalone entity goes away most of the volume for delivering perishables in groceries is going to come from the, the Whole Foods store the Whole Food store. She has a much larger assortment then then fresh did, and I do think Amazon's continuing to build out there, fulfillment center capabilities for cold and Frozen so you know we wouldn't be surprised if they have cold capabilities, in Prime now fulfillment centers and they continue to fulfill some some. [19:59] Cold items from Prime now but I would imagine that those are mainly items that are synergistic with other, other types of products that people buy from Prime now so maybe you need some like, cables in an emergency router for your office and you can also buy you know a case of soda or water you know it wouldn't surprise me if they had those kind of skews in Prime now that you know if you're going to order bananas and milk, that's more likely going to get fulfilled from a Whole Foods rather than a standalone fresh Depot. Scot: [20:30] On the show you guys talk about curbside wins delivery. Is kind of tougher and probably doesn't win sounds like you just going to reconcile that all down two more like delivery dude do you think Amazon does continue with that curbside I think it's called Amazon go pick up or something. Jason: [20:50] Amazon Fresh curbside is it fresh pick up Amazon Fresh pick up, yeah so there are these two first pick up locations in Seattle I continue to strongly believe, that the majority of digital grocery shopping is going to be pick up right so you're going to order your digital groceries from Walmart or Kroger. Or Amazon and you are going to drive to that store. A surrogate location for that store at a convenient time and have someone to load your groceries in your trunk and that's. The economics of that are just infinitely more favorable than the economics of delivering a fresh and we can get in the all the reasons why we just explore delivering perishables are much uglier than the economics for delivering. [21:41] White goods in general merchandise there are niches we're home delivery of fresh make sense and you know rich people in New York and Chicago and California you know where are certainly going to take advantage of that and you know I think. All of Amazon's offerings at the moment with the exception of those two locations are home delivery in so you know I was kind of answering the Fulfillment question through that lens but I also think I'll be utterly shocked if. After Amazon turns does Whole Foods into home delivery venues they don't also offer a curbside pickup option. For pickup at Whole Foods and what's going to be super interesting to me when they do that is, what and if the pricing difference is between having his groceries delivered and picking them up at the store because at the moment the deliveries free as long as you you know trigger certain thresholds. And you know but the the cost for delivery are much higher than the curbside pickup cost so it seems like. You know there's there's going to be a strong argument for there being some price savings if you're willing to pick him up. Scot: [22:50] Prequel show thanks for the question sorry we couldn't get it to it last episode of a glad we were able to pick it up kind of rolled up inside of this Amazon Go News, I'm just wondering I don't think I wanted to pick your brain on the big news kind of over the last week or so was Walmart really miss their e-commerce growth goals for Q4, I am so I think they came in at a paltry 23% which is kind of fun, because that's not too shabby but you know why she was expecting 50% which is a Dunham Park orders and then it there analyst day which we talked about on the show, they're kind of being in their chest and saying hey in 2018 we're going to get this thing cranked up to 60% of the result of that. Stock have been on quite an upswing since the jet acquisition and a lot of this good e-commerce news and it had a single worst day in history, I'm from up with a percentage in a point bases so that did not go over well with the street then, are there is a flurry of Articles you know is Lori on his way out what's going on what what's your take on what happened there. Jason: [23:58] Yeah so I mean just a brief moment of silence for all that that value that was lost when they announced that they're e-commerce crew at 23% when they're, Industries only growing at 16% and oh by the way, traffic in our stores was up in our stores grew by 3.2% which our store volume is way higher than the, the unlined volume and way more profitable so they actually like reported really good financial news with this this one miss about what, you know economically is kind of a relevant portion of their business and they they got cream for it but of course. You and I are listeners know that that that you know in the long run that that winning e-commerce is is Paramount and so I do think it's fair that investors are. I really nervous about that that Miss. So that being said it's interesting cuz you know Walmart had these three phenomenal quarters where they went 63% growth 60% gross 50% growth, and you know when they are doing those two were a bunch of Acquisitions and everyone's like oh the Acquisitions really paid off. And Walmart really pushed back on that and said no no no the bulk of this growth is organic. You know the boat Boca this girl isn't jet or bonobos or ModCloth are you almost out of those those things and so now year later when they kind of lapped those acquisitions. And the girl that is way down you know people are speculating it's because the the Acquisitions are now. [25:30] You. They've been in there for a year and said the cops are against. Against the business Windows Acquisitions and so that hurt them you know Walmart came out and said that they had some Logistics misses and you know that that holiday really had a different mix and that caused them. Tamisium shipments of missing opportunities but what I haven't seen talked about a lot which to me is really the hidden story of both Walmarts growth and Walmart's Miss. Is the last topic we just talked about which is grocery so what what listeners need to remember. Walmart is first and foremost a grocery store I think between 50 and 60% of the revenue is grocery. And you know a year ago they started rapidly rolling out buy online pickup turn side grocery. Two individual Walmart stores and so about a year ago they announced they had their thousand. Grocery pickup store and you know my contention is a huge part of that e-commerce growth is they went from zero groceries to you know some grocery store sales in a thousand stores. And so now they've lap those thousand stores those those thousand stores are in the comps. Answer now the growth you know doesn't look as spectacular unless you open. Another thousand stores which Walmart actually announced they were going to do, and conspicuously absent in this in these latest announcements was any indication of whether they they hit their goal or didn't hit their goal or they were behind and I really think some of the young to be interested to hear some of the. [27:03] The stock analyst you know you know if if they asked us questions and if they got good answers cuz to me. [27:11] We really need to be thinking about these these e-commerce grocery stores a little bit different than pure e-commerce when when Amazon as a product of their e-commerce catalog it's available in all 50 states simultaneously. The grocery is a store by store basis so you almost need a same-store sales number for e-commerce to really see the true growth. In an Eakin e-commerce Grocery and so I like that that maybe evolution of the retail financial reporting that we we start to see. [27:45] One other thing that caught my eye related to that mess is there was funny to me probably not funny to Walmart. A Blog on gardeners website from a guy Bob head to who's one of the good retail Analyst at Gardner and he was talking about how he seen some substantial price fluctuations at Walmart. In a centrally he tells the story about how I-44 research she tried to get his family to buy all there. Their stuff online from Walmart they were they are Walmart shoppers apparently but he tried to get his wife to use walmart.com and she diligently tried and they actually failed because. [28:23] Walmart online pricing was so much higher than their in-store pricing and so you know Bob speculation is. That you know part up part of this mess is that they have this disparity pricing strategy between e-commerce and in-store, and you know that he seen the shift more recently took two closer to Universal pricing and he thinks that might be something at Walmart suggesting. In response to some of their they're softer e-commerce growth. In that that is potentially interesting there is this you know huge urine everyday low price retail or it's it's part of your. [29:04] All brand proposition knew you'd expect to see the lowest price everywhere and if prices are higher online like you know. [29:11] You can understand why that would alienate the core Walmart Shopper and so that that to me is a interesting part of the story that we haven't heard a lot of Anna's talk about is. Is the pricing part because we have separately seen Walmart make some announcements. That you know I kind of funny announcements to hear a retailer make which is. They're shifting focus of their online inventory to be more profitable and they're actually asking cpgs to make. More expensive bundles and more expensive products for them so they can get the AO Vivo online up to get profitability up and the sort of. You know implication and all of this is, hey we're getting tonight's e-commerce growth e-commerce is going to be meaningful for Walmart but one thing that sucks about it is the economics and you know now Walmart's you know trying to shift to be more more profitable online and so you know when you talk about this growth. You know is it is it profitable growth in his part of the the softness and Walmart's growth because they have shifted. They are trying to shift the next to be more profitable online. You know what I don't know but those are going to be the interesting things to follow. Scot: [30:18] Any other Walmart new phone cover. Jason: [30:24] The couple other interesting things they they they have announced some new brands. So they watch a bunch of new apparel Brands and I think they officially I think we're might have already been out but I think they officially announced them today as well I'm so again props to them for getting on our data Toro schedule but cities are Brands like time and true, Tara and Sky nation and I think I'm one call George, and you know for those that are intimately familiar with Walmart's apparel they've they've had private label apparel for a long time like that you know. [30:58] It doesn't have a particular good reputation for style or quality and yet I think it's a pretty big seller into these new these new brands are. Like we were singing The Marketplace the seems like there's a much bigger effort for them to be real brands that are distinct and not simply private label. And so I think like the shift is yours going to see retailers talk about not their private label but they're owned Brands and so I think Walmart would say the only boats and ModCloth are owned Brands and now time in Fruit owned Branford. For Walmart so it's going to be interesting to see if they're able to kind of move up market and get a better reputation in a peril. You know apparel and everyday will prices haven't historically. You know I've been two things you think I'd together so so I think that's working against them a little bit but they also announced a private label for mattresses that seems like it's directly competing with a Casper's of the world in that that brand is called them. All is well I believe. [32:00] And I think some of the new brands are interesting they also announced a couple of redesign so earlier this month they they did a pretty substantial redesign to their mobile app. And what they did is they put a much more robust what I call in store mode they I think they call it the store system. And so this is the notion that if you have the Walmart app and you run it in your house you get one experience but if you happen to be standing in a Walmart store and you open the Walmart app. You get a very different experience that's tailored to the kinds of things you like to do if you're in the store so when you do a search it. What does the search against that stores local inventory they have maps in the app now for all the stores and they help you find products they connect you with the local customer service and the local service offerings like Walmart pay, and MoneyGrams and all those sorts of things in the in the store and said they're they're making the the in-store experience on the mobile app much more robust which is interesting and then. [32:55] They the automatically redesign the home section and they made it you know much richer and content and you know they have some some new shopping utilities like. Shop for furniture by style for example and things that you know who's more likely Walmart was a pretty straight catalog site so adding this kind of, editorial element to their site was interesting and then they have teased that in the coming months we should expect to see a pretty substantial redesign of the whole walmart.com so I'm, I'm always super interested to follow big retailers when they do design refreshes and and see what some of the new thinking might be there. Scot: [33:32] Yeah when I saw the all's well so an ounce of the witches the mattress and maybe think they probably went and tried to acquire Casper purple there's like six of these things now I can't keep them all straight Lisa, are there several others, and they probably didn't like the prices and then you know that it does seem like they're dime a dozen now so I think they're all coming out of a similar kind of a design studio and tractor in China somewhere and they just kind of said let's just do this ourselves I'm almost in surprise that Amazon hasn't done one hour or maybe Amazon hasn't really realized it. Jason: [34:05] No it wouldn't shock me if we see that in the near future. Scot: [34:08] Quick one. Since we just talked about Casper I did notice they opened a store in New York City which is continue that Trend we talked a lot about on the show with these. Digital native Brands getting a certain scale and then having to open stores are I guess they're more showroom me so the mattress you could understand that we're. You're the only so many people they're going to. Trust in store trial and then home trial in the return policy and it is I've enjoyed seeing them in Target stores and I know you care so much about them and, it is nice to have at least get to see one feel it I lay down on it and see what it's like before you take that did to me it's more the time risk of you know. That's another thing I have to ship it back and all that so that was interesting. Jason: [34:52] Yeah absolutely Anna and as we talked about on the show number times I, brick and mortar stores are a great marketing vehicle for online sales and unlike a lot of other marketing Vehicles which are pure expense you know the store can often pay for itself or be profitable and drive a bunch of traffic. E-commerce business so you know, opening showrooms particularly in high traffic areas like New York City you can make make a lot of sense for bran. Scot: [35:17] Couple quick hits so over on the pier Place side eBay has been pretty quiet on that position front and also in keeping with their timing today they announce who won the first positions in a while another Marketplace and it's pretty interesting so, eBay has a long history of not doing well in Japan they they had their own Japanese offering, end of the exit of Japan in 2000 they also didn't do well in China they really struggled with with Asia and general General, partnership with Yahoo auctions so if you look at the the Japanese Marketplace market today. [35:54] Dominated by rakatan Yahoo auctions in an Amazon does really well in Japan as well and so they actually just acquired a startup called the starts called juices. And the name of the marketplace I don't know how to say it so I'll spell it is qoo. And then one zero I would she so I think you would be cute n. JP that's pretty interesting and I saw a rumor that they paid $700 for that, so you have to kind of thinking a why would you pick 2018 after you've been out of the market for 18 years. And my my reading the tea leaves on this is a really good job on kind of, cross-border trade and enabling people around the world to order from. Order from sellers across the world and then doing some interesting things with reshipping and, Google translate and just make the entire eBay catalog as much of it as possible available in areas where the extra don't have a presence so so I imagine when I read this stairs, there is demand for for you know. Probably cross-border trade product and this gives them a platform to kind of put that on where is before their Pi just doing this kind of localized and I kind of caught up it's kind of a, that's kind of a country page where you'll you'll go to eBay. JP but. The listings are all coming for the US and Europe in and they've been Google translated in that kind of thing so this will I think. [37:21] Their interest must be that they're seeing something in the date of the newest in Russia for example some of the largest countries for them where they do this and Brazil in other countries. [37:30] Another couple quick ones back to omni-channel Macy's was in the news this week because they had an awesome 4th quarter, and I hope you're sitting down Jason but they're same-store sales grew 1.4% year-over-year, so that was a no cause for celebration I think there was a Wall Street expectation that they actually have negative same-store sales for the last three years they have been contracting so it is good to see them having increased it just kind of interesting you know that. [37:57] Walmart gets the snot beating out of them for her for 23% growth and e-commerce Macy's I didn't see what they split it out but you know they grew 1.4% and it's kind of like you know, the through the woods and everything is great. So you know that that is still growing shorter there are smaller than overall retail which I believe was in the high 3% for for offline so that was interesting, what other kind of couple things. take out of that announcement they now say they have a third of their skus are with a call Exclusive which to me means more like private label or if they have work with a brand it's only available at Macy's and that seems to be doing well which is at one of the things you and I buy stale retailers to to focus on. And then they required a beauty product called bluemercury at Sephora. And I'm not an expert on this and it's evidently to doing really really well and you know it is exclusive to them and I think they're starting to really kind of. Push that pretty hard the last one I saw that was pretty interesting kind of in the financial news there's been a lot of rumors are Nordstrom's going private and looks like. Now there's there's all these rumors that that deal is getting done the stock reacted to it so and I noticed that, Jason is added them to code Commerce which will be his little kind of Sideshow that he does array shop talk he added one of the Nordstrom store that so it'll be interesting you know you can imagine. [39:25] Is there something going on that's all Jason's going to ask about so you can imagine hopefully maybe a deal will be done by late March or that you know that they're kind of have some timing setup that they can talk about it then or something maybe read too much into that but I thought that was interesting. Jason: [39:37] Yeah I know for sure because they normally don't do a ton of publicity so far I think it's Eric Nordstrom that's going to the recode dinner it'll be interesting to hear what he has to say and I I'm sure you're right that you would certainly get some questions about the, they going private I would do just just one site week Macy's so bluemercury the Cosmetics company their brand that Macy's bought in it and it's killing it luxury cosmetics in general are doing really well it's one of the fast-growing categories and so I told to and Sephora these, two Standalone Cosmetics retailers are are growing really fast like you're doing much better than then retail in general. For all of our our cosmetic Savvy wesner's I'll point out that Sephora is a retailer that carries a bunch of Brands including some private label so, they're probably not the most direct competitor with bluemercury but you know you can think of like a Revlon or L'Oreal or or those those kind of Brands is competing with blue Mercury but evidently the analyst. I have talked about bluemercury being one of the the crown jewels and one of the great assets assets that Macy's is hat. [40:46] So do you feel more more cosmetic aware now Scott. [40:54] What notes are they both carry a bunch of national Brands they both have their own stuff but the the the real Innovation here is why. Before Sephora. If you are interested in shopping for Cosmetics you probably went to a department store when you are a young girl and you became a certain age your mom probably took you to a department store to get your first cosmetics and, all the Cosmetics were shop and Shop so you had the first and foremost pick a brand with your feet so you walked to the Mac counter or you you walked to the, repair counter or whatever whatever Cosmetics you had an affinity for and you shocked by brand, and so support I had this sort of game-changing notion that like hey people don't want to stop by. Brand necessarily they want to shop I use case so I had to put all the foundations here from all the brands and let's put on the moisturizers over here from all the brands and that, that concept played really well with consumers in and Trigger 2 for on this rapid growth in Ulta is a more recent competitor that is kind of followed in in support his footsteps, and done a really good job of adding Professional Services to the store in a salon and things like that so that's now you really have the whole Cosmetics history. Scot: [42:09] Collective I was thinking we should do a deep that the boom you just did it right in the middle of news awesome the Deep dive delicious nugget inside of some e-commerce news. Jason: [42:18] Exact just wanted to establish my Qualls as knowing more about Cosmetics than any dude should know. Scot: [42:25] You die definitely bouncy. Jason: [42:27] I appreciate it so going back to omni-channel there was also a few interesting news nip it's about Target so one that caught my eye because it validated smart-aleck opinion I had, you know a couple months ago Target acquired this company called shipped and shipped as a. A third-party delivery service that would deliver purchases from a variety of stores to a consumer's home and there. [42:55] Yeah you pay an annual fee of like $99 and then you get free home delivery you know. Over some purchase threshold like 35 bucks or something so Target bought them and at the time I was like Hey that may be a good acquisition that may get Target some good capability for home delivery that they want but. They're likely to have overpaid because. Shipped was this two-sided marketplace where you know they tried to acquire customers that were customers of ship to not Target and they pay $100 to ship to be a member, and the reason that they would get a bunch of customers is that the utility those customers get as they get free home delivery from the bunch of retailers to ship Ted 2, appeal to a bunch of retailers and they had to appeal to a bunch of consumers and when one retailer buys them suddenly it's much less appealing. For for ship to work with all these other retailers in that you know it has this negative Cascade effect on the whole two-sided Marketplace model, and at the time of the announcement that I've no no no we're going to contain around another standing in entity and we're going to continue to. To try to support all those retailers so you know interesting side-note 60 days later shift is no longer delivering goods from Walmart so. [44:12] You may have paid your $99 under the belief that you could get free home delivery from Sam's Club and ship just pulled that that rug out from Target has pulled that rag out from under the ship's customers. You know which in my mind means shipped is at the end of the day going to end up being a convenience delivery tool for Target purchases which. [44:30] Maybe super useful but it's it's a different model than the original ship model so I found that you know interesting or self validating made me feel good about myself. And then there was kind of an interesting interview that we saw with Brian Cornell the CEO of Target I think he was on Squawk Box and you know who's making the point about. [44:52] The value of Target stores and how you know they're very successfully shipping from stores and they're making major investment and remodeling stores and how how important stores are Little Mix, all stuff that I wholeheartedly agree with that I'm glad to see Target doing and if it's I think that the Marquee quote out of this whole thing you know the kind of got the headline was. Brian Cornell says e-commerce is in everything most us Dale Sale still happen in stores. And I have to be honest I don't love quotes like that because in my mind you know half of all Target sales are digitally influenced. And you know dis deciding that a sale is a store sale or an online sale at this point is kind of silly that 70% of all their online orders they ship from the stores and now they have this ship thing to deliver from. From the stores like you know I don't think Brian should be talking about his e-commerce sales versus Is Us sales and the my sort of. Smart aleck metaphor is it's like the old retail Guy saying the only profitable part of our stores the POS because that's where all the sales are driven in the shells don't drive any sale so they're less valuable we should not invest in the shelves. Obviously like it doesn't matter where the sale is consummated like the whole customer experience is super important. Scot: [46:07] Feel like there's a joke in there but I didn't get it some kind of old school retail joke. Jason: [46:14] Yeah I'll put the laugh track in so people will think that everyone else got it even if you didn't. But we are up on time. Because I know we're trying to make the news episodes a bit shorter as a is an amenity to our listeners, I do a reminder when I get in to see some of you in Chicago at the path to purchase Summit Monday March 12th, Scot is going to be part of the Great track on Marketplace in Amazon selling and I I'm going to be. In the audience learning from that one and we'll be podcasting some live shots from there so. Hope to see some of you then as always love to continue the the conversation on Facebook so if you if you have any questions or comments about this episode or 100 out some of the many things. And I got wrong feel free to jump on face. And we'll keep the conversation going and as always if you loved the show we would greatly appreciate that five star review on iTune so this would be a great week. Finally jumped on the website go finder show all you have to do is type e-commerce in the iTunes where the first one they don't show up. Click on that 5-star review and we will be forever indebted to you. Scot: [47:23] Thanks for joining us everyone and also when you're on iTunes hit the Subscribe button to lock people just download each episode which is fine but his subscribe it also helps us on the rankings and we appreciate that. Jason: [47:34] Absolutely so until next time happy commercing.

Marc Lore's first big startup sold diapers, and it was bought by Amazon for more than $500 million. Instead of celebrating, Lore felt a let down. After Amazon, he went on to found a competitor, called Jet.com, which he recently sold to Walmart for $3 billion in cash, plus stock. This time, he's had a number of reasons to celebrate. Now he's the president and CEO of Walmart eCommerce in the U.S. The stock is way up. On this episode of "Success! How I Did It," Lore describes how he founded several companies with his childhood friends, and what made the Walmart deal different than Amazon's.

Instead of giving you a quirky intro to this entry, let's just dive right into the question of the week: What TV genres and trends have stayed their welcome and need to go? It's one of many topics we address in Episode 66 and invite our dear Clinkers to play along in the comments of our Facebook page. Join us, won't you? NEWS: According to TorrentFreak, Season 7 of “Game of Thrones” has hit a billion illegal downloads. You monsters! The season premiere of “American Horror Story: Cult” brought in 3.93 million viewers. This is a 24 percent decline in ratings compared to last year’s "Roanoke." Netflix has placed a two season order for a “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” prequel series from Ryan Murphy and Sarah Paulson called “Ratched.” It will begin in 1947 and follow “Ratched’s” path from “nurse to full-fledged monster,” and it will “track her murderous progression through the mental health care system.” The first two episodes of “Inhumans” premiered on 676 IMAX screens over the weekend, grossing an estimated $2.6 million globally. In America, it brought $1.5 million in at the box office. To put it into perspective, this past weekend’s 40th Anniversary screenings of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” brought in $2.6 million at the U.S. box office. Ouch. Lin-Manuel Miranda updated the “Magic School Bus” theme song for Netflix’s reboot. While Kate McKinnon will star, Lily Tomlin is returning to supply the voice for Professor Frizzle as she hands over the keys to her younger sister Ms. Frizzle (McKinnon). Antonio Banderas will play Pablo Picasso in Nat Geo’s next season of “Genius.” Chris Pine has signed on to play Bobby Kennedy in an untitled limited series for Hulu. Sean Spicer will be a guest on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Sept. 13. Hillary Clinton will be a guest on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Sept. 19 HBO will bring an end to “Veep” after Season 7 in 2018. Syfy has canceled “Blood Drive” after one season and “Dark Matter” after three seasons. TNT canceled “Will” after one season. It averaged just 697,000 viewers per episode. After Amazon renewed “Z: The Beginning of Everything” and opened up a writers room for a Season 2, spending roughly $7 million on the new episodes, it decided to cancel the show instead. AARON’S LOSERS: "Disjointed" and "Little Evil" JACK’S LOSERS: "Gear Dogs" and "ABC Fall Preview" AARON’S FENCERS: "Preacher" and "American Horror Story: Cult"JACK’S FENCERS: "Guilty Rich" and "Claws" AARON’S WINNERS: "Epic’ly Later’d," "You’re the Worst," "Twin Peaks" and "Room 104"JACK’S WINNERS: "American Horror Story: Cult," "Lego Elves: Secrets of Elvendale" and "The Deuce" Be sure to subscribe on iTunes and comment! Find us on Twitter at: @PunchDrunk_TV, @flatlinejack and @aaronflux Join the conversation on Facebook. As always, #ClinktheDrink

Are you ready to buy your groceries online? In this episode, the Business team takes a closer look at the latest blockbuster e-commerce deal; Amazon’s $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods, the US-based grocery chain. Are people willing to buy perishable goods online? And, within the UAE, what do retailers think of the rise in e-commerce and the challenges it presents? After Amazon’s acquisition of UAE-based Souq.com, the team also discusses what the Whole Foods deal means for the region, and whether we can expect Whole Foods to start deliveries to the Gulf.

Welcome to the 150th episode of Guys & Balls!!! To commemorate, we completely forget about it and don't mention it. The show starts off a little wonky, but soon we get on track talking about the Blazers and the awesome second half of the season they're having. Then we get into some College Basketball before March Trivia. After Amazon, we mention some baseball news and then finally get to the end of the season Pick 'em winner. Enjoy the show! www.guysandballs.com

Hey there, welcome to Episode 147 of Guys & Balls. Starting off, Oregon State gets boned, then we jump into the NBA with some firing, crying, and Blazers talk. Then Willie joins us to give us the skinny on College Basketball and why it's good. After Amazon we jump into the Conference Championships in the NFL, recap the news and Weekly Pick 'em, then go into the first section of prop bets for the Super Bowl. Hope you love it, cuz we sure do! www.guysandballs.com

Well welcome to Episode 146 of Guys & Balls. What an interesting opening to the show you get to experience. From there we dive into the NBA, Blazers, Cavs embarrassment, and cool unis. Then we have a few stories from NCAA football and basketball. After Amazon, apparently there are people actually paying attention to Tennis. Then we get into the awesome weekend of NFL Playoff football. Enjoy! www.guysandballs.com

Happy holidays and happy anniversary to Guys & Balls! We officially 3 today and we feel goooood. Starting the show off, we get into the Pete Rose decision, then dive into the crazy bowl names and the Heisman Trophy winner. After that, we get into the Blazers and the NBA, including how crazy good who the Warriors are. After Amazon, we have an update on some MLB Free Agency news. Then of course, we close off the show with a little NFL, Fantasy Football and then our Weekly Pick 'em. Enjoy this two baller! www.guysandballs.com

Hey there, welcome to Episode 141 of Guys & Balls! We give MLS and the Timbers their proper due and open the show with talk of their championship. From there, we get into NCAA Football, the Final Four and Heisman candidates. Then we get into the NBA and the Blazers, plus just how damn good the Warriors are. After Amazon, we have some MLB Cubs trade/free agency news. Then we end the show as usual with the NFL weekend and the Weekly Pick 'em. Enjoy! www.guysandballs.com

We're two balled with a call in for Episode 135 of Guys & Balls! We start the show with a funny story from the NFL, then dive into the weekend of college football. The Cubs aren't doing so hot in MLB playoff updates, and the Timbers are doing exceptionally well heading into the end of the season. After Amazon, we close the short show with the NFL and Rylan dominating last week's Weekly Pick 'em. Enjoy! www.guysandballs.com

Welcome to Episode 124 of Guys & Balls!!! We start the show off witha blast from the past and then go into some Bigotmania. Into the NFL, we got a good story for the NFL and of course, more negative news for the league. After the NFL, we got a mystery to solve, and it involves poop. After Amazon, we kiss our sister in trivia, how embarrassing. Then we have some NBA stuff to handle, a people's elbow, and your idiot of the year. We paced it on this one, like a buffet. Have at it! www.guysandballs.com

The whole gang is back for episode 123 of Guys & Balls. Welcome...welcome!!! We start the show off with a recap of Aquaholympics 2015 and then a shark was assaulted in South Africa. Next, we got some news from the Blatter-wire and then Ian ponders if the Timbers can make the playoffs. The Open was this past weekend and there was a lot of stories from it. The Ghetto Bird gets a new job and Dale is playing MLB baseball apparently. After Amazon, we have some NBA tidbits including some new unis for the Pacers, Aldridge explains some things, Lawson to the Rockets, and some Bucks shenanigans. Lastly, we have a few chunks of NFL to end the show. Have a great weekend, see you next week! www.guysandballs.com

Welcome to another amazing show with Guys & Balls and Episode 122! We open the show remembering back to the days of our youth and the music that was. In sports, Spieth caught a Marlin!!! The NBA had some interesting things going on down in LA LA Land. Ian had a nice bachelor weekend, so you know what the Timbers did! Then we drool over Spieth and his chances at The Open. After Amazon, Dale has his 2 Minute Drill. Then MLB changed up the format for the Home Run Derby...and it was awesome. Looking at Tennis, Wimbledon happened this past weekend and it didn't disappoint. Then, changing it up a little, we end the show with a Cash It or Trash It. We have some fun on this one, we hope you do too, enjoy. www.guysandballs.com

Well get on board with Episode 118 of Guys & Balls! We start off the show with Trap or Not a Trap (spoilers: It's a Trap!) and Caitlyn Jenner reveal. Then we jump into the NBA Playoffs and all the things we've missed in the last 2 weeks. Then some French Open updates before we dive into the messed up FIFA boondoggle. After Amazon, we've got a Belmont Stakes update and then Did the Timbers Tie? Finally, we close the show with some NCAA and NFL football news. Enjoy the fodder! www.guysandballs.com

Hello and welcome to Episode 113 of Guys & Balls! Little light in the sports news, so we go off on some tangents today that are pretty entertaining, fair warning. First off, Dale went to Garth Brooks. Then, we open sports talk with some Clockwork Orange type shit and Darren Sharper. Next, we go in depth into The Masters weekend and Spieth's domination. Did the Timbers Tie is not looking optimistic for Timbers fans. After Amazon, Rylan has his Two Minute Drill and then we have some quick NFL news. We close the show with the NBA, Blazers updates, and the playoff picture. Have a good one!!! www.guysandballs.com

Well glory be, welcome to Episode 108 of Guys & Balls. We start off the show with a good story about a better letter than A-Rod's and some ribbing of Dale's reaction last week. Then in the NBA, James Harden is a ball kicker and we discuss the good week the Blazers had. In soccer news, if the MLS strikes and no one cares, does it really happen? And the triumphant return of Did the Timbers Tie!!! After Amazon, we have a good Cash It or Trash It and some speculation on why Tiger is actually not playing golf. The internet is deplorable, and Curt Schilling finds out why. Then we end the show with some NFL news, because the damn league is never over. Shorty but a goodie, enjoy! www.guysandballs.com

Good evening and welcome to Guys & Balls Episode 104. We start the show talking about our Super Bowl party, then go right into the NBA and the state of the Blazers. Then other happenings in Phoenix this weekend, Tiger has a bad day and Molinari has a good one. After Amazon, Dale has his Two Minute Drill and continues the previous conversation. Then we get into the NFL for the final time for this season. Not everyone had a good weekend, but the Patriots sure did. Enjoy this one, cuz it's about to get more basketball heavy after this one.

Hey there! Welcome to Episode 103 of Guys & Balls. Dale breaks the intro, momentarily, then we get into the story about guts and determination. Then we get into the NBA when friend of the show Wayne fires up Dale with a question of the week. After Amazon, we do a Super Bowl themed February trivia. We end the show with the Super Bowl preview and all of our prop bets. Not a lot of meat, but it's a thick one, enjoy!

We're back with Episode 102 after our minisode last week. Good story of the week is a Grandpa who's getting a chance at baseball. Interesting story of the week is Dale's gambling habit and how it pertained to a game over the weekend. We move into the meat of the show with some college basketball and how the Beavs have some good little teams. NBA talk gives us an owner who already wants out after buying a team in recent years and how the Blazers are navigating through an injury flood. After Amazon, Rylan delivers his two minute drill that may be a new ringtone for someone on the show. Then we have a little bit of soccer talk before we get into a review of the last two weeks of NFL games and our weekly Pick 'em. Little loose tonight, but the show is still tight, enjoy! www.guysandballs.com