Podcasts about Disintermediation

Chapters00:00 Introduction to Tomer Strolight05:03 Discovering Bitcoin: The Initial Attraction08:00 Learning the Mechanics of Bitcoin09:41 Early Investments and Lessons Learned12:18 Career in Digital Media and Philosophy17:50 The Rise of Bitcoin and Community Engagement21:06 The Block Size Wars and Community Dynamics28:29 Reflections on Bitcoin's Evolution and Future29:39 Navigating Career Changes During COVID-1930:29 The Birth of a Bitcoin Writer31:34 Creating Accessible Bitcoin Content32:12 The Journey of Writing and Self-Discovery34:30 From Writing to Publishing: The Swan Connection35:30 Exploring Love Through Bitcoin36:51 The Power of Writing in Self-Discovery39:16 The Discipline of Writing40:30 Early Influences and Digital Transformation42:22 Recognizing the Disintermediation of Media45:12 Transitioning to Emotional Intelligence Training47:29 Spiritual Awakening and the Influence of Bitcoin48:12 Understanding Love and Bitcoin50:00 The Journey to Faith and Understanding God54:03 A Divine Encounter During Writing58:22 The Journey of Faith and Transformation01:00:03 Balancing Beliefs and Relationships01:01:46 Wisdom in Acceptance and Understanding01:06:33 Experiencing Community and Spiritual Growth01:10:11 The Impact of Personal Experiences on Faith01:12:31 Current Endeavors and Future Aspirations

In der digitalen Welt zählt der Zugriff (z.B. auf Software, Videos, Musik, aber auch auf PKW, Möbel, Wohnungen u.v.a.) häufiger mehr, als der eigentliche Besitz. Über diesen disruptiven Effekt der Disownership denke ich heute im Rahmen von zehn Thesen nach. Diese betreffen die Nachhaltigkeit, den Zwang zu neuen Geschäftsmodellen und zur Marktdurchdringung, den Finanzbedarf, Kundentransparenz, Serviceerwartungen, Diversifikation, Rolle der Logistik und von Ökosystemen, sowie der Wandel gesellschaftlicher Werte. Die bisherigen Podcastfolgen zu den übrigen digitalen Disruptionen lauten Disaggregation, ⁠Disintermediation⁠, ⁠Dematerialisierung⁠ und ⁠Dezentralisierung⁠.

Schon Michael Porter sprach 1985 von fünf Kräften des Wettbewerbs. Doch nun erleben wir dank der Digitalisierung, aber auch neuen Finanzierungsmöglichkeiten etc., mindestens zwei weitere Arten von Wettbewerbern. Sie alle gefährden die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit etablierter Unternehmen: die klassischen Wettbewerber, neue Wettbewerber (wie Startups oder Eroberer), ehemalige Mitarbeiter, Kunden (Integratoren), Lieferanten (Effekt der Disintermediation), Substitution und Disruption (Simplifizierer). Nur wer diese möglichen Wettbewerbskräfte laufend beobachtet und bewertet, kann rechtzeitig reagieren bzw. sogar selbst aktiv seinen Markt gestalten.

In this insightful episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli welcomes Emmanuel Daniel, global thought leader, futurist, founder of The Asian Banker, and author of The Great Transition: The Personalization of Finance is Here. Emmanuel brings a wealth of experience from decades of engaging with top financial leaders and institutions worldwide, and his expertise shines through in this engaging conversation. With a deep understanding of how technology is reshaping the financial industry, Emmanuel challenges the status quo and offers a thought-provoking vision for the future of business, finance, and society.The episode centers on Emmanuel's book, The Great Transition, where he explores how finance is being fundamentally transformed by the rise of personalization and decentralization. Emmanuel provides a compelling argument that technology is empowering individuals like never before, enabling them to bypass traditional financial institutions. But this is just the beginning—he reveals that this transition is not limited to finance but is reshaping the fabric of society itself.Throughout the conversation, Emmanuel goes into the “network effect,” explaining how it is changing the rules of engagement for businesses, institutions, and individuals. As industries face increasing pressure from disruptive technologies, Emmanuel highlights the critical need for leaders to embrace these changes or risk becoming obsolete. His insights are especially relevant for senior executives navigating the complex landscape of digital transformation and leadership in an interconnected world.Listeners will come away from this episode with a renewed understanding of how technology is disrupting not just finance but every facet of society. Emmanuel's observations about the power of networks, the personalization of industries, and the decentralization of control are crucial for leaders seeking to stay ahead in today's fast-changing business environment. This episode offers actionable insights and thought leadership that will resonate with CEOs, executives, and anyone interested in the future of leadership and finance.Actionable Takeaways:You'll learn how the "personalization of finance" is putting unprecedented control in the hands of individuals and what that means for the future of traditional financial institutions.Hear how the network effect is disrupting industries by shifting power from large institutions to decentralized communities, changing the rules of business and finance.Discover why blockchain and crypto aren't just financial tools but represent a deeper shift toward decentralization and individual empowerment.Find out why executives need to embrace the network effect in their leadership strategies to stay relevant in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.Explore how the future of work is being redefined by self-employment and the critical role of building your personal network to thrive in a networked economy.Gain insights into why platforms like Facebook are losing their dominance and how new technologies are enabling individuals to create their own platforms and communities.Connect with Emmanuel DanielEmmanuel Daniel Website and Blog The Great Transition: The Personalization of Finance is Here Emmanuel Daniel LinkedIn Connect with Mahan Tavakoli: Mahan Tavakoli Website Mahan Tavakoli on LinkedIn Partnering Leadership Website

In this conversation, Connor and Derek discuss their long-standing professional relationship and the journey that led Derek to become the Chief Revenue Officer at Opptly. They also explore the challenges and opportunities in the talent and technology space, as well as the future of recruitment and staffing. Derek highlights the importance of mentors and leaders in his career development and emphasizes the need to pay it forward. They also discuss the current labor market paradox and the role of technology in solving recruitment challenges. Derek shares insights into Opptly's mission to remove friction between talent and work through AI and automation, while still maintaining the human element of recruitment. In this conversation, Connor and Derek discuss various topics related to work and the future of work. They touch on the challenges of career transitions, the importance of support from loved ones, and the need for a fundamental rethink of the hiring process. They also explore the impact of artificial intelligence on jobs and employment, the benefits and challenges of remote work, and their predictions for the future of work.TakeawaysMentors and leaders play a crucial role in career development and it is important to pay it forward by supporting and promoting the next generation of leaders.The labor market paradox, where there is high unemployment alongside a shortage of skilled workers, can be addressed through upskilling and identifying new opportunities.Technology, such as AI and automation, can enhance the recruitment process by streamlining tasks and improving candidate matching, but the human element of recruitment and the personal touch are still essential.The recruitment and staffing sector is ripe for disruption and disintermediation, with the potential for technology to revolutionize the industry and create a more efficient and effective process.The role of recruiters may evolve into that of a concierge service, providing personalized guidance and support to candidates and clients. Career transitions can be challenging, but having the support of loved ones can make a difference.The hiring process needs a fundamental rethink to ensure that the best workers are not screened out before they even get a chance to be interviewed.Artificial intelligence has the potential to both positively and negatively impact jobs and employment.Remote work offers flexibility and efficiency, but it also requires self-discipline and the ability to set boundaries.The future of work will likely involve the rise of talent marketplaces, increased focus on work-life balance, and the need for specialized skills and expertise.Chapters00:00 Introduction and Long-standing Professional Relationship02:01 Derek's Journey to Becoming CRO at Oply12:06 Overview of Oply and its Mission16:28 Addressing the Labor Market Paradox23:57 The Need for Disruption and Disintermediation in Recruitment29:38 The Evolution of Recruiters into Concierge Services34:49 Career Transitions and Support36:19 Rethinking the Hiring Process42:35 The Impact of Artificial Intelligence54:34 Remote Work: Benefits and Challenges01:00:36 Predictions for the Future of WorkConnect with Derek here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dsanders37/

In this episode we talk to Ian MacQuillin, Founder and Director of the fundraising think tank Rogare about the promise and perils of disintermediation in the charity sector, what a theory of fundraising ethics looks like, and why knowing more about the history of fundraising is important. Including:How did Rogare came about?What are the aims of the organisation, and what are its key themes/areas of interest currently? What is the current state of academic research on fundraising and charities? How much of this influences practice? What barriers are in the way of this happening more?DisintermediationWhat is disintermediation and why is it an important trend ?What are the different ways in which disintermediation can apply to the work of charities?What benefits and risks can disintermediation bring for donors and charities? If people are able to give in disintermediated ways instead of via traditional charities, does this matter? Should we just accept it as a natural evolution, or is something in danger of being lost? What, if anything, can the various examples of controversy that have arisen around crowdfunding and other forms of disintermediated giving tell us about the value of the role that traditional charities play?What is "normative fundraising ethics"?Does normative fundraising ethics need to go above and beyond what is allowable in legal or regulatory terms? If so, what is the basis for the normative principles?  Is there a danger that the purpose-driven nature of charities brings about a form of (perhaps subconscious) consequentialism in fundraising (i.e. the end justifies the means, because the cause I am fundraising for is “worthy” or “good”)? Is it part of the nature of fundraising to be challenging? (e.g. making people uncomfortable in order to elicit an empathetic response, pushing them to give more than they might do if left to their own devices). Or does this raise ethical issues about the undermining of individual choice and agency?Tainted DonationsWhy are tainted donations such a perennial challenge for charities and fundraisers?How could a normative ethics framework help to inform our thinking about tainted donations?Community-Centric & Donor-Centric FundraisingWhat is the distinction between Donor-centric fundraising (DCF) and Community-centric fundraising (CCF), and why has it become such a point of controversy and debate? Are the arguments in favour of DCF solely pragmatic ones (i.e. that it works), and conversely are the arguments in favour of CCF solely principled ones (i.e. that it is the “right” thing to do) or are there principled and pragmatic arguments for both?Is it possible to balance the demands of DCF and CCF?Why is a historical perspective on fundraising valuable?Related LinksIan's paper on "A Typology of Disintermediated Giving & Asking in the Nonprofit Sector" (with Rita Kottasz, Juniper Locilento & Neil GallaifordRogare paper on Normative Fundraising EthicsRogare History of Fundraising projectRogare paper on CCF & DCFPhilanthropisms podcast with Martha AwojobiPhilanthropisms podcast on tainted donations

Discover the groundbreaking shift happening in real estate and private equity right under our noses. Learn how leveraging technology like investor portals and social media to raise retail capital at an unprecedented scale.Join me as I discuss how sponsors are leveraging these advancements to raise millions in retail capital, transforming the landscape of capital investment.Learn more at www.lscre.com To apply to attend LSC Summit 2024: www.lscsummit.comFollow Rob Beardsley:YouTubeFacebookLinkedInRead Rob's articles:https://www.lscre.com/blog

A reminder for new readers. That Was The Week collects the best writing on critical issues in tech, startups, and venture capital. I selected the articles because they are of interest. The selections often include things I entirely disagree with. But they express common opinions, or they provoke me to think. The articles are only snippets. Click on the headline to go to the original. I express my point of view in the editorial and the weekly video below.Thanks To This Week's Contributors: @TEDchris, @LilyWhitsitt, @RocketToLulu, @saeedtaji, @geneteare, @EricNewcomer, @jeffbeckervc, @jasonlk, @elonmusk, @benshapiro, @StevenLevy, @apple, @bheater, @bmw, @Growcoot, @illscience, @venturetwins, @omooretweets, @conniechanContents* Editorial: Civility and Civilization* Essays of the Week* US Seed Investment Actually Held Up Pretty Well For The Past 2 Years. Here's What That Means For 2024* Lower Valuations, Higher Bar: What It's Like To Raise A Seed Round In 2024 * Unicorns & Inevitabilities* Sequoia, Founders Fund, USV, Elad Gil & Benchmark Top Venture Manager Survey* Why 2024 May Be Tougher on Venture Capital Than 2023* Video of the Week* The Mac at 40* AI of the Week* BMW will deploy Figure's humanoid robot at South Carolina plant* Google's New AI Video Generator Looks Incredible* OpenAI's Sam Altman seeks funds for AI chip factories as demands surge* The Future of Prosumer: The Rise of “AI Native” Workflows* Andreessen Horowitz's Connie Chan to Leave as Consumer Focus Shifts to AI* OpenAI Is a (Relative) Steal* News Of the Week* Ted fellows resign from organisation after Bill Ackman named as speaker* Tesla's Slowdown Disqualifies It From ‘Magnificent Seven' Group* TikTok's Testing 30 Minute Uploads as It Looks To Expand Its Content Options* Instagram to scan under-18s' messages to protect against ‘inappropriate images'* Tiger Global Investor Relations Staff Depart After Fundraising Challenges* Worldcoin hints at new Orb for a friendlier iris-scanning experience* Startup of the Week* Loyalty Startup Bilt Rewards Hits $3.1B Valuation After $200M Round* X of the Week* Elon Musk visits Auschwitz with Ben ShapiroEditorialThere is a lot to digest in this week's newsletter. Gené Teare's two essays on Seed investing head up the Essays of the Week, along with Jeff Becker talking about unicorns and inevitabilities, Eric Newcomer on who are the top investors and Jason Lemkin on the reasons 2024 might be harder for Venture Capital than 2023.But my attention was distracted from venture capital by a Guardian article announcing (triumphantly, I might add) that several TED fellows had resigned from the organization due to an invite to Bill Ackman to speak at this year's TED event in Vancouver.“Lucianne Walkowicz and Saeed Taji Farouky accuse Ted of taking anti-Palestinian stand over controversial billionaire's inclusion”It seems Ackman is not alone. They also object to Bari Weiss being invited. The leavers are also not alone; up to 30 others have signed a “solidarity” letter.The accusations echo much of the discussion around the medieval assassination of Jews on 7 October and Israel's efforts to defeat Hamas in the aftermath. Because these speakers are against anti-Semitism and so supportive of Israel's war against Hamas, they are accused of the ridiculous claim of supporting “Genocide” against Palestinians.“We refuse for our work and identities to be exploited to promote the Ted brand while the organisation and its speakers generate income and advance their careers through dehumanising Palestinians and justifying their genocide,” the pair said.It probably will not surprise readers of this newsletter that I applaud TED curators Chris Anderson and Lily James Olds for not backing down on the invitations. Whatever one believes about the current conflict in Israel, it is clear that banning opponents of anti-Semitism because of their stance is not a solution to anything. I believe the cause of fighting anti-Semitism should be close to the heart of any progressive person. It is not anti-Palestinian to support Jews against being slaughtered in the street, to oppose anti-Semitism, or to condemn Hamas as anti-Jewish murderers. Supporting Jews against slaughter by Hamas is not incompatible with supporting Palestinians. The Guardian reported that Ackman responded to the resignations with a statement:“I stand unapologetically with Israel and against antisemitism and terrorism, while strongly supporting the Palestinian people. Attempts to cancel speech and eliminate the free and respectful exchange of ideas among people with differing views are driving much of the divisiveness that plagues our nation. Truth, wisdom and ultimately peace are the result of the free exchange of ideas and debate, precisely what Ted is all about. It is sad that this is not more widely understood,”Unsurprisingly, one of the resigners, Farouky, told the Guardian he did not regard the issue as freedom of speech. It clearly IS about freedom of speech. Speech only needs protecting when opinions are wide apart and strongly held.For example, here are my views on the actual issues:These are trying times. Over 25,000 deaths in Gaza are hard to comprehend. And I certainly cannot. But I can understand that Jews have to defend themselves. And I can understand that progressive thinkers MUST stand up to anti-Semitism, whatever form it takes.In case there is doubt about my support for Muslim victims of racism, my book Under Seige is about the attacks on Muslims in the UK between 1961 and 1981. It starts with recognizing that racism targets differences and that Jews and Muslims are both targets. Indeed, the very ghettoes that Pakistani and Bengali immigrants were being attacked in had earlier, in the 1930s, been inhabited by Jewish settlers fleeing pogroms. I am not Jewish, and I am not Muslim. But I will always be on both of their sides when they are attacked for their ethnic and racial origin.In Israel, Jews were killed for being Jews. Palestinians are being killed because Hamas is hiding in their cities and buildings. I do not consider Israel's response to be racist against Palestinians. I consider it reasonable in the context of 7 October. I consider that Hamas has done this to Palestinians and probably wanted that outcome. I am sad that Hamas has done this for the Palestinian victims. But I do not doubt that Hamas is to blame.My views may anger you. But do you want me banned or silenced?My title this week is Civility and Civilization. The TED events bring both to the fore. Like those I write here, opinions are there to be disagreed with, debated, and interrogated. Civilized behavior requires dialogue and civility within the dialogue. I certainly understand opinions I disagree with, and far from banning them or walking away so that I do not have to hear them, I want to hear them. We all should.This is a different editorial than usual. I hope the humanity of refusing to forget 7 October and the determination to preserve the view that fighting anti-Semitism is a non-negotiable minimum requirement of civilization are grasped. By the same token, Islamaphobia must be fought. But in Israel, there is no Islamophobia at work. Jews are simply reacting to an atrocity. They are right to blame Hamas.Essays of the WeekUS Seed Investment Actually Held Up Pretty Well For The Past 2 Years. Here's What That Means For 2024Gené Teare, January 24, 2024, @geneteareEditor's note: This is the first in a two-part series on the state of seed startup investing at the start of 2024. Check back tomorrow for Part 2.Despite a broad pullback in global startup investment over the past two years, investors say the U.S. seed funding environment was the most vibrant compared to other funding stages during the downturn.In fact, U.S. seed funding in 2022 grew by close to 10% in terms of dollars invested, in contrast to a downturn at all other funding stages. In 2023, U.S. seed funding fell 31% — a significant proportion — but still less than other funding stages year over year, an analysis of Crunchbase data shows. (It's also worth noting that those other stages had already experienced year-over-year declines in 2022.)In the current startup funding market, “we're seeing a lot more great talent excited about starting things,” said Renata Quintini, co-founder of Renegade Partners, a Bay Area-based investment firm that focuses on Series A companies and is therefore close to the seed ecosystem.Other investors share that enthusiasm. “Valuations are coming down, more talent is available in the market,” said Michael Cardamone of New York-based seed investor Forum Ventures. “A lot of these companies at seed and Series A are going to scale into what will likely be the next bull market.”Seed trends over the decadeSeed as an asset class, not surprisingly, has grown in the U.S. over the past decade. In 2014 less than $5 billion was invested at seed. At the market peak in 2022, seed investment was more than $16 billion, although it fell to $11.5 billion in 2023.Despite the downturn, seed funding in 2023 was still $2 billion to $3 billion higher in the U.S. than in the pre-pandemic years of 2019 and 2020.Higher bar, pricier rounds, better valuedBut in a tougher market, seed investors are being more selective about which companies they fund.“We're being far more disciplined and patient knowing how hard it is for these companies to get to Series A and beyond,” said Jenny Lefcourt, a general partner at Bay Area-based seed investor Freestyle Capital. “Our bar for conviction is higher than it had been in the heyday where everything was getting funded.”In the slower funding environment, the firm has been investing later at the seed stage, “gravitating toward ‘seed plus' or ‘A minus' — pick your favorite term for it — because I feel like I get to see more risk mitigated. I get to see more data,” she said.Freestyle seeks to have ownership of around 12% to 15% in the companies it backs. “The reason is because of our model,” Lefcourt said. “We are low-volume, high-conviction investors.”And because the firm invests in companies that are pre-Series A, “our reality has been that our valuations have actually been higher in this market, which is not what we would have predicted.“But the data we've seen is, we're not alone in that,” she said.…MoreLower Valuations, Higher Bar: What It's Like To Raise A Seed Round In 2024 Gené Teare, January 25, 2024, @geneteareEditor's note: This is the second in a two-part series on the state of seed startup investing at the start of 2024. Read Part 1, which looked at seed funding trends over the past decade and the median time period between seed and Series A funding, here.Seed funding to startups has grown into its own asset class over the past decade, with round sizes trending larger, and a bigger pool of investors backing these nascent startups. But in the aftermath of 2021's venture funding heyday and subsequent pullback, investors say that while seed funding has held up better than other startup investment stages, these very young startups will see lower valuations and must now clear a much higher bar to get backing.More companies raised seed funding above $1 million in 2021. Those companies — which raised during a record-smashing year for venture funding — are saddled with valuations that could be too high for this current market — even at seed. Many of those startups have been forced to cut costs to extend their runways, and face a tougher sales environment.“You could then be sacrificing growth, which is one of the main levers that Series A investors are looking for,” said Michael Cardamone of New York-based seed investor Forum Ventures.2021 after effectsIn 2021 it was “grow, grow, grow, grow,” said Jenny Lefcourt, a general partner at Bay Area-based seed investor Freestyle Capital. “It's embarrassing to look back on, but that was the game being played.”Investors got sloppy during the boom times, she said. “I think a lot of VCs were thrilled to back you, and then say, ‘we'll figure it out.' ”“The reality is that almost anything that was done then — call it 2021 — was the wrong price,” she said.This led to down rounds, even at seed, though those are generally not viewed negatively like they were in the past, she said.In fact, “when our companies get their down rounds done, it's a sign of it's a good business. It just had the wrong price on it,” she said.While the bar is higher to raise funding these days, “I think it's so much better for a company who gets to start in this environment,” Lefcourt said.Down rounds can actually be a sign of conviction, she said. “None of us would do all the heavy lifting to not only give the company more capital, but recap it, which takes a lot. It's a heavy lift — none of us would do that if we weren't super jazzed about the company. The lazier approach, the easier approach, is to just put it on the note, keep it flat, and be done,” she said.Renata Quintini, co-founder of Renegade Partners, a Bay Area-based investment firm that focuses on Series A companies, is hearing of “more ‘pay-to-play' these days and it's starting to get ugly.” This happens when new investors wipe out the prior investors, and anyone seeking equity needs to pony up into the new funding round.Median and averages climbNonetheless, “seed round valuations haven't dropped a ton from even the peak,” according to Forum Ventures' Cardamone. But, “the bar to raise a seed [round] is a lot higher.”“Most first-time founders especially, and the vast majority of founders generally — they have to get significant traction to be able to raise that same round they used to be able to raise. And a lot fewer of those rounds are happening,” he said.“A priced seed round of $3 million at $15 million [pre-money] is still happening, but you might have to be at $500,000 ARR, to raise that round now. Whereas in 2021, it was the norm to raise that round pre-revenue,” he said.Series A fundings have gotten harder as “companies are going out and raising three seed rounds,” said Cardamone.Based on an analysis of Crunchbase data, median and average seed round sizes in the U.S. have climbed through the past decade.In 2023, median and average raises are not far from the peak of 2022, Crunchbase data shows, and were well above pre-pandemic levels. (However, this will shift downward somewhat as the long tail of seed fundings are retroactively added to the Crunchbase database.)Seed rounds got larger“If I have conviction, we may need them to have more money, cause we know it's going to take them longer to reach the milestones that are now higher,” said Lefcourt.Per an analysis of Crunchbase data, larger seed rounds — those $1 million and above — have increased through the decade.The amount of funding to seed-stage companies below $1 million hasn't budged much, and is a fraction of what it was earlier in the decade.Seed below $1 million in 2014 represented around 25% of all seed funding.That has come down as a proportion every year since then.And as of 2021 that proportion has dipped below 10% for the first time, ranging from 5% to 7% of all seed dollars invested in the U.S. since then.Earlier in the past decade, the number of seed deals in rounds below $1 million outpaced those rounds at $1 million and above significantly.But 2021 was once again a pivotal year. That's when $1 million and above seed rounds outpaced smaller seed for the first time.In 2023, they are neck and neck in count. (That might shift as the long tail of seed rounds are added to the Crunchbase database long after they close.)What this all shows is that seed has become an increasingly significant and elongated phase in a company's early life cycle, where companies are raising multiple million-dollar seed rounds. And as of late, more companies than ever before are wading in the seed pool.What does this mean for the seed funding market in 2024?…MoreUnicorns & InevitabilitiesUp and to the right, or not so much?JEFF BECKER, JAN 22, 2024TLDR: Go read Aileen Lee's update to the Unicorn Club… and a few inevitabilities.Did anyone catch Aileen Lee & Allegra Simon's Welcome Back to the Unicorn Club, 10 Years Later?If not, go read it. That's your MMM.If you did read it, you can't help but wonder if the tech sector isn't going to resemble the public markets over time. Ups and downs, but consistently up and to the right over a long enough period.After all, we are creating leverage in ways we've never seen before.And for unicorns, that meant 14X growth over a 10-year period.Could you imagine another 14 or even 10X from here? That would be stratospheric, from ~500 to ~5,000 unicorns? What if the exit sizes did too? $5B, $10B, $50B?Crazy to think, but hardly impossible. After all, we've already seen near-centicorns like Uber's IPO at $75B in 2019.The interesting part about that thought exercise though is not the crazy zero interest rate IPO's, but the fact that entry valuations didn't and don't move nearly as fast as top end outcomes because of the time horizon to realizing them.For example, Airbnb raised $20K from Y Combinator for 6%, then they took another $600K for 20% in their seed.That was 2009. The idea of an IPO for $47B just 11 years later in 2020 probably wasn't even a consideration. Paul Graham and the YC team would've had to believe Airbnb's IPO could compete with AT&T, General Motors, and Visa.Insane.Fast forward, that $333,333 valuation at YC has moved to $1.78m (125K for 7%), and they'll stack another 2.6% ownership on average from their $375K MFN with the average YC company raising seed at a $14.4m cap instead of Airbnb's $3m.That's a ~5X increase in valuation at pre-seed & seed for a 47X increase in IPO size if you were modeling $1B outcomes into your VC fund model in 2009.I'm not saying that will continue. There are counterforces of course.* Margins are way too high. The fact that software margins have persisted at 80% or more is just craziness. Companies will start to use price more aggressively to compete for market share as cheap AI tools enter the market and try to unseat them. This compression will change the value of discounted cash flow models.* Pricing models need to change. One way to reduce sticker price and maintain some semblance of healthy long-term margins is to pay a smaller implementation fee, but incur ongoing services & upgrade costs. This is a more traditional pricing model, and creative economics that leverage this kind of thinking run rampant in the titans of tech. It's a game of deeper roots, higher switching costs, and long-term contracts. With API calls and data usage more prevalent, we'll also see more pay-per-use models, the same way we buy copiers. We'll also see more pay-for-performance models with attributable ROI, akin to Amazon's ACoS model or Rakuten's affiliate marketing model. Customers will prefer it too, placing a higher emphasis customer value. This will also drive margins to condense.* AI, AI, AI. AI will cut OpEx costs dramatically. SDR teams, gone. Copywriters at agencies, you don't need as many. Data scientists? Just run a query against your data lakes. The list goes on. Costs of running these companies is going to get shellacked. Good for margins for sure, but also a compelling opportunity for newcomers to undercut and unseat incumbents too.* More hardware. With software margins condensing, hardware margins will start to feel more attractive too, the maintenance and upgrade fees will resemble what we see in SaaS, and the software that powers these machines will be incredible. Skynet for autonomous off-road vehicles, absolutely.* Less dilution, earlier exits, and stratification. We already see it in the S&P 500 with the top end accounting for an outsized share of total value. With that kind of cash on balance sheets, bigger companies will just buy the smaller ones. Think about how Broadcom rolls up companies. If you've built the business more efficiently, you've also raised less, incurred less dilution, and that $100m exit when you still own 50% is looking pretty prett-ty good compared to the same outcome 5-10 grueling years later to own 5% of $1B.* Massive founder salaries, less emphasis on growth. If you've built a company that's profitable from day one, and you have complete control of your board, what's your incentive to keep the pedal down on growth, or stay on the VC treadmill? World domination? Why not pay yourself 10X, stop fundraising, and continue to tighten the core business until someone acquires you? It's better for the founding team and employees for sure, and it's probably better for customers in most instances too.These are just some of things I think we'll see over the next five years until we approach ZIRPy-dirpy times again and massive growth becomes irresistible.But there are also a whole slew of things I think are inevitabilities that will benefit from these dynamics because we will not only have new technologies, with more attractive pricing, but we will be tackling new opportunities that were created by the prior evolutions across adjacent industries.For example…* Cost of energy is going to zero with nuclear fusion* Longevity is starting to work; check out Loyal for Dogs* Batteries & cameras continue to improve; medical devices, for one, will be more personal & affordable* Disintermediation of big ad networks with new global distribution channels; check out Benjamin* Massive cost reductions driven by AI* Software will be built by software* An aging population is retiring (10,000 per day); wealth transfer & SMB's with no exit paths* Climate change* …and so on and so on and so onThe list is long. Much longer than this. If you want the rest, just reply or comment so that I know, and I'll go deeper next week.Net of all of it, I think we're going to see a tale of two cities. Stronger, more profitable businesses, with smaller, but better founder founder exits in the near term, and a continued growth both in number of total unicorns, and what that top-end outcomes look like in the longer-term.And like I said, go read Aileen's post.Sequoia, Founders Fund, USV, Elad Gil & Benchmark Top Venture Manager SurveyI got my hands on a VC scorecard circulating among top founders & VCsERIC NEWCOMERJAN 25, 2024Before we get started, I want to be clear — this isn't the end-all, be-all list of the top venture capital firms or the most promising startups.But I got my hands on a survey of 91 people at 69 different venture capital firms conducted by a well-respected investor in venture capital firms.The survey results are spreading hand-to-hand in Silicon Valley. The results of the survey rank the most desirable venture capital firms and companies, according to VCs themselves. When I was out in San Francisco last week for The Information's 10th anniversary gala, sources kept bringing it up.My sources tell me that the survey was conducted by Ed Hutchinson, managing partner at Golden Bell Partners. Hutchinson is ignoring my emails.Which firms and companies would top VCs themselves put their money into? It's a question everyone wants to know the answer to.I've got my hands on their list of favorites:Firms* (1) Sequoia* (2) Founders Fund* (3) Union Square* (4) Elad Gil* (5) Benchmark…Much More (but only for subscribers)Why 2024 May Be Tougher on Venture Capital Than 2023by Jason Lemkin | Blog Posts, Fundraising, ScaleSo I thought the toughest times for venture would be behind us now.  In 2022, we were in free fall, with public market caps falling like a knife, and the IPO markets frozen.  And 2023 was the year of the Work Out in venture.  Bridge rounds slowed down, and VCs acknowledged a lot of portfolio companies just weren't going to make it.  It got real in 2023, and that realness got normalized.  The drama mostly was behind us.  And public SaaS stocks in many cases did really, really well in 2023.  So shouldn't 2024 at least be better for venture?So I thought.But the reality is I'm a bit more worried the venture drama in 2024 will be bigger than 2023.  Why?  Four core reasons:#1:  Now We Have to Deal With the Reality of the Stumbling Unicorns.The ones that are doing $100m+ ARR, still growing, but there just isn't going to be any more money coming.  This is going to burn up a ton of energy in VC funds.  Even tougher, the reality is while many VC funds marked down their unicorns to lower valuations in 2023, they often didn't mark them down enough.#2.  The Chase for AI Unicorns and Decacorns is All-consuming.  It's Still 2021 There.The one place where paper money seems easy to come by is Hot AI Startups.   And that's probably not you.  It's just consuming all the oxygen in venture, trying to get into the next Imaging AI startup worth $1B in 10 months.  In AI, 2021 never went away.  In AI, it's still 2021.#3.  A Lot of Seasoned VCs are Discouraged. This Doesn't Help Founders.A lot of VCs who have been around for a while are quietly discouraged.  They just don't see a great path to making a ton of money in venture these days.  We're in Year 3 of a venture downturn, and that weighs of most of us.  At a practical level, for founders, it makes it harder to lean it.#4.  More Valuation Markdowns Are Still to ComeRelated to the first point, but more markdowns are like mutliple rounds of layoffs.  They're just tough.  LPs lose confidence.  Coworkers lose confidence.  We should have gotten through a lot of this in 2023, but we didn't.  Personally, I've got several investments for example that I marked down. 70%-80% or more — that my co-investors didn't mark down at all.#5.  VCs Have Run out of ReservesVCs used what extra “reserve” capital they had for bridge rounds in 2022 and 2023.  Now it's gone.  That's adds to the stress as companies struggle.  You don't have a play anymore.The bottom line is there likely is at least another full year of working through the excesses of 2021.  That will weigh across venture.  No matter what some AI headlines suggest.Video of the WeekThe Mac at 40Apple Shares the Secret of Why the 40-Year-Old Mac Still RulesThe pioneering PC revolutionized how people interact with computers. As the Mac enters its fifth decade, Apple says it will continue to evolve.STEVEN LEVY, Jan 19, 2024 10:00 AMON JANUARY 24, Apple's Macintosh computer turns 40. Normally that number is an inexorable milestone of middle age. Indeed, in the last reported sales year, Macintosh sales dipped below $30 billion, more than a 25 percent drop from the previous year's $40 billion. But unlike an aging person, Macs now are slimmer, faster, and last much longer before having to recharge.My own relationship with the computer dates back to its beginnings, when I got a prelaunch peek some weeks before its January 1984 launch. I even wrote a book about the Mac—Insanely Great—in which I described it as “the computer that changed everything.” Unlike every other nonfiction subtitle, the hyperbole was justified. The Mac introduced the way all computers would one day work, and the break from controlling a machine with typed commands ushered us into an era that extends to our mobile interactions. It also heralded a focus on design that transformed our devices.That legacy has been long-lasting. For the first half of its existence, the Mac occupied only a slice of the market, even as it inspired so many rivals; now it's a substantial chunk of PC sales. Even within the Apple juggernaut, $30 billion isn't chicken feed! What's more, when people think of PCs these days, many will envision a Macintosh. More often than not, the open laptops populating coffee shops and tech company workstations beam out glowing Apples from their covers. Apple claims that its Macbook Air is the world's best-selling computer model. One 2019 survey reported that more than two-thirds of all college students prefer a Mac. And Apple has relentlessly improved the product, whether with the increasingly slim profile of the iMac or the 22-hour battery life of the Macbook Pro. Moreover, the Mac is still a thing. Chromebooks and Surface PCs come and go, but Apple's creation remains the pinnacle of PC-dom. “It's not a story of nostalgia, or history passing us by,” says Greg “Joz” Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, in a rare on-the-record interview with five Apple executives involved in its Macintosh operation. “The fact we did this for 40 years is unbelievable.”…Much MoreAI of the WeekBMW will deploy Figure's humanoid robot at South Carolina plantBrian Heater @bheater / 3:00 AM PST•January 18, 2024Image Credits: FigureFigure today announced a “commercial agreement” that will bring its first humanoid robot to a BMW manufacturing facility in South Carolina. The Spartanburg plant is BMW's only in the United States. As of 2019, the 8 million-square-foot campus boasted the highest yield among the German manufacturer's factories anywhere in the world.BMW has not disclosed how many Figure 01 models it will deploy initially. Nor do we know precisely what jobs the robot will be tasked with when it starts work. Figure did, however, confirm with TechCrunch that it is beginning with an initial five tasks, which will be rolled out one at a time.While folks in the space have been cavalierly tossing out the term “general purpose” to describe these sorts of systems, it's important to temper expectations and point out that they will all arrive as single- or multi-purpose systems, growing their skillset over time. Figure CEO Brett Adcock likens the approach to an app store — something that Boston Dynamics currently offers with its Spot robot via SDK.Likely initial applications include standard manufacturing tasks such as box moving, pick and place and pallet unloading and loading — basically the sort of repetitive tasks for which factory owners claim to have difficulty retaining human workers. Adcock says that Figure expects to ship its first commercial robot within a year, an ambitious timeline even for a company that prides itself on quick turnaround times.The initial batch of applications will be largely determined by Figure's early partners like BMW. The system will, for instance, likely be working with sheet metal to start. Adcock adds that the company has signed up additional clients, but declined to disclose their names. It seems likely Figure will instead opt to announce each individually to keep the news cycle spinning in the intervening 12 months.Unlike some other humanoid designers (including Agility), Figure is focused on creating a dexterous, human like hand for manipulation. The thinking behind such an end effector is the same that's driving many toward the humanoid form factor in the first place: Namely, we've designed our workspaces with us in mind. Adcock alludes to Figure 01 being tasked with an initial set of jobs that require high dexterity.As for the importance of legs, the executive suggests that their importance for maneuvering during certain tasks is as — or more — important than things like walking up stairs and over uneven terrain, which tend to get most of the love during these conversations.…MoreGoogle's New AI Video Generator Looks IncredibleJAN 25, 2024MATT GROWCOOTGoogle has announced Lumiere: an AI video generator that looks to be one of the most advanced text-to-video models yet.The name Lumiere is seemingly a nod to the Lumiere brothers who are credited with putting on the first ever cinema showing in 1895. Just as motion picture was cutting-edge technology at the end of the 19th century, the Lumiere name is once more being associated with something new and original.The demo of Lumiere that Google put out focuses firmly on animals. The model can generate a scene using just text; much the same way AI image generators work, the user can dream up any scenario they would like to see a short video clip of.However, the user can also use an image as a prompt. Google provided multiple examples: including some that are real photos such as Joe Rosenthal's iconic Raising the Flag photo; “Soldiers raising the united states flag on a windy day” saw one of the 20th-centuries most recognizable photos suddently come to life as the soliders struggle with the flag that's being affected by gusts.Also in Lumiere is a “Video Stylization” setting which allows users to upload a source video and then ask the generative AI model for various element changes. For example, a person running may be suddenly turned into a toy made of colorful bricks.Another feature Google showed off is “Cinemagraphs”, where just a section of an image is animated while the rest stays still. “Video Inpainting” is included too which involves masking part of the image so that section can be changed to the user's desire.Space-Time Diffusion ModelLumiere is powered by “Space-Time U-Net architecture that generates the entire temporal duration of the video at once, through a single pass in the model.”This difficult-to-understand concept is apparently in contrast to existing video models which “synthesize distant keyframes followed by temporal super-resolution — an approach that inherently makes global temporal consistency difficult to achieve.”…Much MoreOpenAI's Sam Altman seeks funds for AI chip factories as demands surgeOpenAI CEO Sam Altman has opened discussions with global investors over the possibility of funding a network of artificial intelligence (AI) chip factories to keep pace with soaring demand.Altman is seeking around $8 billion to $10 billion worth of funds to set up several AI chip fabrication plants around the globe, an endeavor that will require synergy between leading chip manufacturers backed by investment giants.Altman is reportedly in talks with Japanese-based financial giant SoftBank Group (NASDAQ: SFTBF) and Abu Dhabi's G42 over funding plans, but details remain sparse. The discussions with G42 have been underway since 2023, with Altman describing a potential chip partnership as laying the foundation “for equitable advancements in generative AI across the globe.”Aside from SoftBank and G42, insiders say that Altman is still pursuing collaborations with other industry players to set up a network of chip fabrication plants. Although exact entities were not namechecked, industry experts are noting Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC), Samsung Electronics, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (NASDAQ: TSM) as potential partners.Altman's approach to raising funds hinges on concerns that the chip supply will not be able to meet global demands for AI offerings by 2030. The OpenAI's CEO argues that the ideal solution will be a collaborative effort to set up chip manufacturing plants rather than build in silos.OpenAI has had its fair share of chip scarcity, rolling back a number of its offerings over a steady chip supply. To meet the rising demand, the company is reportedly mulling several options, including the prospect of building its chips from scratch and joining ranks with Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) to explore an in-house solution.Given the costs associated with an in-house approach, OpenAI may pursue the acquisition of a chip manufacturer as a short-term solution or expand its collaboration with existing partners. However, a potential acquisition opens its own can of worms, including an inquiry by antitrust regulators.Governments are also involvedIn 2023, Altman urged the South Korean government to double their investments in AI chip manufacturing as a veritable strategy to play a leading role in the nascent ecosystem. Currently, South Korea ranks behind the U.S., China, and Japan in chip manufacturing, but a concerted government involvement could see the country climb up the charts.The OpenAI boss disclosed during his visit to South Korea that his firm will back local entities building chips for AI and other emerging technologies, with Samsung rumored to be in top position.“We are exploring how to increase our investment in Korean startups,” said Altman. “We are excited to meet as many as we can here today. I think this type of collaboration is essential to our work.”..MoreThe Future of Prosumer: The Rise of “AI Native” WorkflowsAnish Acharya, Justine Moore, and Olivia MoorePosted January 25, 2024Few people love the software they use to get things done. And it's no surprise why. Whether it's a slide deck builder, a video editor, or a photo enhancer, today's work tools were conceived decades ago — and it shows! Even best-in-class products often feel either too inflexible and unsophisticated to do real work, or have steep, inaccessible learning curves (we're looking at you, Adobe InDesign). Generative AI offers founders an opportunity to completely reinvent workflows — and will spawn a new cohort of companies that are not just AI-augmented, but fully AI-native. These companies will start from scratch with the technology we have now, and build new products around the generation, editing, and composition capabilities that are uniquely possible due to AI. On the most surface level, we believe AI will help users do their existing work more efficiently. AI-native platforms will “up level” user interactions with software, allowing them to delegate lower skill tasks to an AI assistant and spend their time on higher-level thinking. This applies not only to traditional office workers, but to small business owners, freelancers, creators, and artists — who arguably have even more complex demands on their time. But AI will also help users unlock completely new skill sets, on both a technical and an aesthetic level. We've already seen this with products like Midjourney and ChatGPT's Code Interpreter. Everyone can now be a programmer, a producer, a designer, or a musician, shrinking the gap between creativity and craft. With access to professional-grade yet consumer-friendly products with AI-powered workflows, everyone can be a part of a new generation of “prosumers.”In this piece, we aim to highlight the features of today's — and tomorrow's — most successful Gen AI-native workflows, as well as hypothesize about how we see these products evolving.What Will GenAI Native Prosumer Products Look Like?All products with Gen AI-native workflows will share one crucial trait: translating cutting-edge models into an accessible, effective UI.Users of workflow tools typically don't care what infrastructure is behind a product; they care about how it helps them! While the technological leaps we've made with Generative AI are amazing, successful products will importantly still start from a deep understanding of the user and their pain points. What can be abstracted away with AI? Where are the key “decision points” that need approval, if any? And where are the highest points of leverage? There are a few key features we believe products in this category will have: * Generation tools that kill the “blank page” problem. The earliest and most obvious consumer AI use cases have come from translating a natural language prompt into a media output — e.g., image, video, and text generators. The same will be true in prosumer. These tools might help transform true “blank pages” (e.g., a text prompt to slide deck), or take incremental assets (e.g., a sketch or an outline) and turn them into a more fleshed-out product.Some companies will do this via a proprietary model, while others may mix or stitch together multiple models (open source, proprietary, or via API) behind the scenes. One example here is Vizcom's rendering tool. Users can input a text prompt, sketch, or 3D model, and instantly get a photorealistic rendering to further iterate on.Another example is Durable's website builder product, which the company says has been used to generate more than 6 million sites so far. Users input their company name, segment, and location, and Durable will spit out a site for them to customize. As LLMs get more powerful, we expect to see products like Durable pull real information about your business from elsewhere on the internet and social media — the history, team, reviews, logos, etc. — and generate an even more sophisticated output from just one generation. * Multimodal (and multimedia!) combinations. Many creative projects require more than one type of content. For example, you may want to combine an image with text, music with video, or an animation with a voiceover. As of now, there isn't one model that can generate all of these asset types. This creates an opportunity for workflow products which allow users to generate, refine, and stitch different content types in one place.…MoreAndreessen Horowitz's Connie Chan to Leave as Consumer Focus Shifts to AIBy Kate Clark, Erin Woo and Cory WeinbergJan 23, 2024, 7:22am PSTFor years, partners at Andreessen Horowitz proclaimed they would scour the startup world for the next big consumer marketplace like Airbnb or the next hit consumer app out of China, areas in which the firm had unique expertise. Now, it's shifting toward an area more en vogue across venture capital: consumer apps powered by artificial intelligence.Those changes are happening amid an overhaul of its consumer team. Connie Chan, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz who formerly led a team of consumer investors and was known for spotting internet trends coming from China, said she is leaving the firm.  She may raise her own fund, a person familiar with the matter said. Anish Acharya, a general partner at the firm who invested in enterprise-focused and financial technology businesses, now leads the consumer team, said people familiar with the change.Chan's move also follows a distancing by U.S. VC firms from investments in China tech, once a hotbed for U.S.  investors. In recent months, Chan has privately said it's becoming more difficult for her to work at Andreessen Horowitz because the partners have been increasingly disinterested in anything China related, another person said.The Takeaway• Fintech-focused GP Anish Acharya leading consumer deals• Consumer GP Connie Chan is leaving the firm• Consumer partner Anne Lee Skates left to start own fundThe changes are part of a broader personnel shakeup, including the decision by senior consumer investor and Airbnb board member Jeff Jordan to step back from making new investments last year. Of the four general partners that led the firm through a consumer deal blitz, none remain on the consumer team.Meanwhile, Anne Lee Skates, a consumer partner who worked on the firm's investment in live shopping app WhatNot, left in the fall to raise her own fund, according to two people familiar with the matter. Axios first reported that Chan was leaving the firm.The Andreessen Horowitz changes are emblematic of a broader VC industry gravitation toward AI and away from once-hot sectors like consumer marketplaces and financial technology, as a spike in interest rates undercut the growth aspirations of startups trying to elbow out incumbent social platforms and banking institutions.“We've gotten into this cycle now where, generally speaking, investors are less interested in consumer,” said Ben Lerer, managing partner at Lerer Hippeau. Known for its consumer investments in Warby Parker and Allbirds, the firm has invested 70% of its latest fund in enterprise companies, he said. “And AI feels like this very hopeful, very exciting, fresh thing.”Founders of some consumer startups have noticed the shift at Andreessen Horowitz. One founder of a consumer startup in the firm's portfolio said they had heard little from investment partners over the last year, a contrast to a steady drumbeat of emails the founder got in prior years from Andreessen staff who support portfolio companies with marketing and operations advice.Andreessen Horowitz's consumer investing team has been perhaps most well known for its focus on backing digital marketplaces, from peer-to-peer self-storage to real estate investment marketplaces, that could turn into the next Airbnb. Every year, it releases a ranking of top marketplace startups. “We are obsessed with marketplaces and have been since our inception,” Chan, who led investments in  social fashion startup Cider for the firm in 2021.But some of those startups backed by the firm, such as self-storage startup Neighbor, have struggled to take off in recent years. And like other venture firms, Andreessen Horowitz has also stepped back from investing in Chinese startups, an area of focus for Chan. She had championed the idea that the next wave of breakout U.S. consumer startups will model themselves after China's internet success stories, like all-in-one app WeChat.With $53 billion in assets under management, Andreessen Horowitz is one of the largest of traditional Silicon Valley firms and closely watched among other VC firms as a trend setter. And its track record of sniffing out hitmakers primed its partners to find the next trendy consumer app.The number of consumer deals Andreessen Horowitz has led dropped to 13 last year from 30 in 2021, a record for the firm, according to PitchBook data. It's possible the firm completed more consumer deals and that those investments haven't been announced. Its investments in AI companies have jumped to 23 from nine over the same years, including leading a $415 million investment in Mistral, the French developer of an open-source large language model.The firm has beefed up this team of investors primarily focused on enterprise, software infrastructure and AI startups. Led by Martin Casado, a close confidante to the firm's founders Horowitz and Marc Andreessen, it is raising its first standalone fund and has brought on two new general partners, Anjney Midha and Zane Lackey, since 2022, as well as a number of junior partners.As the infrastructure team gained power, the consumer team's profile shrank. The firm in 2023 combined its consumer and fintech teams and created a new group, called apps, led by general partner Alex Rampell, who previously co-founded installment lender Affirm, The Information reported last year. Under Rampell's leadership, the newly formed apps team will also soon launch a dedicated apps fund, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. The consolidated team has been encouraged to pursue AI deals.Within Rampell's apps group, Acharya now leads the consumer sub-group. His portfolio of companies includes payroll company Deel and Silo, a provider of supply chain automation software. He's also an investor in Titan, a consumer investment application.Fueling the firm's shift away from consumer apps are likely disappointing returns. The startups that captivated consumers during the pandemic shutdowns have failed to retain their attention. Growth at companies the consumer team bet on, like Clubhouse, which Andreessen Horowitz backed three times in one year, and photo-sharing app BeReal, which it backed in 2021, has stalled.…MoreOpenAI Is a (Relative) StealBy Stephanie PalazzoloJan 22, 2024, 7:35am PSTOver the past year, we've seen billions in funding thrown at AI startups at eye-popping valuations. More important than the absolute valuation figures, though, is how they stack up to those startups' revenue numbers.In the chart above, we've tracked the valuations of eight AI startups that have recently raised funding, calculated against their projected revenue. On average, these companies raised money at a price that is 83 times their projected sales for the next twelve months. That's a big multiple by any measure, reflecting the rocket ship nature of these startups. But what makes the comparison noteworthy is that OpenAI has one of the lowest multiples, even though its business has the most traction.Venture capitalists tend to value early-stage startups at a premium based on their growth rates. OpenAI's business is far bigger and more mature—if we can use that word for a company growing as fast as OpenAI—than other generative AI companies. So, as fast as its revenue pace is growing—more than 20% in just two months most recently—newer firms are growing even faster.For instance, AI-powered search engine Perplexity AI doubled its annual recurring revenue from $3 million to $6 million from October to January. VCs were likely taking that expected growth into account at the time of investment, as the company would have garnered a much lower 75-times forward revenue multiple if it had raised at the same price just a few months later. Similarly, even though OpenAI rival Anthropic was likely generating around $200 million in annualized revenue at the end of last year (according to its October estimates), its projection that it would reach $850 million in annualized revenue by the end of this year surely made its mind-boggling valuation more palatable to investors.When you see the details of these AI startup funding rounds, it can sometimes feel like investors are throwing darts at nine-figure numbers on a wall. The chart suggests there's a method to the madness. Typically, startups selling to companies are valued based on the sector in which they operate. The lowest valuation multiples are accorded to startups offering industry-specific applications, while those offering more generalized applications draw a premium. The most highly valued firms are often infrastructure startups, which create the tools that developers use to build these apps. This order stems from how big the target market of these startups are, ranging from a specific industry (like healthcare or education) to all developers. We can see that general order reflected in burgeoning AI startups. For instance, Harvey, which sells an AI application for lawyers, has one of the lower multiples, while broader-reaching companies like Glean and VAST Data land higher multiples.It seems like investors aren't quite sure yet where model developers like OpenAI and Anthropic fall on this spectrum. Their costs are very different from a typical software startup due to how much computing power they need, and many investors are still worried that closed-source model developers may be overtaken by their cheaper, open-source counterparts.…MoreNews Of the WeekTed fellows resign from organisation after Bill Ackman named as speakerLucianne Walkowicz and Saeed Taji Farouky accuse Ted of taking anti-Palestinian stand over controversial billionaire's inclusionChris McGrealThe Ted organisation has been hit with resignations and criticisms after naming the controversial activist billionaire Bill Ackman, who was instrumental in forcing out Harvard's president over antisemitism allegations, among its main speakers at this year's conference.Four Ted fellows, led by the astronomer Lucianne Walkowicz and the filmmaker Saeed Taji Farouky, resigned from the group on Wednesday, accusing it of taking an anti-Palestinian stand and aligning itself “with enablers and supporters of genocide” in Gaza.“2024 main stage speaker Bill Ackman has defended Israel's genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people and has cynically weaponised antisemitism in his programme to purge American universities of Pro-Palestinian freedom of speech,” the pair wrote to Chris Anderson, who leads Ted, and Lily James Olds, director of the fellows programme.“We've become increasingly concerned about the fundamental values and moral compass of the organisation over the years, but with this year's speaker selection, it is clear Ted has crossed a red line.”The conference will be held in Vancouver, Canada, in April, under the banner The Brave and the Brilliant”. The theme of Ackman's talk has not been revealed but his selection was announced last week after he was accused of using his money and influence to help force Claudine Gay's resignation as Harvard's president following her disastrous appearance before Congress in December when she was questioned about on-campus antisemitism during the Israel-Gaza war.Ackman has taken stridently pro-Israel positions, including justifying the scale of the attacks on Gaza in which more than 25,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly civilians, and the forced removal of about 2 million Palestinians from their homes. He has described criticism of Israel as antisemitism and called for the blacklisting from employment of American students who signed petitions denouncing the offensive in Gaza in the wake of the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel.Farouky and Walkowicz's resignation letter noted that other speakers announced by Ted include the journalist Bari Weiss, who they describe as having “a long, sordid, and well-documented history of anti-Palestinian speech”, but that there are no Palestinians in the line-up.“We refuse for our work and identities to be exploited to promote the Ted brand while the organisation and its speakers generate income and advance their careers through dehumanising Palestinians and justifying their genocide,” the pair said.After the resignation letter was published, two other fellows – the entrepreneur Ayah Bdeir and cosmologist Renée Hlozek – also quit. Nearly 30 others added their names “in solidarity” without leaving Ted.…MoreTesla's Slowdown Disqualifies It From ‘Magnificent Seven' GroupBy Martin Peers, Jan 24, 2024, 5:00pm PSTStock market pundits may want to come up with a new name for the big tech stocks driving the overall market. The “magnificent seven” descriptor—referring to Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Nvidia and Tesla—no longer seems to make much sense. I'd like to suggest that's because none of the company CEOs look like cowboy gunslingers from the 1960 movie that made the phrase famous. It's hard to imagine Steve McQueen playing Tim Cook or Andy Jassy, for instance (although Yul Brynner admittedly could have filled the role of horseback-riding Jeff Bezos).The real reason the moniker no longer works, however, is that at least one member of the group, Tesla, has had anything but a magnificent 2024 so far, and its fourth-quarter earnings report, released Wednesday, only made things worse. Before Tesla reported earnings tonight, its stock had fallen 16% so far this year, and it tumbled another 3% after hours to around $200 a share. This isn't a reaction to CEO Elon Musk's antics, which include asking for a bunch more stock, although that surely doesn't help. The stock decline reflects the slowdown in sales suffered by Tesla, which observers attribute to increased competition and a loss of government incentives. Automotive revenues, which make up the bulk of Tesla's top line, grew just 1% in the fourth quarter—down from 18% in the first quarter.In its outlook for this year issued today, the company said its growth in the volume of car sales would be lower than in 2023, and noted that its team is working on its “next-generation vehicle.” Meantime, expenses have been skyrocketing, eroding its profit margin. But our less-than-rigorous takedown of the magnificent seven branding isn't just about Tesla. If you look at the year-to-date performance of big tech stocks, or even their 2023 performance, you can see that just two tech stocks have roared this year. One is Nvidia, which is in a class of its own: up 27% since Jan. 1, thanks to its stranglehold on the specialized chips used in artificial intelligence. The other is Meta Platforms, which is up nearly 13%, reflecting confidence in its ad business.  In comparison, Microsoft and Alphabet are each up around 8%, likely thanks to expectations that AI will lift their businesses, while Apple and Amazon lag behind with year-to-date stock price rises of less than 5% each. Instead of the magnificent seven, it might be more appropriate to refer to the group as Nvidia, Meta and the humble five.… MoreTikTok's Testing 30 Minute Uploads as It Looks To Expand Its Content OptionsBy Andrew Hutchinson Content and Social Media ManagerThe next stage of TikTok is coming, with some users now seeing the option to upload 30 minute long videos in the app.As you can see in this example, shared by social media expert Matt Navarra, TikTok's currently testing the new 30 minute upload option in the beta version of the app.Which, if you've been paying attention, is not really any big surprise.TikTok has been steadily increasing its maximum post limit for years, with the platform originally starting at 15 seconds per clip, which was then extended to 60 seconds, then 3 minutes, then 5 minutes, before rising to 10 minutes in 2022.Last October, TikTok began experimenting with 15 minute uploads, so the trend towards longer clips isn't new.Though 30 minutes is likely the upper limit, based on the Chinese version of the app. Douyin, which is TikTok in China, expanded its upload limit to 30 minutes per clip in 2022, and it hasn't gone any further as yet.And presumably, Douyin has also seen good response to this longer time limit, which is why TikTok is now looking to implement the same, though it does seem like a long time to be watching a TikTok clip in-stream.Will users really warm to TV show length clips in the app?…MoreInstagram to scan under-18s' messages to protect against ‘inappropriate images'Feature will work even on encrypted messages, suggesting platform plans to implement client-side scanningAlex Hern and Dan MilmoInstagram will begin scanning messages sent to and from under-18s to protect them from “inappropriate images”, Meta has announced.The feature, being kept under wraps until later this year, would work even on encrypted messages, a spokesperson said, suggesting the company intends to implement a so-called client-side scanning service for the first time.But the update will not meet controversial demands for inappropriate messages to be reported back to Instagram servers.Instead, only a user's personal device will ever know whether or not a message has been filtered out, leading to criticism of the promise as another example of the company “grading its own homework”.“We're planning to launch a new feature designed to help protect teens from seeing unwanted and potentially inappropriate images in their messages from people they're already connected to,” the company said in a blogpost, “and to discourage them from sending these types of images themselves. We'll have more to share on this feature, which will also work in encrypted chats, later this year.”…Much MoreTiger Global Investor Relations Staff Depart After Fundraising ChallengesBy Francesca Friday and Maria HeeterJan 24, 2024, 4:46pm PSTSeveral Tiger Global Management employees focused on raising capital for the New York firm's venture funds have taken buyout offers, according to a person familiar with the matter. The departures of the staff, who worked with prospective investors, come as the firm has struggled to raise money for its latest venture capital fund after a collapse in startup valuations soured its paper returns for earlier funds.As of the second quarter of 2023, a $12.7 billion fund that Tiger started making investments from in October 2021 had a paper loss of 18%, calculated as an annualized return net of management fees, according to internal data distributed to investors in the fund. That's a slight improvement from six months earlier, when the 2021 fund showed a loss of 20%. The fund's performance is in the bottom quartile of funds started that year, the document said, and has also lagged the S&P 500's annualized net return in the same period.The Takeaway• Tiger employee buyouts are the latest example of VC cost-cutting• Tiger's $12.7 billion had lost 18% on paper as of June* Tiger could soon show a $350 million gain from OpenAI stakeAs of June 30, 2023, the $12.7 billion fund hadn't returned any cash to investors, which isn't unusual for such a young fund. But the paper losses are closely guarded secrets that reflect the kind of write-downs other venture firms have been making over the past two years as tech valuations have fallen.It isn't clear how big Tiger's investor relations team is, but the departures are the latest example of belt-tightening across the venture industry. Firms are raising smaller funds and striking fewer deals, reducing the need for sprawling support staff—including those who help firms raise money from pension funds and endowments...MoreWorldcoin hints at new Orb for a friendlier iris-scanning experienceby Vivian NguyenThe next-gen device will feature various colors and shapes to enhance its visual appeal.Worldcoin, an iris biometric crypto project, is set to launch a new Orb that aims to offer a more user-friendly iris-scanning experience, said Alex Blania, CEO and co-founder of Tools for Humanity, the developer behind the project, in an exclusive interview with TechCrunch today.“The next Orb will roll out in the first half of this year and will feature alternative colors and form factors in an effort to look ‘much more friendly,'” Blania explained. “Overall, it is going to look way more tuned down and similar to an Apple product.”Blania acknowledges that the initial design of the Orb predated his time at the company. “The new orb is coming and the next iterations will look quite different,” he remarked during a fireside chat at a recent StrictlyVC event, signaling a departure from the current, more controversial design.The goal of Worldcoin, as described by Blania, is to reach billions of users as fast as possible.“The thesis is very simple. We race toward billions of users as fast as we possibly can,” said Blania.Founded by Blania, Sam Altman, and Max Novendstern, Tools for Humanity has raised around $250 million from prominent investors like a16z and Bain Capital Crypto, among others. The project is famous for its unique Orb device designed to scan people's irises and assign them a “World ID,” granting access to Worldcoin's application and a digital passport. Worldcoin's vision is to authenticate individual identities and prevent the creation of multiple accounts.The current design of the Orb has been a topic of much debate due to its intimidating look, similar to a prop from a sci-fi movie, according to Blania. The company has also faced criticism for its beta testing approaches in developing economies and concerns over privacy and data security.Despite some skepticism, the Orb has seen practical use. At the StrictlyVC event in downtown San Francisco, a Tools for Humanity employee reported that a “couple dozen” attendees scanned their iris to receive a World ID. There has also been “field testing” of the new Orb design.…MoreStartup of the WeekLoyalty Startup Bilt Rewards Hits $3.1B Valuation After $200M RoundChris MetinkoJanuary 24, 2024Bilt Rewards, a loyalty rewards startup, raised a $200 million round led by General Catalyst at a $3.1 billion valuation — more than double the number after its last fundraising in 2022.The round also included participation from Eldridge Industries, Left Lane Capital, Camber Creek and Prosus Ventures.The New York-based startup allows consumers to earn rewards on the rent they pay. Bilt plans to use some of the proceeds to expand its network to include local dining, grocery stores, ridesharing and other retail purchases.“We're not just building a loyalty program; we're creating a community-centric ecosystem that benefits everyone from renters to local businesses,” said founder and CEO Ankur Jain.The company also appointed some big names to roles in the company. Bilt named Ken Chenault, former chairman and CEO of American Express, as its chairman, and Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL, as an independent director.Big moneyThe company reported its annualized member spend is nearing $20 billion. It also became profitable on an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization basis last year.Those metrics must have impressed investors, as Bilt has seen its valuation shoot up after raising a $150 million Series B at a pre-money valuation of $1.4 billion in October 2022. Founded in 2021, the company has raised a total of $413 million, per Crunchbase.Last year was a slow go for loyalty startups. Such companies raised only $74 million, per Crunchbase data. However in 2022, loyalty startups raised more than a half-billion dollars thanks to big raises that included Bilt's Series B and Madison, Wisconsin-based Fetch's $240 million Series E.With this fundraise, things are looking up for loyalty startups again.X of the Week This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thatwastheweek.substack.com/subscribe

We sit down with Mike Cahill, CEO of Douro labs, to talk Pyth's retroactive airdrop and launch. In this episode: A brief history of Pyth What was the problem with legacy oracles before Pyth How is Pyth is technically differentiated from other oracles The importance of introducing confidence intervals into prices How does Pyth achieves cross chain data delivery Disintermediation in the oracle market Major proof points that convinced Mike that Pyth could work Pyth's traction on various chains Which blockchains Pyth does particularly well on Mike addresses the ‘collusion FUD'? Why Pyth oracles are not like LIBOR How the Pyth retrospective airdrop works What's happening with Pyth governance on a go forward basis? Further reading:  Pyth, How the Retrospective Airdrop works On The Brink ep. 364, Solving The Oracle Problem

What are you waiting for? It's time to click like and subscribe to the MultifamilyCollective Podcast. Elevate your intellectual palate, ignite your professional trajectory, and become a thought leader in the multi-family space. This is an invitation to enrich your mind and your career. Go ahead and make your next click your best click. Thank you for considering this request; your future self will thank you, too. In this episode of MultifamilyCollective, I share thoughts on eliminating the middleman. #mikebrewer #multifamilycollective #multifamilymentoring #multifamilycoaching #multifamilypodcast #leadership #multifamilyAI --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mike-brewer/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mike-brewer/support

In this Web3 Innovators: Insights episode, we explore the revolutionary concept of disintermediation in the world of web3 and its potential to eliminate middlemen in financial transactions. Before the emergence of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, online transactions relied on intermediaries like banks, payment providers, and centralised platforms. However, with the advent of blockchain technology and web3 initiatives, the trust has shifted to decentralised, immutable ledgers, paving the way for disintermediation.Key Takeaways:The Rise of Web3: Understand the core principles of web3 and how it challenges traditional financial intermediaries. Explore the benefits of decentralised networks and the potential impact on the financial ecosystem.Empowerment and Risks: Discover how web3 empowers individuals with complete sovereignty over their digital assets. But also, learn about the risks associated with self-custody and the complexity that may deter everyday users from embracing this new paradigm.The Role of Intermediaries in Web3: Delve into the importance of intermediaries even in the decentralised web3 world. Explore how intermediaries can simplify services, add financial value, and create transparency for users.Join us in this thought-provoking episode as we unravel the intricate relationship between web3, disintermediation, and the potential future of finance.Chainlens is a leading blockchain explorer for Ethereum and Substrate networks.Find out more - http://chainlens.comConnect with Us Join the Web3 Innovators community and engage with like-minded individuals passionate about the potential of blockchain technology.Contact Web3 Labs:Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | Discord | Tiktok • Explore Web3 Labs: Web3 Labs specialise in web3 solutions for enterprise. • Email Web3 Labs • Get Conor's latest thoughts on Web3 and where we're headed.

Als DApps bezeichnen wir dezentrale Applikationen, die im Gegensatz zu den bisher üblichen, zentralen (Cloud-basierten) Applikationen dank dezentralen Blockchain-Netzwerken ausgeführt werden. DApps funktionieren ähnlich wie herkömmliche Anwendungen auf dem Smartphone oder PC, sie erlauben den Nutzern aber die Hoheit über ihre eigenen Daten zu behalten. Während ein Google, Facebook oder Amazon all unsere Daten sieht und monetarisieren kann, dient die dezentrale Redundanz, Verschlüsselung und Konsensfindung der Blockchain Technologie dem Schutz unserer Daten sowie dem Vertrauen in alle übrigen Teilnehmer eines Netzwerkes - ganz im Sinne des Web3 mit den Effekten der Disintermediation und Dezentralisierung. Und es gibt schon diverse Beispielsapplikationen aus den unterschiedlichsten Anwendungsfeldern (wie DeFi, Spiele, Soziale Medien), über die ich in dieser Podcastfolge nachdenke, doch zeigen diese Referenzen auch einige Herausforderungen, an denen noch zu arbeiten ist.

Alex Mifsud, CEO & Founder, WeavrWeavr's Embedded Finance Cloud offers banks and e-money institutions the means to create financial products that are embeddable by design, with risk and compliance intrinsic components. This allows financial institutions to unlock significant new revenue streams from embedded finance faster and in a safe manner. Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence speaks to Alex Mifsud of Weavr about the new tech stack and his views on FinTech Mergers and acquisitions.

There's a prevailing narrative that supply-side platforms are releasing tools to cut out demand-side platforms in a desperate attempt to differentiate. But “it's much more nuanced than that,” says Magnite CRO Sean Buckley.

Die Dematerialisierung - einer der disruptiven Auswirkungen des digitalen Wandels - handelt von der Umwandlung physischer Produkte in digitale Lösungen. Wir kennen dies bereits bei Büchern, Photos, Musik, Geld, Dokumenten, Vermögen und persönlichen Kontakten. Damit ist die Dematerialisierung ein zentraler Ausgangspunkte für die Service- als auch Datenökonomie, aber auch für weitere disruptive Veränderungen wie die Disintermediation, Creator Ökonomie, Disownership, Disaggregation und Dezentralisierung.

Today, we're speaking with Alex Marthews, an expert in blockchain technology and privacy. In this interview, we dive into the intersection of blockchain, privacy, and data ownership, unraveling the challenges and implications that arise from the use of blockchain in marketing and beyond.  Topics include: Trust, Disintermediation, and Incentives: Blockchain's potential to revolutionize industries and remove intermediaries sparks excitement, but the 'last mile' problem creates limits. Privacy Implications in Marketing: Delving into the world of marketing, we uncover concerns about data privacy and the potential for intrusive profiling. The immutability of blockchain exacerbates these issues, as personal information becomes permanently exposed, making individuals wary of expressing their preferences. Blockchain as a Tool in Context: Evaluating the practicality of implementing blockchain, we discuss specific contexts where blockchain can be a valuable tool. We delve into the considerations that firms must address, including privacy laws, long-term consequences, and the expense of handling privacy and persistence issues.

Antonio Campati"La distanza democratica"Corpi intermedi e rappresentanza politicaVita e Pensierohttps://vitaepensiero.itNel costante dibattito sulle trasformazioni della democrazia, riemerge spesso la tentazione di dare forma a un nuovo modello di organizzazione del potere che faccia a meno delle mediazioni, così da consentire a ogni cittadino di essere direttamente in contatto con il decisore politico. Questo libro cerca di discutere problematicamente tale ipotesi, sottolineando come la distanza tra rappresentanti e rappresentati sia un elemento indispensabile per il funzionamento della democrazia.L'obiettivo principale è infatti quello di riportare l'attenzione della teoria politica sull'area intermedia tra chi governa e chi è governato, a partire da una ricostruzione del tortuoso percorso di sviluppo e di legittimazione dei corpi intermedi e dalla discussione delle principali teorie della mediazione (e della disintermediazione). Uno spazio particolare verrà riservato alla «democrazia immediata»: un'espressione usata in tempi recenti per indicare un modello politico fortemente influenzato dai processi di disintermediazione che, in verità, ha una lunga storia alle spalle, intrecciata con i processi di sviluppo della democrazia rappresentativa.Antonio Campati è ricercatore di Filosofia politica presso la facoltà di Scienze politiche e sociali dell'Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, dove collabora con Polidemos (Centro per lo studio della democrazia e dei mutamenti politici). È membro del comitato editoriale della «Rivista italiana di filosofia politica», di «Power and Democracy» e del «Dizionario di dottrina sociale della Chiesa». Fa parte delle redazioni di «Rivista di politica» e «la Società». I suoi interessi di ricerca vertono principalmente sulle trasformazioni della rappresentanza politica e sul ruolo delle élite e dei corpi intermedi all'interno delle democrazie. Su questi temi ha scritto diversi saggi apparsi su riviste e volumi collettanei. È autore di: I migliori al potere. La qualità nella rappresentanza politica (Soveria Mannelli 2016); ha curato Cittadinanza e sogno europeo. Partecipazione e inclusione tra vincoli e opportunità (Milano 2019), Democrazia e liberalismo: un connubio da ripensare? (Roma 2022) e Democracy and Disintermediation. A Dangerous Relationship (con D. Palano, Milano 2022).IL POSTO DELLE PAROLEascoltare fa pensarehttps://ilpostodelleparole.itQuesto show fa parte del network Spreaker Prime. Se sei interessato a fare pubblicità in questo podcast, contattaci su https://www.spreaker.com/show/1487855/advertisement

Kealan Lennon, Founder & CEO, CleverCardsThrough a customisable and configurable Digital Mastercard, used by public and private sector organisations of all sizes, the CleverCards payments platform enables instant payments without the need for a bank account. Businesses may make payments for all their business requirements – from paying out employee benefits to paying consultants, and from paying out customer incentives and refunds to paying for daily business expenses. Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence speaks to Kealan Lennon, Founder and CEO of CleverCards. The conversation begins with his thoughts on the discussions about digital transformation at this year's World Economic Forum.

Terry and Matt Kibbe of Free the People join the pod to talk about the battle for Speaker on the Hill, and what the Twitter Files releases can mean for liberty and society. Stop paying health insurance companies your hard-earned dollars. Go to https://www.joincrowdhealth.com/ now and experience freedom from health insurance. Right now you can get your first six months for just $99 per month. That's almost 50% off the normal price, and a lot less than a high-deductible healthcare plan. Go to https://www.joincrowdhealth.com/ and use promo code LIONS at sign-up. Get our new merch AND get 15% off a subscriptions to all of our bonus content on Patreon until the end of the year! https://www.patreon.com/Lionsofliberty OR support us on Locals! https://lionsofliberty.locals.com/ Subscribe to the BOHRing podcast! https://redcircle.com/shows/bohring Check out the Lions of Liberty Store, including our hot-off-the-press Die Hard Christmas 3D Printed Gun merch! https://www.lionsofliberty.store/products/die-hard-christmas-ghost-gun-sweatshirt Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Terry and Matt Kibbe of Free the People join the pod to talk about the battle for Speaker on the Hill, and what the Twitter Files releases can mean for liberty and society. Check out FreethePeople.org for more information or to donate. Stop paying health insurance companies your hard-earned dollars. Go to https://www.joincrowdhealth.com/ now and experience freedom from health insurance. Right now you can get your first six months for just $99 per month. That's almost 50% off the normal price, and a lot less than a high-deductible healthcare plan. Go to https://www.joincrowdhealth.com/ and use promo code LIONS at sign-up. Get our new merch AND get 15% off a subscriptions to all of our bonus content on Patreon until the end of the year! https://www.patreon.com/Lionsofliberty OR support us on Locals! https://lionsofliberty.locals.com/ Subscribe to the BOHRing podcast! https://redcircle.com/shows/bohring Check out the Lions of Liberty Store, including our hot-off-the-press Die Hard Christmas 3D Printed Gun merch! https://www.lionsofliberty.store/products/die-hard-christmas-ghost-gun-sweatshirt Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Terry and Matt Kibbe of Free the People join the pod to talk about the battle for Speaker on the Hill, and what the Twitter Files releases can mean for liberty and society. Stop paying health insurance companies your hard-earned dollars. Go to https://www.joincrowdhealth.com/ now and experience freedom from health insurance. Right now you can get your first six months for just $99 per month. That's almost 50% off the normal price, and a lot less than a high-deductible healthcare plan. Go to https://www.joincrowdhealth.com/ and use promo code LIONS at sign-up. Get our new merch AND get 15% off a subscriptions to all of our bonus content on Patreon until the end of the year! https://www.patreon.com/Lionsofliberty OR support us on Locals! https://lionsofliberty.locals.com/ Subscribe to the BOHRing podcast! https://redcircle.com/shows/bohring Check out the Lions of Liberty Store, including our hot-off-the-press Die Hard Christmas 3D Printed Gun merch! https://www.lionsofliberty.store/products/die-hard-christmas-ghost-gun-sweatshirt Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Der digitale Wandel zeigt an vielen Stellen den Effekt einer Dezentralisierung: angefangen bei der dezentralen Produktion (gerade auch im Rahmen der additiven 3D Druck Fertigung), dem Kampf um multi- ja sogar omnichannel Berührungspunkte (Touchpoints) zu den Kunden, dem Edge Computing, der Schwarmintelligenz (wie bei Open Innovation, Open Source etc.) oder Blockchain-basierten dezentralen, autonomen Organisationen - überall gewinnen dezentrale Lösungen an Bedeutung, während manche zentrale Angebote kritisch hinterfragt werden. Manche etablierte Geschäftsmodelle werden toxisch, so dass sogar Firmen wie Google und Meta (Facebook) gefährdet sind. Gleichzeitig gewinnen andere Firmen dank dezentralen Organisationseinheiten und Geschäftsmodellen an Sympathie bei Kunden und Arbeitnehmern. Mit dieser Folge erweitere ich die Serie über digitale Disruptionen, die mit der Folge über die Disintermediation gestartet ist.

Know what is harder than pivoting when the going gets tough? Pivoting when the going is good. On the surface, most metrics were scaling efficiently for Urban Company (previously UrbanClap) at the end of 2015. The tech company mainly generated leads for at-home service providers. But founders Abhiraj Bhal, Varun Khaitan, Raghav Chandra recognized that improving the experience of suppliers and customers would require deeper involvement. They needed to build a full stack marketplace with trained professionals. Eight years later, the company is valued at $2.8 billion. After proving their chops by taking the beauty industry online, Urban Company went on to digitally connect customers with a range of professional services including cleaning, repairs, electrical works, plumbing, and carpentry. When they first looked into the space, at-home services in India had been full of holes. The founders, all three from IIT Kanpur, knew that the problem had the potential to keep them busy for a lifetime. So they joined hands in 2014 to bring in organization and digitization. *** Over the past decade and a half, new-age marketplaces in India have transformed how people buy and sell products and services. From Flipkart to Swiggy, Urban Company, and Zetwerk, each has reimagined "the bazaars," shaping the future of commerce and livelihood in India. Starting November 3rd, we will share stories from the trenches about building and scaling these marketplaces, along with foundational lessons from their journeys. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3UnptTO *** 0:00 - Introduction 1:20 - Origin story 4:10 - Early days 9:33 - Product-market fit 14:25 - Picking the right service 16:30 - Testbed 17:40 - Zero-to-one phase 21:15 - Scaling the company 24:30 - Key strategic decisions 27:40 - Value to service partners 32:40 - Disintermediation 34:10 - Creating value on both sides 36:30 - Navigating COVID 39:50 - Leadership and culture 43:20 - The future

Dave Waters of Alluvial Capital comes on the pod to discuss his investment thesis on $PX.You can find Dave's original podcast appearance, where he discuss PX when it was still PIOE and some other small caps, here: https://twitter.com/AndrewRangeley/status/1300763059267481600?s=20Chapters0:00 Intro2:15 PX Overview3:30 Management fee streams5:10 Is PX's focus on fund of funds a concern?8:25 Disintermediation risk for fund of funds11:50 What is the market missing at PX?15:20 Why PX versus a larger alt?18:30 Comparing PX to KKR23:20 PX's acquisition outlook25:15 Can PX really cross sell funds?28:15 More on PX's acquisitions30:00 Adverse selection in fund of fund acquisitions34:00 PX's recent CRSS investment42:30 Why isn't PX buying back stock?46:30 How PX's stock will get more liquid over time48:15 PX's management team track record52:00 Why Dave's digging in Italy and Poland

Refilwe Moloto speaks to Brett Rogers, Culture Lead at HaveYouHeard Marketing, about the disintermediation of Google. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A thought occurred while going for a walk and didn't want to wait to share it with the world. And so, in this episode, we delve into one of the core strategic tactics great businesses have used over the years to capture customers from others in competitive markets. We cover Steve Jobs's infamous “glass of ice water in hell”, AirBnB, and even Everett Music.

This week, our 3 Things are: 1. Disintermediation of banks from riskier lending. It's a positive development for credit markets. 2. The importance of the forward look. Be careful about relying on backward-looking indicators. 3. A good week for spreads. Will it hold up?

In dieser Folge von KurzNachgefragt diskutiere ich mit Ralf Anderhofstadt, dem Experten für 3D Druck von Daimler Truck und meinem Co-Autor für das gerade im Hanser Verlag erscheinende Fachbuch „Disruptiver 3D-Druck“, über den notwendigen Paradigmenwechsel, den die additive Fertigung von uns verlangt. Denn der 3D Druck ist bei weitem nicht nur ein neues Produktionsverfahren, sondern hier eröffnen sich vollkommen neue, ja sogar disruptive Geschäftsmodelle und Rollen in der Wertschöpfungskette, die häufig einen Wechsel unserer bisherigen Denkmodelle und Glaubensätze verlangen. Folgende Beispiele aus unserem Buch besprechen Ralf und ich hierzu in dieser Podcastfolge: die Dematerialisierung, Disaggregation, Disintermediation und Creator Ökonomie, während wir auf die dezentrale Produktion nur kurz verweisen, da wir diese schon in einer früheren KurzNachgefragt Folge ausführlich behandelten. Und hier findet ihr eine Extrafolge als kurze Einführung in die additive Fertigung.

Mark McGurl talks about disintermediation, a key term for internet commerce, and his new book about fiction in the age of digital self-publication. The fantasy of disintermediation lies at the heart of utopian dreams of the internet, but it turns out that not only is the internet actually a medium, and a vast economic engine, but self-publishing is a lot of work! Mark McGurl is a professor of English at Stanford University. If you want to learn more about the effects of Amazon's self-publishing mechanism on literature, check out his new book, Everything and Less: The Novel in the Age of Amazon (Verso, 2021). His earlier book The Program Era: Postwar Fiction and the Rise of Creative Writing (Harvard UP, 2011) takes a similarly materialist perspective on literary production, and it was sort of a thing. His first book The Novel Art: Elevations of American Fiction after Henry James (Princeton UP, 2001), blames Henry James for making American novels into art. In a good way of course. This week's image is a photograph of a printing press held in the collections of the Fort Nonquai Eshowe museum in South Africa, posted on Wikimedia commons. Music used in promotional material: ‘Internet, the day when all humans will disappear' by Monplaisir Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Mark McGurl talks about disintermediation, a key term for internet commerce, and his new book about fiction in the age of digital self-publication. The fantasy of disintermediation lies at the heart of utopian dreams of the internet, but it turns out that not only is the internet actually a medium, and a vast economic engine, but self-publishing is a lot of work! Mark McGurl is a professor of English at Stanford University. If you want to learn more about the effects of Amazon's self-publishing mechanism on literature, check out his new book, Everything and Less: The Novel in the Age of Amazon (Verso, 2021). His earlier book The Program Era: Postwar Fiction and the Rise of Creative Writing (Harvard UP, 2011) takes a similarly materialist perspective on literary production, and it was sort of a thing. His first book The Novel Art: Elevations of American Fiction after Henry James (Princeton UP, 2001), blames Henry James for making American novels into art. In a good way of course. This week's image is a photograph of a printing press held in the collections of the Fort Nonquai Eshowe museum in South Africa, posted on Wikimedia commons. Music used in promotional material: ‘Internet, the day when all humans will disappear' by Monplaisir Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mark McGurl talks about disintermediation, a key term for internet commerce, and his new book about fiction in the age of digital self-publication. The fantasy of disintermediation lies at the heart of utopian dreams of the internet, but it turns out that not only is the internet actually a medium, and a vast economic engine, but self-publishing is a lot of work! Mark McGurl is a professor of English at Stanford University. If you want to learn more about the effects of Amazon's self-publishing mechanism on literature, check out his new book, Everything and Less: The Novel in the Age of Amazon (Verso, 2021). His earlier book The Program Era: Postwar Fiction and the Rise of Creative Writing (Harvard UP, 2011) takes a similarly materialist perspective on literary production, and it was sort of a thing. His first book The Novel Art: Elevations of American Fiction after Henry James (Princeton UP, 2001), blames Henry James for making American novels into art. In a good way of course. This week's image is a photograph of a printing press held in the collections of the Fort Nonquai Eshowe museum in South Africa, posted on Wikimedia commons. Music used in promotional material: ‘Internet, the day when all humans will disappear' by Monplaisir Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

Mark McGurl talks about disintermediation, a key term for internet commerce, and his new book about fiction in the age of digital self-publication. The fantasy of disintermediation lies at the heart of utopian dreams of the internet, but it turns out that not only is the internet actually a medium, and a vast economic engine, but self-publishing is a lot of work! Mark McGurl is a professor of English at Stanford University. If you want to learn more about the effects of Amazon's self-publishing mechanism on literature, check out his new book, Everything and Less: The Novel in the Age of Amazon (Verso, 2021). His earlier book The Program Era: Postwar Fiction and the Rise of Creative Writing (Harvard UP, 2011) takes a similarly materialist perspective on literary production, and it was sort of a thing. His first book The Novel Art: Elevations of American Fiction after Henry James (Princeton UP, 2001), blames Henry James for making American novels into art. In a good way of course. This week's image is a photograph of a printing press held in the collections of the Fort Nonquai Eshowe museum in South Africa, posted on Wikimedia commons. Music used in promotional material: ‘Internet, the day when all humans will disappear' by Monplaisir Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/communications

Mark McGurl talks about disintermediation, a key term for internet commerce, and his new book about fiction in the age of digital self-publication. The fantasy of disintermediation lies at the heart of utopian dreams of the internet, but it turns out that not only is the internet actually a medium, and a vast economic engine, but self-publishing is a lot of work! Mark McGurl is a professor of English at Stanford University. If you want to learn more about the effects of Amazon's self-publishing mechanism on literature, check out his new book, Everything and Less: The Novel in the Age of Amazon (Verso, 2021). His earlier book The Program Era: Postwar Fiction and the Rise of Creative Writing (Harvard UP, 2011) takes a similarly materialist perspective on literary production, and it was sort of a thing. His first book The Novel Art: Elevations of American Fiction after Henry James (Princeton UP, 2001), blames Henry James for making American novels into art. In a good way of course. This week's image is a photograph of a printing press held in the collections of the Fort Nonquai Eshowe museum in South Africa, posted on Wikimedia commons. Music used in promotional material: ‘Internet, the day when all humans will disappear' by Monplaisir Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science-technology-and-society

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Jarrod Dicker. Jarrod is a Partner at The Chernin Group, a consumer-focused investment firm, where he invests in Web3, blockchain, and other tech that connects fans with creators. Before TCG, Jarrod was the CEO of Po.et, a decentralized media start-up, and Commercial Chief at the Washington Post. He has spent his career at the intersection of media, technology, and consumer products – which is the focus of our discussion. Please enjoy this conversation with Jarrod Dicker.    For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.   -----   This episode is brought to you by Coinbase Prime. Coinbase Prime combines advanced trading, battle-tested custody, financing, and prime services in a single solution. Clients have used their comprehensive investing platform to execute some of the largest trades in the industry because they are the only publicly-traded company with experience trading and custodying crypto assets at scale. Get started with Coinbase Prime today at coinbase.com/prime.   -----   Web3 Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Web3 Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @Web3Breakdowns | @ericgoldenx | @patrick_oshag    Show Notes [00:02:14] - [First question] - The evolution of the media industry post-internet age [00:06:23] - Bottoms-up ownership models of talent and whether or not power laws still exist [00:11:21] - Distilling big scenarios into simple narratives and where we are in the crypto narrative cycle [00:15:59] - Disintermediation between artists and their fans and the direct to fan connections that blockchain tech unlocks for creators  [00:20:02] - Tiering structures, underestimating the financial dedication of super fans, and circumnavigating wealthy gatekeeping  [00:25:13] - His venture funding investment process [00:30:51] - Some of his biggest surprises about people's misunderstandings of web3 [00:35:05] - The blindspots of the web3 space that should be discussed [00:40:17] - Humility amongst some of the most savvy builders in the crypto space [00:43:38] - Thoughts on the shift from renting to owning and the financialization of everything [00:48:14] - An ecosystem built around a focus on the active consumer  [00:50:18] - What he's most excited to invest in or build over the next six months and six years 

Mit der Blockchain 3.0 verbinden wir sog. Enterprise Blockchains mit geschlossenen, effizienten Blockchain Netzwerken für vertrauensvolle Transaktionsprozesse zwischen einzelnen Unternehmen. Sie repräsentiert eine Weiterentwicklung der Blockchain-basierten Kryptischen Währungen (Blockchain 1.0) sowie der Business Logik Systeme mit Smart Contracts und Tokens (Blockchain 2.0). Doch es geht nicht nur um Technik, sondern vor allem um neue Geschäftsmodelle: Die Blockchain 3.0 intensiviert die Möglichkeiten eines Web 3.0, also eines Internets ohne zentrale Plattformen als Datenmonopole (wie Google, Amazon und Co.). Wir kommen immer mehr zu einer DAO-Ökonomie mit dezentralen, autonomen Organisationen und einer neuen Stufe der Disintermediation. 

Retailers have the data, now they're ready to shop it! Announcements are coming right and left as a growing number of retailers establish in-house media networks and ad shops. While individual ad offerings may vary, retailers are united in their determination to turn brand partners into paying clients. Traditional advertising agencies are on edge, brands are weighing their options, and retailers are set to fight it out for a multi-billion-dollar global opportunity. In this episode, Carol Spieckerman explores multi-stakeholder motivations, incentives, and drawbacks as the battle for ad bucks heats up. In this episode you'll learn:·      How retailers' carrot-and-stick strategies will budge brands·      Why Ecommerce media networks can triple-dip·      How retailers' ad shop buildouts will shift brand budgets·      Why third-party data houses might win in the end

Mark McGurl talks about disintermediation, a key term for internet commerce, and his new book about fiction in the age of digital self-publication. The fantasy of disintermediation lies at the heart of utopian dreams of the internet, but it turns out that not only is the internet actually a medium, and a vast economic engine, […]

Tune in to this episode of the Security Token Show where Kyle Sonlin and Herwig Konings discuss the latest Security Token News and Insights with this week's focus on how owning security tokens is easier than owning crypto!   Kyle's Company of the Week: Securitize - https://www.securitize.io/news-press-releases/press-releases/securitize-powers-exodus-regulation-a-offering   Herwig's Company of the Week: Nolan Reynolds International - https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/news/miami-real-estate-tokens-crypto    = Stay in touch via our Social Media = Kyle: https://twitter.com/kylesonlin  Herwig: https://www.linkedin.com/in/herwigkonings/ Opinion articles, interviews, and more: https://medium.com/security-token-group Find the video edition of this episode on our Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTKdeN3ElyPeqtROWUp0CmQ   All articles that were discussed were sourced from https://STOmarket.com/news    Check out our medium blog for more news!   #STSTOP5 Articles of the Week   Elevated Returns: https://twitter.com/StephaneDeBaets/status/1391622690750881794   Gary Gensler: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/07/sec-chairman-gary-gensler-says-more-investor-protections-are-needed-for-bitcoin-and-crypto-markets.html   https://www.cryptoglobe.com/latest/2021/05/not-just-xrp-that-bothers-sec-gensler-says-a-lot-of-crypto-tokens-are-securities/   Binance: https://coingeek.com/bafin-rejects-binance-pleas-as-stock-token-delisting-deadline-looms-report/   https://www.ft.com/content/e7b5fd75-2d93-4a21-9178-eeb79c2f80ab   BitGo: https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/galaxy-digital-to-acquire-bitgo-to-form-pre-eminent-global-provider-of-digital-asset-financial-services-for-institutions-834031710.html   Arte: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/arte-becomes-miamis-first-new-development-to-accept-cryptocurrency-301286252.html   https://www.securities.io/ivanka-trumps-miami-based-arte-surfside-luxury-apartments-will-accept-crypto/   Industry Updates   HKVAX & TerraChain:    Tokenize This: Week 17 ~ NFTs In Virtual Reality: https://blog.stomarket.com/tokenize-this-week-17-nfts-in-virtual-reality-38b551972a33   DeFi, Disintermediation, and the Regulatory Path Ahead: https://www.theregreview.org/2021/05/10/massari-catalini-defi-disintermediation-regulatory-path-ahead/   TECHFUND has officially become a sponsor of Digital Securities & Tokenization summit along with tZERO and POLYMATH: https://us.acrofan.com/detail.php?number=465966   Industry Events   Join us for this week's Clubhouse event on Thursday discussing how owning security tokens is easier than owning crypto!: https://www.joinclubhouse.com/event/m26nO42p    Virtual Digital Securities and Tokenization Summit on May 19th hosted by DigiShares: https://www.eventbrite.dk/e/digital-securities-tokenization-summit-tickets-138926780741   What You Need To Know About Security Token Custody hosted by Polymath: https://info.polymath.network/what-you-need-to-know-about-security-token-custody   STO Updates and New STOs:   Security Token Market Real Estate Report: April 2021: https://securitytoken.medium.com/security-token-market-real-estate-report-april-2021-7d2676363947   CINCINNATI STARTUP AIMS TO SOLVE REAL ESTATE LIQUIDITY ISSUES: https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2021/05/07/c-prop-feature.html   Vuuzle Media Corp soft launches its VUCO token website: https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/269296777/vuuzle-media-corp-soft-launches-its-vuco-token-website   $240M Miami Development Will Issue Real Estate Tokens: https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/news/miami-real-estate-tokens-crypto   JPGold token: An investment backed by gold security: https://cointelegraph.com/press-releases/jpgold-token-an-investment-backed-by-gold-security   Market Update:   Security Tokens Market Cap Now Almost $700M, with April 2021 Avg Weighted Returns at Over 11%: Report: https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2021/05/174928-security-tokens-market-cap-now-almost-700m-with-april-2021-avg-weighted-returns-at-over-11-report/   Security Token Market Real Estate Report: April 2021: https://blog.stomarket.com/security-token-market-report-april-2021-f530907b82ee   = Check out our Companies = Security Token Group: http://securitytokengroup.com/  Security Token Advisors: http://www.securitytokenadvisors.com/  Security Token Market: https://stomarket.com  InvestReady: https://www.investready.com

In this episode Mike talks to Josh about his vision of the "decentralized future" and how cryptocurrencies could play an integral role in creating that. He also touches on what and how humans can learn and improve by understanding how machines learn, and how it may be valuable to know several coding languages. 

From April 13, Grant and Trask go thru all current Gopher Sports as well as talk pro sports at length. They also have an interview with some people in the Minnesota Cycling Center.

Hans Koning is the Chair of the DigiByte Foundation. He explains not only DigiByte, but also offers immense knowledge on the current economy and financial system. The DigiByte Foundation's focus is to ensure there is a low barrier for entrants across the globe looking to join the new peer-to-peer system which gives power back to the people. In this discussion various topics were brought up such as: The current problem in the financial world, hyperinflation, the lack of trust in society being the main driver for decentralization, DigiByte offering the solutions to these problems, the economy, and much more. Want to jump straight into the main points? - (4:00) What is DigiByte and what problem does it solve? - (9:15) Growing community of crypto in Latin America, Africa, Asia due to hyperinflation - (13:10) Complacency in 1st world countries being the barrier to understanding Bitcoin, DigiByte and the power of decentralization - (18:42) Lack of trust in our society/government/system as the main driver for decentralization and taking out the middleman - (22:24) What does it take for people to understand the current problem with our system? - (26:22) How to spread the message to the world about the power of crypto/decentralization and and the freedom it brings - (28:58) Printing of trillions, wealth gap, economic disaster, the Federal Reserve saving the stock market at the expense of the purchasing power of the little guy - (33:40) A new Bretton/Blockhain Woods needed to form a new financial structure - (35:30) Will governments accept blockchain and decentralization or fight it? - (37:00) The threat to the business model of central banks - (40:30) Banks becoming custodians of crypto - Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/coinvigilante/support

business models

Why the rate of change post-2020 is speeding up

In this episode we talk to Iqbal Nasim, CEO of the National Zakat Foundation, about Islamic giving and using technology to transform the way Zakat works. Including: What is Zakat and how does it fit within Islamic teaching? What does Islamic teaching say about how Zakat is to be given? (i.e. are there specific causes, should it be anonymous etc?) Is Zakat the primary focus of giving for most Muslims, or do many give in other ways too? What is Sadaqa, and how does it relate to Zakat? Does most Zakat from Muslims in the UK go to international causes? Why, then, did NZF decide to focus on distributing Zakat in the UK? How much Zakat goes to individuals and how much to organisations (charities, NGOs etc?) How does this reflect Islamic teaching? How is Zakat viewed by givers and recipients- is it seen as a gift made through charity or a payment made as a requirement of justice? Is there any stigma to being a recipient of Zakat? What responsibilities are there as a digital platform towards those giving and receiving zakat? Should you aim to be a neutral intermediary, or do you have to take a more active role in informing donors, assessing recipients etc? Disintermediation through technology brings benefits in terms of allowing more direct connection between giver and receiver, but it may also bring challenges- e.g. in individual crowdfunding there are growing concerns we are seeing biases and old-fashioned distinctions between the “deserving” and “undeserving” poor emerge. Are there similar challenges when it comes to zakat? How can they be mitigated? Does the focus on giving to individuals make it harder to address issues at a more systemic level? (i.e. because you can’t fund campaigning or advocacy for larger-scale change) There is a lot of interest in the wider world of philanthropy (particularly in an international development context) in tapping into Zakat as a potential new source of funding for existing causes, or aligning it with the SDGs etc. Is this feasible, or does it misunderstand what Zakat is and the motivations behind it?   Related Links: The National Zakat Foundation Islamic Relief UK’s guide to giving in Islam Rhod’s Alliance magazine blog on “The Ethics of Platform Philanthropy”

Steve Bannon, Raheem Kassam, and Jack Maxey are joined by Fog City Midge to discuss the latest on the coronavirus pandemic as the Democrats go nuclear on Wayne County, Michigan election commission initially refuse to certify Wayne County results. Calling in are Boris Epshteyn, and Christopher Buskirk with their insights.

Steve Bannon, Raheem Kassam, and Jack Maxey are joined by Fog City Midge to discuss the latest on the coronavirus pandemic as the Democrats go nuclear on Wayne County, Michigan election commission initially refuse to certify Wayne County results. Calling in are Boris Epshteyn, and Christopher Buskirk with their insights.

We catch up with Alejandro Cabrera and Mauricio Cuevas, co-founders of Uproar.car, a tech startup aiming to disintermediate the auto warranty market through online subscriptions. The business partners, who met while working at Microsoft, explain how the service works, the growth of digital solutions in the ancillary space of automotive and more.

Welcome to the 1 Bitcoin Show! An awesome in motion guy in France made a 210k block theory dashboard! What a useful tool! The bull run may have started and it should be crazy in Altcoin land again, but not the same as 2017. Chainlink is the altcoin flavor of the month. Ethereum is surging and I give you the numbers it would have to hit for its Market cap to surpass BTC. Disintermediation! Bitcoin envy, No coiners, Tom Emmer meeting, Defi, Grayscale, and much more! Recorded in Asheville, NC! Watch the show here-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9fV5S57TiM Follow Adam on Twitter- https://twitter.com/TechBalt All of the BitcoinMeister videos are here at- http://DisruptMeister.com Financially support the podcast here- https://anchor.fm/bitcoinmeister/support BOOKMARK SPORTSMEISTER.com DISRUPTMEISTER.com & TECHBALT.com --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bitcoinmeister/support

August 4, 2020: Four months into corporate America's working from home experiment, some cracks are emerging. Are people getting tired of it? Is it likely to affect career development? Plus exclusive insights from top executives weighing in on healthcare budget cuts. Walmart as a healthcare company, is it your competitor or ally? If you wanted to disrupt our health system, what would you do? And what can we do right now to ensure good workplace culture exists?Key Points:● Wall Street journal article Companies Start to Think Remote Work Isn’t So Great After All [00:03:35]● Canon’s headquarters in Melville, NY have allowed employees to start returning voluntarily. Tune in for the result. [00:04:00]● CompuCom hybrid future [00:04:45]● Enlisting ambassadors to ensure good company culture [00:06:10]● CNBC article Walmart to open six health clinics in Atlanta area by the end of 2020 [00:08:05]● David Chou article Healthcare Providers Must Get Creative And Co-Create With Big Box Retailers [00:08:20]● Edward Marks article Disintermediation of Hospitals Begins [00:14:15]● Huntington hospital signs an agreement with Cedars-Sinai [00:18:05]● Top executives insights across the pandemic crisis and financial crisis. What can we do with our remaining budgets? [00:20:40]

July 14, 2020: Big news today. We discuss CommonSpirit’s new partnership plus a major industry first, Walmart and Village MD have big plans to open almost 700 full service doctor's offices. We look at the Oliver Wyman paper on six future health system archetypes. And is digital health the leading future modality? Does that mean we all get our very own da Vinci in our homes? Tune in to find out as Bill breaks down each of the seven modalities, Urgent Care, Primary Care, Diagnostics and Pharmacy Specialty Care, Procedure and Surgeries, Acute Care, Post Acute Care and Navigation and Guidance.Key Points From This Episode:CommonSpirit strikes partnership to offer direct-to-employer primary care [00:04:15] Why is Amazon feared in healthcare? [00:10:30] And why is Apple even in the conversation of healthcare? [00:10:35] The most important aspect of your model should be technology agility [00:06:20] Check out Bill’s List - the current rank order of how things get prioritized in healthcare. Do you agree with him? [00:13:55] Is digital health the leading future modality? [00:23:45] Oliver Wyman’s paper about the six future health system archetypes [00:17:35]

In this episode I'm continuing the conversation with Ryan Rugg from R3. If you haven't listened to episode 26, “The Convergence of Emerging Tech Enabling Digital Ecosystems - Part 1” you will want to take a listen before diving into this episode. We continue the conversation about the shift to digital ecosystems, what they are, why they are different now, and the business models and technologies that are shaping them.As always, all the show notes and links will be provided on vnextpod.com. Show Notes

Everyone depends on a handful of apps for online communications and productivity, and, more often than not, those apps are hosted by servers owned and controlled by a third party. Even protocols that were designed to be peer to peer, like email and bitcoin, are typically accessed by non-technical people through intermediaries, like Gmail and Coinbase. What risks does that kind of intermediation create for personal privacy and security, and why is it necessary? Is it actually necessary at all? Matt and Keaegan have started a company called Start9 Labs that’s dedicated to moving computing power from the central intermediaries back to the edges of networks. Listen to find out how they plan to “put people back in charge of the things they interact with.”   

In this episode I'm talking with Ryan Rugg from R3. She is responsible for the strategic direction of R3’s key verticals, Ryan is helping industry leaders capture the full benefits of digital ecosystems blockchain their businesses. Here in episode 26, “The Convergence of Emerging Tech Enabling Digital Ecosystems - Part 1” we will be talking about the shift to digital ecosystems, what they are, why they are different now, and the business models and technologies that are shaping them.You may of remembered us talking about this convergence effect on both the Blockchain in 2020 Trends episode of BlockTalk, but also you’ve heard this a theme in “Episode 20: Digitizing Pharmaceutical Supply Chains with Blockchain” automating the pharma supply chain. You will want to stick around for this one to dig a bit deeper on this one!As always, all the show notes and links will be provided on vnextpod.com. Show NotesAbout Ryan Welcome to the podcast Ryan!Host: Tell us a little bit about you. How did you get here? What’s your current role? Projects you’re currently working on?Ryan is the Global Head of the Industry business unit at the enterprise software firm, R3, she sits at the forefront of blockchain innovation across multiple industries. She is responsible for the strategic direction of R3’s key verticals, Ryan is helping industry leaders capture the full benefits of blockchain for their businesses. Testament to her efforts, R3’s blockchain platform Corda has fast become one of the most dominant blockchain platforms with many of the largest and most prominent global businesses building their applications on Corda. Ryan launched the Centre of Excellence for distributed ledger technology (DLT) in cooperation with ACORD (Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development). The Centre of Excellence provides a dedicated environment for R3’s and ACORD’s members to research, design and deploy DLT applications that improve the efficiency of many insurance business segments – commercial and specialty insurance, life insurance, personal lines and health insurance, along with niche areas like marine and trade credit.Host: You work for R3, tell us about the company you work for.Host: Tell us something interesting about you either professionally or personally that people may not know about you. Blockchain-Enabled EcosystemsIn my Forbes article recently I describe Digital Ecosystems in this way:Digital ecosystems embrace the complexity of endless connections to be self-organizing, dynamic, and adaptive that leverage advanced technologies to maximize or create new value exchange networks.Host: In your mind, how would you define a blockchain-enabled ecosystem and how are they different from other types of solutions?Host: How do you define all the various components of a DE?Be sure to check out more episodes of V-Next on www.vnextpod.com !

Disintermediation is likely the most important word that you perhaps have never heard of. But it’s a threat to most organizations! Kevin provides key examples of this real-world recurrence and ties it in elegantly to the very Way of God. // Download this episode's Reflection & Discussion questions and PDF transcript at thewhitestoneforum.org.

Ralf Anderhofstadt und ich sprechen über die Bedeutung des 3D Drucks bzw. der Additiven Fertigung bei Daimler Buses. Es geht um Kosten- und Nutzenvorteile, um den Effekt der Flexibilität sowie der dezentralen Produktion - auch im Rahmen der Corona Pandemie. Dabei kommen wir auf neue Geschäftsmodelle, disruptives Potential sowie Megatrends wie der Disintermediation zu sprechen. Ralf berichtet zudem über das Zusammenspiel von 3D Druck mit der Blockchain Technologie und gibt uns einen Ausblick, wohin die Reise der additiven Fertigung gehen kann.

Blockchain ist viel mehr als Bitcoin, Ethereum und Co. Diese Technologie eröffnet dank der hohen Sicherheit beim Austausch digitaler Daten vollkommen neue Möglichkeiten, um intelligente Daten zwischen Firmen und Personen zu versenden. Die Blockchain kann unsere Sozialen Medien und viele staatliche Anwendungen revolutionieren. Und sie verstärkt sicherlich den Effekt der Disintermediation.

Egal ob im Buchhandel, in der Versicherungsbranche, im Zahlungsverkehr oder der Reiseindustrie, die digitale Vernetzung erlaubt es den Herstellern von Waren und Dienstleitungen immer mehr, direkt im Kontakt zu ihren Kunden zu stehen. Dabei verlieren die bisherigen Vermittler, wie Händler, Makler oder Banken, ihre Aufgaben und Bedeutungen. Diesen Effekt nennen wir die "Disintermediation", und sie wird immer mehr Branchen betreffen.

Tim and Carolina today discussing 2-step, 3-step and direct distribution for manufacturers. Helpful? or take away control? Disintermediation isn't just about selling direct, and supply chain is more than just materials and logistics. How staying close to your client and end user affects sales, culture, product quality and success. www.BuildPerspectives.com www.venveo.com  https://www.epiphany-studio.com/webinar-a-crash-course-on-building-material-buyers https://www.seethewhizard.com/blog/how-commercial-building-materials-sold/

Tune in to the Management Insights podcast on Leverage Strategy in the Exploding Digital Economy with today’s guest, Gerry McNamara. The business press is full of articles on how firms use data and how industries are being transformed by digital technologies. Today, we are going to be talking about how this digital economy is changing the nature of business and how managers and firms can navigate their way through this transformation.

Welcome to Finance and Fury, The Furious Friday Edition Monday ep this week went through BTC – Went through a monetary reset towards a crypto-fiat system – Today – talk more The BIS and central banks versus BTC and the crypto markets – how are they planning to get there. There are two side to crypo - especially Bitcoin – BTC is a divisive topic – garners strong passions in the population One side are the proponents - hail it as the future currency - is immune to the manipulation of politicians and central banks – Suggestions of Bitcoin being the basis for restoring world currencies to a new monetary standard or Bitcoin standard. On the other side - Bitcoin is seen as an electronic version of snake oil, tulipmania and Ponzi schemes While admitting to the underlying blockchain technology being useful and a great idea - not in the context of a currency If you remove BTC and just said crypto currency - I think both sides are right mostly Fiat system – is a bubble in its size – far surpasses tulipmania - isnt this a ponzi scheme? Why not adopt that same model but in derivative form of some digital credit – stable coins – crypto pegged to a fiat currency valuation So how will the takeover occur – through indirect methods – the back door into the crypto markets   To start with – look at the basis of all digital transactions – You need some form of 3rd party verification process – Not needed with physical currency – I go to the shops and exchange my $20 AUD for food, tell checks and takes cash An early theory of digital coins was to allow the same peer-to-peer transaction where the third party would be involved But with all digital transaction, there must be a 3rd party verifier – why coin theory evolved Everyday use of electronic money - this is the bank which holds the payer’s account In BTC - the distributed ledger built on blockchain technology does this - provides a trustworthy system in an environment where no particular party is trustworthy – verifies each party from the coin/tokes code The BIS has focused on the very functionality of cryptos – In their Annual Economic Report 2018, Chapter V is entitled ‘Cryptocurrencies: looking beyond the hype’ While it says crypto in title - analysis and criticism is only focused on Bitcoin – but this does use blockchain technology They find that there may be times where blockchains provide the answer to a lack of trust, but the payment system is not one of them – Their arguments lie in two parts: Viable money systems have some essential characteristics; and Bitcoin fails to fulfil these requirements – pretty basic - Overview of Chapter V BIS V begins with a historical review of money, noting that history is a graveyard of failed currencies - they derive the proposition that ‘money’ must meet the definitions of money: A unit of account, providing a common measure of value across goods and services that are not otherwise comparable; A medium of exchange - accepted token which can be exchanged for goods and services – under Fiat by decree – Gov only allowing AUD in our stores A store of value that enables a holder to transfer purchasing power over time. The BIS states that trust is central to the success of a currency - without trust in ‘the system’ a currency will soon cease to fulfil one or more of the essential characteristics of money – but which one? store of value, unit of account or medium of exchange? I would go one further and say it isn’t trust but confidence – trust is a part of this – but Trust and Confidence do appear almost similar in meaning – but there is a slight difference Trust refers to the firm belief that one has on another individual or thing – you trust your breaks will work even though you haven’t had a service in 10 years Confidence refers to the assurance that we have on someone or something – you have confidence your breaks will work as your car was serviced last month When confidence is lost it is almost impossible to get back Trust in bank deposits is generated through a variety of means - regulation, supervision and deposit insurance schemes, All come from the central authority of the state – trust money in your bank account is safe, but do you have the confidence in the bank not taking your money in a bail out? Trust covers medium of exchange and unit of account – you trust that it will be useful in the future – same with store the value – why? Central banks have promised a rate of loss of value – inflation loss of money in real terms What drives the ship (so to speak is confidence) – which comes an inward view of the financial system – Those at the tops – group of 30, central bank Governors, etc – their actions show confidence they have in the system – why they are looking at alternatives out now – and turning to an option readily adopted by a large chunk of the population voluntarily Well – because the type of currency is being accepted b the population – but the BIS is looking at banks being the controller of the currency – why? To create trust - ‘The tried, trusted and resilient way to provide confidence in money in modern times is the independent central bank.’ Central banks are not some independent entity - resulted in inflation and a host of other collapses and economic bubbles that plague the economy since their inceptions – BIS has the following shortfalls with Bitcoin which prevents it from becoming a serious currency (don’t worry, theirs will solve these problems): Scalability – Scalability is certainly a serious issue for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin can currently process somewhere around 7 transactions per second. By contrast, the Visa system processes around 24,000 per second! Research proposals to increases the Bitcoin rate, but none have yet been proven effective in real-world transactions There is another aspect of Bitcoin that causes scalability problems. The Bitcoin blockchain is big, currently about 170 Gb and growing at about 50 Gb each year, and it must be communicated to all the ‘miners’ in the Bitcoin system. If one coin tried to process national payments that the blockchain would soon swell beyond the storage capacity of most, if not all, computers. It would, says BIS V, bring the internet to a halt Bitcoin is the huge energy use. BIS V notes that Bitcoin uses the same electricity as a medium size country such as Switzerland. Other estimates put power usage on a par with Singapore or Ireland. The ‘proof of work’ protocol uses vast amounts of computing power and, therefore, vast amounts of electricity Power required for ATMs worldwide, the power used by banking computers and the SWIFT network, and the power required to provide security for normal financial institutions, then Bitcoin looks rather frugal. This is probably true, but it hardly seems fair to compare the power usage of payment systems that provide for a large proportion of the world’s population with that of Bitcoin which is insignificant as a payments provider. Value stability - obvious Achilles Heel. The first commercial sale which accepted Bitcoin was for two pizzas worth about $25. The purchaser paid 10,000 Bitcoins. In December 2017 the price was near US$20,000 and at the time of writing is just over $10k AUD or US$6,800- as we can see a ‘self-anchored’ currency such as Bitcoin is inherently unstable. Bitcoin adds blocks of transactions to the ledger on average once every ten minutes. A payee cannot be certain of payment at least until the particular payment is incorporated in the ledger. As BIS V notes, there have been times when payments have queued so that finality cannot be determined until much later The finality of payment - perhaps it is not as serious as imagined. After all, you don’t need too to be that old to remember when online payments took five days! Business seemed to survive in spite of it. Still, a modern payment system should achieve finality faster Bitcoin community response Many cryptocurrency advocates ready and willing to answer the claims of BIS V – responses fall into one of two categories All cryptocurrency proponents have a deep distrust of central banks – “BIS V is hopelessly out of date” - There is active research going on, tests being done, new systems being built that will answer each and every criticism of BIS V – no arguing this point - researchers are indeed addressing the problems exposed by the BIS The most important current research is (probably) the Lightning Network and the Casper version of the ‘proof of stake’ protocol - aimed at increasing the throughput transactions- allows blockchain technology scale to be a serious payment system - Casper protocols are intended to reduce the power requirements of the existing Bitcoin network by replacing ‘proof of work’ with ‘proof of stake’. This work is done by MIT labs – where do they get their money - Donors include a few crypto companies and individuals (Jim Breyer, Jim Pallotta, Jeff Tarrant, Reid Hoffman and Fred Wilson) – all investment managers and venture capitalist billionaires in their late 50s 60s who are installed in the current financial system BIS V is correct in its criticism of Bitcoin price stability and of scaling issues. Look at BTC pricing – and one way of stability may by constant adjustments in the money supply- by an automatic algorithm – but that isn't what BTC is – but likely what Central Bank version may look like Let's say that every kink is out of the system and the future is of cryptocurrencies – How will central banks and governments work towards a future for their cryptocurrencies? Disintermediation of the payment system would undoubtedly have widespread financial consequences – cutting out the middle men of the economy – banks and Central Banks – so has to keep them involved – and use indirect regulations Methods of legislation to be used Bitcoin and similar payment structures are outside any direct control of central banks and individual governments BIS V notes that cryptocurrencies ‘can only be regulated indirectly’ and discusses some of the possible approaches. Also note that ‘Since cryptocurrencies are global in nature, only globally coordinated regulation has a chance to be effective.’ – Thankfully global Govs are incompetent – but doesn’t mean they won't try What are some methods they can use? The first key regulatory challenge is anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT). The question is whether, and to what extent, the rise of cryptocurrencies has allowed some AML/CFT measures, such as know-your-customer standards, to be evaded. Shutdown of Silk Road, a major marketplace for illegal drugs, suggest that a non-negligible fraction of the demand for cryptocurrencies derives from illicit activity Regulation could focus on the point at which a cryptocurrency is exchanged into a sovereign currency Other existing laws and regulations relating to payment services focus on safety, efficiency and legality of use. These principles could also be applied to cryptocurrency infrastructure providers, such as "crypto wallets" ensuring consumer and investor protection - common problem is digital theft – access to distributed ledgers are complex - so most users access their cryptocurrency holdings via third parties such as "crypto wallet or exchanges” Irony is many people turned to cryptocurrencies out of distrust in banks and governments – but are relying on unregulated intermediaries – many examples like Mt Gox or Bitfinex – either being fraudulent or hacking attacks Major justification - concerns the stability of the financial system may be at risk without taking over cryptos Widespread use of cryptocurrencies and related self-executing financial products will likely give rise to new financial vulnerabilities and systemic risks – Systemic risk is the competition from crypto crashing banking system Cryptocurrencies with regulated financial entities could be addressed - The tax and capital treatment rules for regulated institutions wanting to deal in cryptocurrency-related assets could thus be adapted Regulate the exchanges – where most people trade crypto – you can regulate the crypto markets Policy responses, including regulation of private uses of the technology, the measures needed to prevent abuses of cryptocurrencies and the delicate questions raised by the issuance of digital currency by central banks In the next FFFF ep – in a few week's time – look at the future of cryptos – the types of stable coins – and how it might work Thank you for listening, if you want to get in contact you can do so here: http://financeandfury.com.au/contact/  

In this episode Jonathon steps back and looks at the unaffordability of rent causing pressure on cafes, how the internet and deeply learning is changing consumer behaviour and perhaps alludes to a few ways to leverage these changes for the propagation of coffee quality and consumers.

For this interview, I have with me Thales Teixeira, professor at Harvard Business School and author of “Unlocking the Customer Value Chain,” which is an incredible book and an incredible reading, especially if you’re trying to understand how today’s business world works. I asked Thales a few critical questions to understand the business landscape and each of them uncovers insights that will make you a better business person! Contents What brought you to study business model disruption and business innovation? What’s for you that the most effective definition of a business model? What is the customer value chain and how does that work? What is decoupling and why is it so important? How did Birchbox break the customer value chain? Is disruption about business model innovation? Didn’t Uber start as a tech company? What are the three phases of digital business disruption? Unbundling in a nutshell Disintermediation in a nutshell Summarizing the three waves of unbundling, disintermediation and decoupling How do we know what the consumer is looking for? And how to use decoupling in our favor? The three customers’ currencies How important is branding in consumers’ choices? In this context, are traditional business tools, like Porter’s Five Forces, still useful? How should I start a disruptive company today? Is specialization the key to decoupling? What’s next? Is decoupling the main disruptive force in the coming decade? Key takeaways

In this new episode, recorded at GMDC’s annual General Merchandise Conference in Denver, we focus on the ways startups are working to disintermediate traditional retailers, how retailers can turn these innovations to their own advantage, why cultural resistance within companies can be the ultimate enemy of progress, and even brainstorm about a business model that could’ve made Toys R Us relevant again. Panelists:  Patrick Fore, CEO and co-founder of Fleat   Sterling Hawkins, co-founder of the Center for Advancing Retail & Technology (CART)   Hosted by Kevin Coupe, MorningNewsBeat’s “Content Guy”  

In this episode, Justin, Frank and Jesse discuss the first photo ever taken of a black hole, the power and effectiveness of microinfluencers, the advent of the blockchain technology and more.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/join/ittwi?gbOpenExternal=1)

Darren Smith (@ruboly) is Business Development Manager at the Insurtech Network Centre at the Institute of Technology, Carlow in Ireland. The InsurTech Network Center (INC) facilitates the growth of InsurTech businesses in the South East of Ireland. Their InsurTech Accelerator program is the first of it's kind in Ireland. The program collaboration between InsurTechs and established insurance businesses while allowing participants to leverage the resources and capabilities of IT Carlow. In this episode, Darren and I discuss three trends in InsurTech: digitization, commoditization and disintermediation. Connect with Darren on Twitter and LinkedIn. Enjoy!

What is Yellow Fat Disease? How does it age us? Why is sugar not the devil? Find out in this episode of Divine Superconductor Radio with Atom Bergstrom! We have a lengthy Q&A session covering various topics. www.solartiming.com www.matt-blackburn.com 01:03 Interview Begins 03:50 Atom’s Health Journey 04:48 Beating the Flu with Sugar 06:43 Lactic Acid 08:10 Saturated Fats 09:32 Vegetable Oil Origins 13:45 Stable vs Unstable Fats 16:00 DHA and the Inuit 17:30 Rotten Cod Liver Oil 18:22 Lipofuscin and Yellow Fat Disease 20:53 Researching with Google 24:19 PUFA to Lipofuscin what Calcium is to Calcification 25:42 Complex Carbs and Tooth Decay 26:56 Keto and PUFAs 28:36 Aging & Longevity 30:24 Wisdom from the Elders 35:35 Corporations Funding Studies 39:13 Omega-3s 44:32 Lipofuscinosis 45:11 Alkaline vs Acid 49:41 PUFAs Reaction with Sunlight 50:43 Carotenoids 54:12 Sun Exposure 56:30 Detoxing HUFAs 58:56 Disintermediation 01:03:17 Physical Activity 01:08:33 Atom’s Routine 01:16:18 Are Oats Estrogenic 01:19:51 Carbohydrates Pre-Agriculture 01:23:56 Climate & Nutrition 01:26:10 The Inuit 01:27:42 Potatoes & Protein 01:31:08 Can Fruitarianism Work? 01:32:44 Benefits of Coffee 01:35:52 Distilled Water 01:39:02 Saunas & Ozonated Water 01:40:00 Cold Thermogenesis 01:45:02 Skewed Modern Science 01:49:48 Hormones 01:51:55 Carbon Dioxide Therapy 01:53:57 Releasing Pressure 01:54:30 Paranormal Yogis 1:58:49 B Vitamin Supplementation 02:00:49 Aspirin 02:04:07 Pacemakers 02:07:31 Stem Cells & Regeneration 02:12:00 Closing Notes

Today's Quick Start is from Creating Wealth episode 729, originally published in September 2016. Today's panel discusses self-management options for your income properties. The experts agree, a great property management company is worth their weight in gold but it is also important to be educated about your self-management options. The panel shares information about companies who use technology to save you time and money through automating tedious tasks, best practices to improve home interiors without spending a fortune and what types of tenants are the best types of tenants to have. Key Takeaways: [9:19] Kwikset Kevo bluetooth locks make it easier for self-management of income properties. [16:57] Jason recommends adding a little color to the interior walls of your income properties. Self-Management Panel: [20:33] Is self-management easier than having a property manager? [23:27] The road to self-management and maintaining a good relationship with your tenants.   [28:00] The flat rate fee system makes self-managing properties easier. [32:47] Property managers are reluctant to take legitimate fees out of a tenant’s security deposit. [37:06] Ask your property managers to lower their costs if you are realizing the value. [40:11] Using Cozy makes rent collection and viewing tenant profiles easy. [44:35] Disintermediation is getting rid of the middle man.   [49:10] Rently allows tenants to do their own showings with only a credit card. Mentioned in This Episode: Jason Hartman Real Estate Tools Venture Alliance Mastermind Hartman Education Cozy Rently

Today's Flash Back Friday comes from Episode 729, originally published in September 2016. Jason, Fernando and Oliver make up today's expert panel. They are discussing self-management options for your income properties. The experts agree, a great property management company is worth their weight in gold but it is also important to be educated about your self-management options. The panel shares information about companies who use technology to save you time and money through automating tedious tasks, best practices to improve home interiors without spending a fortune and what types of tenants are the best types of tenants to have. Key Takeaways: [3:40] Jason and Fernando discuss the flooring options available at an income property expo in Mesa, Arizona. [9:19] Kwikset Kevo bluetooth locks make it easier for self-management of income properties. [16:57] Jason recommends adding a little color to the interior walls of your income properties. Self-Management Panel: [20:33] Is self-management easier than having a property manager? [23:27] The road to self-management and maintaining a good relationship with your tenants.   [28:00] The flat rate fee system makes self-managing properties easier. [32:47] Property managers are reluctant to take legitimate fees out of a tenant's security deposit. [37:06] Ask your property managers to lower their costs if you are realizing the value. [40:11] Using Cozy makes rent collection and viewing tenant profiles easy. [44:35] Disintermediation is getting rid of the middle man.   [49:10] Rently allows tenants to do their own showings with only a credit card. Mentioned in This Episode: Jason Hartman Real Estate Tools Venture Alliance Mastermind Hartman Education Cozy Rently

Today on The Wealth Exchange, Mark speaks with Gregg Peacock, Erik Ashdown, and Jess Sloss on blockchain, cryptocurrency and everything in between. Gregg is the CEO and Co-Founder of NodeAI, a technology company that provides staking-as-a-service for crypto assets; Erik is a partner at Blockscore, a crowd diligence platform for initial coin offerings with a purpose of providing actionable feedback to companies launching new cryptocurrencies; and Jess leads operations at Ultraviolet Protocol, a smart contract platform for Data Creation Networks.   In this episode, they discuss the ins and outs of cryptocurrency. Gregg, Erik, and Jess break down the difference between Bitcoin and traditional digital currency, how to know if a cryptocurrency is secure and legitimate, how the value of a cryptocurrency is determined, and the different purposes cryptocurrency can serve in different contexts. They also discuss their predictions for the future of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies alike, as well as their favorite cryptocurrencies, and their recommendations for investment.   Key Takeaways: [:30] About today's topic: cryptocurrency. [1:32] Breaking down cryptocurrency: the difference between Bitcoin and a traditional digital currency. [3:11] Were Blockchain and Bitcoin created together? How do they work together? [4:46] How the decentralizing of these online currencies is extremely efficient. [7:33] How do we know that cryptocurrency is secure?  [10:35] Disintermediation with cryptocurrency. [12:23] What is Blockchain? [13:17] An example of Blockchain technology. [14:35] Why cryptocurrency is not anti-business. [17:14] How do you know if a cryptocurrency is legitimate? And will the same cryptocurrencies that are around now still be around 10 years from now? [19:08] Do all of these cryptocurrencies claim to do different things? [19:56] What is the goal of the creators of new cryptocurrencies?  [23:55] Eric further breaks down cryptocurrency; how value is determined and the purpose of various cryptocurrencies. [27:06] An example of the differences between various cryptocurrencies and their value (consumers vs company usage). [32:26] As early adopters into the cryptocurrency space, what got Greg, Jess, and Erik initially interested — and are they still as excited as they initially were about it? [40:54] Are we in a normalized valuation of cryptocurrency yet? [42:57] The lack of accessibility to cryptocurrency. [43:52] Are there efforts being made towards making cryptocurrency more accessible? [45:00] What are the hold-ups for institutions accepting cryptocurrency?  [50:49] Gregg, Erik, and Jess's favourite wallets, exchanges, and cryptocurrencies. [58:25] Gregg, Erik, and Jess's cryptocurrency predictions. [1:01:01] Predictions of which cryptocurrencies are going to remain valuable or become very valuable.   Mentioned in this Episode: Bitcoin Blockchain IOTA Coinbase Litecoin Monero Enigma Dogecoin Dogecon (Dogecoin conference)   Guest Bios Gregg Peacock Gregg Peacock is an active member of the Vancouver startup scene and is currently the CEO and Co-Founder of NodeAI, a technology company that provides staking-as-a-service for crypto assets. Gregg advises several early-stage startups on product strategy, and since 2015 has been deeply involved in the blockchain industry as an investor, trader and evangelist.   He is also an organizer and mentor at Startup Weekend Vancouver, a 54 hour event in which developers, designer, marketers, product managers and startup enthusiasts come together to share ideas and launch startups. Gregg has earned a degree in Engineering Physics from Queen's University, and has previously worked as a product manager for companies such as Aritzia, Bench and Rise.   Reach out to Gregg at gregg@nodeai.co   Erik Ashdown Erik Ashdown is a partner at Blockscore, a crowd diligence platform for initial coin offerings (ICO) with a purpose of providing actionable feedback to both companies launching new cryptocurrencies, and investors considering investing. Clients include ICOs, ICO advisors, Investors, law firms and the government.    Erik has invested in 20+ ICOs, worked with 50+ companies at various stages from startup to Series A, including indiloop — a music software platform of which he was the founder and CEO. He is involved in the Vancouver startup scene and is a graduate from both Concordia University and the Vancouver Film School in entertainment business management.   Reach out to Erik at erik@blockscore.co   Jess Sloss Jess Sloss leads operations at Ultraviolet Protocol, a smart contract platform for Data Creation Networks. Decentralized applications need transparent, verifiable and minimally-trusted data to reach their full potential, but creating data that can be trusted is hard. UVP is building the infrastructure needed to crowdsource data in a decentralized way for use as oracles, for decentralized research or to be integrated into DAOs and DAPPs.    Previously, Jess was the Director of Digital Media for The Feldman Agency, a music booking and management company where he consulted on digital projects for clients including Mother Mother, Melody Gardot, The Chieftains, Diana Krall and many more.   Follow Jess on twitter @thattallguy or reach him via email at jess@uvprotocol.org   About Your Host — Mark Therriault Mark is the Financial Advisor and partner of Nicola Wealth Management — and your host for The Wealth Management podcast.   As a member of the NWM Planning Team since 2006, Mark has become his clients' trusted advisor. He prides himself on providing an exceptional experience to his clients while quarterbacking their financial affairs.   Mark earned his Bachelor's degree in Economics with a minor in Finance from the University of Calgary. He went on to secure his CFP designation and also completed the CIM, CSC, the B.C. Life Insurance License.   For his full bio, visit: nicolawealth.com/our-team/mark-therriault   For More Information on this Week's Episode, Visit: www.nicolawealth.com/thewealthexchange   Disclaimer: This presentation contains the current opinions of the presenter and such opinions are subject to change without notice. This material is distributed for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal, accounting, tax or specific investment advice. Please speak to your NWM Advisor regarding your unique situation. Forecasts, estimates, and certain information contained herein are based upon proprietary research and should not be considered as investment advice or a recommendation of any particular security, strategy or investment product. NWM fund returns are quoted net of fund-level expenses. Past performance is not indicative of future results. All investments contain risk and may gain or lose value. Projected returns are estimates only. Returns are not guaranteed. NWM is registered as a Portfolio Manager, Exempt Market Dealer and Investment Fund Manager with the required provincial securities' commissions in Canada.

Should you be concerned about impending changes to California Proposition 65? How can you position your distribution company to thrive in a world dominated by Amazon Business? And who won the FTR Busch Light 30 pack at this year’s MWFA Open? Industry expert, Carmen Vertullo offers practical advice to the fastener industry as it ponders modifications in labeling requirements that could impact all levels of the supply chain (15:09). Modern Distribution Management president, Ian Heller, discusses “the Amazon effect”, why distributors are terrible at marketing, and why you should be adding value as you serve your customers (1:39:36). Mr. Rich Cavoto of Metric and Multistandard reports on the recent MWFA table top and golf outing (57:16). FDI numbers remain strong, although the trend may be cracking, as Baird analyst, David Manthey and industry anchorman, Mike McNulty explain during the Fastener News Report (1:08:58). Plus, the Fastener Training Minute (1:32:17), and a bonus segment with more of Carmen Vertullo discussing Prop 65 affected materials in detail (2:26:05). Mindful of all of this, Brian and Eric decide to start sharpening hooks before they're disintermediated. Run time: 02:34:08

Jason, Fernando and Oliver make up today's expert panel. They are discussing self-management options for your income properties. The experts agree, a great property management company is worth their weight in gold but it is also important to be educated about your self-management options. The panel shares information about companies who use technology to save you time and money through automating tedious tasks, best practices to improve home interiors without spending a fortune and what types of tenants are the best types of tenants to have. Key Takeaways: [2:50] Gary's attempting to set up a mini-family office where each part only has one customer to service Jason Property Management Panel: [6:33] Is self-management easier than having a property manager? [9:27] The road to self-management and maintaining a good relationship with your tenants [14:00] The flat rate fee system makes self-managing properties easier [18:47] Property managers are reluctant to take legitimate fees out of a tenant's security deposit [23:06] Ask your property managers to lower their costs if you are realizing the value [26:11] Using Cozy makes rent collection and viewing tenant profiles easy [30:35] Disintermediation is getting rid of the middle man [35:10] Rently allows tenants to do their own showings with only a credit card. Websites: www.RealEstateTools.com www.Cozy.co Rently

This week we review "Blockchain Basics: A Non-Technical Introduction in 25 Steps" by Daniel Drescher. Blockchain hype may have waned, but we're still aboard the blocktrain destined for untold crypto riches. Look below for timestamps: Part 1: How The Blockchain Works 1:55 - The blockchain is a plain old transaction ledger... 2:34 - ...but with no central authority 5:00 - To write to it you must solve math problems 6:58 - Transactions are verified using cryptography 8:17 - Distributed consensus enables consistency Part 2: Blockchain Flaws and Exploits 11:40 - 51 Percent Attacks 13:58 - Excessive power consumption 15:40 - Dependence on private keys 16:50 - Transactions can't be reversed 17:45 - The blockchain is so slooooooooow Part 3: Blockchain Applications 19:50 - Money transfers 20:57 - Disintermediation and eliminating middle-men 22:28 - Smart contracts 25:24 - Corporations and the private, permissioned blockchain 27:30 - Blockchain and the shipping industry 29:08 - Tokens and incentivizing network effects 30:10 - DISRUPTION (may be a few years away) 33:30 - Expect incumbents to fight back Check out Random Talkers on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/RandomTalkers Consider buying us a coffee (all donations go to better mics): www.buymeacoffee.com/randomtalkers

Nathan Waters is the founder of Peerism, a blockchain-based economic protocol which aims to solve job automation and wealth inequality via skill tokens, proof-of-skill and matching paid work to tokenized skill levels. He is a futurist, entrepreneur and social decentralist. He also founded and organises one of the largest Ethereum meetups in the world SydEthereum and the largest independent hackathon in Australia Hackagong. http://peerism.org https://medium.com/peerism/blockchain-commons-the-end-of-all-corporate-business-models-3178998148ba http://sydethereum.com

Dr. Michael Dahlweid head of GE Healthcare IT, and Timothy "Dutch" Dwight, VP Business Development at Medullan, a digital healthcare innovation firm based in Cambridge, MA, discuss how the Internet of Things will change how healthcare is delivered by forging new digital relationships between patient, payer, and provider. (Originally released 4/8/16)

Professor David Lee from UniSim sweeps across a fintech future in Asia, that sees a strong presence of blockchain, startups, IOT and even the incumbents. His views are based over many years of pioneering work in hedge funds, investment management, venture capital and academia.

Jason, Fernando and Oliver make up today's expert panel. They are discussing self-management options for your income properties. The experts agree, a great property management company is worth their weight in gold but it is also important to be educated about your self-management options. The panel shares information about companies who use technology to save you time and money through automating tedious tasks, best practices to improve home interiors without spending a fortune and what types of tenants are the best types of tenants to have.   Key Takeaways: [3:40] Jason and Fernando discuss the flooring options available at an income property expo in Mesa, Arizona. [9:19] Kwikset Kevo bluetooth locks make it easier for self-management of income properties. [16:57] Jason recommends adding a little color to the interior walls of your income properties. Self-Management Panel: [20:33] Is self-management easier than having a property manager? [23:27] The road to self-management and maintaining a good relationship with your tenants.   [28:00] The flat rate fee system makes self-managing properties easier. [32:47] Property managers are reluctant to take legitimate fees out of a tenant's security deposit. [37:06] Ask your property managers to lower their costs if you are realizing the value. [40:11] Using Cozy makes rent collection and viewing tenant profiles easy. [44:35] Disintermediation is getting rid of the middle man.   [49:10] Rently allows tenants to do their own showings with only a credit card. Mentioned in This Episode: Jason Hartman Real Estate Tools Venture Alliance Mastermind Hartman Education Cozy Rently

Minter Dialogue Episode #186 -- This interview is with Jason Aplin, a serial entrepreneur and born disruptor. Jason is currently co-founder and EVP at PayX, an FDIC-insured white-label mobile wallet and and merchant processing that works in over 80 countries. PayX, a division of IFAN, is disintermediating the payments sector and has blazed an important trail in Denmark, helping to create one of the world’s first cashless society. Meanwhile, please send me your questions as an audio file (or normal email) to nminterdial@gmail.com; or you can find the show notes and comment on minterdial.com. If you liked the podcast, please take a moment to go over to iTunes to rate/review the podcast. Otherwise, you can find me @mdial on Twitter. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/minterdial)

How have disintermediated media transformed doctoral education?  How can disintermediated media enable a productive, fair, rigorous, transparent and compassionate relationship between supervisor and doctoral candidate?  Tara shares her keynote address for Central Queensland University's Research Higher Degree Event, held in February 2016.

Tara and Steve talk about two key phrases - "digital leisure cultures" and "digital leisure studies."  What are digital leisure cultures and can they offer a new disciplinary pathway through work, production and consumption?

Aurora is the podcast from Sopra Steria's Horizon Scanning team, Richard Potter, Tim Difford & Ben Gilburt. We look out 3 to 5 years into the future at the trends which will have an impact on our clients and their customers. The internet has re-shaped the supply chain, often only needing the supplier and manufacturer to reach the buyer. These smaller supply chains enable higher profit margins, lower costs and greater market transparency. New mechanisms, such as cryptocurrency - where a crowd-owned 'block chain' ledger is used instead of an issuing bank ledger - will impact business and consumers. This, the first of two episodes on this topic, is where we focus our attention on this combination of the cloud, the crowd and advancing technologies. We discuss the impact they are beginning to have on industries established in some cases for hundreds of years - Disintermediation! Follow us on Twitter: @timdifford @richpotter_ @ben_innovates Our Flipboard magazine can be found here: flip.it/4CH2u http://www.soprasteria.co.uk

Cinematographer Julian Whatley proudly proclaims he's never had a bad day at work. He loves filmmaking and attacks every gig with 100% of his heart and soul. Coming up through the ranks of the camera department, learning from masters like Bob Richardson, John Toll and Harris Savides, he carries on the discipline and artistry he was taught. But stresses adaptability. I'm lucky to have Julian as an ally and friend.  Julian arrived at the RTP studios with four pillars for discussion: The Beginner's Mind, Disintermediation, The Emperor's new clothes and the Invisible hand. It's a trippy conversation steeped in wisdom. Hey, drop us a line please, and rate the show on iTunes. thanks, Jordan

Guest speaker: Eben Moglen PROGRAM NOTES: [NOTE: All quotations are by Eben Moglen.] “For the policy makers, in other words, an overwhelming problem is now at hand: How do we have innovation and economic growth under austerity? They do not know the answer to this question, and it is becoming so urgent that it is beginning to deteriorate their political control.” “Nobody will ever try to create a commercial encyclopedia again.” “Disintermediation, the movement of power out of the middle of the Net is a crucial fact about 21st century political economy. It proves itself all the time. Somebody's going to win a Nobel Prize in Economics for describing, in formal terms, the nature of disintermediation.” “The greatest technological innovation of the late 20th century is the thing we now call the World Wide Web, an invention less than 8,000 days old. That invention is already transforming human society more rapidly than anything since the adoption of writing.” “The next Facebook should never happen. It's intermediated innovation serving the needs of financiers, not serving the needs of people. Which is not to say that social networking shouldn't happen. It shouldn't happen with a man in the middle with tax build into it.” “The way innovation really happens is that you provide young people with opportunities to create on an infrastructure which allows them to hack the real world and share the results.” “We care about protecting people's right to hack what they own. And the reason that we care about it is if you prevent people from hacking on what they own themselves you will destroy the engine of innovation from which everybody is profiting.” “We said from the beginning that free software is the world's most advanced technical education system. It allows anybody, anywhere in Earth, to get to the state of the art in anything computers can be made to do by reading what is fully available, and by experimenting with it and by sharing the consequences freely.” “We should move to a world in which ALL knowledge previously available before this lifetime is universally available. If we don't, we will stunt innovation which permits further growth. That's a social requirement. The copyright bargain is not immutable. It is merely convenient.” “The universalization of access to knowledge is the single more important force available for increasing innovation and human welfare on the planet. Nobody should be afraid to advocate for it because somebody might shout 'copyright'.” “Nobody should be fooled about the prospects for social growth in societies where fifty percent of the people under thirty are unemployed. This is not going to be resolved by giving them assembly line car-building jobs. Everybody sees that.” “And we need to listen, democratically, to the large number of young people around the world who insist that Internet freedom, and an end to snooping and control, is necessary to their welfare and ability to create and live.” “Disintermediation means there will be more service providers throughout the economy with whom we are directly in touch. That means more jobs outside hierarchies and fewer jobs inside hierarchies.” “And there is a third aspect of privacy, which in my classroom I call autonomy. It is the opportunity to live a life in which the decisions you make are unaffected by others' access to secret or anonymous communication.” “The reason cities have been engines of economic growth since Sumner is that young people move to them to make new ways of being taking advantage of the fact that the city is where you escape the surveillance of the village and the social control of the farm.” “The city is the historical system for the production of anonymity and the ability to experiment autonomously in ways of living. We are closing it.” “We are on the verge of elimination of the human right to be alone. We are on the verge of the elimination of the human right to do your own thi...

Brigid Mullane interviews Dr Michael Cavanagh about new software to help teach Maths at school. Ian Woolf talks with Futurist Janine Cahill about the paradigm shift from Traditional to New Media, Mobile Banking, Serious Games and Disintermediation. The future will be challenging! Presented and produced by Ian Woolf