For anyone who isn’t yet completely fed up with EVERYTHING THIS WEEK BEING BROUGHT TO YOU BY DRAFTKINGS, get ready for a whole lot more: looks like they’re buying a… Read more Why fantasy football is so hellaciously pervasive right now →
One perennial prize that always seems up for grabs for tech companies – but has yet to be really conquered in any large capacity – is payments. There’s a considerable… Read more Disrupting Visa will be really hard – but here’s how it could happen →
Breaking news! The stock market is crashing! Everybody panic! Unicorns are going to die!!! Ok, so maybe we’re overreacting a little. But today (Monday, August 24) saw a nice… Read more Dropbox: the first dead decacorn →
Hey everybody! We’re back with another episode of Emergence Podcast, from myself and Matt Brightman. We recorded this episode a while ago – right after a California Court ruled that an Uber driver should be considered an employee, not a contractor. In this episode we go through where this matters (and where it doesn’t) for Uber, for the on-demand economy in general, and what it means for the future of work. Hope you enjoy! Also available on iTunes, as usual.
When it comes to ‘out of the box thinking’, one specific box I’d like people to get out of (or at least use significantly less) is our boundless love of… Read more The Colour Wheel of Tech: Why Apple hates Google, Facebook is the new Microsoft, and more →
Fun post today: Who can figure out the following puzzle? If you do, send me an email at adanco@gmail.com, and I will give you special kudos. (All of the clues needed to solve the puzzle are contained within the hints. There is no missing information.) ——– 5 Startups all work on the same street. Their names are: Vaultforge, Mylend, Whamazon, Gwip.ly and Plug.io. Each one makes a different product, uses different communication tools, and works in a different coloured office. Your task is to figure out: which company is worth 1… Read more The startup logic puzzle →
Hey everyone! As an extended follow-up to my post the other day about secrets, Matt and I recorded the second episode of Emergence Podcast where we go further into detail on the topic. After listening back to the episode, a key takeaway emerged that I’d like to call “Brightman’s Law” after it’s discoverer, Matt: Behavioural innovation is ultimately constrained by technology; technological innovation is ultimately constrained by behaviour. Good stuff, Matt! Soundcloud is being a bit funny at the moment, so here is the link on iTunes instead: please listen,… Read more Emergence Podcast, Episode 2: Secrets →
The importance of secrets in creating and capturing value has had no more vocal champion recently than Peter Thiel. In last year’s brilliantly distilled and somewhat controversial book Zero to One, Thiel builds a well-argued case for the importance of monopoly profit and power-law thinking for innovation and business that is well worth reading, even if you disagree with his conclusions. One central theme of the book is the value of secrets: not secrets that you hide and tell no one, but rather things that you know to be true… Read more Secrets →
Alex Danco's Newsletter 