Marc Andreessen
eBay, Hewlett-Packard and Symantec are three huge companies that have decided to split apart. Super investor Marc Andreessen was involved in two of these companies and predicts that this is only the beginning. He sits on the boards of eBay and HP.
Managing cashflow and burn rate is more critical to your business success than having the right idea and the right product.
A basic survival metric for every startup is cashflow. Investors check your burn rate to assess your efficiency, and project your remaining runway before you run out of money and into a brick wall. Don’t wait until you are almost out of cash before managing every dollar spent, or looking for the next refueling from investors. Desperate entrepreneurs lose their leverage and die young.
Continue reading… “Why managing cashflow is critical for the survival of your startup”
Many startups build things people don’t want with the irrational hope that they’ll convince them otherwise.
When a startup shuts its doors, it is customary to write an essay that tells the rest of the community what went wrong, called a failure post-mortem. It’s estimated that nine out of 10 startups fail, which is why the technique has become so common as to be a Silicon Valley cliché.
Continue reading… “Why startups fail”
Private companies want to mine asteroids for fuel, and build filling stations in space. A bill now in front of the US Congress would help by allowing them to own what they discover – but it might, if passed, meet stiff international opposition.
Continue reading… “Asteroid Act could unlock billion dollar in asteroid mining business”
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt
Eric Schmidt, Google’s Chairman, wants to play nice with the European Union, but he isn’t about to give in to calls for regulation. “Europe needs to accept and embrace disruption. The old ways of doing things need to face competition that forces them to innovate,” he wrote in an op-ed for Digital Minds for a New Europe, the European Commission’s new tech series. “Uber, for example, is shaking up the taxi market — for the good. It offers riders convenience and cheaper fares. Understandably, the incumbent taxi industry is unhappy.”
Technology will have a profound effect on the way convenience stores conduct their business.
Steve Jobs once cautioned, “you can’t connect the dots looking forward.” You can only connect them looking backwards, so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”
Continue reading… “The future of convenience retailing”
Typical house-bot shopping on a budget
Futurist Thomas Frey: The year is 2027 and Winston, a newly born house-bot charged with doing a number of domestic chores including cleaning, meal prep, laundry, and building maintenance, has been programmed to not only perform the work, but also restock supplies once they reach a certain level.
Continue reading… “Should Robots Have Their Own Bank Accounts?”
Google makes so much money that it is now worth three times more than every U.S. airline combined.
This question is harder than it looks – what valuable company is nobody building? That’s because your company could create a lot of value without becoming very valuable itself. Creating value isn’t enough—you also need to capture some of the value you create.
Continue reading… “Competition is for losers: Peter Thiel”
The IoT will affect all types of organizations.
The number of mobile-connected devices this year will exceed the world’s population. Most organizations will have to respond in some way to the rise of connected devices in order to survive the next decade. As connected products, connected logistics, and connected phones become ubiquitous, they create value for users and risks for companies.
Continue reading… “Top 10 ways connected devices will impact every business”
Operational analytics not only predict what the next best action is, but also cause the action to happen without human intervention.
In the future, just having predictive models that suggest what might be done won’t be enough to stay ahead of the competition. Instead, smart organizations are driving analytics to an even deeper level within business processes—to make real-time operational decisions, on a daily basis.
Continue reading… “Let algorithms make real-time decisions for your company”
Amy Norman and Stella Ma started pitching investors on their San Francisco-based startup, Little Passports, in 2009. Both women had young children and Norman was pregnant. The overwhelming majority of the investors they met with were men who wanted to know “if we were running this as a ‘lifestyle company,’” Ma recalls. Investors passed and word got around Silicon Valley that “there’s no way women like this could grow a company fast enough” to satisfy venture capitalists, Norman says.
Continue reading… “Angel Investing: Rise of women investors fuels businesses run by women”
FlightCar
Startups love untapped resources and a parked car at an airport is just that. FlightCar is a startup that puts your unused car to work while you travel, and it has just scored $13.5 million to continue doing so.
Continue reading… “FlightCar scores $13.5M to put your unused car to work while you travel”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.