Offshore
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Startup Archive
Instagram founder Kevin Systrom: “most successful things are pivots”
Tim Ferriss observes:
“In some aspects, there’s a fetishizing of perseverance… And yet, if you look at a lot of the largest public successes, many of them had some type of pivot or shutting down of something that wasn’t working.”
He asks Kevin—who famously pivoted a failed check-in app into Instagram—how do you know when it’s the right time to stop?
Kevin posits that most successful companies are pivots. He points out that YouTube started out as a dating site.
And there are plenty of other examples. Slack started out as a gaming company called Tiny Speck. Twitter started out as a podcasting app called Odeo. Twitch started out as JustinTV, oblivious to gaming streamers. The Discord founding team's first product was Fates Forever, a MOBA game on mobile platforms that failed.
Kevin suggests that most first products fail because it's really hard to tell what's going to work before you put it in people's hands. He argues:
"The key to entrepreneurship is failing really quickly: putting it out there, seeing if it works. If it doesn't, diagnosing why. And then focusing on how to improve it from there... Most of the time you get it wrong. So the question is: knowing you're going to get it wrong, how equipped are you to deal with that failure really quickly before you run out of money?"
He continues:
"The entrepreneurs that I've seen do really well are the ones that are equipped and engaged on the change from something that's not working to something that is. Far too many people--because of ego or whatever--stick with ideas for far too long, and it ends up going really poorly."
Video source: @tferriss (2019)
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Instagram founder Kevin Systrom: “most successful things are pivots”
Tim Ferriss observes:
“In some aspects, there’s a fetishizing of perseverance… And yet, if you look at a lot of the largest public successes, many of them had some type of pivot or shutting down of something that wasn’t working.”
He asks Kevin—who famously pivoted a failed check-in app into Instagram—how do you know when it’s the right time to stop?
Kevin posits that most successful companies are pivots. He points out that YouTube started out as a dating site.
And there are plenty of other examples. Slack started out as a gaming company called Tiny Speck. Twitter started out as a podcasting app called Odeo. Twitch started out as JustinTV, oblivious to gaming streamers. The Discord founding team's first product was Fates Forever, a MOBA game on mobile platforms that failed.
Kevin suggests that most first products fail because it's really hard to tell what's going to work before you put it in people's hands. He argues:
"The key to entrepreneurship is failing really quickly: putting it out there, seeing if it works. If it doesn't, diagnosing why. And then focusing on how to improve it from there... Most of the time you get it wrong. So the question is: knowing you're going to get it wrong, how equipped are you to deal with that failure really quickly before you run out of money?"
He continues:
"The entrepreneurs that I've seen do really well are the ones that are equipped and engaged on the change from something that's not working to something that is. Far too many people--because of ego or whatever--stick with ideas for far too long, and it ends up going really poorly."
Video source: @tferriss (2019)
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Offshore
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Stock Analysis Compilation
Mairs and Power on Kraft-Heinz $KHC US
Thesis: Kraft Heinz is driving sustainable growth through operational efficiencies, innovation, and investments in its iconic brand portfolio
(Extract from their Q3 letter) https://t.co/eoQlqROsc3
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Mairs and Power on Kraft-Heinz $KHC US
Thesis: Kraft Heinz is driving sustainable growth through operational efficiencies, innovation, and investments in its iconic brand portfolio
(Extract from their Q3 letter) https://t.co/eoQlqROsc3
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Offshore
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Stock Analysis Compilation
Artisan Partners on Onto Innovation $ONTO US
Thesis: Onto Innovation is leveraging advanced metrology solutions to lead in semiconductor and AI-related technology growth
(Extract from their Q3 letter) https://t.co/hBtWpu2o97
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Artisan Partners on Onto Innovation $ONTO US
Thesis: Onto Innovation is leveraging advanced metrology solutions to lead in semiconductor and AI-related technology growth
(Extract from their Q3 letter) https://t.co/hBtWpu2o97
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Quiver Quantitative
BREAKING: Jimmy Carter has died.
Carter put his peanut farm into a blind trust, when elected President. https://t.co/ZZpYROFIRg
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BREAKING: Jimmy Carter has died.
Carter put his peanut farm into a blind trust, when elected President. https://t.co/ZZpYROFIRg
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Hidden Value Gems
Another reminder to stay a little more cautious in the upcoming year 👇
h/t @CharlesSchwab https://t.co/nCmk24FzvH
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Another reminder to stay a little more cautious in the upcoming year 👇
h/t @CharlesSchwab https://t.co/nCmk24FzvH
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Offshore
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Stock Analysis Compilation
Third Avenue on Subaru $7270 JP
Thesis: Subaru’s strong balance sheet and focus on profitability position it well for sustained growth and market stability
(Extract from their Q3 letter) https://t.co/1ppbd4qe9k
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Third Avenue on Subaru $7270 JP
Thesis: Subaru’s strong balance sheet and focus on profitability position it well for sustained growth and market stability
(Extract from their Q3 letter) https://t.co/1ppbd4qe9k
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InsideArbitrage
The Competition and Markets Authority @CMAgovUK announced that they have initiated the Phase 1 of its investigation of the anticipated acquisition of HashiCorp $HCP by IBM $IBM. https://t.co/HwC72O7h35
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The Competition and Markets Authority @CMAgovUK announced that they have initiated the Phase 1 of its investigation of the anticipated acquisition of HashiCorp $HCP by IBM $IBM. https://t.co/HwC72O7h35
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Offshore
Video
Startup Archive
David Sacks on what made the PayPal Mafia so successful
The employees of PayPal went on to build many of the companies that defined Silicon Valley in the 2000s, such as Tesla, SpaceX, LinkedIn, YouTube, Palantir, Yelp, Yammer, and more.
David Sacks—founding COO and product leader at PayPal—reflects on some of the factors that he believed contributed to their success:
“I think one of the key things was that PayPal innovated not just on product, but on distribution as well.”
He gives three examples of distribution strategies the PayPal Mafia brought with them to their next companies:
1. Virality. PayPal paid users $20 to refer their friends, which led to explosive growth. Virality was a huge factor in LinkedIn’s success.
2. Building on an existing network/platform. PayPal leveraged eBay’s power seller network, while LinkedIn leveraged their users’ network of email contacts. You want to “go where the users already are,” Sacks argues.
3. Embeds. PayPal let customers embed the logo on their websites and eBay auctions. YouTube employed this same strategy by making their videos easy to embed on Myspace and other websites.
Sacks continues:
“All of these techniques today are commonplace, but in the early 2000s, we were one of the first companies to do them… We were innovating not just on product but on distribution as well, and that is something that all of the PayPal Mafia companies have done.”
He contrasts the ~220 employees pre-IPO PayPal employees producing 7+ unicorns versus only a handful from Google even though Google had 100x the number of employees.
“It’s a really interesting question: Why?… I think this sort of scrappiness around distribution is a big part of the explanation… If you’re an entrepreneur working in a small team, you’ve got to figure out from zero: How do I get my first user? How do I get the second user? How does that go to one hundred, one thousand, one million?… [Google] never has to think about that. They’ve got guaranteed distribution of half a billion users. And so, I think that scrappiness around distribution is one of the key reasons that there’s been so many PayPal mafia companies. I think it’s an interesting thing to think about as you create your own startups.”
Video source: @draper_u (2014)
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David Sacks on what made the PayPal Mafia so successful
The employees of PayPal went on to build many of the companies that defined Silicon Valley in the 2000s, such as Tesla, SpaceX, LinkedIn, YouTube, Palantir, Yelp, Yammer, and more.
David Sacks—founding COO and product leader at PayPal—reflects on some of the factors that he believed contributed to their success:
“I think one of the key things was that PayPal innovated not just on product, but on distribution as well.”
He gives three examples of distribution strategies the PayPal Mafia brought with them to their next companies:
1. Virality. PayPal paid users $20 to refer their friends, which led to explosive growth. Virality was a huge factor in LinkedIn’s success.
2. Building on an existing network/platform. PayPal leveraged eBay’s power seller network, while LinkedIn leveraged their users’ network of email contacts. You want to “go where the users already are,” Sacks argues.
3. Embeds. PayPal let customers embed the logo on their websites and eBay auctions. YouTube employed this same strategy by making their videos easy to embed on Myspace and other websites.
Sacks continues:
“All of these techniques today are commonplace, but in the early 2000s, we were one of the first companies to do them… We were innovating not just on product but on distribution as well, and that is something that all of the PayPal Mafia companies have done.”
He contrasts the ~220 employees pre-IPO PayPal employees producing 7+ unicorns versus only a handful from Google even though Google had 100x the number of employees.
“It’s a really interesting question: Why?… I think this sort of scrappiness around distribution is a big part of the explanation… If you’re an entrepreneur working in a small team, you’ve got to figure out from zero: How do I get my first user? How do I get the second user? How does that go to one hundred, one thousand, one million?… [Google] never has to think about that. They’ve got guaranteed distribution of half a billion users. And so, I think that scrappiness around distribution is one of the key reasons that there’s been so many PayPal mafia companies. I think it’s an interesting thing to think about as you create your own startups.”
Video source: @draper_u (2014)
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Offshore
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InsideArbitrage
Immedica Pharma to Acquire Marinus Pharmaceuticals $MRNS in Cash Deal Worth $151 Million -
🧬Immedica, through a subsidiary, will initiate a tender offer to acquire all the outstanding shares of Marinus common stock for a cash purchase price of $0.55 per share.
🧬The offer represents a premium of 48.65% from the stock’s last close.
🧬The deal is expected to close in Q1 2025.
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Immedica Pharma to Acquire Marinus Pharmaceuticals $MRNS in Cash Deal Worth $151 Million -
🧬Immedica, through a subsidiary, will initiate a tender offer to acquire all the outstanding shares of Marinus common stock for a cash purchase price of $0.55 per share.
🧬The offer represents a premium of 48.65% from the stock’s last close.
🧬The deal is expected to close in Q1 2025.
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