Pinboard (jerryking)
https://pinboard.in/u:jerryking/public/
recent bookmarks from jerrykingMore Startups Throw in the Towel, Unable to Raise Money for Their Ideas2023-06-10T19:18:27+00:00
https://www.wsj.com/articles/more-startups-throw-in-the-towel-unable-to-raise-money-for-their-ideas-eff8305b?mod=hp_trending_now_article_pos2
jerryking> Startup shutdowns, fire sales and hard pivots are under way in the face of a downturn in the venture market <<
The pace of startup >>shutdowns<<, >>fire sales<< and sharp business-strategy changes is picking up.........Fresh capital from venture investors and bank loans is scarce and expensive. Going public is nearly impossible. Some business models that worked when cash was cheap are unsustainable now. That means venture-backed startups are running out of money [i.e. = cash-strapped"] and facing >>hard choices<<.....“The >>Mass Extinction Event<< for startups is under way,”...............Some venture investors see the impact already......“It is hitting now,” said Elizabeth Yin, co-founder of pre-seed investment firm Hustle Fund. Of her firm’s first fund, only about 60 of the original 101 portfolio companies are around. There were roughly 90 active startups a year ago. “I had modelled out before that at least half of them would die in the first three years and that didn’t happen,” she said, adding she believes the frothy market boosted >>survival rates<< before the current downturn........Larger shutdowns could put further pressure on venture returns that have been falling overall. The yearly internal rate of return for venture firms was negative 7% in the third quarter of 2022, the lowest value since 2009.........The venture-capital boom in 2021, as well as pandemic-era government funding to small businesses, likely kept businesses alive for longer than they would have otherwise [i.e. = "zombies"]......Now that those funding sources have dried up, the failures are coming in...........Venture-backed businesses in the U.S. raised $346 billion in venture capital in 2021.....Many are still surviving on that for now, investors and founders say. Some hope that they will be able to get through to a time when the market rebounds and they can consider tapping public markets........The venture market, meanwhile, has been declining. Startups in the U.S. raised $37 billion in the first quarter of this year, down 55% from the first three months of last year. The longer the venture market stays depressed, the closer many startups get to the moment of truth...........Historically, data on the number of startups that ceased operations is hard to track, researchers say. Successes, though, are rare. About 45% of some 1,100 companies that raised a seed financing round in 2017 never raised follow-on funding, according to Carta.......Getting to a successful outcome is even more rare. Roughly 16% of companies have had a successful acquisition or went public within seven years of raising their first venture capital funding, according to data on close to five thousand U.S. companies that raised first funding between 1995 and 2013. That research was conducted by Honggi Lee, of the University of New Hampshire, Tel Aviv University’s Lia Sheer and Matt Marx of Cornell University.
Failure rates may increase during downturns, Lee said. “If startups don’t have money then they cannot operate,”..........**Selling Out**......Samantha Ettus, founder and chief executive at fintech Park Place Payments, which had raised $4 million in venture funding, had to act fast when the largest investor of a planned financing failed to send the check last September. Ettus cut expenses, raised $440,000 in bridge funding from existing investors, and hired an investment bank to sell Park Place...“When I first started the company, we said we will build this [into a] billion-dollar company. I had never intended to sell so early,” Ettus said. Publicly traded Logiq acquired Park Place in April in an all-stock deal valued at more than $6 million, allowing Ettus to continue building her business with the resources of a larger company. .............**Pivots** Last year, a debt provider for fintech startup Upfront toughened the terms on a pending loan. “The covenants made the business plan not viable,” said Marc Escapa, the company’s co-founder. The company had just raised a $6 million equity round but could no longer pursue offering auto loans as it planned,.....so it >>pivoted<< and is now selling loan-origination software under the name Fuse Finance......Escapa said he’s glad that his startup hit on a new business direction that is working well. Yet the experience also showed him how macro trends **out of control of the startup** can make an idea unfeasible.
]]>bankruptcies beyond_one's_control cash-strapped cash_preservation economic_downturn failure failure_rates financial_distress fire_sales hard_choices hard_to_find mass_extinction_events pivots pullbacks restructurings selling_out shutting_down start_ups survival_rates vc venture_capital zombies cut_losseshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jerryking/b:45003f7b0a3d/Opinion | What if You Could Give Start-Up Money to People, Not Companies?2022-09-22T23:36:29+00:00
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/02/opinion/libermans-humanism.html
jerrykingcapitalization cash-strapped Colleges_&_Universities entrepreneur family family_business hedging human_capital income-sharing inventors investors invest_in_the_young personal_beta personal_finance Peter_Coy quantified_self Sam_Altman securitization siblings Snap Snapchat start_ups students test_marketing track_records Y_Combinator young_people Russian-Americanshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jerryking/b:202ffa47b1a4/The fight for the future of America’s local newspapers2021-01-22T03:37:26+00:00
https://www.ft.com/content/5c22075c-f1af-431d-bf39-becf9c54758b
jerrykingabandoned_fields advertising bankruptcies business_models cash-strapped civics community cost-cutting Covid-19 Craigslist digital_media economic_downturn Facebook Google hedge_funds high_net_worth investors journalism layoffs local_journalism newspapers newsstand_circulation playbooks print_journalism private_equity social_cohesion turnarounds vulture_investing zero-based_budgeting consolidation engaged_citizenry structural_declinehttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jerryking/b:27ffa9313c4b/Brookfield to provide $5-billion to cash-strapped retailers for stake in business -2020-05-08T02:06:30+00:00
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-brookfield-to-provide-5-billion-to-cash-strapped-retailers-for-stake/
jerrykingBrookfield economic_downturn e-commerce investors lockdown opportunistic pandemics private_equity recessions retailers shopping_malls anchor_tenants bankruptcies cash-strapped commercial_real_estate COVID-19 funding landlords physical_retail store_closingshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jerryking/b:b921318416d1/Those who focus on police reform are asking the wrong questions - The Globe and Mail2016-07-29T14:57:16+00:00
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/police-reform-isnt-enough-for-black-america/article31166356/
jerryking>asking the wrong questions<<. They have turned to increased police training and altered use-of-force protocols to end this nightmare. Fortunately, some among us demand another way. Young black activists are not just asking, “How do we make cops stop shooting us?” but instead, “What do our communities need to thrive? How do we get free?” [i.e. = "illuminating questions"/"what are you solving for?"] They’re not begging for scraps; they’re demanding the world they deserve. If there’s a future for any of us, it’s in asking these questions, demanding fundamental shifts in resources and organizing like hell.....Meanwhile, cash-strapped cities continue to raise revenue from policing and fining the poor. And because of insufficient social service investment, Americans rely on police to be first responders to crises of mental health, addiction and homelessness. ]]>policing African-Americans reform mental_health addictions community_organizing institutional_path_dependency structural_change questions Black_Lives_Matter cash-strapped cities reframing political_organizing existential foundational police_reform activism millennials young_people community_activism homelessness informal_economy mass_incarceration social_services black_interests policy_positions mean-spirited criminalizing_poverty Philando_Castile police_shootings what_are_you_solving_for? illuminating_questions asking_the_wrong_questionshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jerryking/b:9e025fb4942b/What I learned in Ferguson - The Globe and Mail2014-12-08T20:09:17+00:00
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/world-insider/what-i-learned-in-ferguson/article21982566/
jerrykingOmar_el_Akkad Ferguson structural_change segregation disenfranchisement fault_lines municipalities resentments institutional_path_dependency life-changing economic_inequity police_abuse police_misconduct political_power power_structures race self-perpetuation structural_barriers systemic_discrimination household_incomes imbalances inequality police_brutality public_safety cash-strapped mean-spirited criminalizing_povertyhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jerryking/b:ac971c380fa0/Why I Do All My Recruiting Through LinkedIn - NYTimes.com2014-08-21T09:25:14+00:00
http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/19/why-i-do-all-of-my-recruiting-through-linkedin/?_php=true&_type=blogs&partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0
jerrykingLinkedIn recruiting talent_management talent howto small_business running_a_business cash-strappedhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jerryking/b:9dde01c13a72/Montreal and Toronto need a new breed of mayor2013-06-21T10:52:19+00:00
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/montreal-and-toronto-need-a-new-breed-of-mayor/article12690446/
jerrykingKonrad_Yakabuski Toronto Montreal leadership mayoral networks crowdsourcing books John_Tory Brookings voids governance cities city-states cash-strapped vision anti-development inversions power_structureshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jerryking/b:fa716801bd80/True innovation doesn’t flow from a pipeline2013-03-03T15:57:16+00:00
http://m.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/true-innovation-doesnt-flow-from-a-pipeline/article8968473/?service=mobile
jerrykingKeystone_XL pipelines oil_industry Ontario innovation oil_patch wealth_creation books natural_gas natural_resources shale_oil hydraulic_fracturing Konrad_Yakabuski oil_sands complacency mediocrity commodities volatility cash-strapped Mark_Carney national_strategies environmental_footprint science-based low-tech talent_gapshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jerryking/b:03d2e6c4deeb/Drummond report offers a world of possibilities to Ontario’s cash-strapped government - The Globe and Mail2012-03-19T20:40:31+00:00
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/adam-radwanski/drummond-report-offers-a-world-of-possibilities-to-ontarios-cash-strapped-government/article2340125/
jerrykingOntario debt Don_Drummond cash-strappedhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jerryking/b:eda89af2b89f/Build a park, save a community - The Globe and Mail2012-01-24T14:26:49+00:00
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-to-lead/build-a-park-save-a-community/article580205/
jerryking>regeneration<<. Once a derelict elevated freight railway slated for demolition, it is now an oasis amid red-brick warehouses and grey concrete towers. As the city's mayor has observed, the park has helped spark a neighbourhood renaissance.[i.e. = "gentrification"??]
High Line is urban park-building writ large. It exemplifies how our image of parks is changing. With cities becoming more dense, innovative green spaces are increasingly vital to the well-being of residents. From fitness classes to art workshops and telescopes for stargazing, people expect more from their public parks. Cookie-cutter playgrounds, bare fields and benches are no longer enough.......Many cash-strapped municipalities, however, are struggling to meet higher expectations [i.e.= of what a modern day park can be in terms of amenities], prompting citizens to step up. Countless volunteer hours are being poured into urban parks. And community pride and interaction among residents are blossoming in many park-centred neighbourhoods.......As residents **reclaim** downtowns in cities across the country, green space becomes a crucial part of the planning formula. Community gardens are springing up on rooftops and at old industrial sites.[i.e. = "post-industrial"] And existing parks can't afford to languish......Vancouver...is the only city in Canada with an elected park board, with seven commissioners responsible for policy direction. In other cities, parks are the domain of a department run by municipal staff.]]>parks High_Line cities cash-strapped civics community_pride engaged_citizenry green_spaces jump-start Manhattan municipalities neighbourhoods New_York_City public_spaces urban Vancouver community_activism green_roofs public-spiritedness post-industrial reclamation community_spaces regeneration gentrificationhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jerryking/b:b5a8b0c1db81/Op-Ed Columnist - Superbroke, Superfrugal, Superpower? - NYTimes.com2010-09-05T17:20:46+00:00
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/opinion/05friedman.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=homepage
jerrykingTom_Friedman U.S.foreign_policy imperial_overstretch geopolitics austerity economic_policy priorities sacrifice reindustrialization frugality superpowers hard_work cash-strappedhttps://pinboard.in/u:jerryking/b:10fd02abe93a/Air force takes cue from sci-fi - The Globe and Mail2009-07-16T05:45:29+00:00
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/air-force-takes-cue-from-sci-fi/article1218394/
jerryking>"Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card<<
The possibility of a **flu pandemic** has the Canadian air force's >>think tank<< thumbing through science fiction novels in search of alternate ways of keeping their planes flying.
The Canadian Forces Aerospace Warfare Centre, in an April, 2009, paper, raises the seemingly improbable scenario of a devastating pandemic that wallops the population and economy so significantly that it leaves Ottawa >>cash-strapped<< and hard pressed to keep its air force operating.
The paper, Projecting Power Trends Shaping Canada's Air Force in the Year 2019 , proposes that such a >>shock<< could force the air force to radically rethink the way it operates. Continuing with this dystopian scenario, it suggests an "alternative outcome" for the air force after such a serious pandemic: one that would see Canada switch its flying military to remote-control aircraft [i.e. = "drones"] operated by recruits.
It's just one of a series of "Alternative Outcome[s]"; that the Air Force paper considers, including terrorist attacks on Montreal, to illustrate how **unexpected shocks** could affect Canada and the military.
"In the year 2014, a large-scale viral pandemic ravaged the adult population of Canada and seriously upset the nation's demographic balance. Costs associated with stopping the disaster and mitigating further effects were enormous, forcing the Government of Canada (GoC) to make >>hard choices<< between national security and national welfare.[i.e. = "guns and butter"] This 'perfect storm' of dwindling adult population and lack of funding limited the Air Force's ability to force generate and project power. The only solution available was to convert to an Air Force consisting largely of unmanned aerial vehicles controlled by younger recruits."
The think tank says the idea comes from the famous science fiction novel Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, in which future air forces are flown by children "tricked into believing they are only flying simulations whereas they are actually flying real missions."
The point of this mental exercise [i.e. = "thought experiments"/thought provoking"] is that disruptions such as a pandemic could dramatically shift the game plan for staffing the air force, which like other organizations will already face a major challenge in the next decade: the **slowing growth of Canada's labour force**.[i.e. = "labour shortages"]]]>RCAF scenario-planning flu_outbreaks contingency_planning pandemics science_fiction drones GoC hard_choices imagination labour_shortages vulnerabilities cash-strapped dystopian exogenous_shocks force_projection guns_and_butter think_tanks thought_experiments thought_provokinghttps://pinboard.in/u:jerryking/b:25f48f7582ed/No time like bankruptcy for squeezing competitors2009-07-15T15:01:12+00:00
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/managing/no-time-like-bankruptcy-for-squeezing-competitors/article1215959/
jerryking>Consignment pricing<<, where the customer pays only after the product is sold, is the ultimate extended term and will be difficult for a competitor in bankruptcy to match.
Boost marketing expenditures. Raising your advertising and point-of-sale spending will have a similar effect: Either your competitor will also have to spend more, or risk losing customers that you attract.
Lengthen the "tail" of the revenue stream. Add more after-sale services and spiffs - if your competitor has to do the same, it will raise the cash costs of getting and keeping customers.
Launch more products. New product development and introduction eats up a lot of cash - and a **cash-short** competitor is unlikely to be able to do the same. If you go all out, introducing many more new products than a bankrupt competitor possibly can, you could make your rival's offering obsolete in the minds of customers, forcing it into >>fire sales<< in a panic to raise cash.[JCK: panicked selling off of assets]
Pursue your competitor's most profitable customers (perhaps identified via geofencing). Good management teams know where their company makes and doesn't make money. Great management teams know this about their competitors.
This insight can be used to target customers, geography, products and services of the bankrupt competitor to gain market share.
The competitor will be hesitant to counter your move against its most profitable customers because it needs the cash these customers generate. It will be more likely to maintain the status quo with these customers in the hopes the cash will keep coming.
Lawsuits. Now is the time to file the lawsuit you've always wanted to. Your bankrupt competitor will not have the discretionary resources to fight and will likely come to terms quickly.
There are also broader strategies to consider. Among them:
Sell against the competitor. When companies are in trouble, customers may worry that they won't be around to service products or provide future upgrades.
This fear can be a powerful weapon: These customers may be persuaded to take their business to companies on a sounder footing.
Go after the best talent (poaching). Anxiety about the plight of the competitor will be just as rampant among your rival's employees and suppliers as it is among customers. You can leverage that angst by going after top talent and strong suppliers - and offer terms and conditions that your competitor will have a tough time matching.
Force the sale of attractive assets held by your bankrupt competitor. A competitor in protection is not its own boss. The creditor committee is likely to care more for the cash it can get from an asset sale than who buys the assets.
]]>George_Stalk_Jr. competitive_advantage competition bankruptcies hardball offensive_tactics supply_chain_squeeze BCG consignment_pricing geofencing lawsuits marketing new_products poaching product_development tough-mindedness selling_off fight-or-flight ruthlessness cash-strapped fire_sales financial_distresshttps://pinboard.in/u:jerryking/b:bada1c94ae96/