Archive: Articles

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Robo Advisory Startups Are Coming for Crowdfunders

By Andy Gordon on February 3, 2022

The buyout that caught my attention this week involved fintech wealth management firm Wealthfront. UBS — the largest private bank globally — bought it for $1.4 billion.  The acquisition got plenty of press. Several articles focused on the low buyout price. For venture capital (VC) firms in particular, $1 billion just doesn’t do it anymore. VC funds have grown very large and expensive. These days, they need multibillion-dollar liquidity events to make…

News Fix: Global Crypto Edition

By Allison Brickell on February 2, 2022

It’s been a hectic start of the year for crypto. Now that we’ve made it to the second month of 2022, let’s dive into crypto news updates.  Market Update First, a market update. Bitcoin has been on a downward trend…
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Lower Startup Valuations Are on the Horizon

By Vin Narayanan on February 1, 2022

Last week I wrote about how some of the country’s biggest asset managers are investing in startups because they simply can’t find a better alternative (and they really want one!). As a result, they’re all trying to identify and invest in the best…
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Marketing is both an art and a science. Companies are constantly trying to better understand their customers’ innermost desires. And it’s up to marketers to come up with creative ways to tap into those desires.  But marketers are working with very limited information. They don’t…
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The Crypto Market Seems to Have Hit Bottom… for Now

By Vin Narayanan on January 28, 2022

2022 has already been an interesting year for crypto. How interesting depends on your perspective. Let’s take bitcoin, for example. Here what bitcoin’s chart looks like: 1 Day: +0.33% 5 Day: +5.4%…

The Investor’s Guide to Making Money in Crypto

By Adam Sharp on January 28, 2022

I talked with an old friend this week. After we caught up, he asked, “You still doing that crypto stuff?” He wanted advice on various coins, trading and people to follow. So I told him what I know. Here are the key points. Don’t Trade…
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Lots of sectors are broken: banking, housing, education, day care and infrastructure. But none of these are as broken as the physical disability space. Fewer than one out of five arm amputees who need prosthetics actually use them. Available prosthetics are too heavy, clumsy and uncomfortable. They’re super…

Two Ways Startups Are Benefiting From the Great Resignation

By Allison Brickell on January 26, 2022

Headlines about the “labor shortage” have become a near daily occurrence. Millions of Americans are quitting their jobs and looking for better offers.  But in reality, there isn’t a shortage of people who want to work. It’s just that more people are rejecting the low pay…
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The Real Reason VCs Are Investing So Much In Startups

By Vin Narayanan on January 25, 2022

Last month, I flew out to Seattle for an event to meet up with angel investors, venture capitalists and some of the largest players in wealth management and private equity. The people in the room represented firms that had more than $10 trillion in assets under management combined.
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Crypto Insider: Six Major Crypto News Stories Explained

By Early Investing on January 24, 2022

The crypto markets have been in a downward trend lately. But long-term crypto investors have nothing to worry about.  That’s because there are big things happening in the crypto world. In fact, six major crypto news stories broke on the same day in the last week…

The Fed’s Policy Tightening Mirage

By Adam Sharp on January 21, 2022

Bitcoin is “crashing” once again. As I write this, it’s trading around $39,000. It’s down from around $43,000 a week ago. Altcoins are correcting much more severely, with many down 15% over the last 24 hours.  As usual, all the crypto traders on Twitter are freaking…
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Startup Insider: ESG Investing Makes an Impact

By Early Investing on January 20, 2022

A growing number of investors are focusing on companies with ESG initiatives — environmental, social and corporate governance. These non-financial factors are standards that measure the ethical impact and sustainability of an investment in a company. This is also known as impact investing or sustainable investing. …

Bitcoin Enters the Jack Dorsey Era

By Vin Narayanan on January 19, 2022

Bitcoin is now in the Jack Dorsey era. The former Twitter CEO (and co-founder) is betting big on bitcoin. Dorsey renamed his payment company — formerly Square — “Block” to signal its new focus on crypto and blockchain technology. And his outsized presence looks like it may dominate…
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I had hoped that the dramatic startup valuation increases in seed and Series A rounds would start slowing late last year. Unfortunately I haven’t seen much evidence of that so far. I’d guess that seed stage startup valuations are still up around 2.5x since I started…
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Wholesale Inflation Rose 9.7% in 2021

By Adam Sharp on January 14, 2022

This week, news broke that the Producer Price Index – which measures the average change over time in the selling prices received by domestic producers for their output – rose 9.7% in 2021. This was a shocking realization for many. We’re near 10% wholesale inflation!…

Chronic Fear Is Bad for Our Health

By Adam Sharp on January 14, 2022

Nothing is more relevant to our current situation than fear.  The first thing to realize about fear is that it’s not very helpful in modern society. In some ways, it’s an artifact of evolution. I found a very interesting description of what fear does…