👉 What Happened on Tech Twitter Last Week - Sep 22
Yo! Here’s what happened on Tech Twitter the week of September 16th - 23rd.
As always, reply with feedback and forward to friends!
The WeWork Shitstorm
WeWork’s valuation crashed to 1/3 of the original $47B after investors questioned the company’s leadership structure and business model, and that’s not even half of the madness.
The lesson from WeWork: The supposed brilliance of the private market may have been overstated. on.wsj.com/2me8KqV
After firing hundreds of staff, the WeWork CEO held a somber all-hands meeting explaining why it was a necessary move, but then trays of tequila were handed out and DMC from Run-DMC burst into the room and performed "It's Tricky" wsj.com/articles/this-…
Things WeWork's Adam Neumann has said to others
-he was interested in becoming Israel's PM
-he was interested in becoming president of the world
-he wants to be world's first trillionaire
-he hopes to live forever
WeWork vs IWG
We: loss $1.9BN
IWG: profit $0.5BN
We: 29 countries; 528 locations
IWG: 120 countries; 3000 locations
We: valuation $10BN - $47BN
IWG: $3.7BN valuation
There is no reporting that the WeWork board has learned anything about Adam Neumann recently that it didn't previously know.
The only thing they've learned is that public market investors feel board members failed in oversight, and overvalued the company.
We Deflect.
Amazon is coming for your DTC startup
Amazon is getting more aggressive with their private label products and several DTC darlings are in the crosshairs. Check out these takes on the topic last week.
Amazon is adjusting the search algorithm to better feature their private-label products.
For many marketplace sellers, the change will alter the course of their business forever.
You must diversify your distribution channels.
Do not become overly reliant on Google/Amazon SEO.
Defensibility is up to you. Build your community and they’ll fight w/ you when Amazon comes for your product.
The tech world is JUST NOW learning what LVMH & Gucci did to @DapperDanHarlem (for 30+ yrs!) Monopoly. Legos. Post-It’s. Pong. All stolen.
@jmj can’t defend everyone🤷🏻♂I8
Useful Tweets
Expanding on my advice for intros, but abt DMs; I get about 40/day and can't respond to all, but I do when:
1 Dont ask to pick my brain or ask if you can ask a q, just ask it
2 Ask for something specific, ie I found a role at a port co can you intro me
3 Show how you can help me
Amazon’s tips for meetings and writing:
1. Know your objective
2. Good grammar
3. Be concise
4. Include experts
5. Debate & change
6. Show decision-prep work
7. Advocate for customer
8. Don’t go rogue
9. Reschedule if unprepared
10. Think big
11. Regather if stuck
12. Be specific
Anand C @anandc
The first sentences of two stories that end badly:
You've invented valuable technology, and you just need to find someone to "commercialize" it for you.
You have a great idea for a startup, and you just need to find a technical cofounder to implement it for you.
Ever since the term "Minimum Viable Product" became popular, people have been discussing what it means and how to apply it. Here's what I'm teaching with @nocodemvp 👇b
Interesting Tweets
So impressed by everything the @datadoghq team has accomplished leading up their recent IPO. Here is a bit of Datadog history that most people don't know... (1/7)
The ultimate startup chronicle book I’d love to read is one filled with honest, raw interviews of 50+ founders of _failed_ startups, truthfully describing what lead to their company’s failure. It would likely be painful to read, but you’d learn an insane amount.
when building creative tools, every new feature affects the total number of creative possibilities in some way. but adding new features doesn't always mean more creative possibilities: sometimes it means less
Mainframes handle 87% of all credit card transactions. Specifically, WorldPay, MasterCard, Visa, and others run their core transaction systems on IBM zSeries mainframes.
blog.syncsort.com/2018/06/mainfr…
While the lack of diversity in VC is known, it's still shocking to me that only 1% of VCs are LatinX (despite being ~18% of the US pop)
We've decided that it's time to do something about this.
1/
Funny Tweets
Did you know if you put “building something new” in your twitter bio
It adds about 1.5m to your pre-money cap on average
Everyone talks about automation taking people’s jobs but nobody talks about how David Attenborough has taken nearly 100% of the wildlife narration jobs for over 40 years.
Cool Tweets
I am nostalgic for the Internet & games of my childhood. We took ourselves less seriously.
As our industry evolved, we lost so many treasures:
1. AOL Chat Rooms
2. Oregon Trail
3. Sim City
4. Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?
5. The Incredible Machine
What do you miss?
Here's a #NoCode app I made with @GlideApp for y'all: Pocket SaaS. Quarterly earnings+SaaS metrics of all 50 public cloud companies. All in your pocket 🌥️💰📱. Will be updating it each quarter.[open in Safari >"Add to Home Screen" > treat it like an app] https://t.co/VFv9QHqPLFX
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