Happy Friday.
(And hello from Greenville, SC today.)
I read (and tweet) a lot. This week, 125,000+ of you told me which of the reads were the most interesting (and reminded me that most of my tweets are terrible) — here are the top ten:
1. Two developers made 14% of mobile app revenues in 2014 [Link] [Tweet]
As a consumer, apps — Uber, Weather, Twitter, Spotify and more — have made my life easier and more effective. As a developer, this data is a stark reminder that (1) most markets are winner take most and (2) it’s incredibly hard to cut through the noise.
2. “Ownership, it turns out, can be a one-way street when you’ve only got 0.001% of a startup’s shares.” [Link] [Tweet]
This particular topic — the rise of the party round — seems to be top of mind for everyone this week and it’s about time. In general, it’s probably a good thing that early stage capital has become easier to raise. However, I suspect we’ll start to see a number of new “angel investor training” courses and events popping up over the coming year. Something about selling shovels and jeans during the gold rush, you know.
3. Putting Floyd Mayweather’s $220 million payday into perspective [Link] [Tweet]
Frankly, I still don’t get the economics of boxing but, given the amount of money involved, maybe I’m the idiot here.
4. “high-reputation VCs acquire startup equity at a 10 to 14 percent discount.” [Link] [Tweet]
Although it’s interesting to see research around this topic, I’m not quite sure that I ever got a discount on an investment opportunity because of my/our brand. Rather, I got access to the investment opportunity in the first place. Regardless, consider this yet-another-reminder that brand matters in a business driven by the Power Law.
5. “Traction is everything — in a great market.” [Link] [Tweet]
I’ve invested in Matt’s company multiple times over the past few years and it’s been interesting to watch him mature from a founder to a CEO. One of my other favorite quotes from this article: “To put it bluntly, product traction can be engineered for a price, but treasure maps get term sheets.”
6. “No one wants to buy from a person who is frowning.” [Link] [Tweet]
You guys, this 13 year old can sell — someone ought to hire her for their startup soon.
7. Success is a Question of When, Not If [Link] [Tweet]
Another (great) @pmarca tweet storm. I can only hope that, one day, I’ll be able to condense my thoughts into coherent tweets and then repurpose them directly into a blog post.
8. The most important piece of advice for folks starting their careers [Link] [Tweet]
If your career is just getting started (or you’re trying to break into the Valley), this is worth a read. Key takeaway: hustle hard and learn faster than your peers.
9. “The danger is that we’re in an Everything Bubble — that valuations across the board are simply too high.” [Link] [Tweet]
In a nutshell: “The Shiller CAPE ratio, generally regarded as a good measure of the market’s over- or undervaluation, is indeed unusually high — though not nearly as high as in January 2000.” Everything might be overvalued. Or it might be. Economic forecasting, as usual.
10. “Unfortunately we have noted recently that the number of accidents caused by lovers of self-photography.” [Link] [Tweet]
OK, the illustrations alone are worth browsing. You’re welcome.
How can I make this newsletter better?
To those of you that responded last week — THANKS. I’ve updated the format of this week’s newsletter with a bunch of your feedback. What do you think?
Have a great weekend!
-P