I searched for a thread on tech startup news and analysis, and came up empty, so here goes.
Analyzing startups are important from a sociological perspective because they account for much of the social disruption the manosphere has been discussing for the last decade (facebook, snapchat, tinder, instagram and their downstream effects on social relations). From an economic view, startups are a minuscule part of the economy numbers-wise (VC is a small percentage of total PE deal activity, and PE itself is a small percentage of the economy as a whole). However, they occupy a crucial part of the American Dream- pushing along the (sometimes) myth that anyone can be successful if only they work hard enough. I'm also going to post stuff about valley powerhouses like FB and TWTR, even though they aren't technically startups anymore, because they are important to the business culture of SV.
In this week's news so far is the acquisition of Jet.com by Walmart. Some quick takeaways for how this may affect you if you're an entrepreneur- it may provide a minor boost to the private markets in terms of liquidity events. Word around the valley is that Corporate M&A teams are getting hungry, chatter is increasing the past few weeks compared to the lull in the market since Q3 '15.
What's more important in my mind about the Jet.com deal is the long term ramifications for traditional retail (in person stores). I think there is always going to be a place for in person stores at the high end (the ultra rich prize inefficiency, whether it be in hand built engines for their Aston or a lush in person shopping experience), but it remains to be seen whether mainstream retail stores will exist in the future. Loss of mainstream retail = huge reduction in jobs for all the folks working at walmart, target, etc, across the country. The story of tech disruption eating jobs continues.
Analyzing startups are important from a sociological perspective because they account for much of the social disruption the manosphere has been discussing for the last decade (facebook, snapchat, tinder, instagram and their downstream effects on social relations). From an economic view, startups are a minuscule part of the economy numbers-wise (VC is a small percentage of total PE deal activity, and PE itself is a small percentage of the economy as a whole). However, they occupy a crucial part of the American Dream- pushing along the (sometimes) myth that anyone can be successful if only they work hard enough. I'm also going to post stuff about valley powerhouses like FB and TWTR, even though they aren't technically startups anymore, because they are important to the business culture of SV.
In this week's news so far is the acquisition of Jet.com by Walmart. Some quick takeaways for how this may affect you if you're an entrepreneur- it may provide a minor boost to the private markets in terms of liquidity events. Word around the valley is that Corporate M&A teams are getting hungry, chatter is increasing the past few weeks compared to the lull in the market since Q3 '15.
What's more important in my mind about the Jet.com deal is the long term ramifications for traditional retail (in person stores). I think there is always going to be a place for in person stores at the high end (the ultra rich prize inefficiency, whether it be in hand built engines for their Aston or a lush in person shopping experience), but it remains to be seen whether mainstream retail stores will exist in the future. Loss of mainstream retail = huge reduction in jobs for all the folks working at walmart, target, etc, across the country. The story of tech disruption eating jobs continues.