š Google Pops The Balloon
Whatās happened this week in the Tech & Startup world? š Itās a bumper edition this week as President Biden begins his tech agenda, Bumble files for IPO, Jack Ma reappears & Google shuts down their ambitious balloon project.
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The Grapevine Newsflash š„
15Ā tech & startup stories inĀ 186Ā super short seconds.
š Joe Biden is Now President! What impact will this have on the tech landscape? Read this article for info on the impact of regulation, this article for the impact on big tech, or this article for the impact on electric vehicles.
šµ Inside the Music War Bloomberg have created a 3 episode mini-doc on the music industry - starting from Napsterās disruption of physical albums all the way to Apple & Spotify (via some fighting back by the music industry). Itās worth a watch, even just for the reminiscence of Limewire and Napster.
š Streaming to the Top Netflix tops 200m subscribers for the first time - adding 37m of those during 2020. This came amid increased competition from new entrants like Disney+, Apple TV+, HBO Max & Peacock. This sent their stock price soaring 12% in the hours after the announcement. Check out 4 drivers of its success here.
šĀ Tide Announces Indian Expansion! UK Business Challenger Bank Tide has announced it is expanding to India! The UK Fintech has 340k business accounts and experienced 150% revenue growth last year.Ā Need a simple mobile bank for your side hustle? You can signup here.
š Bumble Files For IPO. Read more about the IPO filing, the companyās impressive revenues and the history of the ex-Tinder founder here.
š„ Tom Blom Leaves Monzo. Blomfield has stepped down from his role as president of Monzo, and speaks candidly but the pressure the role took on his mental health here. Huge kudos to Tom for speaking out on this topic.Ā
š¤ Spotifyās Podcasting Strategy Isnāt Working? Last week, Citi analysts said Spotifyās podcasting strategy was failing, with acquisitions and product efforts not resulting in āpositive inflectionā in-app downloads or premium subscriptions. Unfazed by Citi, Spotify is steaming ahead, announcing āPodcast Adsā in the UK this week.
š“ Whatās Micromobility? Itās the boom in lightweight vehicles like electric scooters and bikes thatās been driven by companies like Uber and Bird. Keen to learn more? This awesome article teaches you everything you need to know about the trends, tech, supply chain and startup ecosystem. Read it here.
š§ If You Do One Thing Today. Check out this graphic on the 20 cognitive biases that are probably impacting your decision-making.
š āPeopleās Billionaireā Reappears Jack Ma, billionaire co-founder of Alibaba and Ant Group, has resurfaced for the first time in close to 3 months easing speculation around his whereabouts & welfare. This came as news broke that Ant Groupās valuation is set to halve as Chinese regulators further investigate the companyās role in the payments market.
š¬ Which Messaging App to Choose? As we discussed last week, thereās been a huge take-up of privacy-first messaging apps in the last few weeks. If you havenāt already taken the leap and youāre not sure which one to pick, check out this guide here.
š āMission Tā WSJ published an inside look into Volkwagenās $50bn plan to beat Tesla and create their own industry-leading electric vehicles. It shows the best and the worst of the project - the ambition and complete shift in strategy but also the huge mistakes and under-estimation of what it takes to change a company like WV. It reads well & has lessons for any big company. In the meantime, Tesla-rival Rivian just raised another $2.65bn.
š Popping the Balloon Google is shutting down Loon, the company using hot-air balloons to provide connectivity to remote parts of the world. Why? They concluded it was too difficult and too costly. Itās a disappointing end to one of Googleās most exciting project.
š VaccinePrime Amazon has written to President Biden offering their support in distributing Covid-19 vaccines. They bring unparalleled logistics experience & infrastructure, we hope the government takes them up on the offer. However, it did leave us wondering whether this was offered before or did politics get in the way?
šø Money Time Ever wondered how much CEOs make once their company goes public? Well, wonder no more. From this selection of companies, their CEOs made an average of $667m. One big issue - thereās only 1 woman on the list. See the full list here (including Daniel Elk of Spotify making $6.5bn).
š This Weekās Grapevine is brought to you byā¦
ļøšļø Pitch Deck Podcast,Ā liftingĀ the lid on how founders pitch for cash and how Angel investors decide whether to invest or not š°Ā Think Dragons Den but real.Ā
It is hosted byĀ Nick Telson, who exited his company in a multi-million pound deal and is now an angel investor in 30+ companies worldwideĀ šĀ Each episode, Nick is joined by a guest and together they listen to a pitch from the most exciting early-stage companies, before quizzing them on their pitch and then reviewing the investment opportunity š Previous episodes have covered D2C, SaaS, Marketplace, Proptech & Fintech š
This is one of our favourite podcasts and we're certain it'll become one of yours too - whether you're a founder, wannabee founderĀ orĀ raising money for an investor. It's alreadyĀ a Top 5 Global Business Podcast š
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Nick & Louis