#venture capital | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nando161mando · 5 months

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probablyasocialecologist · 10 months

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One founder told me that many investors don’t really understand this space, and that they’re often drawn to the sexiest, most revolutionary technology, rather than more incremental improvements and business models that are already proven, like lower-tech greenhouses. It’s also hard to make money selling baby greens rather than a high price-point item like cannabis—or even just more expensive produce, like berries. “Is it worth spending $20 million on a cutting-edge system when you’re producing objects that might get $1 or $2 in the marketplace? That’s the problem,” says Stein, the Penn State business professor. (As a growing number of indoor farms have started selling branded greens, the competition is also making it harder to get placement in grocery stores.) If companies look to make more money by charging a large premium for a box of greens, there’s a relatively limited group of consumers willing to pay more for salad.

#vertical farming #venture capital #silicon valley #farming #cities

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queerism1969 · 9 months

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phoenixyfriend · 9 months

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Ko-Fi prompt from @dirigibird:

I've been looking at investment options but I don't want to be messing around too much with the stock market, and a co-worker suggested exchange traded funds. Would love to know your opinions!

LEGALLY NECESSARY DISCLAIMER: I am not a licensed financial advisor, and it is illegal for me to advise anyone on investment in securities like stocks. My commentary here is merely opinion, not financial advice, and I urge you to not make any decisions with regards to securities investments based on my opinions, or without consulting a licensed advisor. I am also going to be talking this all over from an American POV, which means some of these things may not apply elsewhere.

So instead of letting you know what to pick or how to organize your securities, I'm going to go through the definitions of what various investment funds are, how they compare functionally, and maybe rant about how I disagree with the stock market on a fundamental ethical level if I have word count left over.

If you want more information, and are okay with jargon, I'd suggest hitting up investopedia. That is where I will be double-checking most of my information for this one.

I also encourage folks who know more about the stock market specifically to jump in! I like to think I'm good at research and explaining things, but I'm still liable to make mistakes.

Mutual Funds: A mutual fund is a pool of money and resources from multiple individuals (often vast numbers of people, actually) being put together and managed as a group by investment specialists. The primary appeal of these is that the money is professionally managed, but not personally so; it gives smaller investors access to professional money managers that they would not have access to on their own, at cheaper rates than if they tried to hire one for just their own assets. The secondary appeal is that, due to the sheer number of people, and thus capital, that is being invested at once, the money can be invested in a wide variety of industries, and is generally more stable than investing in just one company or industry. Low risk, low reward, but overall at least mostly reliable. Retirement plans are often invested in mutual funds by employer choice, through companies like Fidelity or John Hancock.

Hedge Funds: A hedge fund is a high risk, high reward mutual fund. Investors are generally wealthy, and have the room and safety to lose large amounts of money on an investment that has no promise of success, especially since money cannot be withdrawn at will, but must remain in the fund for a period of time following investment. It gets its name from "hedging your bets," as part of the strategy is to invest in the opposition of the fund's focus in order to ensure that there is a backup plan to salvage at least some money if the main plan backfires. Other strategies are also on the riskier side, often planning to take advantage of ongoing events like buyouts, mergers, incumbent bankruptcy, and shorting stocks (that's the one that caused the gamestop incident).

Private Equity: Private equity is... a nightmare that got its own incredibly good Hasan Minhaj episode of Patriot Act, so if you've got 20 minutes, an interest in comedically-delivered, easily-digestible, Real Information, and an internet connection, take a watch of that one. (If it's not available on YouTube in your country, it's originally from Netflix, or you can probably access it by VPN.) Private equity companies are effectively hedge funds that purchase entire companies, rebuild them in one way or another, and then sell them at (hopefully) a profit. Very often, the companies purchased by private equity are very negatively impacted, especially if the private equity group is a Vulture Fund. Sometimes, it's by taking it apart to sell off; sometimes it's by just bleeding it for cash until there's nothing left. Sometimes, it's taking over a hospital and overcharging the patients while also abusing the staff! (Glaucomflecken has a lot of videos on the topic of private equity in the medical industry, check him out.)

Venture Capital: In contrast to private equity, which purchases more mature companies, venture capital is focused on startups, or small businesses that have growth potential. These are the kinds of hedge funds that are like a whole group that you'd see some random tv character calling an Angel Investor (they're not actually the same thing, but they overlap by a lot). I'd hesitantly call these less ethically dubious than private equity, but I'm still suspicious.

And finally, to answer your question on what ETFs are and how they fit into the above.

Exchange Traded Funds: ETFs are... sort of like a mutual fund. Sort of. You are, to some extent, pooling your money... ish.

An ETF is like a stock that is made out of partial stocks. So instead of paying $100 for stock A, and not getting stocks B/C/D that all cost the same, you buy $100 of the ETF, which is $25 each of stocks A/B/C/D. You are getting a quarter of a unit of stock, which isn't normally an option, but because you are purchasing through an ETF that officially already bought those Whole stocks, you can now purchase the partial stocks through them.

They buy the whole stocks, then they resell you mixes of those stocks. They still officially own the whole stocks themselves, but you now own parts of the stocks. Basically, you own "stock" in a company that owns stock in other companies, and in that process you own partial stocks in those other companies.

I'm going to re-explain this using fruit.

Imagine you can buy apples, oranges, melons, grapes, etc. You can also buy fruit cups. You can only buy the individual fruits in big batches or you can pool your money with a few other people, hand it to a chef. The chef will decide which fruits look like they'll taste the best by lunch time, buy a bunch of those fruit pallets with your combined money, and plan out the best possible fruit salad for you to share with a bunch of people once lunch rolls around.

You could also buy a fruit cup. You don't have a lot of control over what's already in the fruit cup, but there are a few different mixes available--that one has strawberries, but that one over there uses kiwi, and the other one that way has pineapple--and you can pick which mix you want. It's a pretty small fruit cup, and it's predesigned, but you can choose the one you want without having to pool money with everyone else. You just first have to let someone else design the fruit cups you choose from, and you don't know which ones are probably going to survive the best to lunch time unless you ask a chef (which defeats the purpose of buying a fruit cup instead of pooling your money, and asking the chef costs money).

That's the ETF. The ETF is the fruit cup.

The upside is that you can now just track the prices of your fruit cup, instead of tracking the prices of four different fruits, and so if the price of one fruit drops, you can just... let the other three buoy it.

Of course, in the real world, there are more than just four stocks involved in an ETF. This part of the Investopedia article lists a few examples, and they're usually themed and involve anywhere from 30 (DOW Jones) to thousands (Russell) of shares by stock type, or by commodity/industry. So with the ETF, you can invest in an entire industry, like technology, and just keep track of that single "stock" in the industry game.

They do cost less in brokerage/management fees than regular mutual funds, and they have a slightly lower liquidity (slower to cash out). There also exist actively managed ETFs, which are basically mutual funds for ETFs. You are paying the chef to buy you premade fruit cups.

(Prompt me on ko-fi!)

#economics #stock market #etfs #etf #mutual funds #hedge funds #venture capital #private equity #capitalism #phoenix talks #ko fi #ko fi prompts #economics prompts

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berniesrevolution · 1 year

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@tolstoybb

#politics #the left #banking #silicon valley #venture capital #venture capitalism #vulture capitalism #tech industry

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dispatchesfromtheclasswar · 7 months

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Capitalism is the best economic system for ensuring that resources are distributed according to what society needs most.

#class war #class warfare #classism #capitalism #flying dogs #angel investors #venture capital

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thoughtportal · 6 days

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How Things Work: If the coop model can succeed in Minneapolis, that would significantly undermine the power of Uber and Lyft's threats to pull out of other cities in the future. Do you interact directly with those companies at all? Do they view you as a threat? Do they try to actively hold you back, or do they mostly leave you alone? What's your message to regular people about why they should use you, rather than those ubiquitous apps?

Forman: We're somewhere between the "first they ignore you" and "then they laugh at you" phases. People should use us because on average, we're a little cheaper than Uber, and drivers make 10% above the minimum wage. And it's worker-owned. We're building lasting power in this industry in a democratic, worker-controlled organization.

How Things Work: For people who can see the logic of a driver's cooperative, what's the best way to help—in Minneapolis, and also in cities that don't have such a thing yet?

Forman: For people who want to help—please download the app and share it with friends. We just created a new feature where you can see how many drivers and riders have been recruited in your area, and you can easily share the app with a QR code and other tools. Also, we certainly need funds to get this done. If you can, donate a bit to the effort to build a co-op in Minneapolis.

#article #how things work #ride share #co-op #worker owned #labor vs capital #capital vs labor #venture capital #labor movement #minneapolis #technology #tech

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csuitebitches · 2 years

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On Polishing my CV

I’m starting a career series for the next 30 days. Join me!

To give a little context, let me explain a few things about myself.

I just finished my undergraduate degree in business and entrepreneurship with a specialisation in finance.

I had previously co-founded a company in the EV (electric vehicle) charging space as COO (the company is no longer active).

I want to work with accelerators, investment funds, venture capital or private equity.

I haven’t landed a job yet. So the next 30 days, I’m focused on improving my CV for my job prospects whilst I move back to my home country.

I’m unsure if the formula I’m using for my finance career will work out, but I wanted to document it just in case it actually does.

Steps:

Current progress indicates as of 1st September 2022.

1. Completing the Private Equity Associate course from Financial Edge.

- I learned about the course from a YouTuber, “Angela.” It’s beginner friendly and they teach you everything, right from the excel basics to accounting to DCF methods.

Current Progress: 16%

2. Deciding the spaces I want to be in.

For now,

- Sustainability

- Fashion

- blue chip

3. Defining my current skill set

- Identifying weaknesses

- Strategic planning

- Marketing plans

- Pitch decks and pitching

- Reviewing financial documents

4. Knowledge

Improving my knowledge of the overall developments and trends in the industry, but also elaborate on the specific influences currently affecting the market. Keep up with the news.

5. Blogging.

Every site I’ve come across talks about the importance of blogging about companies and start ups that you find interesting. I think I’m going to start a YouTube channel instead.

Current Progress: 0 videos

6. Building a fantasy start up portfolio.

Current Progress: 0 start ups

7. Reach out to VCs to provide value.

I’m going to try and reach out to founders directly and see if that works out.

Current Progress: 0 new connections

Current connections: 310

8. Study IPOs

For my job : “Study the ins and outs of an initial public offering (IPO) that relates to the venture capital firm's niche interests and prepare your analysis. Discuss the potential you see for the company and how it could strengthen its market position.” (Found online).

Current Progress: 0 IPOs studied

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ennovance · 9 months

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Where to Find a $4-an-Hour Math Tutor With a Ph.D.? Overseas

Traditionally in-person services are increasingly provided from abroad

https://www.wsj.com/articles/where-to-find-a-4-an-hour-math-tutor-with-a-ph-d-overseas-b5d9afce?mod=mhp

🚫 http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/AA3PM/Concentrated_Poverty.pdf #wfh #skills #DigitalTransformation #education #edtech #Children #school #remotework #cre

🔮 https://twitter.com/mohossain/status/1645976290506186753?s=46&t=GtuOmoaTjOwevz2JidiiDQ

#edtech #children #investor #ennovance #economy #debt #venture capital

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rideboomindia · 1 year

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RideBoom is the most affordable taxi and bike ride-share app and the first bootstrap startup so far to launch its app in more than 6 cities.

Most of the on-demand rideshare applications are convenient and secure and are available almost 24/7 to book a cab or bike ride. Booking a cab via these applications is sometimes cheaper in comparison to taking a regular taxi, as the app shows fare prices according to distance and time.

But the fares shown in these ride-hailing apps are not always the same fares the taxi and bike ride fares fluctuate many times and there are many hidden reasons for this and one of them is surge prices.

When the users' demand is high the fares increase or auction this is called the surge price it's a trap or trick to charge the customers more because in the end the driver is still not making much out of this, and he will still get charged the higher commission for providing his services.

According to these surge price apps, it's the incentives for the drivers to provide the service? By charging more to the regular customers?

RideBoom doesn't have the surge price and charges its customers when they need us the most on the other hand the drivers always get paid the incentives and they have the chance to serve their own attached customers and can earn the whole amount of the ride.

It is always a better idea to compare the fare and check on the RideBoom app or you even can make a booking without checking because RideBoom provides the most affordable rides for taxi and bike service.

RideBoom is now availed in more than 5 cities with taxi and bike rides and very soon it's preparing to add a small delivery truck service as well.

Riders Advantages

Bonus ride credits of up to 500 Rs on downloading the app

Ride credits RB coins at the end of each ride

Select the driver's gender for your safety

Share the live trip details with loved ones

Download the RideBoom app

Let's RideBoom Kolkata.

#rideboom #indrive #venture #angel investors #venture capital #Sequia #uber #ola

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nando161mando · 5 months

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Kill the capitalist in your head.

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probablyasocialecologist · 1 year

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The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank adds to the growing list of evidence we have that the model at the core of the tech industry is deeply flawed, while showing how wrong we ever were to place any faith in the depraved billionaires who lord over it. They spent the past fifteen years eroding the position of workers, extending surveillance practices, funding monopolistic endeavors to destroy traditional industries, and ultimately creating bubbles they knew would burst, but which they hoped to profit off. They pushed a form of rugged individualism where everyone was expected be constantly in competition with one another, and the government would be scaled back as much as possible to get out of the way of their unethical profiteering — at least until they needed the government to step in and save them from themselves.

Already, we’re seeing this whole debacle being used to feed into the more pernicious narratives tech’s most powerful people are pushing to maintain their positions. We know that Peter Thiel is funding far-right political campaigns and Elon Musk is outwardly aligning himself with right-wing culture warriors, but those perspectives are much more entrenched in the Valley than has long been admitted, particularly among the venture capitalists and executive class. For years, the narrative of the tech industry was that it was run by conscientious liberals, but no one can reasonably argue that any longer — if it was ever truly anything more than a marketing pitch for a particular moment in US politics.

[...]

After years of being treated as our saviors, they haven’t responded well to the increased criticism leveled at their industry and the role they’ve played in all the ways tech has made the world a far worse place. People are getting fed up with rampaging Goliaths who want to be treated as heroic Davids until the end of their days. As a result, they’re more openly turning to the extreme right, forging new political alliances, and making open declarations about how they want to continue shaping the world to suit their desires.

#Silicon Valley #Silicon Valley Bank #venture capital #paris marx

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titleknown · 6 months

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HELLOWEEN #13: DIVAFFE

-DIVAFFE is a Lesser Propagandist-Engineer of Hell, with 44 new and innovative conceptual-schema and 26 steps. He may dispense any liquid the proprietor asks and is willing to provide conceptualization for any schema of art and science the conjuror may desire, though most is erroneous or lies. He appears as a bat with the horns of a bull and the body of a drinking cup.-

As with many in our worlds, the lowly status of imps in Hell leads to ambitions being heightened rather than lowered, though it is rare that they succeed, even if their insights and abilities warrant such. Or rather, especially if their insights and abilities warrant such.

For, also as in our world, the most petty-minded and lucky seem to be able to rise to the top if their incompetencies flatter the powerful, and thus so with Divaffe. The way Giobella puts it, he basically got lucky via working for a powerful torturer as a living beverage-dispenser and coming up with his one good idea "the caffine loop" that managed to succeed via pure luck and that was cynically utilized by those above him to make a "trendsetter" that would advance their views of hell. Not that he will admit this.

His ideas are regarded as trendy and tastemaking by the upper eschelons of Hell, but by the working class he is regarded as deluded, a reasoning that became clear to me as I spoke with him. He was able to speak with the most utmost, perfect and smug confidence about the absolute stupidest ideas.

What was remarkable is that, unlike many of those I spoke with, he seemed stubbornly uninterested in speaking of himself, and more about promoting his latest concept, the "Gassy Pudding Room," a torture superficially grotesque but conceptually incoherent. When I questioned him about this, my already flagging confidence further waned.

When I asked him about the failures of concepts Giobella had mentioned to me, in particular about the logistical failures of the "wine sharks" torture-mechanism or the catastrophic escalation of the "Caffine Highway," he deflected with criticism of the public, his superiors, his inferiors, anybody but himself.

When I tried to ask if he had any friends outside of work, he paused for a moment, left the room, and I could hear profuse sobbing for about an hour until he came back in.

I may as well also mention, at the beginning of our conversation, he attempted to offer me coffee. I declined (Not for the reasons you would think as a book, I'm simply not fond of the taste), but then he followed up with no delay in offering me his "new patented crystal coffee-powder."

I analyzed it later, after taking it and surreptuously not imbibing it. I'm pretty sure it was just PCP.

-Xavier X. Xolomon , Monsterologist and Understudy to The Librarian Of Babel

You might correctly suspect I took inspiration from venture capital dipshits like Nathan Masri of Garfield Eats for this character, and you'd be correct, but the actual impetus was this very specific Frank Zappa bit about "the hippie that gets the coffee," hence the design.

Frankly, VC douches kind of are the direct ideological descendants of The Hippie That Gets The Coffee, but that's neither here nor there!

As per usual the whole descriptions, designs, ectcetera from this project are free to use as you see fit under a CC-BY 4.0 license so long as I; Thomas F. Johnson, am credited as their creator!

#my art #my writing #helloween #demon #demons #creature design #character design #coffee mug #frank zappa #venture capital

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grits-galraisedinthesouth · 1 year

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Massachusetts residents wait in line to withdraw money from defunct Silicon Valley Bank