1. The world is changing so fast. New mobile apps, like Periscope, can come out of nowhere, and hit it out of the park, and instantly disrupt things (look at how Meerkat’s usage has plummeted in just two weeks). Link
Wanna be a voyeur? Wanna jump into someone else’s life? Periscope is for you. It is, without question, The Next Big Thing. I got my ass handed to me last year when I shorted Twitter right after their IPO. But actually, it was more of a timing call, because the stock did come down, it just took some time (and I have no patience). But now that they have launched Periscope, all bets are off with Twitter. Twitter is never going to go up from here much as a 140 digit messaging tool, but they wisely spent some money they had in the bank and are developing ‘other’ stuff.
2. Two lessons from above: There are still opportunities for startups to become unicorns (which is a terrific thing, ain’t capitalism great), and that’s the problem, cause all these startups think they’re worth pre-money a zillion dollars. Honestly, I am pretty much done with it as an angel, even with my Darth Angel reputation. The people that just put in money in Meerkat (Jared Leto, Greylock Partners) a mere month ago are screwed! Also, there is an emerging ‘rule’ with apps: if it doesn’t take off organically in the first 30 days, you’re done. You just can’t change the trajectory. See the link in 1.
3. The pressure to stay in touch, keep informed, live a ‘great’ and balanced life, to show everyone just how awesome it all is, to be ‘heard’, to absorb it all, to maintain those Facebook and Tumblr and Instagram shrines to ourselves, is just incredible. I just don’t know how kids can do it. And make money at the same time? Oldsters like me can rationalize by tuning out, but kids? Very tough.
4. New store in Scottsdale, near True Foods (which we love, by the way - ’to go’ orders ready in 15 minutes). How ironic. But at least this store is honest. I know I wrote about it in my book, but sugar is fucking everywhere; it’s taken a lot of work for me to reduce my intake, but I will have binges and my post ingestion blues have me pissed about it. We all have choices to make, but this stuff is unavoidable.
5. And finally, in the ‘Just Saying’ category, if you are a startup in the healthy smoothie space, the clock is ticking and the space is getting very, very crowded in front of our eyes: small bottles, huge bottles, powdered products that used to be all about protein shakes now all about equivalents of lots of servings of fruits and vegetables reduced into….well, powder, that when added with water tastes pretty darn good.