1/ The birth of a commercial Internet in 1993,coincided with the start of what I call my "miracle year." In his new book Tom Alberg tells the story of Jeff Bezos convincing him to invest in the Amazon seed round. It's a great story. I was in the building. amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B095DX…
2/ When Bezos first met with Alberg McCaw Cellular's sale to AT&T was in process. Tom's office was upstairs and I was on the first floor. Tom was on the board of our startup at the time. When Jeff and Tom met them second time we were both in a new building where Craig had moved.
3/ Tom Alberg tells the story of Jeff Bezos working hard to raise Amazon's $1M seed round at a level of detail I've never seen or heard before. Tom describes Jeff's projections and his rationale for investing. I love great stories, but this one is special.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-on-…
4/ The best stories include you as a character. It is suboptimal to rely on chance to create stories that involve you. In 1993 co-founding an Internet based startup was obviously going to create stories worth telling. Make the choice to be traveler rather than a passive tourist.
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1/ "When Motorola visited us, prepared to make a presentation with an elaborate slide show, Craig McCAw said, “Put away the slides and just discuss your proposal,” completely unsettling them and, not incidentally, seizing the upper hand."
2/ "After a meeting at AT&T’s Bell Labs in New Jersey, Craig McCaw led us on an unplanned tour around the building, barging into laboratories and asking scientists to explain the projects they were working on. AT&T executives trailed behind, not knowing what to do."
Classic!
3/ "Craig had an irreverent management style. At banquets, he was prone to lobbing dinner rolls. In the office, he might suddenly launch a squirt-gun attack. Many of us kept our own, loaded and ready behind our desks to fight back."
The global chip supply set of issues is multiple complex adaptive systems interacting (AKA a lollapalooza). Solutions for some firms include product redesign.
"As of October, times for chip deliveries have ballooned to 22 weeks. It is longer for the scarcest parts: 25 weeks for power-management components and 38 weeks for the microcontrollers the auto industry needs."
Both uncertainty and unknown unknowns are present. Complexity.
"Some buyers trying to place new orders are getting delivery dates in 2024... The smartphone industry will grow by just 6% year-over-year, or half the initial forecast from earlier this year, because of chip woes, according to Counterpoint Research."
1/ "In the second quarter, McDonald's said its prices were up by 6% compared to 2020. In the latest earnings call, executives confirmed they anticipate the increase to stay at that level for the rest of the year." eatthis.com/news-mcdonalds…
2/"Employee wages at McDonald's have been steadily increasing this year, with a total increase of about 10% so far in 2021. At company-owned stores, wages are up a 15%."
3/ "Costco has raised its minimum U.S. wage to $17 an hour, and Starbucks will raise its starting pay to $15 an hour. As of August, retailers had 1.2 million unfilled jobs, while restaurants and hotels had 1.5 million." npr.org/2021/10/28/104…
"Microsoft, moving to solidify its dominant position in the market for software for the popular Apple Macintosh personal computer, on Thursday acquired Forethought Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., for $14 Milton." latimes.com/archives/la-xp…
2/ JULY 31, 1987: "Microsoft has been especially successful at penetrating the Macintosh market where, according to the research firm InfoCorp, Microsoft publishes the three top-selling business programs."
3/ "Microsoft is the company that made the first commitment to the Mac. It has invested the most in the Mac. Our Mac products do super well.” MacWeek, January 31, 1994
“Macintosh has a bright future.”
Letter to Spindler, April, 1995