Editor at Large, @a16z. Back catalog at https://t.co/fZQ118K4Xv
Sep 6, 2021 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
One of the biggest mysteries today is the Profit Epidemic. Starting in the 80s, companies everywhere became much more profitable. And we have no idea why. But what if the answer was: a chemical contaminant?
Time for a thread:
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First of all, the simple argument that “if you make more than you spend”, which sounds intuitive, is completely wrong. Some companies that lose money are outperforming. Some companies that make money are in the toilet. So clearly something’s up. What? 2/
Jul 14, 2020 • 12 tweets • 5 min read
@BrentBeshore If Nick Achkarian were still on twitter he might say Smartcentres REIT. It’s his idea but I’ll try to do justice to the pick: 1/@BrentBeshore Smartcentres (SRU.UN) owns a bunch of Canadian strip malls, primarily in the Toronto suburbs. Their largest anchor tenant is Walmart, and their tenant base is mostly full of solid, no-nonsense companies. 2/
Apr 23, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
@eiaine I’d like to, but haven’t gotten around to it I guess
@eiaine Tl;dr: the publishing industry is unusual in that retailers receive books up front, sell as many as they can, and then return the rest and pay whatever balance is due to the publisher. For practical reasons, this makes sense; you don’t know in advance what books will sell ... /
Jan 8, 2020 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
A short thread on something that happened in plain sight over the last decade: the transformation of (some) VC dollars into "production capital", as Carlota Perez would call it. 1/
The graph above, which hopefully many of you recognize, comes from Perez's book Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital, which is great reading for understanding big technological waves and how they've been financed across history. 2/
Oct 5, 2019 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
You probably already know this, but I write a lot. And I get asked for writing tips pretty frequently, so I put together a quick post of five tips for kickstarting or improving your own writing:
alexdanco.com/2019/10/05/fiv…1. On writing routines and beating "publishing anxiety": a hint you can use to make hitting Publish less intimidating is to break it into two parts. Make your first public post somewhere nobody reads, sleep on it, then copy-paste it into your newsletter or however you distribute.
Nov 13, 2018 • 16 tweets • 3 min read
Now that it's wrapped up, some thoughts on HQ2 and how I had been / still am thinking about it...
I'm kind of surprised that so few people anticipated they'd split into two new HQs or pull some similar kind of shenanigan. Out of all the things they need most, two are most urgent IMO: 1) access to talent, and 2) political diversification.
