Selected Signals
Journalism: The Future Of Snapchat?
"Just because Yahoo has a search box doesn't mean they're Google" Evan Spiegel believes that his company has enough of a moat and a product differentiation that users won't jump over from...
Amazon Bought Whole Foods For This Secret Product
The first thing to note is that Jeff Bezos is a very intelligent man and that a move towards grocery has been in the works for a while now. But it's not a gamble, nor was it a binge...
AmazonThe Real Reason Why Facebook Introduced Reactions
You may have noticed a very interesting feature, that's been widely liked (or love reacted to) by Facebook users, that has just made its way to messages and comments - FB reactions 😍 It...
Why Snapchat Is In Hot Trouble (With A Little Help From Facebook)
On May 10th of this month, SNAP Inc. will be hosting its first quarterly conference since its IPO. Why does this matter?
The Real Secret to Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify's Success
To clear any misconceptions, this stream isn’t about some covert Tech perk like nap-pods or on-campus bikes that exponentially increase productivity amongst employees. I’m going to be...
AmazonNetflix's Easiest Lever: End Password Sharing
They didn’t care in the past because password sharing introduced new customers to the beauty of Netflix and non-linear television! They’d rather you...
The Logical Vaccine Rollout Strategy (v1)
A data-driven answer to our vaccine problems. Today, we can’t move our vaccines from point A to point B; public transportation is our fix. Summary:
Why Amazon is Going Backwards to Move Forward
E-commerce is the future of shopping. Though some disagree, the majority of industry experts, CEOs, companies, and mom-and-pop-shop owners would tell you the same.
AmazonThe Real Reason Disney Is Spending $70 Billion
What can you buy for $70 Billion? It’s not a rhetorical question. Let’s delicately walk through what you could theoretically purchase with Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth:
The Real Future of Ride-Sharing
As Thanksgiving dinners begin for those in the US, here’s something that’ll impress even the most stringent of relatives - Ride-sharing is expected to be a $100B market in a matter of 3...
Why the World (and you) should be Watching Zillow
No matter what you're doing, you need to closely watch what Zillow is up to. At this point you're thinking one of two things - either you're thinking "what in the world is a Zillow?" or...
H&M's Free Suit Rental Is a Smart Hiring-Equity Product
A 2022 equity/product take: H&M's free 24-hour suit rental removed one job-search barrier; the bigger opportunity is access to the rest of the interview stack.
San Francisco's Parking Citations Bring In $100M a Year — 40% of It Just for Street Cleaning
A 2021 city-revenue note: San Francisco's parking citations pull in roughly $100M a year, with 40% of them tied to street-cleaning enforcement alone.
Skipping a Wide Release for Glass Onion May Have Cost Netflix $100–150M in Profit
A 2023 streaming-strategy note: back-of-envelope math on Knives Out's box-office economics suggests a wide theatrical release for Glass Onion could have added $100–150M in profit.
Put Your Own Name First on a Meeting Invite
A small, counter-intuitive habit: listing yourself first on a 1:1 invite means a truncated notification still shows the other person their own name.
DoorDash Customers Spend $1,200 a Year on Delivery — 60% of What the Average Amazon Prime Member Spends Annually
A 2022 spend-comparison note: DoorDash's own $3.33-a-day average works out to roughly $1,200 a year per customer — about 60% of what the average Amazon Prime member spends annually.
AmazonUber's Losses Went From $2.2 Billion to $8.5 Billion in Two Years — That's Why California Went After Driver Pay
A 2021 gig-economy note: Uber's own reported losses nearly quadrupled from 2017 to 2019, the unit-economics backdrop to California's fight over reclassifying drivers as employees.
The Average US Senator Is 63 — Older Than 84% of the Country They're Writing Tech Policy For
A 2022 tech-policy note: the average sitting US Senator is 63, older than 84% of the country, in a Congress that shut down its own Office of Technology Assessment more than 25 years ago.
How Google Can Fight Facebook (Hint: Snapchat Helps)
Google should Buy Snap Inc. Yes, you read that correctly. Google, the search engine giant, should buy Snap Inc, the exciting tech startup that was meant to rule the hearts of millennials....
Disney Should Open Up Movie Theaters
I know what you’re thinking - why would the general public pay a ridiculous $8.97 (the average movie ticket price for 2017), to just watch Mickey Mouse. Well, the reality is - in 2 years...
The Real Reason Google Wants To Be In Your Home
I'm sure you read the title - Google wants to be in your home. Literally.
AmazonAmazon's Latest Venture (Hint: It's Not Whole Foods)
Written in 2017. The specific Amazon messaging-app bet did not become a breakout product; the durable thesis is Amazon trying to capture more customer attention around commerce, media,...
AmazonT-Mobile is Trying to Win an Election with the Sprint Merger
Where do I begin? Well, now that I’ve started with that sentence - I can comfortably segue into any dimension of this incredibly interesting merger. T-Mobile and Sprint have announced plans...
SprintBig Corporations are misusing their newfound Pocket-Money
This one is short and to the point. I want you to imagine that you’re a 12-year-old with a younger brother - we’ll call him Mozzy (he’s 8). You currently have an allowance of $10. You give...
AmazonThe Real Reason Facebook Bought This 3-Month Old Startup... For Almost $100M
As you may have heard, or as the title may have prompted you to believe - Facebook just acquired a very young startup that launched their product 70 days ago. After hearing this, you're...
The Real Reason Why CVS is Spending $69 Billion
To understand the first reason as to why CVS is purchasing an insurance company for $69 Billion, we need to take a step back. You need to understand how your doctor, your insurance, and...
Dear Tesla, Please Don't Become A McDonald's
Tesla could become the next McDonald’s, and it would be a shame. No, Tesla isn’t going to sell dollar menu items...probably? As silly or as irrelevant as it may seem, just bear with me for...
How Slack was the equivalent of Biological Waste
This title might have confused you. But it's true. So let me demystify what I mean by "Slack was the equivalent of biological waste" and explain why you should care.
Bezos Wants Prime Too Good to Skip
That's roughly equivalent to the revenues of Uber and Lyft combined, and doesn't even include the amount prime members actually spend to purchase...
AmazonWhy Bad Eyesight Is Going To Get (Even More) Expensive
Let me tell you why. This is going to require a bit of audience participation. Not too much, but just a little bit - bear with me. Have you ever heard of Ray-Ban sunglasses? What about any...
Berkeley CS188 Is Still One of the Best Ways to Understand AI
A 2024 AI-learning note: Berkeley CS188 is one of the cleanest public paths into the mechanics behind search, planning, probabilistic models, and reinforcement learning.
The H-1B Mess Will Grow Tech Hubs Elsewhere
Talking to incredibly intelligent friends and colleagues, who have been constantly worried about what silly visa decision comes next - they're...
Altman's Ouster Was Governance, Not Performance
He wasn't fired because OpenAI was doing poorly — he was fired because his board wasn't aligned with Sam. Just 24 hours later, I don't think it's too late for the situation to be salvaged.
TikTok has significantly reduced quality of life, particularly in Western markets.
For something that takes up 12% of leisure time, it's uniquely dangerous. There will be a lookback on how detrimental the business was on a generation's mindshare.
Stripe Moved $10B in a Weekend
They handled 30,000 transactions a MINUTE with full reliability, and took perhaps $30M in revenue for Stripe once the weekend is over (the vast...
Microsoft Ran $40B Just to Stand Still
MSFT 2021 Revenue: $170 Billion MSFT 2021 Market Cap (Nov '21): $2.4 Trillion
Your Notifications Are Prime Real Estate
So much so that (large) companies often have entire teams dedicated to deciding what notifications get sent / how often / to whom (ex: figuring out...
AmazonWhat Building for Hourly Workers Taught Me
As part of that mission, we'd test new features tailored to the needs of hourly workers (ex: highlighting hourly wages instead of yearly salaries on...
We Still Don't Understand Broken Supply Chains
Today, goods & people move from one place to another at a fascinating rate. A lot of business (aka part of the global economy) is conducted this way...
Apple introduced it's Tile competitor a few weeks ago - Airtag!
TLDR - track your items now on the same app as 'Find my Friends'. So now your keys / backpack / camera will show up on there just like your other...
Slack Wants to Be the World's Workplace
A product with an NPS ('consumer favorability rating') similar to that of Netflix/Amazon/Airbnb, backed by the tech giant that is Salesforce, was...
AmazonWhat If Albums Shipped Like Movies?
What if streaming platforms start releasing 1-hour long specials for new-releasing music albums — a movie-like experience, sold à la carte, priced closer to a film.
The USPS Was Never Meant to Turn a Profit
The postal service is after all - a service, and looking for profits from an entity that ensures prescriptions, insulin, and stimulus checks get...
Comcast's Free Box Is an Ad for Amazon
So they started offering a free streaming box (where you can watch netflix/youtube etc.) that unfortunately ended up being an amzing advertisement...
AmazonTwo factors that encouraged the success of Clubhouse
ex: If 80M airpods had not sold in 2020 (and other wireless headphones of the like) then Clubhouse may not have had the liquidity of speakers...
Meta Put TikTok on My Phone and Called It Reels
They’d been testing this idea for a while, but the timing of the rollout is cool: right when there have been talks of US tiktok operations being...
American Airlines Is Bleeding Cash
American Airlines (the airline) is expected to post a loss of $17 a share, with sales dropping more than half in 2020 vs 2019
Noticed a few things while wearing my Apple watch recently:
Smartwatches, dating all the way back to the Pebble in 2012, have almost all adopted 2 key features: - water resistance - long battery lives
Business Mandates Will Spike Vaccinations
Driven by a large flurry of businesses that will require vaccinations to do business / enter (at least in the US).