Alvin's Newsletter: No. 14
Weekly newsletter on what I saw interesting in tech, venture capital and bsiness.
📰 News
The evolution of “merit” in corporate Australia: A curious evolution is happening at the upper echelons of corporate Australia. The clash of traditional values of no-nonsense focus on merit vs the recent rise of political correctness and “woke” culture. This is evidenced in the recent moves at AMP. What started with the Hayne Royal Commission into the banking sector and the associated departures of many of the banks chairs and CEOs is now hitting the wealth and insurance sector. While there’s reason for these people taking ultimate account - there is a cost to it.
Take David Murray. Already a distinguished career - CBA CEO, chairman of the Future Fund, and head of the financial system inquiry. A no-nonsense operator with the principle of competition as his north star and fighting for it at as a means of organising the financial sector.
He made mistakes on the handling of Boe Pahari and his promotion - perhaps focussing too much on this traditional focus of “merit”. There also seems to be have been some blowback from institutional shareholders over his handling of the AMP Insurance ‘fire-sale’ which may be the ultimate reason why he had to go.
It shows more-so than now - even the most well-suited person on merit is not necessarily the one to go with - in any job, but especially at the top. There are always trade-offs to be made. Additionally, corporate governance has a broader remit than ever.
His trade-offs in promoting Boe, based on his principles, didn’t work out well for him but ultimately would likely have for AMP shareholders. An under-estimation of the times we are in on his part. [Paywall] Link
TikTok ban saga continues: China is now firing back its salvos - putting export controls on over its AI technology (not dissimilar to the walls western countries have been putting up of late). It’s becoming very complicated for TikTok as the 15th September ban gets closer. Complicated enough that TikTok CEO, Kevin Mayer, resigned abruptly last week. Walmart and Oracle have also entered the fray alongside Microsoft to get a bite of TikTok (pun intended). Unsure how a sale will work with the export controls in place - TikTok’s algorithm is by far its greatest asset. Link
Uber + Lyft - a masterclass in prisoners dilemma: Go hard into market, break the law. Get riders and drivers onboard quickly and dependant on it. When regulation and the law eventually catches up - you have citizens on your side against the city officials - who they depend on to get elected. Not clear cut who is in the right or wrong. As with most things - somewhere in the grey. Is interesting none-the-less how these guys choose to compete. Link
📚 Reading
A look into the Amazon machine and how it relates to anti-trust. I’ve said before, the current anti-trust laws don’t lend itself to the new ways the tech giants are doing business - so we will need new laws to cover these. Difficult - even more so in the political and economic climate we are in. Not to say something shouldn’t be done - something should be. By who and what is the question. Link
If you have kids, you will likely have watched some of the biggest YouTube superstars doing one thing - opening toys. Huge phenomenon. Story on one of the companies involved in the rise of this and how they hacked the unboxing trend - MGM Entertainment. Link
The story of the NYSE and stock-exchanges in general (and how they became monopolistic). Link
IPO season is in full swing with 6 tech companies filing S1’s last Monday. One of the most hotly anticipated prior to Covid was Airbnb. They have filed their S1 privately but why are they IPO’ing in the middle of an epidemic that has wiped out the travel sector? Link
The inside story of how Carlos Ghosn from Nissan was taken down by fellow executives unhappy with the direction he was taking Nissan. Gobsmacking. Reveals the high-stakes games that are sometimes played at large multi-nationals. [Paywall] Link
Digital media and content has been under disruption ever since the internet was born two decades ago. We are at an interesting time now where content is now being created by individuals for their own audiences. A multitude of tools, distribution channels and monetisation opportunities has given way to a flood of content from ‘Digital Native Vertical Creators’. Link
Uber’s growth playbook from one of its first 100 employees. Link
🦖 Entertaining & Interesting things
Fitbit finally getting into the smartwatch game as it looks to expand outside of fitness tracking. New watch can detect stress by measuring temperature of your skin. Still not a break-out sector - yet. Link
Google and Amazon both announced new AR apps last week. Seems like fun little toys. (many great things start this way). Link Link
Researchers at Harvard created a tiny surgery robot. Link
If you are into sneakers, the story of an iconic sneaker in sneaker history. Pre-cursor to the current sneaker and collab movement. Link
An 85 megapixel photo of the moon. 24,000 photos taken at a very high frame-rate and then stitched together. Incredible. Link
🎧 Podcasts
The best podcast episodes last week according to Bosco Tan:
History of Peloton (Masters of Scale) - 50 mins: 3 years, and despite a thousand angel investor ‘no’s and hundreds of VC fund rejections, Peloton started its customer journey via a first Kickstarter. Then despite underwhelming orders via this campaign, it is now a $20b company today. This episode retraces the journey with CEO John Foley - details on how the company turned sceptics into believers every step of the way. Link
Epic vs Apple, TikTok and more (This Week in Startups) - 144 mins: This is an ‘epic’ chat between Jason Calacanis and the guys behind the Acquired podcast Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal. Lots of great perspectives on the Epic vs Apple fight, TikTok’s current position and their takes on the upcoming raft Unicorn IPOs. Find out what they’d put their money on. Link
Probiotics - Are They Real? (Science Vs) - 32 mins: As kombucha and kimchi have become hipster pantry stables. This episode offers the science of why good bacteria is important for our wellbeing. Plenty of scientific voices and stories of experiments to add colour. Link
The Colonial History of Bananas (Throughline) - 58 mins: Bananas are one of the most commonplace fruits today. Its history is however filled with intrigue, from entrepreneurial spirit, marketing chess moves, persecution of workers and geopolitical bargaining. Link
📹 TikToks
If you can get that gold bar, you can keep it. Link
A kite flying a 3yo. Link
Nothing but net. Link