"Age of Miracles" - TopPodcast.com

Latest Episodes:

Not Boring Interview with BidOps Founder Edmund Zagorin Mar 09, 2021

Show notes

Edmund Zagarin is the co-founder and CEO of BidOps, a startup building strategic sourcing software powered by AI.

We discuss the global supply chain, how survey design informs good procurement software design, and how college debate informs the way that Edmund approaches running a startup.

Of course, we start out by asking Edmund to convince us that procurement is not boring.

If you want to learn more about the intersection of AI and procurement, check out BidOps' March 24th conference, Optimal.

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Excel Never Dies Mar 08, 2021

Show notes

Excel may be the most influential software ever built. If you want to see the future of B2B software, look at what Excel users are hacking together in spreadsheets today.

Excel’s success has inspired the creation of software whose combined enterprise value dwarfs that of Excel alone. There are two main ways Excel has set the broad roadmap for the B2B software industry for decades, and will continue to for years to come:

The Unbundling of Excel. Hundreds of B2B startups have been built by taking a job currently being done in Excel and trying to accomplish the job in more optimized, purpose-built B2B software. Every time you hear an entrepreneur say, “We’re replacing siloed spreadsheets and outdated processes with purpose-built software,” you’re hearing the Unbundling of Excel in real time. Many popular SaaS applications fall in this category. And yet, despite being “unbundled,” Excel keeps getting stronger.
Inspired by Excel. That resiliency has inspired entrepreneurs to look more deeply at what makes Excel tick, and why. Adventurous builders are creating new software that doesn’t unbundle Excel, but is Inspired by Excel. Excel’s balance of usability and flexibility can be found in popular no-code and low-code products created over three decades since Excel first graced the screen. This source of inspiration is less direct and more meta; it is less about recreating anything concrete that happens in Excel, and more about capturing the essence of what makes Excel so successful.

We love Excel, everyone reading this probably loves Excel, and still, its impact is deeply underappreciated. Ben Rollert and Packy team up to cover:

The History of Excel
Excel as a Language
The Lindy Effect
Excel’s Limitations
No-Code and the Unbundling of Excel
Why Excel Will Never Die

Read the original post at Not Boring.

The audio edition is brought to you by Masterworks. Use promo code "not boring" to skip the 25k person waitlist.

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Jack of Two Trades Mar 01, 2021

Show notes

Why is Jack Dorsey so much worse at being the CEO of Twitter than he is at being the CEO of Square?

Marc Rubinstein and I teamed up to tackle that question, and came away thinking that maybe Jack doesn't run the two companies so differently after all. We cover:

Jackground
Back to Square One
Putting the Network Into Square
Old Twitter
Twitter’s New Groove
Back to the Original Question

You can read the full post on Not Boring.

Marc Rubinstein is a former financial sector-focused hedge fund manager who writes one of the best financial sector newsletters there is: Net Interest. Marc has written about everything from newer players like Ant Financial and Facebook’s Diem, to huge banks like Citi, to explainers on things that only industry insiders would know. You should subscribe now if you’re interested in … money.

Subscribe to Net Interest

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Beacons: Not Boring Investment Memo Feb 25, 2021

Show notes

Beacons is building a link in bio into a competitive space, and I think it's going to win.

The link in bio is the point of leverage in the Creator Economy value chain, and Beacons' early growth indicates that they are building something that stands above the rest. In this episode, we cover:

Meet Beacons
The Creator Economy Value Chain and the Multi-SKU Creator
Competition, Growth, and Moats
The Beacons Vision and Opportunity
Risks

You can read the full post at Not Boring.

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Power to the Person Feb 22, 2021

Show notes

It's been a wild month for the Passion Economy, crypto, and NFTs. While it feels frothy, and certain asset prices certainly are, I think it points to a larger future. This episode is a thought experiment based on three ideas:

A main Not Boring theme that Genies don’t go quietly back into bottles.
Chris Dixon’s famous line that “the next big thing will start out looking like a toy.”
Ben Thompson’s idea that media businesses are the first to adapt to new paradigms because of their relative simplicity, and others follow later.

The Creator Economy and NFTs are massive human potential unlocks. Even if certain assets are in a short-term bubble, we are on an inexorable march towards individuals mattering more than institutions.

We’re on the precipice of a creative explosion, fueled by putting power, and the ability to generate wealth, in the hands of the people. Armed with powerful technical and financial tools, individuals will be able to launch and scale increasingly complex projects and businesses. Within two decades, we will have multiple trillion-plus dollar publicly traded entities with just one full-time employee, the founder.

We'll cover:

Creators’ Crazy Month
The Creator Toolkit
Coase and the Nature of the Firm
The New Nature of the Firm
The Age of Individual Influence

To read the original piece, head over to notboring.co.

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Not Boring Interview with AltoIRA CEO Eric Satz Feb 18, 2021

Show notes

AltoIRA makes it easy to invest in alternative assets like startups, real estate, private equity, and even crypto, all through your IRA.

I sat down with Alto's CEO, Eric Satz, to talk about why he started Alto, what they're building, and what he wants the CEOs of Southwest and BlackRock to say about Alto in the future.

To learn more and sign up for Alto, use the Not Boring link and an Alto team member will guide you through the process.

Read the full sponsored deep dive over at Not Boring.

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Dreams All the Way Up Feb 15, 2021

Show notes

It feels like we're in a tech bubble, but what if I told you that the best startups and non-FAAMG public tech companies are actually undervalued?

In today's Not Boring, we cover a different way of looking at tech valuations, not P/E, P/S, or FCF Multiple, but Price/FAAMG, or the probability that younger tech companies can become as big as today's biggest. From that perspective, they're cheap... Amazon and Facebook have outgrown startup valuations at every stage over the past decade.

Read the original and check out the charts and graphics at Not Boring.

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The Beginning of the End Feb 11, 2021

Show notes

In this not boring guest post, Dan Teran, founder of Managed by Q and early stage investor, argues that while the pandemic looks like a boon to third-party food delivery companies, it's actually the beginning of the end. He weaves together strategic frameworks from Porter, Christensen, and Peter Drucker, plus actual restaurant data, to show that the current, integrated model is unsustainable, and that third-party food delivery is going to be unbunbled.

Follow Dan on Twitter and Medium.

Read the full post at Not Boring.

Thanks to our sponsor, OpenPhone, which is building the business phone, reimagined. Check out OpenPhone to set your team up with professional phone numbers and an experience that is so much better than Google Voice.

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How Twitter Got Its Groove Back Feb 08, 2021

Show notes

Twitter is getting its groove back. Smart acquisitions and product development, in addition to foundational work that the company is doing, might change the bearish narrative that's surrounded the company for half a decade.

We cover:

Prof G vs. Twitter. Scott Galloway ripped the company and its CEO, Jack Dorsey, last week. It’s a good summary of the critics’ view, and a bullish signal.
If I Ruled the Tweets. Twitter needs to focus on its power users and make products that help them share their ideas and make money.
How Twitter Got Its Groove Back. Twitter grew usage, improved its ad product, and survived the election. Now it’s focused on what’s next with the acquisition of Revue and launch of Spaces.
Twitter’s Creator Bundle. Twitter is in the best position to build or buy a bundle of tools for Creators. Plus, why I think it can beat Substack and Clubhouse.
Changing the Narrative. Adding up the sum of Twitter’s parts.

Read the full post at Not Boring

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Selling a Lot of Shares a Little Too Early with Brett Beller (ex-Drizly) Feb 05, 2021

Show notes

Brett Beller, my good friend and former Breather co-worker, was the first employee and practically co-founder at Drizly, which just sold to Uber for $1.1 billion. Brett tells the stories from Drizly's earliest days, goes deep on liquor laws, talks about why he sold a bunch of his shares a couple years ago, and walks through the emotional rollercoaster of learning that his company sold for $1.1 billion.

Brought to you by Secfi, which helps startup employees make smarter decisions about their equity.

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