Pages tagged: 'Analysis'
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Scale Up or Cover Up?
Investing in fast growing scale up businesses that generate over 100X is the stuff analysts dream of. Yet it can so easily all go wrong, no matter how deep your pockets are. Cast your mind back to 2012 and imagine that you’d been offered the opportunity to invest in a technology business that was changing the way people and businesses work.
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Virtual Not So Real
Not so long ago virtual reality was heralded as the next new wave. James Carmeron’s entirely virtual epic Avatar remains the top grossing film of all time. But how real is this new wave? A recent report by respected analysts IDC called out the emperor’s clothes – virtual reality (VR) headset sales were down a massive 33% in one year. So what is going on?
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Execution Trumps Inspiration
Many factors influence startup business success but is there one overriding factor? Evidence seems to point that way.
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Should Interest Rates Interest Tech Investors?
So the BoE has finally signalled its intent to return to normalised monetary policy and raised interest rates. It’s accepted that it will not have much effect on the incoming spike in inflation - caused mainly by exchange rates – but may well have a detrimental effect on already fragile economic growth. Adding this to the headwinds of Brexit, does this signal danger for the tech investor or opportunity?
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Evolution of the Unicorn
Forbes magazine runs a yearly Midas list – a set of 100 venture capitalists, investors and commentators who apparently have the knack of turning otherwise ordinary investments into gold.
One of the consistent names on the list is Bill Gurley. You’ve probably not heard of him, he works at Benchmark, one of the many Silicon Valley VC firms. However, Bill has some notoriety as recently he’s been talking about the rise – and imminent fall – of unicorn technology companies.
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Revealing more than you’d Like
When you press the Like button on Facebook, you may be revealing more than you thought. The Like button was first released in 2009 and since then well over 1 trillion Likes have been registered. According to work from Cambridge University and Microsoft Research, it turns out that what people choose to “Like” on Facebook can be used to determine a whole host of personal characteristics.
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Perils of Investing in Our Own Image
Every investment note on the planet contains a profile of the management team because the received wisdom is that execution matters more than inspiration. Meeting the management team of a startup or growth company is de rigeur for almost every investor – yet it may be their biggest mistake.
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Why Technology Investments Shine
Every index has its ups and down but on 11th April this year the technology focussed Nasdaq fell 3.1 per cent, the worst one-day percentage loss since 2011. Why?
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When Single Minded Works and When it Doesn’t
Almost every investment proposition includes a section on the business team, confident in the knowledge that a team will always outperform an individual. Teams are considered almost sacrosanct and we all seem to believe that working in teams makes us more creative and productive. But what really is the optimum team for a tech startup and growth business?
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Better Than Average
Are you better than average at spotting which are the best tech investments to make? Almost every tech investor believes that they have a particular insight or edge than make them better than the norm. In reality, believing you’re better than average is all psychology and not based in reality at all. However, more data from what really makes successful investors is starting to pop the self belief bubble.
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Complexity is the Hidden Killer
One of the great accomplishments of the technology sector is it’s ability to make increasingly complex systems easy to use. Whether you think of Windows, Skyboxes or iPhones, you are using multiple layers of technology to convert the simple things that we can do (swipe, tap, press) into fiendishly complex operations. But are we like the hungry caterpillar, gorging ourselves on each new temptation without thinking of the consequences?
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Gamers Look to Where the Sun Rises
Whilst the popular media may be fascinated by the rivalry between Xbox and Playstation, a different battle is being fought in the online games market. A recent report by Digi Captial highlights that 8 out of 10 major games acquisitions have been launched by Chinese, Japanese or South Korean buyers.
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