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entrepreneurship

Ethics in the portfolio/VC relationship + a step by step guide for iterating your MVP

by MPD
kauffman fellows

Venture Deals Summer 2023 Course

by Brad Feld
entrepreneurship

Unlocking Capital: The Power of Venture Debt for Startups with Billy Libby of Upper90

by MPD
Alphabet

Ranked: Who Made the Most U.S. Unicorn Acquisitions Since 1997?

by Pallavi Rao
Alphabet

Ranked: Who Made the Most U.S. Unicorn Acquisitions Since 1997?

by Pallavi Rao
bootstrapping

The ultimate guide to bootstrapping your startup + a conversation about the recalibration of Series…

by MPD
Digital Article

What African Fintech Startups Can Teach Silicon Valley About Longevity

by Glory Enyinnaya
china

China Has Arrived: A Deep Dive Into China’s Tech Surge and Increased Standard of Living with Chris…

by MPD
proptech

Market Map: The Emerging Technology Opportunity in Single-Family Rentals

by Nima Wedlake

Mapped: The State of Economic Freedom in 2023

by Avery Koop
This post is by Avery Koop from Visual Capitalist

map of economic freedom worldwide in 2023

Mapped: The State of Economic Freedom in 2023

The concept of economic freedom serves as a vital framework for evaluating the extent to which individuals and businesses have the freedom to make economic decisions. In countries with low economic freedom, governments exert coercion and constraints on liberties, restricting choice for individuals and businesses, which can ultimately hinder prosperity.

The map above uses the annual Index of Economic Freedom from the Heritage Foundation to showcase the level of economic freedom in every country worldwide on a scale of 0-100, looking at factors like property rights, tax burdens, labor freedom, and so on.

The ranking categorizing scores of 80+ as free economies, 70-79.9 as mostly free, 60-69.9 as moderately free, 50-59.9 as mostly unfree, and 0-49.9 as repressed.

Measuring Economic Freedom

This ranking uses four broad categories with three key indicators each, both qualitative and quantitative, to measure economic freedom.

  1. Rule of law: property rights, judicial effectiveness, government integrity
  2. Size of government: tax burdens, fiscal health, government spending
  3. Regulatory efficiency: labor freedom, monetary freedom, business freedom
  4. Open markets: financial freedom, trade freedom, investment freedom

The 12 indicators are weighted equally and scored from 0-100. The overall score is then determined from the average of the 12 indicators.

Here’s a closer look at every country’s score:

RankCountry2023 Score
#1🇸🇬 Singapore83.9
#2🇨🇭 Switzerland83.8
#3🇮🇪 Ireland82.0
#4🇹🇼 Taiwan80.7
#5🇳🇿 New Zealand78.9
#6🇪🇪 Estonia78.6
#7🇱🇺 Luxembourg78.4
#8🇳🇱 Netherlands78.0
#9🇩🇰 Denmark77.6
#10🇸🇪 Sweden77.5
#11🇫🇮 Finland (Read more...)

Why Copper and Nickel Are the Key Metals for Energy Utopia

by Govind Bhutada
This post is by Govind Bhutada from Visual Capitalist

Published • Updated •
The following content is sponsored by CanAlaska Uranium
copper and nickel

Copper and Nickel: The Key Metals for Energy Utopia

The raw materials required to transport and store clean energy are critical for the energy transition. Copper and nickel are two such metals.

Copper is essential for the transmission and distribution of clean electricity, while nickel powers lithium-ion batteries for EVs and energy storage systems.

The above infographic sponsored by CanAlaska Uranium explores how copper and nickel are enabling green technologies and highlights why they are essential for a utopian energy future.

Copper: Transporting Clean Energy

When it comes to conducting electricity, copper is second only to silver. This property makes it an indispensable building block for multiple energy technologies, including:

  • Electric vehicles: On average, a typical electric car contains 53kg of copper, primarily found in the wirings and car components.
  • Solar power: Solar panels use 2.8 tonnes of copper per megawatt (MW) of installed capacity, mainly for heat exchangers, wiring, and cabling.
  • Wind energy: Onshore wind turbines contain 2.9 tonnes of copper per MW of capacity. Offshore wind turbines, which typically use copper in undersea cables, use 8 tonnes per MW.
  • Power grids: Copper, alongside aluminum, is the preferred choice for electric transmission and distribution networks due to its reliability and efficiency.

BloombergNEF projects that, due to its expansive role in clean energy, the demand for copper (Read more...)

The term of the day is "Reverse Centaur"

by Unknown

 From Cory Doctorow:

In AI circles, a “centaur” describes a certain kind of machine/human collaboration, in which “decision-support” systems (which the field loves to call “AI”s) are paired with human beings for results that draw upon the strengths of each, such as when a human chess master and a chess-playing computer program collaborate to smash their competition.

...

By contrast, an Amazon driver is a reverse-centaur. The AI is in charge, and the human is the junior partner. The AI is the head, telling the body what to do. The driver is the body — the slow-witted, ambulatory meat that is puppeteered by the AI master.


Doctorow provides further details in this post (complete with the wonderful phrase "digital phrenology").

Amazon DSP vans have Netradyne cameras inside and out, including one that is always trained on drivers' faces, performing digital phrenology on them, scoring them based on junk-science microexpression detection and other imaginary metrics.

Falling behind

by Seth Godin
This post is by Seth Godin from Seth's Blog

We’re not in races very often. Usually, what we’re doing is more like a walkathon, or perhaps, a hike.

And yet, we’ve been pushed to believe that the only performance that matters is a scarcity-based victory.

They close the parkway near my house on Sundays. As people pedal along, you can see the ripple of anxiety that spreads when a fast biker ends up passing everyone else.

The route is a loop. No one is getting anywhere you’re not getting. They’re just leaving this place faster.

My ten takeaways from WWDC 2023

by Om Malik
This post is by Om Malik from On my Om

Apple kicked off the 2023 edition of WWDC, its developer conference, with a 2-hour long keynote that saw the company announce the next versions of its five operating systems( iOS, watchOS, iPad OS, tvOS, macOS), three new Macs, including the highest-end Mac Pro, and most importantly, a new “mixed reality” platform, Vision, that includes a new OS and a $3499 headset, Vision Pro. 

Forget all the other announcements, the only real reason to pay full attention to Apple’s WWDC keynote was the launch of the new mixed–reality platform. I have already shared some thoughts on Twitter, but I wanted to recap and distill my big takeaways from the keynote.

  1. So how visionary is the new Vision Pro? 

I have been privileged to be at the launch of many of the new Apple products — I didn’t write or cover Apple till the turn of the century. My first official event was the launch of the iPod. And then, I saw Steve Jobs launch the iPhone and the iPad. And I was there at the introduction of the Apple Watch. And now the introduction of the Vision Pro. This is akin to the iPod and iPhone launch, where the device catalyzed a significant social and behavioral change. 

When Sony launched the Walkman, it gave music feet. The iPod took that idea further into the digital realm and trained the mainstream to expect any music anytime, anywhere. It also accelerated the (Read more...)