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Month: June 2022

Household Income Distribution in the U.S. Visualized as 100 Homes

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

U.S. household income distribution visualization

Household Income Distribution in the U.S. Visualized as 100 Homes

Income inequality and wealth disparity have been frequent topics of conversation, even before the pandemic upended the economy.

Now, rising inflation and interest rates, and a possible recession on the horizon are bringing these societal divides into sharp focus.

In the above visualization, U.S. households are parsed out into a neighborhood of 100 homes and then grouped by income brackets, using recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Neighborhood Breakdown

American households vary widely on their respective incomes. The largest cluster of homes, representing nearly 20% of all American households, are in the $25-$49.9k income bracket.

Here’s a look at the share of households in each income bracket and the number of homes they represent.

Household IncomeShare of TotalNumber of Homes
Under $25K18.1%18
$25K-$49.9K19.7%20
$50K-$74.9K16.5%17
$75K-99.9K12.2%12
$100K-$149.9K15.3%15
$150k-$199.9K8.0%8
Over $200K10.3%10

In our hypothetical neighborhood, 18 of the households are in the lowest income bracket. People in this category have a wide variety of jobs, but personal care aides, cashiers, food and beverage positions are some of the most common. As a point of reference, the poverty line for a family of four currently sits at $26,496.

On the flip side, in this small community of 100 houses, 33 earn six figures and typically have at least one family member in a corporate or medical role.

The American Middle Class

The middle class (Read more...)

What’s New on VC+ in July?

by Niccolo Conte
This post is by Niccolo Conte from Visual Capitalist

If you’re a regular visitor to Visual Capitalist, you know that we’re your home base for data-driven, visual storytelling that helps explain a complex world.

But did you know there’s a way to get even more out of Visual Capitalist, all while helping support the work we do?

More Visuals. More Insight. More Understanding.

VC+ is our premium subscription that gives you exclusive access to extra visual content and insightful special features. It also gets you access to The Trendline, our twice a week members-only newsletter that features the very best visualizations and data releases.

Sign up for VC+
 

So, what is getting sent to members in the coming weeks for VC+ in July?

“10 Years of Visual Capitalist: Exclusive Chat with Jeff Desjardins”

SPECIAL DISPATCH: Live Webinar and Q&A with Visual Capitalist Founder Jeff Desjardins

Celebrating 10 years of Visual Capitalist

To celebrate a decade of creating data-driven visualizations to help the world digest information more easily, we’re hosting an exclusive webinar for VC+ members that will give insight into Visual Capitalist’s history, current projects, and future plans.

Visual Capitalist Founder and Editor in Chief, Jeff Desjardins will look back and talk about VC’s journey so far, before answering questions submitted by VC+ members live.

Coming Wednesday, July 6th, 2022 (Get VC+ to access)

“Markets this Month: July Edition”

SPECIAL DISPATCH: Everything You Need to Know for this Upcoming Month in the Markets.
Markets this month
This Special Dispatch exclusive to VC+ subscribers provides a high-level summary of the month’s key events and most important market (Read more...)

Navigating Choppy Waters

by Brad Feld
This post is by Brad Feld from Brad Feld

In the last seven months, the venture / entrepreneurial world has gone from “the only thing that matters is massive growth” to “the world is going to end.” For perspective, all you need to do is look at a dozen high-flying IPOs from 2020 or 2021 to see that the peak happened just before Thanksgiving.

The private markets lag the public markets. That’s not new. This time around, the lag was about a quarter, as many VCs started to talk about what was happening around the beginning of Q2.

There is no doubt that we are in the middle of, well, whatever you want to call it. “Correction” and “Choppy Waters” is probably a generous phrase for what is going on.

Having lived through this as an entrepreneur in 1987, an entrepreneur and VC in 2001, a VC in 2008, and a VC today, I embrace that this is just part of the entrepreneurial and economic cycle. I also know that many people freak out at this moment. If you’ve never been through this (like I hadn’t in 1987), it can be terrifying. If you are experienced and suddenly find yourself caught flat-footed for any number of reasons, it can be equally terrifying.

I no longer believe in clichés or prognostications such as “make sure you have three years of money in the bank” or “do a RIF quickly and deeply regardless of the situation you are in.” Instead, I think it is crucial for each company to understand its (Read more...)

Mid-year Recap: Web3 and Science Collide

by Nicole Neuman

Scientists have acknowledged for years that there are large structural problems in science: the funding system is dysfunctional, results are frequently unreproducible, and scientific knowledge is siloed. Recently, a small but passionate group of technologists, scientists, and entrepreneurs have envisioned web3 and blockchain-based tools as potentially breaking these structural logjams. This has become the decentralized... Read More

The post Mid-year Recap: Web3 and Science Collide appeared first on Future.

Member Spotlight: 500 Global

by smaloney@nvca.org

Welcome to our Member Spotlight series where we profile the exciting work of our member firms. For this deep dive, we spoke to Christine Tsai, CEO and Founding Partner of 500 Global to learn more about the firm.

Christine Tsai, CEO and Founding Partner of 500 Global

What makes your firm unique?

500 Global is a venture capital firm that invests early in founders building technology companies with global potential. We have $2.7B in AUM, an expansive, diversified global portfolio of companies across multiple sectors, stages, and geographies (81 countries and counting), and a truly diverse team that earned recognition on The Information’s VC Diversity Index.

We began in Silicon Valley 12 years ago, but our investment thesis and overall mission were global from Day 1. Today, our team is located in more than 20 countries and brings extensive experience as founders, investors, and operators. Of the 51 companies valued at over $1B in our portfolio, nearly 40% of them hail from outside of the U.S.

As one of the first institutional investors that a founder brings into their cap table, we care deeply about building trust with our founders and supporting them throughout their journey. We continue to be active at the pre-seed/accelerator and seed stage because those are our roots. However, we’ve also expanded our investment strategy to include the later stages of a company’s growth – writing larger checks into companies, leading or co-leading rounds, as well as offering co-investment opportunities to limited partners. As (Read more...)

Matt Ober of Social Leverage on Embracing Data, Information, and Technology to Make Smarter Decisions

by Howard Lindzon
This post is by Howard Lindzon from Howard Lindzon

🎙

Panic with Friends – Investing for Profit and Joy

Today’s guest, Matt Ober, is a really good friend of mine. We laugh about everything – but now we’re laughing on the same team, which is the best. Matt joined Social Leverage as a GP a few months ago – and he’s a partner we’ve needed to invest with us as the surface of tech continues to expand. Matt was most recently the Chief Data Scientist at Third Point. Prior to that he was head of Data Strategy at WorldQuant and part of the WorldQuant Ventures founding team focused on private investments.

Matt is based out of New York City, which gives us boots on the ground in a very important tech city. He’s also started his own company in the Web 3 sector, which we cover in the conversation.

You can listen to the podcast here on Spotify or Apple podcast and now all the episodes are on my Youtube channel as well. You can click subscribe on any of these channels and get the podcast alert each week.

You can also listen right here on the blog:

More details on the podcast are below…

Guest: Matt Ober

Profile: General Partner at Social Leverage

Where to Find Him: LinkedIn, Twitter

What’s Matt Panicked About?: The things I hear about Howard Lindzon are actually true.

Show Notes:

  • Introduction. (00:39)
  • Welcome Matt. (05:19)
  • Working with Social Leverage (06:41)
  • Starting out at Bloomberg (07:18)
  • Responding to a Craigslist ad (08:07)
  • No information overload, (Read more...)

The fact that people think a commute might justify building high-speed rail suggests you’re probably talking about an exurb

by Unknown

 

At the risk of self-promotion, if you're not a Californian and you're trying to follow the housing crisis, I'd highly recommend you take a couple of minutes to read A primer for New Yorkers who want to explain California housing to Californians. Particularly...

 

3. San Francisco is not adjacent to or even particularly near Silicon Valley. Instead it's around fifty miles away. There are people who live in SF and commute to SV but it's a wasteful and completely unnecessary practice. San Jose is nearer and cheaper.

 

Which came to mind when I saw this story:

$5.3 billion: San Jose to San Francisco high-speed rail costs balloon by over 200%

Eliyahu Kamisher

Plagued by years of funding shortages and spiraling costs, California’s beleaguered high-speed rail project suffered another unexpected blow this month in a new report that more than tripled the cost estimate for the San Francisco-to-San Jose segment to a staggering $5.3 billion.

The new price tag is part of a report that completes a years-long environmental clearance process for the 48-mile corridor that would carry bullet trains down the Peninsula on electrified Caltrain tracks at 110 miles per hour and eventually on to Southern California. It outlines three stops, a controversial rail yard in Brisbane and money allocated to everything from protecting Monarch butterflies to restoring Bent-flowered fiddleneck habitat.

But the environmental document released last week also includes the new price tag for the recommended route through the Peninsula, which is more than (Read more...)