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Month: November 2022

Ranked: The World’s Richest Billionaires Over the Past 10 Years

by Nick Routley
This post is by Nick Routley from Visual Capitalist

Infographic showing the richest billionaires of the past 10 years

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Ranked: The World’s Richest Billionaires Over the Past 10 Years

The last decade has seen a number of changes in the world’s richest billionaires list.

For one, there are new faces at the top of the leaderboard that were never there before. One of the most obvious changes though, is that the richest billionaires have accumulated a lot more wealth in recent years.

Using annual data from Forbes on the richest billionaires, we’ve visualized the wealth and ranking of the top 10 billionaires over the past decade.

Who are the World’s Richest Billionaires?

While the pecking order has fluctuated, the leaderboard remains very exclusive. Out of a possible 10 spots, there are only 19 individuals that have made the list over the last decade.

Here’s the current list of richest billionaires in 2022, including when they first made the list (if in the last decade):

RankNameCountryNet Worth (2022)First Year on List*
#1Elon Musk🇺🇸 U.S.$219 billion2021
#2Jeff Bezos🇺🇸 U.S.$171 billion2016
#3Bernard Arnault🇫🇷 France$158 billion-
(Read more...)

Aerial magic with iPhone 14 Pro

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

I am fortunate enough to have traveled to many exotic locations. Still, the biggest thrill is when the plane slowly makes its way around the bay area and settles into a slow approach over the San Francisco Bay towards the San Francisco Airport. The bigger the bird, the slower it is in its approach.

As we float over the bay, approaching from the Southern end of the Bay Area, occasionally, I find myself sitting on the window seat on the plane’s right side. My vantage point gives me a view of the San Mateo bridge and the salt ponds that have been part of the bay since the California Gold Rush. The 16,500-acre ponds once were part of the wetlands.

Almost every single time, I marvel at these ponds’ colors and the minimal beauty of their geometric shapes. Recently, I snapped a few photos with the new iPhone 14 Pro Max, and the long reach of its telephoto lens allowed me to focus on a few elements in each photo. And since I was using Halide’s app, the RAW files gave me enough data to manipulate in Photoshop. I was quite amazed by the details captured by the new iPhone camera. The reflections of the clouds were very clear and added a nice texture to the photos. Using Topaz’s software, I was able to clean up the files. After that, it was just a matter of applying my custom presets and playing around with saturation and contrast.

As the holiday (Read more...)

The Benefits of Reducing Methane Emissions

by Dorothy Neufeld
This post is by Dorothy Neufeld from Visual Capitalist

The following content is sponsored by Carbon Streaming Corporation.

The Briefing

  • Almost half of net global warming comes from methane emissions—but only 2% of all climate financing goes towards its reduction.
  • By 2030, 45% of anthropogenic methane emissions can be reduced with available, targeted solutions combined with additional measures that are aligned with development goals.

The Benefits of Reducing Methane Emissions

Methane is highly potent, capturing 84 times more heat than CO₂ in its first 20 years in the atmosphere.

In spite of these dangers, methane abatement receives a fraction of all climate financing. Based on an analysis from the Climate Policy Initiative, $110 billion in funding is needed annually, or about tenfold the amount spent today.

This infographic sponsored by Carbon Streaming Corporation looks at the benefits of mitigating methane emissions across key sectors.

The Benefits of Reducing Methane Emissions

The risk of methane emissions is substantial: it has contributed to nearly half of net global warming.

The good news is that future emissions can be cut significantly. Methane solutions that are currently available, combined with additional measures that target priority development goals, can cut 45% of human-caused methane emissions by 2030, equivalent to about 180 million tonnes per year (Mt/yr).

This translates into 0.28°C in avoided warming between 2040 and 2070 along with 255,000 premature deaths being avoided due to rising ozone concentrations.

SectorAvoided Warming
2040 - 2070		Avoided Premature Deaths
due to Ozone Per Year		Avoided Crop Losses
Agriculture0.04°C40,0004 Mt/yr
(Read more...)

Member Spotlight: Callais Capital

by smaloney@nvca.org

For this deep dive, we spoke to Harold Callais, Managing Partner + CIO of Callais Capital.

Harold Callais, Managing Partner & CIO of Callais Capital.

Tell us about your firm. What makes it different?

Callais Capital invests in top-performing startup teams across the Southeast and along the Mississippi River Valley—startups that are poised to take advantage of long-term inevitable trends. Our team leverages its decades of experience in both investing and creating value for early-stage hypergrowth companies.

Within these rapidly expanding startup ecosystems, we have been building, investing in, and mentoring startups. We work in the trenches with founders to help them scale their startups, create jobs, and create massive economic multipliers in our communities.

We differentiate ourselves from the market through our unique engagement with our companies, investors, and stakeholders. Within the burgeoning startup ecosystems we are focused on, we have developed institutional investment programs to capitalize on the lack of access to local and institutional capital. Startups also gain unrivaled access to our deep network of executives, investors, and customers.

What defines your portfolio?

We’re programmatic investors, so our portfolio includes top-performing startups with track records, traction, and unrivaled knowledge of their respective industry. We aim to lead Seed and Series A rounds for our region’s top performing software, mobile app, and CPG/E-commerce startups. Geographically, we keep our proximity to the Mississippi River Delta and the Gulf Coast because startups in the area tend to raise less and do more.

Tell us about the current VC landscape in your (Read more...)

Member Spotlight: Callais Capital

by Savanna Maloney

For this deep dive, we spoke to Harold Callais, Managing Partner + CIO of Callais Capital.

Harold Callais, Managing Partner & CIO of Callais Capital.

Tell us about your firm. What makes it different?

Callais Capital invests in top-performing startup teams across the Southeast and along the Mississippi River Valley—startups that are poised to take advantage of long-term inevitable trends. Our team leverages its decades of experience in both investing and creating value for early-stage hypergrowth companies.

Within these rapidly expanding startup ecosystems, we have been building, investing in, and mentoring startups. We work in the trenches with founders to help them scale their startups, create jobs, and create massive economic multipliers in our communities.

We differentiate ourselves from the market through our unique engagement with our companies, investors, and stakeholders. Within the burgeoning startup ecosystems we are focused on, we have developed institutional investment programs to capitalize on the lack of access to local and institutional capital. Startups also gain unrivaled access to our deep network of executives, investors, and customers.

What defines your portfolio?

We’re programmatic investors, so our portfolio includes top-performing startups with track records, traction, and unrivaled knowledge of their respective industry. We aim to lead Seed and Series A rounds for our region’s top performing software, mobile app, and CPG/E-commerce startups. Geographically, we keep our proximity to the Mississippi River Delta and the Gulf Coast because startups in the area tend to raise less and do more.

Tell us about the current VC landscape in your (Read more...)

Why The Pentagon Can’t Count: It’s Time to Reinvent the Audit

by steve blank
This post is by steve blank from Steve Blank

This article previously appeared in War on the Rocks.

In the past, headlines about the Pentagon failing its financial audit again would never have caught my attention. But having been in the middle of this conversation when I served on one of the Defense Department’s advisory boards, I understand why the Pentagon can’t count. The experience taught me a valuable lesson about innovation and imagination in large organizations, and the difference visionary leadership – or the lack of it – can make.

With audit costs approaching a billion dollars a year the Pentagon had an opportunity to lead in modernizing auditing. Instead it opted for more of the same.

Auditing the Department of Defense
By law, the Department of Defense has to provide Congress and the public with an assessment of where it spends its money and to provide transparency of its operations. A financial audit counts what the Department of Defense has, where it has it, and if they know where its money is being spent.

Auditing the Department of Defense is a massive undertaking. For one thing, it is the country’s largest employer, with 2.9 million people (1.3 million on active duty, 800,000 in the reserve components, and 770,000 civilians.) The audit has to count the location and condition of every piece of military equipment, property, inventory, and supplies. And there are a lot of them. The department has 643,900 assets, from buildings, to pipelines, roads, and fences located on over 4,860 sites, as well (Read more...)