Tag: business

The GoPro story

watching gopro videos is a good way to appreciate why their founder is now in the billionaire club. this is extremely visceral recording.

When Nick Woodman developed the GoPro camera, he had no idea that the brand would one day make him a billionaire. What was special about this lover of adventure sports that made him a highly successful entrepreneur? Was it just about being lucky, about being at the right place with the right product at the right time, or were there other qualities that went into the making of this new billionaire?

Effort != Results

most companies manage inputs, like clock punching or attendance at meetings, instead of outputs (who actually does things). this leads to politics and the sort of theatrics described in this article. the fundamental problem is that most companies can’t tell who actually does something useful. cf also the recent yahoo debacle where marissa was trying to manage inputs because the outputs are so unclear.

Conference call theater

in a world with multiple free, high quality video conferencing solutions, why do the dilberts continue with conference calls? i suspect it is collective work avoidance. “being on a call” while “working from home” is the most transparent ploy to walk your dogs and getting paid for it ever.

The beauty of low margins

i love this, and wish more companies aspired to it. for example, i want my bank to have the lowest possible overhead: no branch offices, no warm bodies, etc.

Amazon, as best I can tell, is a charitable organization being run by elements of the investment community for the benefit of consumers. The shareholders put up the equity, and instead of owning a claim on a steady stream of fat profits, they get a claim on a mighty engine of consumer surplus. Amazon sells things to people at prices that seem impossible because it actually is impossible to make money that way. And the competitive pressure of needing to square off against Amazon cuts profit margins at other companies, thus benefiting people who don’t even buy anything from Amazon.

Beer Drama

Crocodile tears about crap US “beer”. this article is of course silly. there wasn’t much left to destroy, commercial beer has been tasting like crap for decades.

“When you try to save money on hops, your beers will have less taste. Eventually, they will realize customers want quality beer.”