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By Rohit Kulkarni, SharesPost Everyone loves a David vs. Goliath story. The ancient tale has become a symbol of how smaller competitors can defeat larger ones using intelligence and determination. History is full of upstarts who slug it out with industry giants and win: Facebook vs. MySpace, Google vs. Yahoo, Apple vs. IBM, and so […]
By Jeff Harbach, Kauffman Fellows In hindsight, the collapse of the late ‘90s dot-com bubble should never have been a surprise. For years, technology startups had been raising investment capital hand over fist, companies were launching initial public offerings (IPOs) without strong underlying business models and the equity markets were growing exponentially. The Nasdaq jumped […]
By Kirsten Morin, Aberdeen Standard Investments Venture capitalists are paying close attention to the volume of capital that has been raised via initial coin offerings in 2017, as some industry participants postulate that it could disrupt the way early-stage venture financing will be structured. As of Nov. 30, 228 ICOs have raised $3.6 billion, CoinSchedule reports. The […]
By Jeff Harbach, Kauffman Fellows There is a reason that the manufacturing industry was the engine of the U.S. economy for so long. The work employed a lot of people and was based on skills that anyone could develop with a little training. At its peak in the late 1970s, more than 20 percent of […]
By Jeff Harbach, Kauffman Fellows We may someday look back at the summer of 2017 as a watershed moment in the fight for diversity in the technology industry. First, ride-sharing company Uber released the findings of an internal investigations into 215 accusations of employee sexual harassment, firing 20 people and publicly dedicating itself to creating […]
By Rohit Kulkarni, SharesPost Spotify is one of the global music industry’s only bright spots of the past decade. The question now is will it bring music to the ears of investors. If the company continues on its growth path and executes on its anticipated IPO, this is one possible outcome. But there are no […]
By Jeff Harbach, Kauffman Fellows Entrepreneurship in Dubai is endlessly growing, it seems, like its famous skyline. Some now refer to Dubai as Silicon Oasis, as this global mecca of technology and innovation is brimming with incubators and accelerators, along with venture capital and private equity firms. Dubai is betting big on tech, too, particularly […]
By Michael Kauffman, Tech DNA The technology risks uncovered by technology due diligence fall into three main risk categories: hidden liabilities, increased downside risks, and decreased upside risks. Hidden Liabilities These risks are often the largest liabilities. They include: Cybersecurity / Privacy Risk: By now most professionals understand the reputational risks of being hacked. A […]
By Jeff Harbach, Kauffman Fellows There are some people who fear the future with robots. Elon Musk has started warning that artificial intelligence could be a real threat to humans. Others fear robots will take jobs away from people and we’ll never get them back. It almost sounds like a new frontier in science fiction. […]
By Miriam Rivera and Clint Korver, Ulu Ventures Married couples obviously love each other, but ask them if they want to work together and you’ll get an eye roll from a lot of them. It’s tough enough to agree on where to have dinner, let alone where to take your jointly owned business. We have […]