Since its founding in 1972 Sequoia has backed startups that now command a staggering $1.4 trillion of combined stock market value
Quotes
Today, all of the machines dedicated to mining Bitcoin have a computing power about 4,500 times the capacity of the United States government’s mightiest supercomputer, the IBM Sequoia, according to calculations done by Michael B. Taylor, a professor at the University of California, San Diego. The computing capacity of the Bitcoin network has grown by around 30,000 percent since the beginning of the year.
Whether in Beirut, Cairo, Dubai, Riyadh or even Gaza City, small technology firms are multiplying, creating a sort of “start-up spring”. …
Although the Arab world is behind other regions in internet use (see chart), it is catching up fast, along with smartphone penetration and e-commerce. What is more, cultural and linguistic barriers provide some protection against foreign internet giants.
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There is plenty of money sloshing about, but investors prefer safe, tangible bets such as property and factories over putting their cash into high-risk start-ups. “Venture capital is an animal people here can’t quite understand,” explains an American executive who is raising a fund in Dubai. “Investors often ask: ‘What do you mean, you can lose all the money?’”
A study last year found that driving by young people decreased 23 percent between 2001 and 2009. The millennials don’t value cars and car ownership, they value technology — they care about what kinds of devices you own … The percentage of young drivers is inversely related to the availability of the Internet [research found]. Why spend an hour driving to work when you could take the bus or train and be online?
Says Christopher Johnson, a linguist and naming expert, “The problem with Google is that it makes us painfully aware of how unoriginal we are. Before web search, two bands could use the same name in happy ignorance as long as they were serving different geographical and stylistic markets.
Michael Erard – Like a Lead Balloon – The Morning News (via thisistheverge)
But big companies aren’t just big versions of small companies
@jakelodwick – <http://pandodaily.com/2013/04/02/an-acquisition-is-always-a-failure/> (via bijan)
It’s always better to have a plan. It’s one of the things I learned in chess: A bad plan is better than no plan.
Peter Thiel (Founders Fund) in an Interview with Techcrunch.