'venture capital' Category
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Rugby, giant scallops, personal fulfillment. Priceless.
September 20, 2019The Rugby World Cup is taking place in Japan over the next several weeks. This is undoubtedly stating the obvious to any readers of this blog from rugby nations. An elegant sport about which I’ve been heretofore ignorant, rugby, I’m discovering, offers lessons which extend well beyond the pitch. For example, much like in certain […]
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Europe’s challenger bank landscape
September 16, 2019In follow up to last week’s post on my favorite consumer fintech products, here’s an illustration of the challenger banking landscape in Europe.
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Cashless assessment: Europe edition
September 9, 2019Over the summer I had a conversation with an innovation offered officer inside a large European retail bank. There was a fair amount of lamenting about regulatory burdens (I’m looking at you FATCA) as well as the emerging threat posed by burgeoning challenger banks and other consumer fintech services. By trying to serve large volumes […]
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The siren’s call of investing in spin-offs
September 1, 2019Although several have worked out successfully, a significant number of “spin-off investments” I’ve made or have witnessed over the years have disappointed. Through the colored lenses of a VC, here’s what I’ve learned about investing in spin-offs. For clarification, in this piece I am referring to investing in the entities which result from corporate actions […]
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An ode to Estonia
August 31, 2019This month I returned for what is becoming an annual summer trip to the Baltic countries. I spent the bulk of my visit this time in Tallinn, Estonia — boy I love that place — visiting a few prospective investments. I also ran a few administrative errands for my personal Estonian company, which frankly was […]
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Rude VC Summer reading list 2019
July 22, 2019As is customary this time of year, here are the Rude VC summer reading recommendations. For reading lists from prior years, see 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012). Against Empathy, by Paul BloomI admit that I immediately judged this book based on its title. As long-time readers of this blog might recall, I’ve ranted […]
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Revisiting Software is Eating the World [5G]
July 15, 2019I’ve been thinking lately about the approaching 5G mobile network technology, particularly in its potential implications for our investment thesis, or even what it could mean for some of our portfolio companies. To help structure my thinking, I thought it appropriate to re-read Marc Andreessen’s prescient 2011 essay, Why Software Eating the World. Without going […]
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VC internship in Japan: technical role
July 5, 2019First off I’d like to publicly thank Andréas for his technical heroics over the past few months with me in Tokyo. It was the first time I hired an intern in a technical capacity for our investment fund, and that worked out pretty well. So I’m going to do it again. Here’s a summary of […]
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Moving beyond adaptability
June 27, 2019Our French president is in Japan this week and addressed a small group of the French community in Tokyo yesterday at the ambassador’s residence. It was a refreshingly honest discussion, relatively devoid of the airy platitudes to which we’ve become accustomed to hearing from our political leaders. I won’t focus on the politics of it, […]
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The innovation drive of Japan’s real estate developers
June 20, 2019It’s hard to walk around Tokyo these days without hearing the buzz of construction equipment. In this city of perpetual renewal, new building construction in Tokyo seems to occur year-round. The phenomenon is repeating itself in many other of Japan’s major cities (Osaka, Kobe, Fukuoka, etc.), although it’s certainly most prominent here in the capital. […]
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Have a good cashless
June 14, 2019Have a good Cashless. That’s the charming slogan of one of my Japanese banks in their efforts to increase cashless adoption among their customer base. Even if somewhat lexically awkward, I would submit that it’s a better slogan than the “War on Cash” cliché we hear often from the U.S. In fact, the push toward […]
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Mopping up on Messenger (FB)
June 9, 2019Mobile gaming entrepreneurs who read this blog regularly have probably noticed that I have not written for a while about Facebook Messenger’s Instant Games platform (FBIG). The lapse is not due to my lack of enthusiasm about mobile gaming as an investment. On the contrary, we have recently added another gaming project to the portfolio […]