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30a673cecf66294f0a96333b64e1abce | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryannreid/2020/06/30/5-questions-with-black-opals-newest-black-female-duo/ | 5 Questions With Black Opal’s Newest Black Female Duo | 5 Questions With Black Opal’s Newest Black Female Duo
CEO Desiree Rogers, and President Cheryl Mayberry- McKissack Alex Wallbaum
With Black business owners being hit the hardest during the pandemic, there is a growing concern to start new black businesses. However, buying a Black-owned business can be a start, too.
A year ago, CEO Desiree Rogers and President Cheryl Mayberry-McKissack, bought Black Opal, an iconic makeup brand for Black women, making the company Black and woman-owned for the first time. Rogers was also the first African-American Social Secretary, under the Obama administration, and Mayberry-McKissack, was the former President of Digital at Johnson Publishing Company, who published Ebony magazine. Rogers and Mayberry-McKissack also purchased, another iconic Black beauty brand, Fashion Fair in November 2019.
With brands like Sephora promising to dedicate 15% of shelf space to Black beauty brands, as part of the 15% Pledge movement, these brands gain more visibility. Though it seems to be on trend, in the last few months, for companies to invest in Black businesses, black-owned companies have been doing it from day one. Now leading what they call the "BLK Beauty Movement", Black Opal has implemented ways beauty brands can invest in the community over the past year.
Maryann Reid: What is the BLK Beauty Movement?
Desiree Rogers: The BLK Beauty Movement was born out of an internal discussion about Black Beauty. We believe that it is time for us to claim our Black Beauty. There is no one kind of beauty in our community. We are communicating directly to our audience and are not afraid to say—'BLK don’t Crack' when describing our skincare collection. We want our consumers to trust that we will always have their best interests at heart and our products deliver regardless of your skin tone. At BLK/OPL, darker skin tones are not a trend. We are beyond a trend.
Reid: Why was Black Opal so important to buy? Why that and not something new?
Rogers: It is extremely important that the Black community preserve the brands that have served us so well over the years. We are excited that we were able to purchase BLK/OPL and become the first majority Black owners of the brand. BLK/OPL has a huge following in our community and we believe that we will be able to grow the business while exciting our consumers. We often use the words internally—For Us By Us.
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We recently bought Fashion Fair out of bankruptcy. This is another crown jewel in the Black community which was started by Eunice Johnson of Ebony and Jet fame, in 1974. It is very important that we preserve our history and support the brands that have always been there for us.
Reid: With everything going on with the pandemic and protests, why is now an important time for Black Opal?
Cheryl Mayberry-McKissack: During the last few months, we have been able to spotlight the work that we have been doing since we purchased BLK/OPL approximately one year ago. We believe that we are in a unique position to talk about the importance of Black-owned small businesses.
Black Opal has been focused on the skincare and makeup needs of Black and Brown people for over 25 years. A key value of the brand is to hire Black. So often, we are not seated at the decision making table, even though we are large consumers of makeup and skincare. We make every effort to grow and support other minority businesses. The majority of our partner firms—legal, IT, public relations, and product development are all Black-owned. We also feel that it is important to donate money back to our community. We are supporting the small business relief fund in Chicago as well as the LDF (Legal Defense Fund).
We want to be a shining example of a Black-owned firm that supports other businesses like us as well as invest in our communities.
Reid: What is next for Black Opal?
Rogers: First and foremost, we are very focused on ensuring that we deliver amazing experiences for our consumers. All of our products are undergoing an ECO review—the products are all cruelty-free and we are continuing to improve the formulations. There will be additional emphasis on vitamin and paraben-free ingredients.
We are launching a new and improved skincare line dedicated to the needs of darker skin tones, such as fading, brightening and oil control products. We are also looking at ways to incorporate digital experiences that are specific to our consumers. All of this for under 20 dollars per product.
Reid: What advice do you have for Black women leaving careers to start a business?
Mayberry-McKissack: There is never a better time than now to start a business. There is a crack in the door by major companies and organizations that are opening opportunities for Black women. Our current environment allows more time for additional networking and mentorship opportunities. The acceptance of working from home has become the new normal and new tools are available to lower the cost of entry into entrepreneurship.
Next, get ready to work hard. Unfortunately, over 40% of Black businesses have been impacted by Covid-19. Many believe that 21% will not survive the pandemic. It is important to have a well thought out plan that identifies the market/consumer that you are going after. Secondly, it is paramount to have funding. Take your projections down 25% in the first two years and your capital needs up. You will always need more funding than you think. Also, think about how you might create an advisory board to help you to think about the overall strategy.
There is a new book coming out called: A Blessing: Women of Color Teaming Up to Lead, Empower and Thrive, by Bonita C. Stewart and Jacqueline Adams. The time is now and the key is to find something you are passionate about and make it happen.
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e80d82c9aead8338ce5a1a04dc32d915 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/marybethferrante/2018/09/28/4-ways-to-ease-the-transition-to-working-mom/ | 4 Ways To Ease The Transition to Working Mom | 4 Ways To Ease The Transition to Working Mom
Working Mother Robert Yu Many mothers will share that those first few weeks of motherhood are a blur. Between the lack of sleep, the barrage of intense emotions, and for most moms, the physical recovery from giving birth, it is a moment in your life that stretches you beyond your imagination, and may not exactly meet your expectations. Becoming a parent naturally prioritizes life in a way that centers around your children. Every baby is really different and no matter how many books you read, you are truly learning on the fly and figuring out what works for you and your family - for that week anyway, because it constantly changes! Motherhood comes at you fast and from every direction, and it can often lead women to wonder if they've completely lost themselves now that they have a baby. Many moms often feel incredibly vulnerable after giving birth. They encounter a host of physical changes, as well as, a shift in their overall disposition. Which often causes women to feel like they’re experiencing a bit of an identity crisis. Ironically, after welcoming and celebrating new life in the world, some women may suffer what they perceive to be a significant loss. The freedom they once enjoyed during their pre-baby days has been replaced with round the clock feedings and diaper changes. And when you are still in the throes of the early months, heading back into work and feeling the need to pretend that nothing has changed is particularly overwhelming. Of course, things have changed, but not everything is different. In what seems like a blink of an eye, you transition from an independent woman to primary caregiver while on maternity leave, and then to this crazy blend of the two - we call the 'working mom'. It’s during this tumultuous transition where you may wonder if sleep deprivation and the daily chaos has sidelined your ambition and goals. Though it might initially feel like ambition takes a back seat, it doesn’t mean you’re any less career-driven. You are still the person you were before giving birth. And as a new mother, you bring recently acquired skills, strengths, and experience that according to TendLab CEO & Co-founder, Amy Henderson, makes you better at work: Both anecdotal evidence and academic research show that women who choose to become mothers develop the capacity to outperform their former non-mom selves in their careers. I know this from personal experience, from interviewing more than 120 high-performing mothers, and from research from a variety of fields, including neuroscience, evolutionary biology, game theory, primate patterns, leadership studies, and more. Ultimately, it’s about finding your new normal and learning how to thrive in the space where motherhood and career intersect. It’s much easier said than done, and more often than not, it takes a while to find your footing. Here are four things you can do to help thwart an identity crisis while merging career and motherhood: Find your tribe. After running several working mom support groups, I can attest that there is no better comfort than other empathetic working moms. Not even husbands or partners come close to understanding the nuances, issues, and guilt that working moms face. It is worth the time and a little bit of research to find a group of women, whether it's in person or online, where you can connect with other ambitious working moms. Ask for help. Whether you receive support from family or you hire someone or download an app, you’ll benefit greatly from handing the baby off and finding some time to check in with yourself to evaluate where you’re at on your journey. This is especially true as you get closer to returning to work after maternity leave. Take time for yourself to establish a self-care routine that includes any of the following: exercise, mental health counseling, career coaching, meditation or even journaling. All of which will help you connect with your pre-baby self. Be patient. Give yourself the time and grace you deserve to adjust to your new normal. Just because your child is your main priority doesn’t mean mothering is your only priority. Heading back to work with the enormous responsibility of caring for another human, can be daunting and downright messy. But your work and career deserve the time it takes to adjust and acclimate to this new way of life. And with the right support at the office and home, you’ll be on a path to success in no time. Remember your goals. If after a few months, you still feel as though you’re experiencing an identity crisis, step back and reevaluate your professional and personal goals to determine if they still align now that you’re a parent. It's okay if it's different and if your goals have changed. What's critical is that you identify what is important to you and your family and set up the support in order for you to reach those new goals. Having a child is one of the most significant milestones in life. It’s no wonder we feel disheveled and perhaps a bit confused about our lives after giving birth. Everything in our world has shifted, but that doesn’t mean we’re lost. And if we dive deep and take our time, we’ll eventually reconnect with our ambition and work better & harder than ever before.
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5cd681e63cd720e7bc2fbe6a2848543a | https://www.forbes.com/sites/marybethferrante/2019/03/26/global-vp-of-sustainability-kate-wylie-shares-how-mars-incorporated-supports-working-parents/ | Global VP Of Sustainability, Kate Wylie, Shares How Mars Incorporated Supports Working Parents | Global VP Of Sustainability, Kate Wylie, Shares How Mars Incorporated Supports Working Parents
Headshot of Kate Wylie, Mars Incorporated's Global Vice President of Sustainability Provided by Mars Incorporated Coaching clients through the transition and identity shift from working females professional to working mother, I met with a plethora of concerns and questions. The pressure is real at every turn, and the stakes are high:
How will I maintain a breastfeeding relationship with my infant while I travel? My manager expects me to return early from maternity leave, but I’m not ready, what should I do? I feel like I'm being pushed into a non client-facing role. I love what I do, but it doesn require a lot of late hours. Should I consider this shift? How will it impact my long-term career goals?
While working mothers do everything in their power to execute a thoughtful and thorough plan, they may experience a litany of unforeseen challenges. Their once receptive manager suddenly second-guesses their commitment to work or worse yet, makes inaccurate assumptions about their drive and focus. As if requesting a flexible schedule, is a sign that their interest in work has waned. (It's not, by the way, it's simply a way to manage the juggle and additional responsibilities of parenting!)
For a working mother to continue along a successful trajectory, and thrive in her roles both at home and the office, she must be supported. Try as she may, she simply cannot do it all on her own. Her success hinges on a delicate web of support, and if woven correctly, will provide the help she needs to flourish.
Mars Incorporated's Global Vice President of Sustainability, Kate Wylie, not only structured a sound plan to return to work after maternity leave but recruited allies both at home and the office. She was communicative, direct and above all else; vulnerable, sharing “It takes a village to raise a child, it takes a partner if you’re raising a family together, and it takes your team at work. I couldn’t do this without them.”
Here Kate elaborates and shares what I consider a master-class in owning your role as a new working mother and what it takes to find success.
Ferrante: What has contributed most to your success as a working mom?
Wylie: My husband and I have equal roles at home, taking on the same amount of life administration...My teammates took on some of my responsibilities when I went on maternity leave and supported me with grace...having a great support network both at home and work helps hugely.
One of the Mars Five Principles is Responsibility, and the resulting culture of accountability enables a flexible approach to work. Victoria Mars, Board Member & Former Chairman says this about Mars’ commitment to working parents:
Mars is committed to fostering an inclusive workplace where all Associates have equal opportunity to thrive by being themselves – that includes both moms and dads. Women represent almost half of our leadership talent pipeline, and if we want them to stay with us and develop into more senior roles, we need policies and ways of working that engage and empower them to manage the different phases of their lives. Working together with our Associates when they become parents or have family responsibilities that require focus is the right thing to do, and it is the smart thing to do for our business.
Ferrante: Share a little bit about the relationship you have with your manager.
Wylie: We had built up a strong level of trust over the years. He knows I am dedicated to my work. He was fully supportive of my maternity leave, the phased approach I took returning to work and working four days a week. We had to be creative and considerate – we tried a couple of different options to ensure it worked for all involved.
Ferrante: As a UK-based employee, how do you think being able to take a 9-month maternity leave enabled you to be successful going back to work?
Wylie: The length of time allowed me to physically recover, manage calmly certain health concerns both children had at the start, build a strong bond and foundation with my newly expanded family and try to manage the sleepless nights! For both maternity leaves, I started back in November so I could get up to speed, be part of the planning and hit the ground running in the New Year. I was also supported by a maternity coach provided by Mars, who helped me work through what my maternity plans were and how to communicate them before maternity leave, as well as supporting me whilst I was on maternity leave in planning my return to work and once I was back in my role.
Ferrante: I often talk about the importance of men taking parental leave and how this will shift gender norms both at home and the office. What would your husband say about how taking parental leave impacted him?
Wylie: I asked my husband this question directly: “I was the first father to take shared parental leave at my company, it was a new experience for everyone and I was supported throughout the process. From a personal perspective in the home, I was able to establish a much greater bond with both children...By the end of parental leave, our youngest would come seeking emotional support from me as much as Kate.”
Ferrante: What’s the one piece of advice you offer to new moms returning to work?
Wylie: Know that there is no right or wrong. There are many days when I feel I’d be a better parent if I were at home all day with my children and not a working mum. It helps to remind myself that numerous studies show the positive effect a working mother has on her kids. And if I’m honest, the satisfaction I get from my job actually makes me a better mother when I’m with my children and appreciate the time I spend with them much more. There isn’t a right way to raise a child. You have to do what makes you a great mother.
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893645a894bb74b42a1f24c340becefd | https://www.forbes.com/sites/marybethferrante/2019/05/10/flowers-are-nice-but-what-moms-really-need-this-mothers-day-are-better-work-life-policies/ | Flowers Are Nice, But What Moms Really Need This Mother's Day Are Better Work-Life Policies | Flowers Are Nice, But What Moms Really Need This Mother's Day Are Better Work-Life Policies
Working Mom and Baby Robert Yu
Don’t get me wrong: I love flowers (preferably pink Gerber daisies).
But it’s not the Mother’s Day gift I’m craving. We’ve turned Mother’s Day into another Hallmark holiday, and while it's nice to shower moms with love, we’re missing out on an opportunity to really focus on what mothers in 2019 actually need.
Instead of flowers and a nice brunch, what we actually need is systemic change for working parents , particularly working mothers who often put in tens of thousands of dollars of unpaid labor during their working lives. Mothers still spend much more time on childcare and housework than fathers. That “invisible labor” — all the unpaid hours that make up a mother’s life — adds up.
The “maternal wall” is a very real thing. More than 4 in 10 working mothers say that they’ve reduced their working hours in order to care for a child — which, inevitably, affects their ability to rise within an organization and continues to keep women underrepresented in leadership roles. If we want to support our working mothers and their career goals, there has to be concrete policy change.
When it comes to actual change that’s going to move our culture and the structure of work in a direction that would also support working families, I turned to sociologist, Pr. Caitlyn Collins, author of Making Motherhood Work.
She has a few recommendations that — well, seem like common sense. But for the U.S.? We’ve still got a ways to go.
The United States has the least generous benefits, the lowest public commitment to caregiving, one of the highest wage gaps between employed men and women, and among the highest maternal and child poverty rates of any Western industrialized nation. But what is especially striking about Pr. Collins' research, is that American moms simply don't expect any support and continually blame themselves for not being able to "do it all."
I know I felt the exact same way. I was supposed to be this high powered, professional women who could easily jump back into work, and that balancing a job that requires way more than 40 hours a week, was just about having the right mom-hacks in place. When I was in the thick of it, getting no sleep and dragging my hospital grade pump to and from the office, I was too exhausted to even realize that working motherhood is much more supported in other areas of the world
We can learn a lot from what other countries have done (and even what some states in our own country are doing). But we have a long way to go until the whole country offers what all mothers deserve.
According to Collins, a few basic recommendations could make a world of difference for working families (especially mothers).
Paid parental leave for both mothers and fathers: This is a no-brainer! Especially when we have unprecedented bi-partisan support, 75% of Republicans and 90% of Democrats support paid parental leave programs, according to PL+US. Access to universal childcare: This would start with universal pre-K and would take a stepping stone approach to younger children. Shift the conversation from work-life balance to work-life justice: There are political and economic advantages when we support families through policies that value caregiving and value all parents’ ability to have careers and care for their families (whether they’re a mother or father).
But if we look at the statistics, there’s no denying that mothers are the ones doing the vast majority of housework and childcare. (Remember that stat from earlier about 4 in 10 working mothers saying they had reduced their hours to care for their children? Only 28% of working fathers said the same). Working mothers are the ones who would most directly benefit from universal childcare or paid parental leave policies. Congress is listening. On Wednesday, May 8th, the House Ways & Means committee held a four-hour hearing specifically on paid family and medical leave.
So for Mother’s Day this year? Buy the flowers. Book the massage for your mama. But also, think outside the box. Think about what would make life truly easier for your mom (and every mom). Make the call to your senator or representative. Share your story with Congress today. Start fighting for what your mom really deserves, work-life justice.
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8784883c20323f62c230c066bf59dcc8 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/marybethferrante/2020/03/10/representation-in-marketing-matters-but-what-we-really-want-is-action/?sh=37fbd05d5ed4 | Representation In Marketing Matters, But What We Really Want Is Action. | Representation In Marketing Matters, But What We Really Want Is Action.
A recent study from HHB Consulting found that “only 29% of Americans say it is important for ... [+] companies to publicly state support for women during this global awareness event. Getty
Over the weekend, many of our inboxes, social media accounts and airwaves were filled with messages celebrating International Women’s Day, showcasing women’s achievements, recognizing inspiring leaders and activists and using storytelling to empower women across the world. And it works. Many of the messages I stumbled upon filled me with emotion, even bringing me to tears, especially this one from Apple focusing on women changing the world and this one from the UN asking us all to “be the wake up call the world needs.”
Both of these messages make me want to stand up and continue to fight. Both of these messages had me cheering for women. But flipping through my inbox, the messages there didn’t quite hit the mark. Email after email tried to delicately balance inspiration with a call to purchase something – from shoes, athleisure, and outerwear to telling me to doing something “good for myself” in the form of wellness, exercise and self-improvement courses. It all feels a bit insincere.
In this regard, international women’s day is not special. Brands constantly capitalize on global awareness events throughout the year – Black History Month, Pride Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, Earth Day, Breast Cancer Awareness Month and more. Consumers, like me, may get emotional or empowered by a great ad (here’s another one sharing the history of Rosie the Riveter), but one ad is hardly going to change their opinions of a particular brand. We expect more. In fact, a recent study from Have Her Back Consulting found that “only 29% of Americans say it is important for companies to publicly state support for women during this global awareness event.” It’s not that they don’t expect companies to support women of course, they just simply expect that companies do more than simply highlight one day or month a year.
Culture sees one-off marketing sponsorships of Pride, Black History or International Women’s Day events as inauthentic - unless there is a demonstration of actions to advance women and minorities year-round Caroline Dettman, Founder Partner, Have Her Back Consulting
The survey explored a range of hot cultural issues, asking respondents how important it was for companies to solve each issue. Of all the topics, including climate change, providing free health care, building more understanding and respect of other cultures and others, the two that rose right to the top were providing equal opportunities and equal pay regardless of age, race, or gender. Ninety-two percent believe providing equal opportunities and equal pay is exactly what companies should be solving.
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The message is clear: it’s not enough to talk about supporting these global movements, people want these organizations to take action, they believe that authenticity matters, but most importantly according to Pamela Culpepper, Founder Partner of Have Her Back Consulting, “culture is demanding that companies spend more time on issues that are much closer to home - their own employees.”
To see what this authenticity looks like in action, look no further than Unilever. For years the consumer goods company has invested in global sustainability and gender equality initiatives, and recently announced they have reached 50/50 gender balance in management globally. Instead of just talking about the importance of women, Unilever set out to make significant changes by tracking progress and shifting culture through improving support for new parents, increasing flexibility, addressing unconscious bias and more.
Personally, I would much rather see more of these stories, from brands demonstrating how they are closing the gaps within their own organizations to publicly making commitments towards gender equality and challenging each other to do more for their own employees. Then next time I’m sitting on the coach crying over yet another Dove commercial, I know it’s because the company behind it is actually committed to being a part of the change.
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e85cb74eefcffac5e5c179954824adc1 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/marycarreon/2018/05/17/new-study-highlights-the-social-impacts-of-cannabis-legalization-in-california/ | New Study Highlights The Social Impacts Of Cannabis Legalization In California | New Study Highlights The Social Impacts Of Cannabis Legalization In California
More cannabis consumers live in the suburbs and small towns of California than they did a year ago. Morgan Forbes
The most visible effect of cannabis legalization in California is the soon-to-be multi-billion-dollar industry. What's less visible--but arguably of equal significance-- are the myriad ways it's impacted society. A recent study by BDS Analytics, a cannabis industry market trend and research group, suggests the impact of legalization has shifted Californians’ attitudes, opinions, motivations and actions in regards to cannabis. It also reveals an abundance of details about those who consume, accept and reject the plant, not only illustrating a shift in social culture, but also indicating—at least in the Golden State— cannabis’ archaic stigma is en route to extinction.
The survey, titled "Public Attitudes and Actions Toward Cannabis in California, Q1 2018," assessed 1,001 California residents over 21-years-old in the first quarter of 2017, benchmarking public opinions and behaviors toward legal cannabis. Another group of 1,008 people was then evaluated in quarter one of 2018, examining the public's views toward cannabis laws, efficacy, and testing.
The survey yielded three clear groups. The "consumers,” whose average age is 39-years-old, and have used marijuana or products containing cannabinoids in the past six months. “Acceptors,” whose median age is 49-years-old, and haven’t used cannabis in the past six months, but would consider using it in the future. Lastly, “rejecters,” whose average age is 56-years-old, and haven’t consumed cannabis in the last six months and are not likely to consider future use.
According to the report, there’s been a significant increase in cannabis consumption among Californians' over the past year. Consumers currently account for 29 percent of adults in California, which is up from 23 percent in 2017. The number of acceptors, on the other hand, declined from 38 percent in 2017 to 33 percent in 2018, suggesting more people are currently using cannabis than they were a year ago. Additionally, the number of rejecters decreased from 40 percent in 2017 to 38 percent in 2018, implying the tolerance and acceptance of cannabis is becoming more common.
The reason acceptors and rejecters choose not to use cannabis, the study notes, is because they don't like how it makes them feel. Moreover, 25 percent of rejecters say pot makes them feel dysfunctional. Over a third of non-consumers say they'd be more inclined to use marijuana for the health benefits if they didn't have to endure its effects. In regards to compassionate-use, however, nearly 50 percent of rejecters say they'd want an ill loved-one to use cannabis if it eased their pain.
“Things are changing so fast in respect to cannabis,” says Linda Gilbert, BDS Analytics’ managing director of consumer insights. “We are already seeing major shifts in such a short amount of time. Some of that has to do with changes in legalization, what’s happening in distribution and retail systems, and brands. But it’s clear that open conversation about cannabis is happening more now than ever before, and it’s affecting everything from attitudes to opinions to consumption.”
Conducting trend surveys and in-depth consumer research for over 30 years, Gilbert explains such drastic changes rarely occur in most industries, such as health and wellness or sustainability, allowing for a longer time span between data updates—sometimes as much as two years. To properly document the rapid developments, nuances and social implications of legalization, however, BDS Analytics plans to conduct bi-annual surveys to reflect the ways legalization is influencing cultural shifts.
In 2017, BDS' data showed 63 percent of consumers lived in cities. According to Gilbert, that's where dispensaries have traditionally been located, making it easier for people to access and consume cannabis. Although 2018's survey results still show that most consumers live in cities, that number's dropped to 45 percent. In 2017, 31 percent of consumers lived in the suburbs, while only 4 percent of consumers lived in small towns. Those numbers jumped considerably in 2018. Now, 40 percent of consumers live in suburbs while 10 percent live in small towns.
"If you didn’t live in a city back in 2017, it was probably pretty inconvenient for you to go to a dispensary," Gilbert says. "But now there are more dispensaries in suburbs and small towns. I think that's part of what's driving some of the change in demographics. We saw this with health-food stores 30 years ago. At first, health-food shoppers lived in the city and made a bunch of money. But then as they started popping up in the suburbs and so forth the demographics started to change."
The report also shows that next to the 68 percent of consumers who are Caucasian/white, nearly 45 percent of consumers are Hispanic-- quadrupling the percentage of consumers of other ethnicities. "This is one of the areas showing that cannabis use is becoming more aligned with how California looks generally," Gilbert says. "California is more likely to be Hispanic than anything else."
The data also found that only 32 percent of consumers are married, whereas 44 percent of both acceptors and rejecters are married. Interestingly, 58 percent of consumers have children. 44 percent of consumers have children over the age of 10 at home, while 28 percent of consumers have children under 10-years-old at home. In general, the stigma is deteriorating (in California). But it clings with fervor to specific groups of people, particularly parents—and even more so with mothers. Parents who use cannabis are often seen as irresponsible and incompetent caretakers. Thus, many often remain in the "green closet" and hide their use. But no judgment is passed for drinking wine.
“We’ve talked about this a lot,” Gilbert says. “There seems to be a segment of the population who I would absolutely say believes that parents or moms who smoke pot are less responsible than someone who drinks. But we seem to feel—we think, we don’t know for sure, but we think—that attitude is starting to change, especially in states where cannabis has become a greater part of the general lifestyle. There’s more acceptance and recognition of the ideas that it’s not as impairing and unhealthy as alcohol.”
Gilbert makes note of the fact that the culture in legal states says it’s acceptable to microdose throughout the day. It’s not okay to drink alcohol throughout the day, however, no matter what state you're in. Similarly, it’s not socially appropriate to consume cough syrup just because it feels good. “We haven’t been able to come up with an example of any other product that consumers can look to as being everything from fully recreational to fully medical," she says. "No other product really lives in that space where it’s appropriate for multiple occasions throughout the day, too. You can use it at night, you can use topicals in the morning or edibles in the afternoon or topicals after exercising. Cannabis is unique in that way.”
The study also found, despite the lazy-stoner-stereotype, 53 percent of consumers work full-time jobs and have an average annual income of nearly $70,000. Only 44 percent of acceptors have full-time jobs, and 33 percent of rejecters work full-time. Although consumers are educated, only 10 percent of them have a master’s degree or higher. 21 percent of rejecters and 15 percent of acceptors have higher education degrees.
Another stigma defying stat revealed by BDS Analytics is that consumers, in general, are more active than accepters and rejecters. 43 percent of consumers participate in outdoor recreation once or more a week; whereas 35 percent of acceptors and only 25 percent of rejecters participate in outdoor recreation weekly. 40 percent of consumers go to the gym a minimum of once a week, whereas 30 percent of acceptors and 27 percent of rejecters workout at the gym once or more per week. The report states 31 percent of consumers practice yoga or pilates at least once a week, while 26 percent of acceptors and only 20 percent of rejecters attend a yoga/pilates class weekly. Lastly, the study found that 21 percent of consumers go to a club or bar once a week, sometimes more. 15 percent of acceptors and only 10 percent of rejecters do the same.
Although most of the report's findings provide evidence disproving the stigma, the study disclosed one confusing (read: alarming) revelation. According to the survey, consumers, who mostly identify as liberal, are less likely to believe it's important to vote in every election. Only 57 percent of consumers in 2018 think it’s important to vote, which is down from 71 percent in 2017. Rejecters, at 72 percent, and acceptors, at 67 percent, express a greater interest in social activism.
“I was stunned by that,” Gilbert says. “Consumers describe themselves as being social activists, and yet they don’t vote. It’s interesting because the younger generations have an impressive ability to use social media to affect change on corporations: from getting Kraft to take yellow coloring out of macaroni and cheese to persuading Kellogg’s to commit to non-GMO, but they don’t seem to apply that power at the voting booth.”
It seems counterintuitive because politics and activism are inherent components of the cannabis movement. But considering 43 percent of eligible voters—nearly 100 million Americans—didn’t vote in the 2016 presidential election, it's unfortunately not surprising. Of course, the cumulative sample size of 2000 people is minuscule compared to the 39 million people who live in California--more research needs to be done. But what the report undeniably reflects are the social transitions happening in California as a result of legalization. Everything is changing—from the industry to products to laws to people’s perspectives, and, ultimately, the stigma.
“I think that from a wellness point-of-view, it’s important that we stop messing this up,” says Gilbert. “We need more information to make good decisions because cannabis is just too important. We are going to continue this research in order to understand the changes and where consumers are headed in their thinking so we can help people and industries make informed decisions in terms of how to utilize cannabis.”
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b378a4d98813c26c0199d6cff789b203 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryclairekendall/2012/06/11/a-j-fenady-remembers-the-duke/ | A.J. Fenady Remembers the Duke | A.J. Fenady Remembers the Duke
That America craves strength in the face of metastasizing challenges and threats, within and without, makes John Wayne, who died thirty three years ago today, more relevant than ever.
Recently I spoke with A.J. Fenady about “the Duke” to mark the 105th anniversary of his birth on May 26. I interviewed A.J. at his offices in Hollywood near Paramount Pictures. Writer-Producer Fenady’s long parade of credits consists of TV series, including The Rebel, Branded, Hondo, sixteen novels, seven stage plays, many MOWs and features including The Sea Wolf (1993), The Man With Bogart’s Face (1980) and Chisum (1970).
While developing Chisum, Fenady spent much time in many places with the Duke during and between the filming of Hellfighters, True Grit and The Undefeated. He was with him the night Duke won his Oscar and the day Duke, along with friends, celebrated five years after his lung operation, when he was declared cancer free.
Before his Oscar win, Fenady said, “Duke tipped his hand while they were having a drink together at the bar: “I said, ‘Good luck tonight Duke,’ and he said, ‘Well, McFenady, we gave it our best shot.’ But, I could tell he was confident.” And, sure enough, Fenady said smiling, “He let something slip on stage after he presented an award. Even though he was not scheduled to appear again unless he won for best actor, “Duke nodded to the audience and said, ‘I’ll see you later.’”
Fenady “first bumped into Wayne—almost” shortly after arriving in Hollywood in the early 50s, “still smelling of college.” Fenady was tooling around Hollywood in his Oldsmobile looking at the front of the studios, the billboards, the gates—to Paramount, RKO, Universal, Twentieth Century Fox, MGM—as he liked to do, wondering if he’d “ever be able to be inside one of those Camelots.” As he was approaching the Barham Gate at Warner Brothers, he recounted:
All of a sudden, out of the gate and off the curb strides the biggest man—the biggest anything I’ve ever seen in my life—against the light. He had the red light, I had the green and he’s striding across the street like he owns it and I slam on the brakes and twist the wheel and the cars behind me do the same and I stopped and I looked out, and recognizing it was John Wayne, put my head out the window. He turned around and said, “Why you dumb bastard, why don’t you learn how to drive that damn car.” I had a ready reposte—I wasn’t going to take it. I nodded and said, “Yes, sir.” He kept walking to the Mexican café across the street and flipped the Camel cigarette before making an entrance.
Years later, in Durango, while filming Chisum, Fenady said he told Wayne this story: “He looked at me, smiled, and said, ‘Oh, were you that dumb bastard?’ as if he remembered.”
Fenady formally met Wayne while working at Paramount on The Rebel TV series (1959-1961), while Wayne was filming Hatari!. Fenady had hired a “cutter” (now called an editor), Otho Lovering, who had worked on many of Wayne’s films, including Stagecoach, The Long Voyage Home and later, The Alamo and McClintock.
One day, sitting in his office, as usual with his door open, Fenady said, “I hear Otho saying ‘Hey Andy. There’s someone out here who wants to come in and say hello. Is it OK?’ I said, ‘Bring him in, that’s what doors are for.’” So, in comes skinny, little Otho and there “filling the whole damn doorway” is the Duke. “And, he comes over and he sticks his hand out and shakes hands and then Otho says to Duke, ‘Look. See, that’s what I was telling you about.’”
Otho was pointing to a blown-up publicity photo from Hondo that went all the way from the ceiling to the floor of Fenady’s office.
“Hondo. That’s one of my favorite pictures,” Duke said. “The rights to Hondo come back to me in a couple of years.” After that, Fenady said, “Duke would stop by The Rebeldailies or the set grinning, ‘I might want to get into this television business myself some day.’ A couple of years later, after becoming pals and working out with Duke’s son, Michael, at the gym, all the stars lined up. “I’d made a deal with MGM,” Fenady said, “and remembering Duke’s comment, ‘the rights come back to me,’ I worked out a deal, developed, wrote and produced the series Hondo, in partnership with MGM and Batjac (Duke’s production company).”
Working for John Wayne, Fenady said, meant “achievement. You were top of the world. You worked with and moved with the best.” During WWII, he said, Duke got a bum rap because he didn’t join up: “First off, Duke was thirty-five years old with a wife, four kids and a studio to support.” He tried time and again to join John Ford’s Naval Unit but his request was blocked by Herbert Yates at Republic for just ‘one more picture’ – war pictures like Flying Tigers, Pittsburg, Fighting Seabees, Back to Batan. “Duke’s visits and efforts for the troops, like Bob Hope’s,” said Fenady, “continued years after, in Korea and Vietnam.”
The story of how Chisum came about will be told in Fenady’s book, tentatively titled,Big Enough for John Wayne… and me. Though, he did offer one gem in “John Wayne, Cigar Lover”—published in this teaser, along with his “Commemorativo Tequila vs. Gordon’s Gin” anecdote, on the Duke’s birthday.
The film business has changed a lot since Chisum. In spite of what John Chisum, played by Wayne, says, change has not always been “for the better.”
Duke, Fenady said, used to use the phrase “when ours was a small business.” Fenady said Columbia in the 30s and early 40s budgeted just $17 million, with which they made 53 pictures, 3 or 4 for $1 million, whereas the others cost $300,000. “It was a small business,” he said, “but it was largely owned by and controlled by first generation immigrants who came here to succeed, who loved this business. For them it wasn’t a corporation, it was their studio, their home, it was their life.” By contrast, today, “you don’t know who to go to talk to for an OK. I’ve gotten OKs by talking to one person at a studio. Today you can’t do that… There aren’t any Warners, Mayers, Cohns, Fords and Capras. It’s all mathematics.”
Asked what memories well up inside of him on the anniversary of Wayne’s birth and death, Fenady said, his voice cracking ever so slightly, “I don’t need any anniversaries to remember him… There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t remember him.”
Nonetheless, two days later, on the anniversary of the Duke’s birth, when I asked, “Do you remember how you heard the news on the day of Duke’s death?,” he said:
I remember vividly. I got a phone call in the afternoon from a good friend of mine, Ted Thackrey, a reporter at the LA Times. “A.J.,” he said, “we’re not supposed to release this story for another two hours, but I know you’d want to know. Duke just bought the farm.” The next day while we were shooting The Man with Bogart’s Face, and just before noon, I asked for silence on the set and had the effects man toll a bell nine times for John Wayne, then said, “Duke beat the count – he got up and made it to the Big Sky.” And during the day a lot of the radio stations kept playing the theme from The High and the Mighty.
Over three decades later, John Wayne remains indelibly imprinted in America’s consciousness. The further out from his death, the more popular he is, ranking as “America’s favorite movie star” as recently as January 2012 according to a Harris poll —a position he’s held since the early 90’s.
He’s bigger than even the very much alive, very liberal George Clooney. This, at a time when TNT has revived Dallas—J.R. more resembling L.G. Murphy, the villain in Chisum,written by Fenady, than the hero, played by Wayne. The new Dallas premieres on TNT this Wednesday, June 13.
But, Wayne—playing the “good guy,” reassuringly leading and trouncing the “bad guys”— remains larger than life.
Why is this so?
Why is it the Duke forever commands that special corner of America’s collective mind, where we desire nothing more than the Old West values he epitomized, where good and evil are clear cut?
The answer, Fenady said, lies in Wayne’s philosophy, which was simple: “There’s only one defense: Strength. Stay strong.” “There comes a time,” Fenady said, “when you find out you can’t do business with Hitler. You can’t do business with Stalin. You can’t do business with L.G. Murphy–and some other current dictators.” All the Westerns Fenady worked on—The Rebel, Hondo, Chisum, he said, “had something in common: They were pushed, and pushed and pushed and finally they had been pushed enough and that’s when Duke says, as in Chisum, ‘Break out the Winchesters.’ That’s the way that he looked at it.”
Critics of “the Old West” ushered in “New Hollywood” –the landmark film Bonnie and Clyde that glorified “bad guy” Western outlaws and outcasts, serving as the vanguard. Fenady responded to “those righteous revisionists of the West who take such great delight in doing everything they can to demean, defame, defile and pervert anyone who ever wore a badge or uniform, any man or woman who ever moved west” in his 1995 off-the-cuff remarks accepting the prestigious Golden Boot Award (1) :
To those critics I would say “Where would you have had the pilgrims and the pioneers stop?” At Plymouth Rock? Manhattan? The Allegheny and Mongahela? The Shenandoah? The Ohio? The Mississippi? The Missouri? The Red River? The Colorado? Where would you have had them draw the line and say, “This is far enough.” Me? I’m glad they kept coming West. Otherwise California wouldn’t be the 31ststate. There wouldn’t be a Hollywood. We wouldn’t be here tonight and I would not have had the privilege and pleasure of meeting and working with people like John Wayne (and so many others)(2)… It’s easy for the critics to look back and say, “They could have done it differently—they could have been “kinder and gentler”—well, maybe so; but the wonder is that they did it at all. And a lot of them died a not so kind and gentle death in the doing. On all sides the paths of glory led to the grave. And there was guilt and glory enough to go around on all sides—but for the most part, right was done, and it was done right—and that’s how the west was won!
“Instead of finding the heroic aspect of a character,” Fenady said, “the Arthur Penns and Bob Altmans did everything to denigrate and downgrade the heroes, the Custers, the Hickocks and the Buffalo Bills. They figured that was the way to get the attention of the young revolutionaries—hippies—of the time.”
Ah, but Wayne was kinder and gentler, captured in the story of when Wayne met Fenady’s wife, Mary Frances, mother of their six children. When Duke saw her wearing an elephant pin, he assumed it was because she was a Republican. But she disabused him, telling him, ‘It’s a gift from my husband, lest I forget him when he’s away shooting a film. Elephants never forget.’ Years later, when the Fenadys were having dinner at Chasens with Michael Wayne and his wife, Gretchen—godparents to their youngest child—after drinks, dinner and dessert, Michael reached into his pocket, and pulled out a small elephant key chain.
“J.W.,” Michael said, “asked me to give this to Mary Frances, “so she won’t forget him.”
But, then, who could ever forget the Duke?
(1) The Golden Boot Awards Dinner , held for 25 years from 1983-2007, benefitted the Motion Picture and Television Home and Hospital, which Mary Pickford, “the woman who made Hollywood,” founded to help those in the film industry when they fell on hard times. The Motion Picture and Television Fund sponsors it. Having itself fallen on hard times, in 2009, the fund announced plans to close the home and hospital. Though, it was saved, its finances remain precarious. The night in 1995 that A.J. Fenady received the Golden Boot, he was joined by Claire Trevor and Burt Lancaster (in memoriam) among other stars. (2) Full list of those A.J. Fenady mentioned the night in 1995 he was honored with the Golden Boot: “John Wayne, Michael Wayne, Charles Bronson, Robert Mitchum, Ernie Borgnine, Richard Jaeckel, Ben Johnson, Any McLaglen, Burt Reynolds, Burt Kennedy, Dale Robertson, Morgan Woodward, Denver Pyle, James Drury, Dan Blocker, Doug McClure, Chuck Connors, Nick Adams, Christopher Reeve (he’ll be up again), Angela Lansbury, Angie Dickinson, Anne Francis, Stella Stevens, Helen Hayes, Joan Blondell, Gail Russell, and oh, so many, many more.”
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f15c36590c89f465cca932c16932f1d9 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryclairekendall/2012/08/23/roger-ebert-gives-the-red-machine-a-big-thumbs-up/ | Roger Ebert Gives "The Red Machine" A Big Thumbs Up | Roger Ebert Gives "The Red Machine" A Big Thumbs Up
When Old Hollywood was busy churning out Depression-era films such as top grossing Top Hat (1935), yielding Paramount Pictures $3.2 million ($53.3 million in today’s dollars), Naval Intelligence was after an even bigger prize—cracking the Japanese code in what amounted to the “arms race” of the early 20th century.
The drama and suspense of this race is captured in The Red Machine (2012), an independent film directed by Stephanie Argy and Alec Boehm, that Roger Ebert praised for its “elegant simplicity.” It’s won a bevy of awards including the GI Film Festival’s “Founder’s Choice Award” and has crisscrossed the country for numerous screenings at independent theaters. Now available on DVD, The Pentagon Channel is airing it from August 24-30.
When the film opens, it’s 1935 in Washington, D.C. at the height of the Great Depression. A brief, old-fashioned slide presentation—that era’s PowerPoint—announces, in effect, what follows is a military briefing on all of Japan’s activities, geared toward one goal: the march toward war. While America still has diplomatic relations with Japan, changes are afoot.
The Germans had “Enigma.” Americans were developing their own cipher machine. And, “the red machine” was Japan’s first, followed by “the purple machine”—the latter famously cracked by William and Elizabeth Friedman, working with the Army.
“Nobody quite knows how (the red machine) was cracked,” said Argy. “But, we did,” said Boehm—in their imaginations, that is. The machines were not actually those colors but rather refer to military terminology to distinguish one code from another. The real “red machine” was closer to gray. In the film, it’s red—of course.
Some “forward-thinking” naval strategists saw trouble coming back in the 1920s given the boiling cauldron that was Japan—fascists clashing with internationalists seeking to be westernized. “So they took their best and brightest,” said Argy, “and sent them over to Japan ostensibly as cultural attaches. But really they were spies gathering information.” They’d leak, accidentally on purpose, little bits their handlers had deftly doled out to them to lure their Japanese counterparts to reciprocate.
Interestingly, the whole idea for the story came about while the directing team’s Mental Slapstick Productions was making Gandhi at the Bat, a short film serving up supposedly never-before-seen newsreel footage of Gandhi’s legendary visit to Yankee Stadium in 1933. It’s based on the short story by Chet Williamson, originally appearing in The New Yorker in 1983.
“When we saw the title, we fell off our chair laughing,” said Argy. They knew it was their next film. Little did they know that it would lead them to the world of the 1930s and their co-stars for The Red Machine—Donal Thoms-Cappello and Lee Perkins—who were perfect for the thief and spy Argy and Boehm envisioned cracking Japan’s “red machine.”
Earlier, while perusing a used book store in New Orleans, the couple who share a passion for capers, spies and cryptanalysis, stumbled upon a book about American efforts to crack codes during World War II, specifically the Japanese Code. “There was one paragraph,” said Argy, “about how in 1920 the U.S. Navy used a professional safe cracker to help them steal a copy of Japan’s Naval Code. That set off the bells. Who would this safe cracker be? Who would the Navy assign to handle him?” Once they met Donal and Lee, “the story came to life,” Argy said. As they did the research, they realized, “Code machines were amazing.” In the pre-World War II era, “whoever had the best code was the top of the heap.”
The opening scene of The Red Machine dramatizes Japan’s switch to a cipher machine. “Codes,” said Boehm, “used to be done by hand but once they started doing it by machine it was essentially impossible for a human to crack.”
Enter Lt. F. Ellis “Ellie” Coburn (Perkins), a perfectly dressed naval officer, as smart as they come, who, curiously, has not risen higher than lieutenant. He served in Tokyo seven years earlier as one of the cultural attaches/spies who, by leaking those secret bits, put his Japanese counterparts at ease, prompting them to reveal their own secrets. But, the affair—literally—got very messy when Shimada (Eddie Lee), now the Japanese Ambassador in Washington, revealed critical information, strengthening America’s bargaining position. His wife Naomi (Madoka Kasahara), daughter of the former Ambassador, was heartbroken by the scandal’s fallout and Coburn’s evident double-crossing.
Coburn is understandably stone-faced throughout the film. “Have you ever seen one of those guys walking down the street,” asked Perkins, “all hunched over because life has beaten them down? That’s who Coburn was, only he wore it on his face.” Perkins, compared by critics at the Edinburgh International Film Festival to Lee Marvin, plays the role superbly—a role that, among other challenges, required him to learn period Japanese.
An exile in Guam installing listening stations, Coburn is called to Washington to spring busted safe cracker Eddie Doyle (Thoms-Cappello) out of jail. The two are assigned to break into the Japanese Consulate and then the Japanese Embassy to crack the code.
Thoms-Cappello, who deftly fills the dramatic space, said his character “looks at every angle of the room.” In preparing for his role, he said he “thought a lot about owls and mornings in Los Angeles and New York, getting that feeling that someone could come out of the dark alley at any moment and kill you. How does that make you walk, how does that make you behave?”
Doyle’s handler, Stella Snyder (Maureen Byrnes), is a smart-talking toughie who navigates the tight-knit criminal fraternity. Interestingly, Perkins said, her role was originally written for a man. But, when the casting director, Sam Christenson, who did all the casting for MASH, suggested a woman, specifically Byrnes, the story was magically transformed. Her counterpart in the Navy, sassy and smart Agnes Driscoll, First Lady of Navy Cryptology (Meg Brogan), is the film’s only-historically-based character. Then, there’s the Navy Brass, from Admiral Byron McAdams (David Ross Paterson) on down, possessing attributes that brilliantly carry the story forward. Last but not least the Japanese roles are played almost to perfection, which wasn’t an accident. For instance, Kasahara, who played Naomi, was born in Japan, giving her a softer, culturally authentic demeanor, Perkins said, which made her portrayal utterly genuine.
The team of Doyle and Coburn is so improbable—“they don’t like each other and don’t like working together, and any possible personal progress is shut down by Coburn’s fearsome reserve,” writes Ebert, that the fact they work as at team, lures you right in. Underneath it all is their secret pact in beating the bosses at their own game, as well as Coburn’s reason for enduring this charade—to convince his lost love he never used her—that makes the drama itself seem as coded as the world of espionage it portrays.
The Red Machine’s achievement—besides his thumbs up, Ebert gave it 3½ stars (of 4)—in some ways recalls film’s infancy when D.W. Griffith was first inventing the language of film, discovering how to tell a story in more visually powerful ways.
The key is Griffith was telling a story. So are Argy and Boehm. They don’t need exploding buildings, bridges, and towers to distract from a thin story line or empty characters. But, they do need an attentive audience. “It’s one of those films,” Perkins said, where “you have to really pay attention to get it all. They’re just not A-Z filmmakers. They kind of leave it a little bit where you have to put it together.”
Argy and Boehm, he said, make films like those out of Hollywood’s Golden Age—“character-driven thinking films.”
“That’s what Stephanie and Alec like to do.” It’s a passion they’ve pursued for years.
Argy started her career in post-production film editing then became a journalist, getting her masters at Columbia’s School of Journalism. Combining her two loves, she wrote for American Cinematographer, Variety, Hollywood Reporter and numerous websites. Her specialty was “the art and technology of filmmaking.” Gradually, teaming up with Boehm, the balance shifted back to filmmaking exclusively.
Boehm said he always wanted to be a filmmaker—“ever since my grandfather gave me an 8 millimeter camera when I was eight.” When he got out of college, he wondered if he could really make films and went to work in a film camera department to find out. He eventually became a camera assistant working on films ranging from Haunted Mansion to The Passion of the Christ before teaming up with Argy.
Expect more good things from this team. Next up: The story, set between 1895 and 1905, of a legendary, Chicago-based detective agency that sends its detectives all around the country.
The Red Machine DVD is now available to order at http://mentalslapstick.spinshop.com/ and will be shipped out on September 6.
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a38aa44b2bac3fbdd267fe491ee9fab7 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjosephs/2014/04/02/crucial-career-advice-young-people-wont-get-elsewhere/ | Crucial Career Advice Young People Won't Get Elsewhere | Crucial Career Advice Young People Won't Get Elsewhere
As the mother of five – young adults and teenagers at this point – I confess that as I go about my job as an investment banker, meeting with companies in many industries, I’m constantly wondering which businesses would be the best places to work for young people.
The elaborate corporate training programs of earlier times are now few and far between, so helping to size up a potential employer as a good fit for a young person in your family seems all the more crucial. I think about all the usual things: How would a job at a particular company match up with a youngster’s college major? Is it a fast-growing industry that will have lots of opportunities? Is this a high-performance company within its industry? Is the executive across the table from me charismatic and visionary – the kind of person who would make a good mentor to younger professionals?
But I also think about something that might seem more obscure: Does the company have significant employee ownership? And does a participatory work environment go along with that?
You see, for more than 25 years I’ve been helping founder/entrepreneur/CEOs structure Employee Stock Ownership Plans, or ESOPS. And I know from long experience that these companies – there are more than 10,000 of them in the U.S. – tend to be good places to work. In fact, companies with significant employee ownership are over-represented on the national and local best-places-to-work lists one reads every year in business publications.
Among the largest employee-owned companies, you’ll find supermarket chains; major construction, engineering and architecture firms; retailers; manufacturers; professional services firms; healthcare companies; distributors and more.
Studies have found that the act of converting to employee ownership itself tends to improve a company’s performance; workers act more like owners. But it’s also true, I’ve observed, that the company owners who chose to sell their business to an ESOP, in part of in whole -- rather than sell to a private equity fund or to a direct competitor – tend to be progressive managers who’ve all along cared about their corporate cultures and about their employees.
That makes for a more satisfying workplace and, often, a better-performing company. My impressions are backed up by decades of studies on ESOPs. Steven F. Freeman, a resident scholar and faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania’s Organizational Dynamics program, surveyed a wide array of ESOP research and published findings worth understanding for anyone making career choices:
--ESOP companies tend to pay as well or better than non-ESOP competitors. And then on top of that, workers receive an ownership stake.
--Regardless of the size of the ownership position collectively held by workers – an ESOP can buy as little as 20%-to-30% and still yield considerable tax savings to the selling entrepreneur and to the ongoing company – worker satisfaction rises. The key isn’t percentage ownership, but the extent of employee engagement.
--In concept, ESOPs could increase risk to employees because their paycheck and a significant amount of retirement savings come from the same place, and a company bankruptcy could be devastating. But in practice, Freeman found in the research, ESOP companies fail less frequently than others do. “Most research on employee ownership shows robust, positive, firm-level effects,” Freeman writes. “These studies show that employee-owned firms are more productive and profitable, survive longer, and result in better shareholder returns.”
--Why ESOP-owned companies perform better seems obvious: As owners, employees work harder, make decisions based on the company’s success rather than their own comfort or situation, and there is a self-policing mechanism among workers that prevents waste and other behaviors that undermine success. Oddly, though, the research is spotty on cause-and-effect, Freeman writes. My own observations at scores of ESOP companies, however, support the above assumptions.
--If ESOPs do so well, Freeman wonders, why don’t more of them exist? Good question. My experience suggests that for an ESOP to be a viable option a company must already have in place habits that encourage employee longevity, high levels of training, and practices that seek to instill better work habits from the bottom up.
The work experience at ESOP companies is different and, to my mind, better. Workplace confrontation is diminished. Cooperation flourishes. And employees young and old are able to work up to their capabilities and while doing so build retirement savings far superior to workers in similar non-ESOP companies.
Advising a family member or friend on career decisions? You might want to point this out.
In coming weeks in this space, I will be writing more about exit strategies for owner-entrepreneurs.
Mary Josephs is the founder and CEO of Verit Advisors. You can reach her at CEO@verit.com.
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19e6fdec3ad7c622b8d13d5ee2eb4a77 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjosephs/2014/08/19/exit-strategies-how-to-avoid-troublesome-earn-out-problems/ | Exit Strategies: How To Avoid Troublesome Earn-Out Problems | Exit Strategies: How To Avoid Troublesome Earn-Out Problems
The sale of Al Gore’s cable television operation, Current TV, to Al Jazeera for $500 million is very old news: the deal closed in early 2013, allowing the former vice president to monetize his investment and giving the upstart Al Jazeera’s U.S. operation access to viewers in tens of millions of homes.
And yet the deal was just in the news again, as Gore and his partners are suing to get the final $65 million they say they’re owed, as part of an apparent 18-month escrow deal. Precise details weren’t disclosed – Gore’s suit was filed under seal. But the drama playing out in Delaware courts is all too familiar to those of us in the middle market mergers and acquisitions business: buyers, both private equity funds and strategic acquirers, are seeking to tie up bigger and bigger amounts of deal proceeds in ever-longer earn-outs and other escrow arrangements.
If you’re a founder/owner/entrepreneur/CEO/management team considering selling your business anytime soon, this article is aimed at helping you avoid the pain and delay – and potential loss of a big percentage of your business’s value – that can occur in earn-outs, post-closing purchase price adjustment arrangements and other escrow provisions. I’ve been advisor to more than 250 sellers in transactions over the past 25 years, with billions of dollars in combined value realized, and few things are as vexing to a company founder as coming to the end of what should be a highly profitable earn-out period and discovering that, instead of a hefty wire transfer and a warm handshake, costly litigation lies ahead.
To get the latest data and trends on earn-outs and other post-closing nightmares for sellers, I reached out to the good people at SRS/Acquiom. The firm manages escrow and other closing and post-closing arrangements on hundreds of deals, representing sellers, and has compiled one of the most valuable databases on deal outcomes.
Christopher Letang, a managing director at SRS/Acquiom, oversees post-closing matters for the firm’s clients. He makes sure they get paid. And if there’s a conflict on an earn-out or another dispute involving escrowed funds, he sorts it out. “Earn-outs are prone to dispute for a good many reasons,” Letang tells me. And the disputes are increasing in number and involve larger percentages of deal proceeds, Letang and his colleagues have shown:
-SRS/Acquiom found that in 2013, earn-outs represented a stunning 40% of potential deal proceeds, up from 23% three years earlier.
-Earn-outs are lasting longer, with a shift from one-year hold-backs of deal proceeds to increasing use of two-and-three-year hold-backs.
-Two-thirds of deals end up with a battle over escrowed funds, with buyers trying to withhold cash. And quite a few of these disputes arise only in the final week of an escrow period, just when a seller is hoping to finally close a chapter of his or her business life and move on.
-Private equity buyers, also known as financial buyers, are the most likely to file claims seeking to hold back money, followed by privately-held strategic buyers, public strategic buyers and, lastly, foreign buyers.
So, we’ve established that post-closing claims are a big and growing problem for sellers. How to minimize the heartache? First, regardless of which type of buyer you choose – and it is your choice (more on that later, and it’s surprisingly important) – a few of my own general recommendations: be honest with yourself about your company’s likely future performance, as you are while running it, and don’t bank on the high end of an earn-out range just because it’s in the agreement; if you and your management team are kept on (and you should retain key players leading up to and after a sale), plan to work as hard and be just as focused as before the sale; if there is any money held back in escrow, then the buyer is your partner for that period and you should communicate frequently and honestly and avoid becoming strangers.
“The deals that get ugly are when there’s no relationship left and all you’re looking at are spread sheets,” Letang notes. He and his SRS/Acquiom colleagues have their own advice, and it’s great common sense that’s too often left out of merger agreements:
“When companies develop their product or service, there tend to be many unpredictable turns in the road. Companies start down one path, figure out that a different strategy makes more sense, and make appropriate changes. While this seems obvious, it is surprisingly difficult to account for when the parties negotiate and define terms of earn-outs. We often see earn-out provisions with deadlines and specific requirements that appear to be one way, but not the only way, to reflect the value of the business acquired.”
“The result is that earn-outs sometimes are technically missed but for reasons that are caused by changes in business strategy that do not necessarily mean that the buyer is not getting the value sought from the company purchased.”
“To avoid this, we suggest that the parties acknowledge at closing that nobody really knows how the future development will progress and avoid setting milestones tied to the plan as it exists at closing, especially for tests that will be years out into the future. Instead, our suggestion is that they focus on the results of what would constitute ‘success’ with respect to this acquisitions, or clear value inflection points that cannot be bypassed.”
Got that? Results, not technical milestones. Just as you’d measure success in the business while you’re running it as the owner.
Letang also warns that accounting interpretations can produce earn-out and other post-closing drama. Merely specifying that the books will be kept in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, isn’t enough. As you well know, GAAP allows for a lot of judgment calls. For instance, how high to set reserves? An overly conservative approach can reduce EBITDA or whatever income measure your earn-out relies upon. The agreement needs to be more specific and to anticipate a buyer looking for an edge.
Remember above when I said that you, as owner, get to choose the buyer? Yes, the size of bids that come in will weigh heavily in your decision. But there’s one bid you’ll only receive if you are knowledgeable enough to seek if out: an offer from your employees to buy part of all of your company. From 30,000 feet, two things to know: one, selling to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP, can often bring you the best offer because of significant tax savings involved; and two, ESOPs are an excellent way to avoid earn-out and other post-closure disputes.
How can an owner realize greater proceeds by selling to an ESOP than to a private equity buyer, say? First, if your business is a C Corporation and you reinvest the proceeds from selling it in qualifying equities (yes, stocks), you can avoid capital gains taxes. Those can add up to about 23% of sale proceeds, so that’s a big advantage. Secondly, if your business is now, or becomes after the sale to an ESOP, an S Corporation, it pays no federal or state income taxes (ESOP participants pay taxes when they retire or otherwise withdraw funds). That means more cash flow to service debt and thus a potentially larger acquisition price. The biggest bonus is that, as owners, employees are often more productive, less wasteful and more inclined to provide ideas that help a company grow and prosper; they act like owners!
Finally, it’s my experience that selling to an ESOP greatly minimizes post-closing trouble. Many business owners sell a partial stake to an ESOP, stick around to run the business and remain controlling owners. With all that skin in the game, no need to use an earn-out. And when selling the entire company, it’s typical that the management team below the owner sticks around. They’re intimately familiar with the business and its prospects, likely have a higher level of trust in their soon-to-be former boss, and thus there’s far less call for an earn-out or other post-closing purchase price adjustments.
Mary Josephs, former head of ESOP advisory at Bank of America , is founder and CEO of Verit Advisors, investment bankers specializing in ESOPs. You can reach her at CEO@verit.com.
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8489cda26116b1696676e1954758725b | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjosephs/2015/01/27/middle-market-ma-innovation-the-private-equityesop-hybrid/ | Middle Market M&A Innovation: The Private Equity-ESOP Hybrid | Middle Market M&A Innovation: The Private Equity-ESOP Hybrid
In the middle market M&A world, aggressive would-be buyers and their advisors will often tell you one of the following, depending on what business they’re in:
--“You certainly don’t want to sell to your competitor.”
--“Whatever you do, don’t sell to a private equity firm.”
--“Don’t even think about an ESOP – they’re too complicated.”
The truth is, of course, any founder-entrepreneur-owner of a middle market company nearing time to develop an exit strategy would be nuts not to consider all three options. What’s more, hybrid buyers are also emerging, in some notable cases combining the financial firepower and operational expertise of a high-quality private equity firm with the superior productivity and tax treatment of an ESOP.
Some purists in the Employee Stock Ownership Plan community think it’s disloyal to team up with a private equity fund. However, private equity players can be an important source of capital for the ESOP community, enabling business owners to achieve their goals of greater wealth diversification. Increasing employee ownership across the economy, helping solve the national retirement savings crisis, and boosting the productivity and competitiveness of American industry -- ESOPs do all that. And if private equity partners help us create more ESOPs, that’s all to the good.
One of the leaders of the hybrid movement is Long Point Capital, a private equity firm that has raised middle market acquisition funds of $140 million, $170 million and, late last year, $240 million. I recently sat down with Long Point’s co-founder and managing director, Ira Starr, to discuss the use of an ESOP alongside private equity in acquisitions.
Mary Josephs: So, you’re a private equity shop but you’ve sold four portfolio companies to ESOPs and you’ve bought two companies in partnership with ESOPs. How’d that happen?
Ira Starr: We invested in Sunbury Textile Mills in 2002. It performed very well its first two years and when we discussed the sale of the company with the management team, they asked if we’d sell to an ESOP. While my initial response was no, they said, “Would you spend more than 10 seconds thinking about it?” So I did. I went to the ESOP conference in Las Vegas, met you there, Mary, and talked to enough experts to realize that a sale to an ESOP was doable. We created a 100% ESOP exit in which the Company redeemed some of our stock for cash and we kept an investment in the company consisting of structured equity, which is a subordinated note with warrants. The company continued to perform well and within two years it repurchased our structured equity investment, remaining a 100% ESOP. The company asked me to stay on the board, but I didn’t give ESOPs much more thought.
Then a few years later, the management team of our portfolio company Atlantic Plywood asked me if we would sell to an ESOP. We ended up exiting the deal using a 100% S-Corp ESOP structure similar to the Sunbury transaction. Recession hit right after that so we were in it for another three or four years before the company was able to refinance us out. But, it all went very well and they asked me to stay on the board, too.
Both are cyclical companies that survived the Great Recession – and I think being an ESOP helped. The employees own the business and that helped them get through a difficult time in the economy.
Josephs: So, after that, you saw the value an ESOP can bring to seller and buyer?
Starr: Both of these companies performed quite well after we sold them to the employees using an ESOP. Maybe it was the motivation of the employees, maybe the tax characteristics. After our positive experiences, we thought maybe we should structure our initial investments using an ESOP. That way, the company gets the benefits we bring as a private equity investor and the benefits provided by employee ownership.
Now we offer entrepreneurs a choice: we will invest in the company using a normal private equity transaction, or as an ESOP-private equity transaction. We explain to them that if we use our ESOP structure, they may be able to defer or eliminate their capital gains tax and they will improve employee motivation and productivity through employee ownership. Finally, since 100% S-Corp. ESOP-owned companies don’t pay federal or most state income taxes, the company generates more cash flow allowing for additional investment in the business and paying down of debt. Taxes are paid by the participants in the ESOP when they sell their shares, just like IRAs and 401(k)s.
We have invested in a staffing firm and a restaurant business using this 100% S-Corp. ESOP structure. We invested in structured equity, which was designed to have a similar return profile as if we had done a more traditional private equity transaction. The entrepreneurs invested in structured equity alongside of us. This was a stronger transaction for all of us.
Still, when I mention an ESOP, some entrepreneurs don’t want to talk about it. They have a lot of misconceptions about ESOPs. They act just like I did the first time I heard an ESOP suggested. So we just focus on the advantages. Deferral or elimination of the capital gains tax. Employee motivation and productivity. Corporate income tax reduction. And the legacy factor – especially if you’re a family company, a lot of people are proud to reward their employees and sell to them.
Josephs: Ira, how are your private equity/ESOP transactions different from traditional ESOP transactions?
Starr: We structure our transactions to deliver more cash to the owner. This allows the owner to diversify his wealth in the company. We reduce his risk of having “all of his eggs in one basket.” Most ESOPs are financed with just bank loans and seller financing. We provide more capital, which puts more cash in the hands of the owner. Otherwise, the deals are structured the same way as traditional ESOPs.
Josephs: How’d you get into private equity, Ira?
Starr: I was educated as an engineer at Princeton, decided I wanted to work in venture capital, but couldn’t find a job. So I went to work as a strategy consultant at Booz Allen, went to Harvard Business School and then landed at Merrill Lynch as an investment banker where I raised high yield financing for private equity firms. One of my clients, MLGA, asked me to join them to do private equity investing and M&A advisory work.
Josephs: How did you create Long Point Capital?
Starr: My partner Gerry Boylan and I decided to create our own private equity firm, Long Point Capital, in 1998. Gerry had been my client as vice president of business development at Masco Corporation, where he’d done approximately 35 acquisitions.
We just raised our third fund, $240 million. Our earlier funds were $140 million and $170 million; twenty transactions in the two funds. Now, our team is 11 people.
Josephs: The case for selling to an ESOP has only gotten stronger.
Starr: Absolutely. In 2013, the federal capital gains tax rate was increased to 23.8%. Including state taxes, the marginal capital gains tax can approach 35%. I realized that we should be educating people on the benefits of the Internal Revenue Code Section 1042 "tax-free" rollover transaction. If structured properly, a seller can defer or eliminate their capital gains tax through a sale to an ESOP.
Imagine that: we can save a seller up to 35% of their proceeds. Owners of private companies spend a lot of time trying to manage their estate taxes. The 1042 rollover is a tax incentive created by Congress to promote employee ownership. It’s not anything fancy.
You’d be amazed that many owners claim that they are not interested in selling to an ESOP because they think it’s complicated. Their accountant or lawyer says it’s complicated. They don’t even think about it – just like my original reaction. Truth is, it doesn’t take any longer than a normal private equity transaction.
Josephs: I want your take on worker productivity and lower friction with management at ESOPs.
Starr: Qualitatively, I can say it helps. And of course there’s ample ESOP research to back that up. Some companies do it really, really well. What you want is participatory management, explaining to every employee that what they do to benefit the company can benefit them. Atlantic Plywood and Sunbury, I think, captured a lot of these productivity benefits.
Josephs: Before we go on, I get what ESOPs bring to these companies. What's your firm’s contribution? I know from Atlantic Plywood’s CEO, Paul Vella, that he feels Long Point helped instill financial and operating discipline that helped get his company through the Great Recession. How do you see your contribution?
Starr: Every company in our portfolio has different characteristics and needs but there is more commonality than differences in areas that can create value. We can add value by exposing management teams to best practices. We bring a lot of experience in areas such as strategy, finance, operations and M&A and we have a network of resources that we make available to the management teams of our portfolio companies. For example, in Atlantic Plywood’s case, we helped bring financial discipline to the company. We showed the management team the key levers to create equity value. We set clear objectives and used metrics to track success. Once they understood the levers, they were very good at creating the value. We focus on the areas that we think can create the most value for the stakeholders. It’s basic business experience, generated through years of experience with many different companies over diverse business cycles.
Josephs: Fair enough. Any trouble meshing governance requirements of ESOPs with those of private equity?
Starr: The ESOP trustees want the companies to be governed on behalf of the shareholders. We’re instructed by our investors to do the same. The trustee understands that. So whatever creates value for us will be good for the ESOP. We’re completely aligned. We set up a board that consists of us and the management team and the former owners - just the same as we do with our non-ESOP portfolio companies. For our ESOP transactions, we hire a recognized trustee, who we insist retains an experienced law counsel and a well-respected valuation advisor.
Josephs: Thanks, Ira.
Mary Josephs, former head of ESOP advisory at Bank of America, is founder and CEO of Verit Advisors, investment bankers specializing in ESOPs. You can reach her at CEO@verit.com.
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d91c911c166a9f7c62365e2e2eb2385a | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjosephs/2015/11/05/h-e-bs-texas-supermarket-competitors-should-be-scared-very-scared/ | Why H-E-B's Texas Supermarket Competitors Should Be Scared | Why H-E-B's Texas Supermarket Competitors Should Be Scared
A favorite question of mine for any CEO: What’s the toughest thing about your business?
I guarantee you any executive in the supermarket industry will rank among his or her top headaches the hiring and retention of good people, in an industry where service quality increasingly is the mark of differentiation, and worker turnover is brutal and expensive.
A favorite follow-up question: What are you doing about it?
Here, sad to say, I often get a shrug in response, as if to say, “It is what it is.” Companies devoted to excellence, on the other hand, meet their toughest problems head-on, and turn that into a competitive advantage. And they don’t let up.
If you’ve ever spent much time in the state of Texas, you know there’s a homegrown supermarket chain there, H-E-B, whose stores are spiffier than most of the competition’s and whose employees are more anxious to make you feel at home. The family-owned, 110-year-old company employs about 95,000 (about 9,000 of those at stores across the border in Mexico) and operates more than 370 stores.
H-E-B already exhibits all the signs of being a superior place to work – its service wouldn’t be top drawer if its treatment of employees was bottom-of-the-heap – and this week it revealed plans to further distance itself from the competition: it plans to distribute over time about 15% ownership among 55,000 eligible employees.
H-E-B thus joins supermarket industry standouts Publix and WinCo Foods as at least partially employee-owned. A wide survey of academic research has shown employee-owned companies outperform the competition. And a recent study showed, as an investment, employee-owned S-Corporations outperformed the overall stock market.
Publix has been dubbed a a Wal-Mart (WMT) slayer for its domination of the lucrative Florida market, and management there credits a highly engaged workforce of owners for the success of the company. WinCo, a smaller chain, operating discount stores across the U.S. West, has vastly outperformed the industry and the stock market as an employee-owned company. And its workers have been rewarded impressively.
Simply put, these companies benefit from employees acting like owners. Waste is reduced. There is a cooperative, self-policing element to the workforce. And friction between management and workers is lessened.
In its announcement, H-E-B didn’t disclose the legal structure of its employee ownership plan. To qualify for the stock awards, employees need be at least 21 years old, have completed one year of service and worked at least 1,000 hours in a calendar year.
If you’re in Texas and someone you know needs a job, it wouldn’t hurt to peruse the 1,149 hourly openings, as of this writing, on the H-E-B website, or the several dozen management openings. There are also openings for pharmacy workers and in supply chain.
The Butt family, owners of H-E-B, have a net worth of more than $10 billion, Forbes has estimated. So the 15% they’re planning to share with employees is a significant amount and will go a long way toward preparing workers for a dignified retirement. It will also likely make the company stronger.
Coca-Cola, in a study distributed to its supermarket customers, estimated that the cost of employee turnover in the grocery business exceeds the entire industry’s annual profit; a single store’s typical cost is about $190,000 a year. The cost of replacing one cashier ranges from about $2,000 to $4,000.
And we all know that service suffers – along with morale – in a high turnover workplace. What’s surprising is that more supermarket companies – and firms in other high-turnover industries – haven’t embraced employee ownership.
Mary Josephs, founder and CEO of Verit Advisors, led ESOP advisory at Bank of America. You can reach her at CEO@verit.com.
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3f2c0e486eb4b1b0b7a24e4a8703f018 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjosephs/2016/03/23/one-underdogs-secret-to-adopting-big-company-best-practices/ | One Underdog's Secret To Adopting Big-Company Best Practices | One Underdog's Secret To Adopting Big-Company Best Practices
It’s a challenge every successful growth company faces sooner or later: how to employ the best of big-company technology and management tools while hanging onto the lean-and-mean culture that made you successful in the first place.
Hisco Inc., formerly Houston Industrial Supply Co., with 2015 sales of about $265 million, emerged from a mom-and-pop industry by giving its dozens of local branches – and each of its employees, now numbering 465 – unusual autonomy to solve problems for manufacturing customers big and small. Guiding this system of distributed decision-making was the ultimate quality control program: employee ownership. Hisco workers benefit from the value they create. And, as has been widely documented at employee stock ownership plans, or ESOPs, such companies enjoy higher productivity, less workplace friction and the bubbling up of useful ideas.
Now, to adapt to the changing distribution industry and to build a sturdier platform to support big growth plans, Hisco is adopting leading-edge supply chain, sales and marketing, and financial practices. Here’s where the lesson comes in for other growth companies. At plenty of organizations, installation of new systems can either snuff out initiative -- or be widely resisted by tradition-bound workers. Either outcome can be ruinous. But at Hisco, these initiatives literally belong to the employees, and they’re taking notable responsibility for ensuring the success of the company’s transformation.
“I showed up, the new guy,” says Brian Hopkins, 47, last fall hired into a new position, director of customer experience. Hopkins previously worked at distribution giants W.W. Grainger (GWW) and at HD Supply (HDS). He’s helping install precise measurement and a broader range of ways for customers to interact with Hisco. And at many companies he might encounter resentment and resistance. Not here. Instead, fellow workers adopted Hopkins. His desk mate, Larry Hollinger, a sales support manager, “has told me everything about the company. There’s a certain responsibility to each other here,” Hopkins says.
Indeed, pretty much everyone at Hisco realizes the mega-distributors, notably Grainger and Fastenal – market caps $14 billion and $13 billion, respectively – are pushing into higher-value industrial distribution channels. There is a collective determination that Hisco will be a survivor in the consolidating industry, where billions of dollars in annual sales are up for grabs. And Hisco, as an employee-owned, privately held company, possesses a nimbleness and willingness to change that giant, publicly-traded companies typically lack
“Together, we’ve always been the toughest guy in a bar fight,” says Bob Dill, CEO since 2005 and a 31-year veteran at Hisco. “We all own this place. It’s much more than a job to us. And the challenges we face aren’t nearly so daunting because we have long experience in relying on each other.”
After operating as a confederacy of independent branches for years, Hisco has standardized its supply chain practices and is developing an integrated, multi-channel sales platform so that customers can interact however they choose with the supplier. "It's always about the customer experience," Dill says. "Hisco is set up for the next generation of buyers and engineers who grew up in a digital world." The transformation has of late picked up pace:
--Ellis Moseley, a long-time banker with experience as CFO at another ESOP company, became Hisco CFO last fall. He has deal-making experience. “It’s a very fragmented market and the ESOP is a competitive advantage in acquisitions,” Moseley says. For instance, Hisco late last year prevailed in bidding for a Chicago-area fabricating operation, AIF, in part because its owner, Joe Musuraca, worried other buyers would dismantle the operation and fire his 21 employees.
--Tom McElroy, a veteran marketing executive with experience at Dell and FedEx’s (FDX) Genco Distribution arm, joined Hisco in late 2014. Hisco is now moving simple orders online, which frees salesmen with deep technical skills to acquire new business, McElroy says. Also new: a lead-tracking system that makes certain no potential customers fall between the cracks.
--Hisco acquired All-Spec, an online distributor of industrial goods, in 2014 to accelerate its online growth and broaden its base of customers.
--Simple initiative remains very important. Arturo Nunez, 25, watching depressed oil and gas customers around Texas cut back on orders, partially offset those losses by signing up cellphone repair-and-resale businesses as new customers.
Hisco was essentially re-founded out of near insolvency in 1970 by Paul Merriman, an unorthodox and visionary businessman. For Merriman, the ESOP, begun with a minority stake in 1974, wasn’t an exit plan but a growth plan. He’d worked at General Electric (GE) and then at an industrial distributor far larger than Hisco was, and worried nobody would hire on with him.
Nelson Picard lost his job as a aircraft engine draftsman and took a warehouse job at Hisco 22 years ago “short-term so I can find something else,” he says. “Then I heard the ESOP story. I loved it. And I decided this is where I want to work the rest of my life.” Picard, 48, is vice president of operations now.
Gina Huffman started at Hisco right out of high school and is one of its most successful sales people. Many of her friends have moved around in their careers, but Huffman, encouraged personally by Merriman, stayed at Hisco – 32 years now. “He loved to calculate things. He’d tell me, ‘Here’s your start date. Here’s your retirement date. Your going to be a millionaire if you stay.’ It’s far exceeded what he anticipated.” In return, Huffman goes the extra mile to keep customers happy, and says her friends in the Hisco warehouse help her make good on her promises. “It’s our company,” she says.
Hisco’s stock, valued annually by outside experts, has vastly outperformed the S&P 500 (as have many employee stock ownership plans, or ESOPS). And Hisco employees of long tenure retire comfortably and with dignity.
Tommy O’Connor was a manufacturer’s sales rep, his biggest customer Hisco, and over time came to admire the employee-owned company, jumping to it 19 years ago. “I quit a good job I loved to join Hisco because of the ESOP,” says O’Connor, now a zone vice president in charge of several branches. The company’s new structure “is working out great,” he says. “Before, there were 35 silos. Now we’re one team.”
Mary Josephs is the founder and CEO of Verit Advisors, a Chicago-based investment banking firm specializing in ESOPs. She led ESOP advisory groups at Bank of America, ABN AMRO LaSalle Corporate Finance and LaSalle National Bank. You can reach her at CEO@verit.com.
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c2270963c42bd9bf2604fb6bf845496e | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjosephs/2017/02/06/how-to-solve-americas-retirement-savings-crisis/ | How To Solve America's Retirement Savings Crisis | How To Solve America's Retirement Savings Crisis
It might seem weird, but a serious worry I carry around for my five young-adult children – on top of concerns about their health and happiness – is whether they’ll ever be able to afford to retire.
My father was a county judge and fortunate to have a public-sector pension to retire on. My husband and I have been lucky in our careers and can see beyond the purchase of five college educations for our kids to a time in our 60s or, egad, 70s, when our savings and social security will sustain us nicely. But luck, good health, and career success shouldn’t be requisites for a dignified existence in old age.
Like a number of enormous long-term problems in the U.S., the retirement savings crisis isn’t getting much constructive political attention. There’s a national shortfall in retirement savings, estimated at $4.13 trillion for heads-of-households aged 25-to-64, by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, and at $6.8 trillion or more by the National Institute on Retirement Security; 29% of those aged 55-to-64 have no retirement savings and no pension, according to the General Accountability Office; 401(k) participation rates hover around 50% and, even among those using the plans, 39% have account balances of less than $10,000, EBRI says. The maximum monthly Social Security benefit for those retiring at full retirement age is a mere $2,687; the average payment is about $1,360 for all retirees, or less than $16,000 a year.
The good news is the situation is far from hopeless. But we need to stop rejecting each potential solution merely because it’s not a complete fix, and start embracing a combination of solutions to form an overall fix. Business leaders can lead the way on this. My list isn’t complete or perfect – it may lean too far right or too far left for you, so suggest your own -- but we need a place to begin:
--Social Security: stop saying it’s broken. It’s not. It needs adjustment to ensure long-term viability. Options include moderate increases in contributions and in retirement ages and a moderate decrease in payouts. Everyone suffers a little. Get this done – a similar adjustment was made without undue fuss during the Reagan Administration -- and we can move on to more difficult tasks.
--We need a compulsory supplemental retirement system. Before rejecting this by claiming that it’s against our national character, please remember that Social Security is compulsory. And treasured. And the optional, 401(k) only works for those with the additional income to save; the lower half of income producers don’t participate, and their retirement preparedness has deteriorated sharply. Australia’s supplemental system, begun in 1992, quickly pushed that country near the top rankings of global retirement systems, and has largely made old-age income worries a thing of the past. It began with a 3% income diversion and is on its way to 12% by 2020. Other countries could teach us new tricks, as well; the U.S. ranks a discouraging 13th on the Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index. Our goal needs to be maintaining of standard-of-living after retirement age for working Americans, instead of the painful step down many now endure.
--Make employee ownership of companies large and small, in all its forms, a national priority. It makes for stronger, more competitive companies. And for most workers at the nation’s 7,000 or so companies owned by employee stock ownership plans, it’s a path to far greater retirement savings. Yes, there’s a concern about too many eggs in one basket, but ESOP companies offer secondary plans like 401(k)s in greater number than non-ESOP companies. And workers typically don’t invest their money -- they’re granted stock over time as a company benefit. Employee ownership is capitalism played as a team sport. Legislation pending in the Senate and House, enjoying bipartisan support, would make it easier for company owners to sell to an ESOP, but we could do so much more to turn workers into owners.
--I worry about people thinking they can go it alone. I have an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago and wouldn’t take on managing my own money. Neither should most individuals.
--How can you save for retirement when technology, or the sale of your employer, eliminates your job? People work longer and change jobs more often, so crucial to retirement savings is an effective system of job retraining. Not some pipe dream at a local trade school, but actual industry-backed apprenticeship programs that train people and then hire them. Many community colleges have begun such train-to-hire programs with local employers, but we need a good many more and at higher levels of skill.
The steps I propose wouldn’t weaken our economy – they’d strengthen it with increased capital formation from savings, better competitiveness from a trained and committed workforce, and a lot less anxiety for so many of us.
Mary Josephs, founder and CEO of Verit Advisors, led ESOP advisory at Bank of America. You can reach her at CEO@verit.com.
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2e1979c0cae73929ba022521930a664c | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjosephs/2018/06/19/fast-facts-on-esops/ | Fast Facts on ESOPs | Fast Facts on ESOPs
The first half of 2018 has seen an increase in middle market M&A, particularly with respect to privately held businesses. Many of these business owners are directly interested in employee ownership as an alternative alongside traditional M&A strategies such as a strategic or private equity buyer. Interest in ESOPs seems to be fueled by three key drivers:
The new tax law mitigated the uncertainty about what corporate tax policy would be. It is difficult to discern and compare alternatives without visibility to tax implications. ESOP tax benefits remained unaltered The tax law did not change personal taxes as dramatically as it altered corporate taxes. ESOPs are an interesting consideration for business owners who see value in the opportunity to permanently defer capital gains taxes Labor markets are tightening. How does a company successfully attract and retain talent? Employee ownership impacts employee engagement and employee productivity, helping drive long term results
Notwithstanding increased interest in ESOPs, professionals and business owners alike remain confused on many levels with respect to employee ownership. Who better to set the record straight with some fast facts than Mary Josephs? Josephs has worked in and around ESOPs for over 30 years. Mary founded Verit Advisors in 2009 in Chicago and has over three decades of experience in corporate finance for private businesses. Josephs and her team are considered to be the foremost experts in ESOP transactions and middle market strategic alternatives.
Q: What exactly is an ESOP?
Mary: ESOP stands for Employee Stock Ownership Plan. An ESOP is an innovative liquidity tool that provides flexibility for shareholders, tax advantages for the company and business owners as well as an opportunity for employees to grow retirement assets. Employees participate in the economic growth of their employer via company stock held in their retirement accounts.
Q: How many ESOPs are in the U.S.?
Mary: Currently there are almost 7,000 ESOP plans in the U.S. The NCEO (National Center for Employee Ownership) estimates that approximately 28 million employees participate in employee ownership plans. Overall, employees now control about 8% of corporate equity.
Q: How does an ESOP get set up?
Mary: Companies set up a retirement plan trust (think of a 401(k) plan) for employees. Annually, the employer will contribute or allocate company stock directly to the plan. Contributions to the plan are tax-deductible. Employees pay no tax on the contributions. They will pay ordinary income when they retire and withdraw the value from their retirement account, just like a 401(k). I wrote a blog about WinCo Foods where 130 employees have a combined ESOP retirement account of an astounding $100 million. This figure is continuing to grow rapidly, such that in a few years the average wealth of these employees could easily exceed $1 million. That is pretty impressive.
Q: How do the founding shareholders achieve liquidity?
Mary: Great question. What is the source of funds? With a PE sale, the PE firm provides equity, lenders add senior and junior capital, and the business owner generally has an earnout. With a strategic sale, the buyer uses their stock and/or debt capacity and generally an earnout. With an ESOP, the employees don’t literally buy the company. They don’t have the resources. The company borrows money from lenders and purchases shares from selling shareholders.
Look for a continuation of this conversation in a few days.
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b25f62294a61050a70032965ae04e240 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjosephs/2020/02/20/theres-a-reason-why-these-companies-are-top-notch-theyre-esops/?sh=780578259a90 | There’s A Reason Why These Companies Are Top-Notch: They’re ESOPs | There’s A Reason Why These Companies Are Top-Notch: They’re ESOPs
Perhaps your class ring came from Herff Jones, you wear clothes made with W. L. Gore & Associates’ waterproof Gore-Tex fabric, admire Herman Miller furniture and enjoy books from W.W. Norton & Company.
Or, maybe you’ve bought culinary supplies from King Arthur Flour, shopped at Publix Super Markets, Hy-Vee or WinCo Foods, and gotten retirement planning advice from Robert W. Baird & Co. or relished a Clif Bar snack and a pair of Dansko shoes from The Walking Company.
They’re all stellar companies in their field. Plus, they’re all – or have been – employee-owned. W.L. Gore & Associates, which made Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work for in America roster for 33 straight years, has been partially employee-owned since 1969 and Herman Miller since 1977. Publix, an ESOP since 2004, is the nation’s largest ESOP with 200,000 employees, and Amsted Industries, a global maker of industrial components with 16,000 employees, has been 100% ESOP-owned since 1998.
And Herff Jones, celebrating its centennial this year, was employee-owned from 1995-2014 until a buyout of ESOP shareholders occurred and is now part of Bain Capital.
While ESOPs number roughly 7,200 companies, according to the most recent estimate, they come in all sizes. And it’s not surprising, really, that many are standout performers. Indeed, ESOPs and other broad-based employee-ownership plans account for half or more of Fortune Magazine’s 100 Best Companies list year after year. On its 2019 roster, Publix ranks 12th and Baird 16th.
Research, much of it by the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing and funded by the Employee Ownership Foundation, shows that ESOPs benefit employees and employers. Their workers experience layoffs six times less often than those without employee ownership, and turnover can be three times lower. ESOP employees have more retirement savings, more training and involvement in the business and more profit and gain sharing.
While their numbers are still quite small, ESOPs are gaining more interest, especially from the countless small and family-owned business owners nearing retirement, many of whom don’t have a family member eager or able to assume the reins. Our activity advising family-owned and other clients about employee ownership has been increasing substantially.
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In addition, investment firms are putting equity incentive and employee-ownership programs in place in portfolio companies. For instance, global giant KKR & Co. has done that within its Industrials Group, principally comprising manufacturing companies with numerous hourly workers. This emphasis is designed to address what KKR views as a misalignment of incentives between hourly employees and employers.
Recent federal legislation is also spurring ESOP activity. The Main Street Employee Ownership Act, signed into law in August 2018, eases the way for small businesses to establish an ESOP and allows the Small Business Administration to loan a company up to about $5 million to establish one by buying company shares, with 85% of the loan guaranteed by the SBA. The National Center for Employee Ownership considers the Act “the most significant change in employee law” since the late 1990s and early 2000s, when a series of laws permitted ESOPs to be shareholders of S corporations.
So, if you admire a company’s products, its service, or the positive views of its employees toward their company, ask if it’s an ESOP. You’ll be surprised at how varied they are – from Recology, a San Francisco waste management company and The Davey Tree Expert Co., based in Kent, Ohio, with over 10,000 employees nationwide, to San Francisco-based architects Gensler, named to Glassdoor’s 2020 Best Places to Work list, and W.W. Glass & Co. of Nanuet, N.Y., among the newest ESOPs.
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ffbc36ab0e640798dc211583365d4203 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjuetten/2016/05/11/failing-gracefully-caserails-journey/ | Failing Gracefully: The CaseRails Journey | Failing Gracefully: The CaseRails Journey
A legal technology entrepreneur and friend of mine created automated intake forms for her practice. Her goal was to sell this technology to law firms and consumers. Unfortunately, though, consumers will not proactively complete the forms. She found out the hard way that she had created a product with no demand. Much has been written on how to succeed, including tips and tricks for all the challenges that small businesses face. You often read stories about rapid growth and startups killing it, but it’s not too often you hear about the unsuccessful journeys.
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In 2014, I was introduced to intellectual property (IP) attorney Kyle Zeller. Kyle and his co-founder Erik Dykema are both attorneys who left King & Spalding in April 2013 to launch CaseRails. Between Kyle and Erik, they had more than ten years of legal experience, plus development and project management experience with undergraduate degrees from MIT and Carnegie Mellon respectively. CaseRails qualified for SeedStart Accelerator in the summer of 2013 and later the NYU Incubator space. Kyle and Erik raised about $600,000, starting with seed money in the summer of 2013—about half of which came from attorneys. On paper, that sounds like all the right stuff for success, yet CaseRails officially shuttered in December 2015.
Kyle was generous enough to share the CaseRails story, which includes an analysis of the reasons for failure and valuable information on how to close a business.
The CaseRails Journey
Our vision was to revolutionize the way attorneys draft legal documents; you wouldn’t believe how much time attorneys waste trying to find old templates, copying and pasting information, and formatting. We initially attempted to build a web-based word processor and document management system to remove non-substantive work from the legal drafting process (e.g., formatting, copying and pasting from templates, struggling with multiple versions, and manually entering revisions). We wanted CaseRails to "know" what kind of document a lawyer was working on, guide the attorney through the drafting process, and automatically apply proper formatting.
It took about eighteen months of development and testing in private beta with large law firms to realize we bit off more than we could chew. The product was trying to do too much; it was bloated, and it confused our users. So, we pivoted to a leaner product in December 2014 where:
Attorneys could create and store document templates, including variables and logic. Create web-based forms connected to those templates. Fill out the forms to quickly draft perfectly formatted final documents.
By the time we closed CaseRails, we had about 1,000 attorneys using the product. However, only a small portion of those attorneys were signed up for a paid account with the first paying customer coming in June of 2015.
CaseRails Failure
This is certainly not the outcome that any of us hoped for, and we are extremely disappointed, to say the least. In the end, we shut down because we didn’t have enough paying users to justify raising another round of funding.
1. An Absence of Traction
As is usually the case, our failure can be summed up quite easily: an inability to show enough traction. We were attempting to create an entirely new product in the largely untapped legal tech marketplace. We originally viewed this as something positive. But it turned out to be an overwhelming negative from a fundraising perspective. Institutional investors didn’t want to put large sums of money into a company going after an unproven market.
We focused on building a full-featured product for attorneys in large firms, rather than a smaller product that could validate our vision to investors. This was a mistake. We should have released something far more lightweight and as quickly as possible. Our efforts should have been focused on validating small firm and solo practitioner interest in our product and generating traction. We did realize this until too late when we shifted to building this type of lightweight product in early 2015.
2. Lack of Focus
We had grand plans for the CaseRails platform, and we were only working on a small subset of possible features. One big mistake was trying to build our own web-based word processor instead of integrating with Microsoft Word or Google Docs. Another was building out a practice management environment instead of focusing on our core automation features. Rather than trying to build an all-in-one platform, we should have focused on selling a single discrete product —an easy-to-use, highly-customizable document automation solution. Doing so would have allowed us to gain significantly more traction in a fraction of the time.
3. Wasted Time on Fundraising
We simply didn’t know enough about the fundraising process when we started CaseRails. Although we eventually raised all of our funding—almost $600K—from friends and family, we wasted a significant amount of time talking to VCs and professional investors.
We initially set out to raise $1M from professional seed-stage investors. Our advisors pushed us to “get out the door” and talk to VCs. So, that’s what we did for 5 months, with no product or prototype. Every one of our 50+ meetings began with a promise that “no company is too early for us,” and every meeting ended with “come back when you have some traction.”
In retrospect, we clearly attempted to raise too much, too soon. We should have used a smaller friends-and-family round to release a simple product. If we started generating traction, we could have then raised more.
Close a Business
Closing a business is time-consuming and expensive. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of tasks:
Talk to your employees and contractors. Ensure your employees contact their benefits provider to continue coverage (i.e., get COBRA), if necessary. Ensure you keep your health insurance and/or get new insurance. Contact all your investors (we had 40!) and let them know what’s going on. Figure out a plan for your current customers and contact them. Turn off the dozens of SaaS products your company uses. Sell all the company’s assets, including IP assets. Pay out your investors. Break your lease if you can. Prepare and file final taxes (don’t forget Delaware franchise tax if you’re a DE company). Dissolve in Delaware (formation state) and whatever state(s) you do business in. Close all your bank accounts and credit cards.
Despite the final outcome, this venture was an amazing experience for Erik and me—a wild ride with incredible highs and devastating lows. We learned more than we ever thought possible, and we’re proud of what our team was able to accomplish. We are incredibly thankful for all of our employees, developers, volunteer experts and contributors, and everyone else that helped us in tons of other ways, both big and small. It means the world to us.
In terms of next steps for us personally, both Erik and I will be returning to law practice for the time being. Erik has his hands full consulting on large smartphone patent litigation cases. And I’m going to concentrate on growing my intellectual property firm, Zeller IP Group, PLLC.
-------Thank you, Kyle and Erik, for sharing your story. In addition to law, I imagine both would make excellent startup advisors or board members. Finally, I would add in a word of caution for those thinking of starting a business: consider acquiring the paying customers before you quit your day job and try to raise angel funds. #onwards.
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d86d5bc9ce502e2a9b439e945541d1e4 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjuetten/2016/10/17/venture-crowdfunding-revisited/ | Venture Crowdfunding Revisited: An Update with NIN Ventures | Venture Crowdfunding Revisited: An Update with NIN Ventures
I am about to head off to attend the Global Crowfunding Convention (GCC) 6 in Las Vegas. It will be my fourth time attending. The crowdfunding industry has grown from $16 billion in 2014 to $34 billion in 2015, and the World Bank estimates that crowdfunding will have a global market of $96 billion by 2025—1.8 times today’s global venture capital industry.
Crowdfunding models include rewards, donation, equity, and debt or lending. For rewards-based crowdfunding, entrepreneurs pre-sell a product or service to launch a business, and in return, give gifts or thank-you notes. For equity crowdfunding, the backer receives shares of a company, usually in exchange for the money pledged. For example, Neil Young used Crowdfunder to raise more than $6 million in order to continue the development on PonoMusic.
Last year, I interviewed Nin Desai and wrote about NIN.VC here. Nin and I chatted recently about the industry and her progress. NIN.VC is an interesting company because it is a hybrid between a crowdfunding portal and a venture capital firm.
Mary: What is it about NIN.VC that attracts both investors and entrepreneurs?
Nin: NIN.VC is a unique, crowdfunded venture capital fund that offers membership interests pursuant to Rule 506(c) of Regulation D under the Securities Act of 1933. NIN Ventures Technology (QP) Fund is currently open to “accredited investors”* who can invest in our fund with a minimum amount of $100,000 using multiple investment options like 401k, defined benefit plan, or digital currencies such as Bitcoin.
Mary: When is crowdfunding a good option for entrepreneurs?
Nin: If you are an entrepreneur looking for funding (seed or angel) to take your idea or product to market, crowdfunding is a great option—reward or equity. It acts as a proof of concept for an entrepreneur before they spend their valuable time or approach a VC.
Mary: How are you different from other crowdfunding portals?
Nin: NIN.VC is a hybrid between crowdfunding portals and a traditional venture capital fund. We have the best of both worlds: our investors get to directly invest and enjoy direct returns like they would with any crowdfunding portals, and our entrepreneurs get the support like they would at the traditional venture capital fund.
If you take the top few billion dollar startups (http://graphics.wsj.com/billion-dollar-club/) and average the age of those entrepreneurs at the founding, it’s fewer than 30 years when they embarked on the journey of changing their industries. At that stage, an entrepreneur needs lot more than just financing, for example, domain expertise, PR & marketing, recruiting, and an exit strategy, and we are able to provide them that with the help of our network of partners, which may not be the case with crowdfunding portals.
Mary: How does your deal screening process work? And is it different from other crowdfunding portals?
Nin: We follow a traditional due-diligence process at NIN.VC before making an investment and it all starts with a disruptive technology. We look for companies that have certain ingredients like a good management team, a disruptive and/or viable product, and a revenue-generating strategy that form a basic foundation, all lead to long term success.
Mary: How should entrepreneurs approach fundraising or a business plan?
Nin: One needs to think from an investor’s perspective when it comes to raising capital. The key is to keep things simple yet to the point while drafting a business plan. For example, what is NIN.VC? It’s a crowdfunded technology venture capital fund. Another example: how is 3D printing disrupting the medical space? There are about 123,851 people currently on the organ recipient list in United States; that list grows on an average of 12% annually. On the other hand, organ donor increases about 1-2%, and 21 people die every day because they cannot find a right organ. What if 3D printing tissues can help save some of those lives? Add an amazing team, solid revenue model, good understanding of the competitive landscape, and an execution strategy to that disruptive technology, and you have a great business plan.
Mary: How do VCs view companies that have been crowdfunded?
Nin: I don’t think VCs are biased toward companies that have previously been crowdfunded. Oculus raised $2.5 million on Kickstarter, and then raised $75 million in venture funding for its Series B before it was bought by Facebook. The only piece of advice I would give entrepreneurs is to try and avoid a messy capital table (your lawyers can easily help you with that).
Mary: How is NIN.VC different from a traditional venture capital firm?
Nin: NIN.VC operates just like a traditional venture capital firm would, but online. Apart from a different Limited Partner (LP) base, which includes accredited investors, we provide transparency. The General Solicitation rule lets us use videos, billboards, social media marketing, and other target-based Internet advertising. This not only helps with visibility but brings an added level of comfort to our investor base as they are in the know as to what’s happening on an ongoing basis versus waiting for a quarterly or annual report.
Mary: Any thoughts on how to be a smart investor when it comes to crowdfunding?
Nin: The key to smart or any investing is to start early and invest for the long term based on your lifestyle choices, keeping in mind your risk appetite. The next step is to do your due diligence on all the investment options available including their cost benefits. Diversification is the key to any portfolio and lastly it’s very important to monitor to your portfolio. Investing in alternatives, like crowdfunding, allow true diversification and also helps mitigate the risk involved in having only a stock-bond portfolio.
Mary: What is the vision for NIN Ventures moving forward?
Nin: This May Title III JOBS Act, Equity Crowdfunding for non-accredited investors went live and allows any U.S. citizen, regardless of income, to make direct investments via a crowdfunding portal. We would like to make our fund available to everyone rather than just accredited investors and truly democratize venture capital. Hopefully, we will see some change and progress on that front in the future.
More on crowdfunding and what is working for entrepreneurs raising capital after the GCC. #onwards.
*An accredited investor is an individual with an income of more than $200,000 per year, or a joint income of $300,000, in each of the last two years and expect to reasonably maintain the same level of income OR have a net worth exceeding $1 million, either individually or jointly with a spouse, excluding the primary residence.
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091fe335f59c1abd4b0f31dfa978fa91 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjuetten/2017/06/21/future-law-reflecting-on-access-to-justice/ | Future Law: Reflecting on Access to Justice | Future Law: Reflecting on Access to Justice
After attending CodeX Future Law at Stanford in early April, my takeaway was that we are only solving a small piece of the huge access to justice problem. Please do not misunderstand, the topics and speakers were excellent. However, other than Professor Gillian Hadfield’s keynote, we appear fixated on the big law issues, including large corporate challenges with few exceptions on the chatbot panel. Implementing change at only an elite level will not solve the problem for the hundreds of millions of Americans and billions worldwide who cannot access justice. Instead, we need to question and redesign every process, service, including who is providing what service, and go outside the law for solutions to everyday legal problems.
Justice AJEL
Hadfield’s book, Rules for A Flat World was at the center of her talk by the same name and subtitled Why Humans Invented Law and How to Reinvent It for a Complex Global Economy.
Professor Hadfield commented that legal aid will not solve our access to justice issue and that quality in legal should be redefined as, “Are you solving the client’s problem?” If you step back from the day’s discussions about predictive analytics and rules systems, it boils down to solutions for the average citizens’ legal problems, which include law enforcement, family issues, housing, immigration, and some small business challenges.
As with health issues, we often go first to the internet to triage our symptoms. However, most do not substitute online advice for a visit to a medical professional. While there are alternatives to a M.D such as nurse practitioner or D.O., law only has a couple of options other than an attorney and one is doing it yourself. A recent Avvo study on legal consumers found that one in five people feel that they can do research online to replace a lawyer’s knowledge and about a quarter seek help from non-lawyer friends. Almost a third seek out free consultations from lawyers. At issue is cost and lack of understanding of the lawyer’s value plus the notion that attorneys are intimidating to the average citizen.
After Future Law, I interviewed Lucy Endel Bassli, Assistant General Counsel, Legal Operations and Contracting for Microsoft ,who spoke on the Future Law customer roundtable. Lucy expanded on the need for alternative providers of legal services, “There will need to be a change in some regulatory and bar policies if we are to see true advancement in access to justice. While technology is a key factor in increasing access, we also need to increase the number of people are allowed to provide legal services. Today so many steps in the legal processes are limited to licensed attorneys, that the general public is completely excluded from some very basic tasks, which actually should not require a JD or bar license. Requiring that only licensed attorneys perform certain tasks in our court systems prevents the general population from accessing basic relief and resolution of uncomplicated legal issues.”
Closing the education gap between citizens and attorneys is a huge opportunity for the legal profession. The average American does not understand the need for an attorney and the value of expert advice, even for their small business. Group legal services companies are addressing the consumer market by providing affordable access to attorneys but it’s not enough if the regulations stay the same. More programs that allow “legal work” to be done by alternative providers like Limited Licensed Legal Technicians in Washington State and technology like the DONOTPAY chatbot or client document automation for immigration are needed to address the eighty percent of people who cannot find help for their legal problems.
Also at issue is that many lawyers resist technology because they believe some of the chatbots and expert systems will eliminate their jobs. This notion that artificial intelligence (AI) will completely replace attorneys is misguided. At Future Law, Joshua Browder spoke about his app DONOTPAY which helps UK citizens fight parking tickets and explained how he expanded the technology to help Syrian refuges and the homeless. Lawyers should embrace enabling technology to replace routine tasks to free them up to exercise their professional legal judgment on matters that require attorney expertise.
However, Lucy, who is also a self-described Legal Services innovation evangelist, explained that technology cannot just be added to the law, “Innovation is too quickly associated with technology and automation. Before automation will be truly impactful and helpful on a broad scale, the existing processes need to be reassessed and simplified. There is simply too much procedure and process in our legal systems, whereby automating it would only automate an unnecessarily burdensome and lengthy experience.”
Simply continuing to offer the same legal services, even adding enabling technology, will have the law go the way of the taxi industry, and the access to justice problem will need to be solved by other types of professionals, who are not lawyers. One of Hadfield’s conclusion, “Don’t leave it to the Lawyers” makes sense but attorneys and alternative providers should collaborate to open up the law to the average citizen. We need to take a hard look at the services provided and decide if a JD is truly needed to access that huge market of unmet need. In other words, assess what will solve the citizen’s legal problem in a timely and affordable way. #onwards.
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4e15ab2266291bc5687221c3958592b3 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjuetten/2017/08/16/legal-technology-and-smart-contracts-contract-as-code-part-i/ | Legal Technology and Smart Contracts: Contract as Code (Part I) | Legal Technology and Smart Contracts: Contract as Code (Part I)
Artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and chat bots are all hot topics these days. At a spring Seattle legal technology event, computable contracts were recommended as a focus for a future event. Mark Oblad, who I have interviewed previously here has done a deep dive into this space over the past eighteen months and below is part one in a series of five pieces on contracts, smart contracts, and blockchain.
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Mary: Let’s first step back. Why you were interested in this area?
Mark: In attempt to simplify the provision of legal services, legal-tech startups have made much effort at automating the process of creating contracts and extracting document data. Many founders of these startups come from within law firms, where associates and paralegals have been tasked with wading through numerous forms to search for brackets and replace with client information, prepare signature pages, organize paper into industrial file accordions and page through banker’s boxes of documents. Most transactional associates start here, and often commiserate, “I went to law school to learn how to do this!?”
Rising in seniority means that somebody else, somebody junior, is the one left in charge of maintaining the document and on whose desk the paper lives. So, eager associates hone their skills at Microsoft Word. Ctrl + F and Ctrl + H. Search for numbers with ^#. Copy and paste style. Alt release, O release, P release.
Attorneys and paralegals become proficient at most of the process. I once worked with a paralegal who was exceptional. It was a sight just to watch him process documents for the closing of a transaction—it was as if he were playing a video game using his keyboard, and the documents were the monsters to be obliterated by firing enough bullets at them.
But even with the proficiency and the division of labor, the process is not efficient. The client with the attorney’s help has finally settled on a term sheet. The client thinks, “Great, we’ve got the deal done. Let’s get back to running the business.”
Mary: Tell us a bit more about what really happens next.
Mark: If all goes well, the proficient team will take the term sheet, translate the terms into long-form legal documents and simultaneously deliver the first draft of the documents to the client and the other side. In less ideal circumstances, the associate or paralegal making the initial go of the drafting hasn’t been able to free up from some other higher ranking deal, and when he or she finally gets the initial draft, it’s late at night at the end of the week after the promised date. And, the initial draft probably isn’t done—maybe an old version of the deal model was used; maybe those latest terms from recent changes in the law or industry practice weren’t added; maybe the signature blocks weren’t appended; maybe the styling isn’t consistent; maybe some of the documents are missing. So, to fix it all, the reviewing attorney takes each of the documents and reads them carefully as he or she should. The problem is that the reviewing attorney is now doing a hand markup of the document: hand-writing the provisions from the last deal, drawing the signature blocks, writing in corrected numbers from the updated model. No Ctrl + F or Ctrl + H. No copy and paste. And, both the drafter and the reviewer have expended their limited mental attention on process, only to have to review the drafts for substance once again when their brains have recovered.
Then there is negotiation of finer points in the long-form documents. The drafting side is likely to serve up a version of the documents with all of such points weighing in favor of their client (anchoring), aptly expecting that the other side will also stake out a position in the opposite direction equally offset from the yet-unknown agreeable middle ground. After a few rounds of the dance, and perhaps conference calls, re-drafts, redlines and reply-all emails, the language is settled.
Mary: As you say, this is less than ideal. What are some of the noteworthy attempts to solve the problems outlined above?
Mark: Innovators have taken various approaches to streamline negotiated transactions, ranging from using available tools to script out the logic for complex transactions, to building complex document automation tools, to attempting to eliminate documents altogether.
Mail Merge and a Spreadsheet
Anybody that has ever done a mass mailing probably has used Microsoft Word’s mail merge tools with a Microsoft Excel file containing a list of recipients. For each recipient, the Excel file contains one row with the name, salutation, address and other simple information that needs to go into the merge file. The merge file is the Microsoft Word document with snippets of code inserted to indicate where the data is to be interleaved into the document. Running the merge outputs one letter for each recipient.
This works beautifully for simple, non-conditional, non-nested data, and a long list of recipients. It doesn’t, however, work for an individual form with optional language blocks, optional paragraphs, optional exhibits and embedded lists.
Wizard + Current Form + Detailed Instructions + Straight Document Generator
Wilson Sonsini made one of the first valiant efforts at automation with their term sheet generator This might have been a bit of a brute-force approach, though. The subject of the tool was a term sheet for a venture financing, probably one of the more complicated of the routine deals done by transactional law firms, measured by number of negotiated points. The term sheet is meant to summarize all the major terms of the transaction, so as to minimize negotiation and re-drafting of the more detailed language in the long-form documents. Wilson Sonsini’s term sheet generator carefully describes the deal points one-by-one, taking the user through a 49-step wizard (and page reloads), and outputs the 14-page Word document. While certainly a more efficient process, it still took me 45 minutes to get through the steps, even though I was just trying it out.
A similar approach has been taken by law firms aiming to create good will, lure founders and increase their internal efficiency. Tools such as Cooley’s COOLEY GO; Goodwin Procter’s Founders Workbench and Perkins Coie’s Startup Percolator, have been made available on the web and allow founders to generate and download documents, and in some cases, sign the documents electronically. Separate versions of the tools may also be used internally to cover a wider set of transactions. Typically, the data from the web versions is periodically wiped clean from the platforms; internally, the data may be stored for later potential unknown re-use, but typically is not added to on ongoing company model.
Super Simple Wizard + Simple Documents
Others have taken an ultra-consumer-focused approach. ShakeLaw by LegalShield and LegalZoom, for example, provide very simple forms of agreements through web and mobile apps, walking the user through bite-sized question-and-answer screens to complete the document. In some cases, such forms may be too simple for an attorney’s liking, but this process is effective at extending legal services to the “underserved,” whose preference is for the right type of agreement that is good enough rather than the perfect agreement.
Because many forms are meant to cover a variety of circumstances, automating a form with a simple merge tool may require rewriting the variations within the form to generalize the language, or creating a separate form for each of the principal variations. Consider that Y Combinator’s Simple Security for Future Equity (the SAFE), while a very short agreement, has four variations to pick from, notwithstanding that the content of each variation is probably 90% the same. Similarly, 500Startup’s Keep It Simple Security (KISS) has two variations. Both the SAFE and the KISS are frequently made available with simple automation tools.
Web Forms
Some documents, such as nondisclosure agreements, may be simple enough that only a few pieces of information need to be inserted into the document—the party names, the date, a dollar amount, etc. The steps include:
convert the document to HTML(hypertext markup language) to allow for display online; make inputs for the needed data; position directly on the web document; allow the user to enter the data in place; and then export the merged document.
Docracy is probably the leading solution at this approach. Docracy also has a deeper level of flexibility, however, allowing the form to be edited inline, and providing an open history of inline edits using proprietary redlining/diffing algorithms—sort of a Wikipedia of legal documents.
Thank you, Mark, for sharing this important background to prepare us for the next installment where we deconstruct contracts. Mark would like to give special thanks to the following individuals for insight, comments, and corrections for this Part I and the remainder of the series Robert V. Gunderson, Jr. of Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian; Greg Raiten of FirstMark Capital; Matt Hall of Docracy; David Rose of Gust; Ned Gannon of eBrevia; Ben Whetsell of Paper Software; Kyle Mitchell of Common Form; Sergey Nazarov of smartcontract.com; Jasmine Castro-Torres of HelloSign; and Jason Boehmig of Ironclad and Series Seed. #onwards.
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188b0b3bacbc1fc93cb35f105e67f16b | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjuetten/2017/09/13/legal-technology-and-smart-contracts-contract-as-automaton-part-v/ | Legal Technology and Smart Contracts: Contract as Automaton (Part V) | Legal Technology and Smart Contracts: Contract as Automaton (Part V)
In our final installment of a five-part series, we close by interviewing Mark Oblad, around contract on automaton plus a look to the future. Blockchain and cryptocurrency law are opportunities for attorneys, not threats. Lawyers must embrace technology, although not all need to become as expert as Mark or other programmers in order to leverage technology.
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Mary: What is the tie between contract and automation?
Mark: By extension, smart contract events should easily connect to the broader world of automation (think internet of things), though perhaps after carefully considering possible outcomes and selectively determining where it is cost-effective and beneficial to remove human judgment. In the context of the employment contract, triggering a termination event could, among other things, trigger cutting off the employee’s access rights to employer systems. (A whitepaper from the Digital Chamber of Commerce on smart contract use cases is here.
Mark Flood at the Office of Financial Research at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and Oliver Goodenough at Vermont Law School have focused their research on developing a theoretical modeling technique for asset backed securities and other historically opaque agreements. Mark and Oliver have applied the theory of the “deterministic finite automata” (or DFAs) to describe a contract model as the combination of finite states, transition rules and events, more information available here. For a loan contract, potential states might include: initially delivered; principal disbursed; maturity reached; repayment not duly made; notice of default given; in default, etc. Reducing the contract to these pieces increases computability and the ability to leverage existing tools in other disciplines to measure and understand contractual relationships. The results of formalizing contracts as DFAs would include not only the above benefits mentioned with respect to contract data and smart contracts, but perhaps new information about risk at the individual contract level and in the aggregate over many contracts.
Mary: Where does the contract world end up?
Mark: Lawyers in practice for several decades will tell you that the rate of contracting has increased significantly with the pressure to “churn out” contracts. Certainly, with automated generation of contracts, the friction of contracting will be reduced and the rate will increase even more dramatically. The data that makes up a contract will routinely be extracted, or structured from the outset, re-used in per-transaction models, or in some cases, aggregated into industry or macro models. For the U.S. Treasury, this will mean a clearer measure of systemic risk. Finally, the terms of contracts will likely be written in part to reduce ambiguity and to increase the ability to self-execute, resulting in increasingly granular contracts and perhaps accelerated contracting. And, of course, to get there the language, methods and models for working with the contracts, the underlying data and even the contracts themselves, will increasingly be formalized, standardized and brought to the mainstream.
Mary: Should we embrace the technological changes?
Mark: No doubt, we should minimize process by unifying form maintenance efforts through open sourcing, organizing data to be entered only once and minimizing the amount of time taken to reach final terms. We should further enhance the usefulness of the contracts we enter into by creating greater transparency in the terms of the individual contract as well as contracts in the aggregate, integrating contract data with other systems and increasing certainty that the outcome of the agreement will occur. Further, we may have no choice but to respond to the unending demand for cheaper, faster, better.
Mary: If the transaction costs come down, do the lawyers earn less? Will higher transaction volume offset lower transaction costs?
Mark: It’s not clear to me what the effect would be, but it is clear that lawyers will continually change the way they spend their time by moving upstream in the value chain where human judgment is critical, and perhaps how they measure and charge for the value that they uniquely provide to the client. Further, lawyers and other legal providers will likely develop an expertise around, and become stewards of, emerging legal tools, gaining higher productivity, leverage and competitive advantage.
Thank you to Mark Oblad, of JW Player, for his in-depth look at contracts, blockchain, and smart contracts. Mark’s expertise from his work at Valcu and his role in pushing forward technology is an inspiration to others in the legal tech field. Finally, Mark would like to give special thanks to the following individuals for insight, comments, and corrections for this Part I and the remainder of the series Robert V. Gunderson, Jr. of Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian; Greg Raiten of FirstMark Capital; Matt Hall of Docracy; David Rose of Gust; Ned Gannon of eBrevia; Ben Whetsell of Paper Software; Kyle Mitchell of Common Form; Sergey Nazarov of smartcontract.com; Jasmine Castro-Torres of HelloSign; and Jason Boehmig of Ironclad and Series Seed. #onwards.
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35ebed340e4a1d0bee535491d2bca891 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjuetten/2018/12/20/giving-back-an-incubator-founder-interview/ | Giving Back: An Incubator Founder Interview | Giving Back: An Incubator Founder Interview
We have been talking about some startup failures in another series and how entrepreneurs can learn from these mistakes. Here, we shift gears to learn from a serial founder, Carey Smith. Starting at age nine, Smith sold handmade crafts and later Christmas cards door to door. As the oldest of four, he needed to supplement his family’s income for any extras so by high school, he sold shoes, set type for a newspaper, and changed bedpans with a cleaning crew. His main takeaways from his experiences were opinions on types of leaders and employees. By 1981, he started his first company, and then as outlined below, he had a successful exit. This July, Smith started Unorthodox Ventures, based in Austin, Texas, bringing his strong work ethic and customer-centric views.
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Mary Juetten: What problem are you solving?
Carey Smith: Unorthodox Ventures is an incubator for new ideas and businesses. I’ve assembled a team dubbed “The Kitchen,” named for their penchant for cooking up unique ideas and new ventures. We’ll launch businesses of the team’s choosing, whether it’s raising indoor shrimp, brewing craft saké or designing sustainable modular housing.
Juetten: Who are your customers and how do you find them?
Smith: As we launch businesses, all will connect directly to customers. I firmly believe that selling direct is best. When you sell direct, you know your customers, how they use your products and how you can improve.
Juetten: How did past projects and/or experiences help with this new project?
Smith: In 1999, I started an industrial ceiling fan company with six employees off the proceeds of a previous business. Things soon took off, and over the next 18 years, Big Ass Fans grew more than 30 percent annually to $262 million in sales. We had 1,000 employees at our offices in the United States and around the globe. Over that time, we expanded by designing and manufacturing fans for commercial spaces and homes, as well as energy-efficient LED lighting. In all that time, I never accepted outside funding. Then, in late 2017, ready to move on to a new challenge, I sold Big Ass Fans to a private equity firm for $500 million. About $50 million of that went to more than 100 employees who had been granted stock appreciation rights for their hard work and dedication, minting 15 overnight millionaires.
Every year, entrepreneurs start more than half a million companies in America. Only 200 of them will ever reach $100 million in revenue. I know what it takes. By starting Unorthodox Ventures, I get to return to the part of entrepreneurship that I’ve always enjoyed the most. A company is the right size when I know everyone’s name, and we get to spend our days finding creative solutions to our customers’ problems.
Juetten: Who is on your team?
Smith: The incubator includes several former Big Ass Fans employees. These employees, most of whom are in their 20s and 30s, are all very creative, driven and did an outstanding job running various divisions and departments of the company.
Juetten: Did you raise money?
Smith: Just like Big Ass Fans, I’m bootstrapping this venture.
Juetten: Startups are an adventure – what's your favorite startup story?
Smith: I founded Big Ass Fans in 1999 as The HVLS Fan Company, a nod to how our fans operated by moving high volumes of air at low speeds. But customers kept calling and asking if we "made those big ass fans." We listened to them and changed the name. It was an important early lesson in listening to our customers, and that served us well over the years. Because we sold direct, we stayed in constant touch with our customers. We knew who bought our products, how they used them and what problems they needed to have solved. For Big Ass Fans, that meant expanding to fans for the office, the home — even lighting. My advice to other startup founders is to connect directly to your customers at every step from sales to service. That’s how you ensure a loyal customer base and long-term growth.
Juetten: How do you measure success and what is your favorite success story?
Smith: From my perspective, success means being able to take care of your employees. The first time I really felt I’d achieved this was during the Great Recession when we refused to lay anyone off despite a dip in revenues. Not only was the decision the right one for our employees on a personal level, but it was also the right thing for the company in the long run. It allowed us to rebound much more quickly than other businesses did once the economy improved.
Then, when I sold the company in 2017, one of the most rewarding moments was being able to give $50 million to some of my most loyal, hardworking employees through our stock appreciation rights program. More than 100 employees shared in the proceeds with 15 becoming overnight millionaires. It was really gratifying to be able to change lives that way.
Juetten: Any tips to add for early-stage founders?
Smith: I have three key pieces of advice for new entrepreneurs:
Cut out the middlemen, including distributors and retailers, whenever you can. The easiest path to your customers is a straight line. Customer service is a lost art. You can always exceed expectations with your customer service because so many people expect the worst. It’s better, in the long run, to spend whatever’s required for top-notch customer service. To build brand loyalty, give your company a personality. Don’t be afraid to go bold with your brand — but back it up with quality products and service.
Juetten: And of course, any IP horror stories to share? They can be anonymous.
Smith: As important as patents and trademarks are to a company, I always tell people I would trade all of them for the brand. A brand is so hard to build and so easy to lose. (Juetten: A brand is an intangible asset and valuable IP!)
Juetten: What's the long-term vision for your company?
Smith: Unorthodox Ventures aims to succeed by shaking up markets where the status quo isn’t good enough. I’m completely against starting a business with the sole intent of cashing out. That’s very short-term thinking. Starting a business offers excitement and intellectual challenge, but it also offers the opportunity to change people’s lives. It’s exciting to give the millennials working for me the same opportunity to start businesses and run them that I did.
It's refreshing to hear from non-Silicon Valley companies that are built using boot-strapping and a vision for change, rather than solely chasing the cash. #onwards.
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153c45fcc1d9f2d4bee17ef19ba6b3dc | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjuetten/2019/03/05/startup-myths-the-overnight-success/ | Startup Myths: The Overnight Success | Startup Myths: The Overnight Success
For as much as we now know about startups and as many stories that have been shared about founders’ experiences, there are still prevailing myths about the startup world that don’t seem to go away no matter how much reality threatens to impinge upon these notions. These ideas can distort what entrepreneurs think about their own businesses and even how they behave and make decisions. In this series, I hope to shine some light on some of the more prominent myths in the hope that they will eventually give way to the truth.
Group of Young coworkers work together modern office studio.Horizontal closeup.Blurred background Getty
The idea of the overnight success is one of the more aspirational of the startup myths that continues to persist. Holding out the idea of a company that was able to rocket past the struggles and pivots of other startups straight into profitability and growth and a permanent place in the market is understandable in the face of challenges and potential failure. If one company can do it, then certainly another can replicate that success with the right mix of inspiration and execution. But as much as founders might want to skip the hard bits to go straight to the keynote speaker circuit, there’s not much evidence of past cases to support that dream.
Take the now-ubiquitous Amazon. While its current circumstances can lead to some post-hoc rationalization that the company was always destined for greatness, it took years for it to reach the status it’s achieved. The company started as an online bookstore in 1994, years before many of us had logged on to the internet, and it was another four years before they expanded beyond just selling books and moving into DVDs and CDs. Granting that it had had its IPO in 1997 and was already successful by any measure, that still represents years of hard work required to get Amazon to the point where it could grow into what we now know, and that doesn’t even include the thinking and planning and gestating that comes before the formal founding of any company.
The birth of Google is another example of a now-massive entity that didn’t become so overnight. Starting with a basic web crawler built in 1996 during their time at Stanford, Larry Page and Sergey Brin eventually turned that idea into a company that touches seemingly every part of our digital lives. But the journey to the top was a long one - it took over a year before the nascent company even came to the name Google to use for their BackRub project. (Let us be thankful that we’re not required to do BackRub searches for movie times and store hours!) And the advent of the suite of products that have become indispensable to many of us was still years away, meaning that the company and its founders were left to continue to work towards that future.
Despite those roots, it can be easy to still see those companies as somehow outside the normal paths of development because of their status as outlier successes. While it’s true that Google and Amazon and others we recognize as global brands have risen to a level that only a handful of others can attain, they nevertheless started as small operations at some point in their history that had to put in the same long hours that are required of any startup founder. So why does the idea of an overnight success remain, especially given how easy it is to debunk, given the information publicly available about any of these companies?
The idea of the overnight success is hope for some and absolution for others. Depending on the entrepreneur, it is an ambition to be achieved or a reason for their continued struggles. For the hopelessly optimistic, it’s a lottery ticket out there to be had, a magic formula to be found. Conversely, by viewing the success of Amazon or Google as inevitable, the cynical or failed entrepreneur can frame their company’s fortunes — indeed, any company — as a function of fate rather than the end result of a series of decisions, good and bad.
The truth is that the best companies take time to build — any successful company requires a strong base on which to grow and develop. The biggest and most successful businesses took time to reach that level, even if most of that time was spent outside of the public eye, and many made their share of mistakes and missteps along the way. The overnight successes we think we see are years in the making.#onwards.
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c9fcdb2cbbd29268f5617ce8661cd66c | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjuetten/2019/04/18/waystar-healthcare-payments-simplified/ | Waystar: Healthcare Payments Simplified | Waystar: Healthcare Payments Simplified
I have expanded my focus to include healthcare as I wrote about in my previous article, Spotlight Shift to Healthcare and also here. As we know, Healthcare is a multi-trillion-dollar industry with a huge spending problem. Despite this, the industry has been remarkably slow to overhaul their systems, including payments.
Matt Hawkins, CEO of Waystar, saw this opportunity to fix a system plagued by inefficiencies and complexities. As a healthcare tech expert with over twenty years in the space, Matt is leading Waystar from headquarters around the country, including in Chicago, Boston, Atlanta and Louisville, KY. Waystar was formed in early 2018 through the combination of two longtime, top-rated healthcare technology companies, ZirMed and Navicure. By automating and streamlining the healthcare payments process for hospitals and healthcare organizations, Waystar alleviates the significant resources and time spent trying to collect payment through outdated, often very manual, processes, so providers can spend more time doing what matters.
Shot of a female customer making contactless or wireless payment Getty
Mary Juetten: What problem are you solving?
Matt Hawkins: The U.S. healthcare system is complex and difficult to navigate—and payments are a huge part of that complexity for both patients and providers. Waystar provides cloud-based technology that simplifies and unifies the revenue cycle.
Healthcare systems overwhelmingly rely on outdated, manual processes to collect payments, leading to issues like claim denials and surprise medical bills, which frustrate both hospitals and patients.
Using the latest in AI and machine learning, the Waystar platform removes friction across the revenue cycle, eliminates or automates cumbersome processes, and creates more transparency for patients. This frees up time and money for providers so they can focus on improving patient and community care. Our platform handles billions of transactions annually for over 450,000 healthcare providers and 700+ hospitals and health systems across the country.
Juetten: Who are your customers and how do you find them?
Hawkins: Waystar’s technology is used by providers in every care setting, from small, local providers like St. Francis Physician Services to large healthcare systems such as SCL Health, as well as specialty care organizations. We consistently earn high net promoter (NPS) scores, so our reputation for excellent customer service and market-leading technology, combined with a strong sales and marketing engine, enables us to find and acquire new customers.
Juetten: How did past projects and/or experience help with this new project?
Hawkins: I’ve always been passionate about the role that technology can play in improving healthcare. In the last five years, I’ve helped identify and architect more than $1.7 billion of healthcare technology-related investments. Most recently, I was President of Sunquest Information Systems, leading its transformation into a global leader in laboratory diagnostic informatics.
Over the course of my tenure at Sunquest, I successfully managed several acquisitions, which prepared me for the hefty but rewarding experience of building a unified company from two well-established industry giants and navigating subsequent acquisitions.
My experiences at Sunquest and other healthcare technology companies not only shaped my belief in the ability of innovative technology to solve major pain points in healthcare, but likewise allowed me to recognize the potential of Waystar’s tech in particular to achieve this goal.
Juetten: Who is on your team?
Hawkins: I am grateful to lead a team of healthcare, payments and fintech veterans with decades of invaluable experience. Our team is multilocational, leveraging technology to quickly and effectively communicate and execute between offices across the country. We’ve made a number of strategic hires over the past six months as we look to continue growing and expanding the business, particularly in health systems and hospitals.
Juetten: How is Waystar funded?
Hawkins: Two established companies merged to create Waystar: Navicure, backed by Bain Capital and ZirMed, originally backed by Sequoia. Bain Capital then acquired ZirMed, which was combined with Navicure to create Waystar.
Juetten: How do you measure success and what is your favorite success story?
Hawkins: We measure our success through our clients’ success. With any merger of companies and integration of technology platforms, it’s crucial not to lose sight of the client. From the outset, we set a goal to increase client satisfaction during the merger, rather than defensively brace for hiccups. This meant keeping the lines of communication open, as well as improving our technology offerings.
To this end, we set up continuous feedback loops with many clients to make sure our enhancements went smoothly and seamlessly. We also dedicated a concierge-like client service team to handle any more complex issues that arose.
Nearly 100 percent of those clients agreed that the new platform was an improvement, and no client experienced any disruption to cash flow. Our NPS score actually increased. That, to me, is success: knowing we improved the product and the client experience during a time of transition.
Juetten: Any tips to add for growth-stage founders?
Hawkins: Establish a clear vision and goals for your company and communicate honestly with your team and your clients. Distill your shared corporate values and let them guide your professional demeanor and decision-making. These strategies helped shape our company culture into one that values integrity, creative thinking, and open collaboration to lead to the best outcomes.
Juetten: What's the long-term vision for your company?
Hawkins: Our vision is simple: we believe in the power of innovative technology to make healthcare better for everyone. We’re continuing to build out Waystar’s offerings, most recently with the acquisitions of Connance and Ovation's claim management service, with the goal of providing an incredibly comprehensive set of solutions that help our clients manage every aspect of payments and collections.
With these large players entering the healthcare space, there is hope for those struggling with the complex system, in this case payments. If you have a company that is working to solve for the challenges within healthcare, please reach out on Twitter @maryjuetten. #onwards.
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2316b0eae6856520825ea4c16a34ced6 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjuetten/2019/08/15/leadership-tips--managing-the-human-element-in-business/ | Leadership Tips: Managing the Human Element in Business | Leadership Tips: Managing the Human Element in Business
You can read the previous post in my series here.
Of all the mysteries and questions presented to us during the course of starting and running a business, there are none greater than the people whom we find in our orbit. “Hell is other people,” Proust wrote, and while most wouldn’t subscribe to a view so nakedly cynical, it’s undoubtedly true that the inscrutability of those around us provide cause to pull our hair out on plenty of occasions. Even the notion of a company staffed by a dozen clones of ourselves is sounds like a nightmare, as we’d be compounding our own personal faults and mistakes twelve times over.
Two startup business colleagues problem-solving at a computer together in the office. Getty
So how then to handle the conundrum of other people when running your own business? People throw around the terms “leadership” and “personnel management” as if they are self-explanatory, but leadership can be anything other than evident. There are no shortage of people willing to set a direction for a team and tell others what to do, but managing people isn’t driving a dogsled team in the Iditarod; people are going to need wisdom and guidance and occasionally a firm hand along the way. Being a true manager of people requires a few different skills in order to get a team operating to its full potential.
Perhaps the most glaringly obvious trick to leadership is finding the right people to fill out your team. But who are the right people? Every venture is different, and each position in a team may demand different qualities. And our own ideas of the “right people” might not be calibrated to the tasks at hand; a hard-charging, “type A” personality might be your ideal for building out a team, but will they listen to direction, or bristle at not being in charge and decide to follow their own plan? Or we can find people who are brilliant at one particular skill, but terribly deficient if asked to step outside that role even briefly. This isn’t to say that you should skip either example as a potential hire; they might be perfect for the job. The key is knowing what you need and knowing the shortcomings of each person you bring on.
Along those lines, a successful manager needs to be able to mitigate their team’s weaknesses while taking advantage of its strengths. That might mean strategically assigning work and forming teams that will hopefully match weaknesses with offsetting strengths, in addition to aggregating the necessary skills to complete the task. Pairing self-starters with those who require direction can help keep a project on target, and surrounding your leaders with requisite followers puts everyone in the role that ensures their comfort and ultimate success. It might not even be weaknesses that you’re trying to manage; different personality types can produce different dynamics when paired with others, not all of them positive, and finding the right mix to ensure something like harmony exists along with productivity requires a bit of trial and error.
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Once your team is in the right configuration, it’s on to the task at hand, onward until the work is done with nary an issue. Or at least it might be, in an ideal world. But ours is clearly far from a perfect one, and motivation flags on the part of all, ourselves included. As a manager, we have to try and pick up and reenergize those who have lost some of their earlier zeal and enthusiasm. Successfully motivating others is an exercise in both empathy and understanding of those around us; we have to understand what drives them, and what stirs their passion for the work they do. Some people just require time off to recharge the batteries, while others need a new challenge after they’ve grown tired of what they’re currently doing. Certain people react more to a pat on the back, while others need a kick in the rear. Some need to be handed more responsibility to rise to the fullest extent of their abilities, while others have to be freed of the added pressure to perform. Whatever is required, it’s expected of you as a manager to figure it out and apply those tools to get the best of everyone on your team.
Management isn’t easy by any stretch; if it was, everyone would want to be in charge. As it is, there are already enough people who are looking to be in that position; some are in it for the right reasons, confident in their abilities and looking to make a positive impact for the team, while others are drawn by the power and how they could wield it, without consideration for the responsibilities that come with that authority. Finding the right way to manage the personalities on your team, with all of the loves and hates and ambitions and fears and everything that people port with them into their jobs, is the most important thing you can do in your job, the one that enables the talent under your care to use their skills to get the necessary work done. #onwards.
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1407747d88ed2642d57c903ddda2cf3e | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjuetten/2019/10/10/best-company-traits-efficiency/ | Best Company Traits: Efficiency | Best Company Traits: Efficiency
Wasted time is an inescapable fact of life, and equally true in the business world as well. We can plan and schedule as we like, but there are inevitably instances where minutes that eventually turn into hours are spent on things for which there is no redeeming value. In our lives, much of that wasted time is waiting: waiting on line, waiting in traffic, waiting for things to begin. Our smartphones mean we’re never unoccupied in those moments, but can we say that they were particularly productive towards whatever end we have in mind?
Not that productivity is the all-consuming purpose of our lives, or even our work; there’s the downtime of our nights and weekends, and even in our hours at the office we allot for breaks to avoid burnout. But there’s a difference between breaks and lost productivity during the hours that we’re meant to be working. It’s those inadvertently lost minutes and hours that can drive employers crazy, and can make a considerable difference in your bottom line in aggregate.
A group of startup business employees working together in a modern office environment. Getty
Efficiency is a buzzword that gets thrown around quite a bit, particularly in the context of CEOs or COOs looking to streamline or maximize output or whatever euphemism you might choose for getting more out of their employees and their company. And it’s an understandable concern: each company has targets to hit, and only a certain amount of resources to allocate, and they want those resources to return the greatest yield possible within reason. Trying to succeed is hard enough without seeing some portion of the time and effort that should be directed towards the work at hand seemingly evaporating into the ether.
No company is able to get to one hundred percent efficiency, but the best companies are able to examine their processes and understand where losses of time and energy are occuring, and cut down on those as much as possible. The most successful businesses are the ones with little in the way of time and energy wasted unnecessarily. That distinction — unnecessary — is an important one; you don’t want to be the person timing bathroom breaks or lunch breaks, or hovering over the shoulder of employees to ensure there’s no lapse in concentration or glances at phones, because these are the very necessary inefficiencies that are part and parcel of being human. (Don’t be a Dwight Schrute, is what I guess I’m saying.) Even the most successful companies can forget themselves and sacrifice their humanity for the sake of productivity.
There are still steps to be taken to improve how your business runs without having to ask more of employees than is reasonable. So where are the biggest inefficiencies? Anyone that’s ever attended a meeting that felt wholly unnecessary will point to said meetings as one of the main thieves of productivity, not to mention joy and the general will to live. We love meetings because they can feel like an accomplishment in and of themselves, and a justification of our position and status.
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Don’t get me wrong, they can serve a purpose: they disseminate information and coordinate efforts, and when run properly can move things forward and ensure a common understanding. But those in positions of power as managers and coordinators can fall overly in love with meetings, to the point that you find yourself attending meetings about meetings, and pre-meetings and post-meetings until it can feel like your job is attending meetings, with the ancillary tasking of doing your actual job. Heed the cry from offices around the world: no unnecessary meetings.
Waiting is an equally frustrating and wasteful exercise that can slow down many a process that serves to degrade your productivity. There are certain waits that simply can’t be avoided; there’s little you can do if you’re waiting on a supplier or other outside entity to continue your work, besides registering your dissatisfaction loudly and repeatedly. But as companies grow larger, there is a complication to workflows that were once simple, and an inertia that seems to set in that makes decisions hard to come by. There’s no longer autonomy or a single decision-maker; instead, issues go through channels, to be reviewed by the necessary people or groups in their own time, leaving one or more people waiting for a decision before they can continue their work. Streamlining decision-making processes and granting autonomy where possible can help prevent the delays and logjams that prevent more work from getting done.
There are of course a thousand tiny things that can be done to help improve efficiency each adding up to small gains that can make a big difference in the end result. The key is being able to understand that improvements can be made, recognizing that how you’re operating might not be the best way to do things, and having the courage to make meaningful changes rather than superficial measures. #onwards.
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8a945fc23a9bc07d3f03261ea9314d86 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjuetten/2020/01/07/6sense-and-v2mom-a-new-approach-to-marketing/ | 6sense And V2MOM: A New Approach To Marketing | 6sense And V2MOM: A New Approach To Marketing
In my time in legal technology, I have seen people go wild over ‘new’ approaches, which turn out to be old approaches, just re-named. Enter Latane Conant, CMO of 6sense, based in San Francisco. 6sense is an Account Based Marketing (ABM) company using artificial intelligence (AI) that is calling out ABM because the principles aren’t revolutionary; ABM is just today’s buzzword for good marketing.
Technology Abstract Background,3D illustration Rendering of binary code pattern Abstract,Futuristic ... [+] Particles for business,Science and technology background Getty
Mary Juetten: What problem are you solving?
Latane Conant: The old methods - especially in the business to business (B2B) space - simply don’t work any longer. Gated content requiring form-fills, spam emails, cold calls are a waste of our time and money, and all have created a horrible prospect experience. Today, buyers want to do their research anonymously. And it sounds counter-intuitive as a marketer, but modern marketing organizations need to enable that, not try to subvert it.
This means we have to re-imagine how we engage prospects and become much more sophisticated in our approach. Our gospel: Uncover, prioritize, engage.
Juetten: Who are your customers and how do you find them?
Conant: Our customers are B2B revenue teams (sales, marketing, customer success, sales development) at enterprise and mid-market companies around the world. Companies like Cumulus, Aprimo, Motorola, Dell, and Quorum use our AI-Powered Account Based Orchestration Platform to effectively target and engage ideal accounts, to increase pipeline and conversion quality plus accelerate sales cycles.
And we drink our own champagne. Our sales and marketing teams use our own product to identify the best accounts to target, prioritize our resources to focus on accounts in-market aka” ready to buy” and surround buying teams with personalized multi-channel engagement.
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Juetten: How did past projects and/or experience help with this new project?
Conant: You tend to learn more from your failures than your successes and I had a lackluster ABM pilot at Appirio. I did not have a clear enough ideal customer profile (ICP) and I found creating personalized cross channel experiences way too arduous. Honestly, we were just guessing about what accounts cared about - we didn’t really know. When I saw 6sense, I had a huge A-ha moment. There was finally a platform to allow us to actually execute ABM at scale!
Simply, it’s a single platform to engage an entire buying team across ads, email, events, social, and real-time behavioral information telling us exactly what prospects really care about so we can create a message that resonates.
Juetten: Did you raise money?
Conant: Raised a total of $63M over 4 rounds.
Juetten: How do you measure success and what is your favorite success story?
Conant: Success is all about the company you keep. I’m so fortunate to have many people who have worked with me several times over the years. Every time someone signs up to work with me again - well, it’s an honor.
Juetten: Any tips to add for early-stage founders?
Conant: You have to drive the vision and prioritize the most critical initiatives. Without this, a small team quickly works a ton but accomplishes little. I have an adapted version of “V2MOM” that works well.
Here is how I use the V2MOM (Vision & Values; Methods, Obstacles, Measures) and why it works well for us:
At the beginning of every year, the leadership team helps shape the V2MOM, so it isn’t just me telling everyone what to do and how to do it. We create the Vision and Values together. I challenge the team to make our V2 bold and aspirational because V2MOM isn’t for maintaining the status quo - it’s about changing the business for the better. We then look at what we are actually going to DO to achieve the vision - these are the “methods”. The methods are time-bound - typically quarterly and they are hyper prioritized, so method 1 gets more attention than method 2, and so on. The team and I rank the methods together so that we all understand the priority of each. MOM stands for methods, obstacles, and metrics, but I have made a slight tweak there. I’m not a big fan of obstacles (shocker!) so for me, the O stands for “owner.” Every method has a clear owner driving it. This is critical because if a lot of people own it - no one owns it. Metrics are the last part - like the owner they are also associated with a method. I typically like 3 or 4 metrics per method. If you have too many metrics the method is always yellow. Metrics need to be clear so on a weekly basis you can deem them red, yellow or green.
We make our V2MOM completely transparent. The entire company knows and understands what we are working on, along with why, and how we are tracking. This makes it easy for everyone to see what makes sense for the team to work on, versus what doesn’t, using metrics to back it up. And, it is just as much about what is ON the V2MOM as what is not.
Juetten: What's the long-term vision for your company?
Conant: A single platform for revenue teams (sales, marketing, customer success) to engage customers, orchestrate meaningful experiences, and measure/optimize efforts. With AI and big data at the core, we're able to do things like uncover anonymous activity and tie it to accounts, predict who’s in-market and instantly initiate action. 6sense is designed for a buying team vs a lead and is inherently multi-channel.
As we start a new year, consider V2MOM – with owner or obstacle as the “O” – for your teams. #onwards.
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f10107ac6b1cb88ee7f664868a7e641a | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjuetten/2020/01/14/getting-time-management-right/ | Getting Time Management Right | Getting Time Management Right
Here it is: the definitive guide to managing your time and getting everything done, with time left over to spend time with family and catch up on the TV shows you’ve been meaning to see. You’ll do more and do it better, and people will marvel at how you’re seemingly able to do it all without breaking a sweat.
closeup of the hands of a young caucasian man holding a clock which is being adjusted backward or ... [+] forward one hour at the end or at the beginning of the summer, against a blue background Getty
So perhaps that isn’t exactly true. If there were some foolproof method of managing your time, surely someone would have figured it out by now and made hundreds of millions on the book and lecture circuit. The unfortunate truth for entrepreneurs and founders is that there’s probably no surefire way to organize your day and expend your time that gets everything you want to do done and leaves hours left over for rest and relaxation. All any of us can do is our best to maximize the time we have, and to try and limit the amount of it we spend at work in a way that prevents us from becoming a mere rumor to our families. While there’s no right answer, there are things we can remember that can help us to be better and do better when it comes to managing our time.
Limit your email tIme. If there is any greater time suck than email, it’s yet to be invented. (Though I’m sure Silicon Valley remains hard at work on it at present.) Writing emails, reading emails, answering emails; all seem designed to eat at your day until you look up at the clock and find that the hours have disappeared and you’ve done none of the things you set out to when you woke up. Somehow our greatest tool for communication has come at the expense of productivity. As pleasurable as it is to imagine actually doing, we can’t ditch email entirely, at least if we hope our businesses to remain a viable concern. But we can change how we email, and our relationship with email.
Having set periods of time when you read and respond to emails might seem to some to be a step towards acting like a conceited, self-regarding genius entrepreneur type, particularly if you’re of a type that has courtesy and politeness drilled into the fiber of your being. But it’s not discourteous to value your own time, and it’s not that you’re ignoring their emails entirely. Emails are meant to be a tool that works for you, not the other way around; upending that unhealthy relationship is one way to liberating your time for other tasks.
Get off the phone. As with email, the phone can be a similar drag on your time if you allow it to be. For all the ways in which phone calls have become an artifact in everyday life, they remain very much alive and vital in the world of business. We’ve undoubtedly encountered people in our dealings who are eager to “jump on a call” to talk over any point that requires anything over a couple sentences to describe in an email. They’re phone call people, in stark contrast to the way that many of us are definitely not, especially ones that seem entirely superfluous, and if we accede to every request we’re spending our days on the phone.
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So we have to learn to say “no”, or at least to add “no” into the mix with “yes”, when anyone and everyone wants to set up a call to discuss whatever the matter at hand. Some things require a phone call and others don’t, and while it might be the job of the other party to spend their day making calls, it’s not yours, and you’ll do well to remember that the people you owe your time are usually the ones within your building.
Clear your meetings. Remember when I said that emails were the greatest time suck ever perpetrated upon the office worker? Meetings give email a run for its money as a thief of both time and joy. Meetings pair the insistence of email with the schedule-filling of phone calls to create its own unique entity that consumes working hours at an alarming rate. As with either emails or phone calls, there are of course good and necessary meetings, ones where important matters are hashed out. But meetings can become something thrown at a problem, used as an option of first resort and a quick and easy answer to any issue or problem. The mere act of having a meeting feels like you’re accomplishing something, even if you’re deciding nothing.
Get rid of unnecessary meetings. It’s really that simple. Does this meeting serve a purpose? Is it going to accomplish anything? Does it spark joy? If not, then it needs to go. It’s not as though you or your team can’t talk or interact outside of the formal confines of a meeting, or that others can’t meet on their own if needed. For your own sanity, and the sake of your valuable time, only set the meetings that you need, with definitive time boundaries.
These tips shouldn’t come to anyone as particularly revolutionary; odds are you’ve had similar thoughts or read advice of the like, even if you’ve not acted on it. Hopefully, it serves to reinforce those thoughts and messages and gets you to take action in the direction of decluttering your workday. By doing less, you can hopefully accomplish more. #onwards.
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61fdc220fc0d2fae3087b815b69b0bce | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjuetten/2020/01/23/the-importance-of-perseverance/?sh=3d22b13528a5 | The Importance Of Perseverance | The Importance Of Perseverance
There are a lot of qualities needed and required in starting and running your own business: intelligence, creativity, ambition, are all required in some measure if you hope to overcome the barriers to entry into entrepreneurship. While the virtue of our system is that ostensibly anyone can start their own business, there is a test of those innate characteristics in the undertaking that ultimately determines those who pursue that path from those who don’t. It’s an obvious oversimplification, certainly; there are barriers to entrepreneurship that have little to do with ability that prevents many from even trying, yet even in a just world with any such barriers removed and equal access granted to all there would still be those who would fall just short by the very nature of the enterprise. Even the best among us get it wrong sometimes.
Focused young african american businesswoman or student looking at laptop holding book learning, ... [+] serious black woman working or studying with computer doing research or preparing for exam online Getty
What’s perhaps underappreciated, or less considered, is the role that our determination to go on plays in the ultimate success of our business. It’s our brains that elevate us to a place where we’re able to pursue our dreams with a company of our own, but it’s often hard heads and stiff backs that enable it to continue on. Perseverance and persistence are equally crucial in the work required to turn a business into a viable enterprise, given the challenges and roadblocks thrown up along the way.
And yet perseverance is a quality that gets less than its due in our documentation of success stories. We’d much sooner praise genius and creativity, both ethereal and aspirational and easily recognizable as something special and inspiring in the masses. And as we like to think genius effortless, we elide the work and the iteration that was required to arrive at that point. Determination and a refusal to quit are well-suited to the scrappy underdog stories we put up on screen, but they sully our notions of our elites, so the machinations are left behind the curtain.
None of us get to where we are in life without some level of grit and perseverance. There are those of whom more is unfairly asked in the way of perseverance by virtue of their birth, and others for whom advantages are immediately accrued by that same birth, but with few exceptions all will face challenges great and small throughout their life, ones that we simply have to push our way through. On those occasions our intellect and ambition may help us navigate the challenge, but it’s our ability to withstand those trials that will ultimately see us to the other side.
The life of our businesses often play out much as life itself does: we try, we fail, we get lucky and fall onto bad luck and occasionally make our own luck, and eventually everything ends one way or another. Things will break against you and your business far more often than you’d like, and probably more than you feel is fair. In times like that we have to be able to put our heads down and keep at it when it might seem easier to give up, or more cathartic to sit in your office and complain about the unfairness of the universe. Occasionally those bad breaks will be of your own doing; mistakes are as much a part of your business as they are of life, and sometimes those mistakes have consequences in the immediate and down the road. We could again just give up and throw in the towel, but instead we persevere and work to correct what we can and work past what we can’t.
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Perseverance might not be the coolest or most exciting trait, and certainly not the one we’d want to be our calling card professionally; features and hagiographies aren’t written about those who did passable work but really stuck with it long past when others would have quit. We want to be brilliant and create something great, to be known for the work that we do and the qualities related to that brilliance. Maybe we don’t necessarily want the media attention (not that we’d say no), but we want quality and creativity to be the words associated with us at least in the minds of customers. But in order to get there, we need that persistence, that perseverance, to allow us to achieve those goals in the face of obstacles that would otherwise derail us. #onwards.
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a4d5688bcfe6dc1e57047e046f937fa1 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjuetten/2020/06/04/ten-tips-for-success-from-a-teen-entrepreneur/ | 10 Tips For Success From A Teen Entrepreneur | 10 Tips For Success From A Teen Entrepreneur
All of the founders I’ve talked to in the past have, if not startup experience, a fair amount of life experience upon which to draw. So it was uniquely interesting, and a bit surprising, to talk to a serial entrepreneur with multiple ventures to his name before he reached legal drinking age.
Brendan Cox is the founder of Cox Visuals, the All Up In Ur Business Podcast, Teen Assistant, Kicks Cases, The Booth Pennsylvania, & Cox Social Media Management, all based out of both New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Brendan first started out as an entrepreneur in the 7th grade when he ran a widely popular phone case company. Rather than hiring a graphic designer for his website, he did the graphics and social media, teaching himself Adobe Photoshop. That early venture led to a partnership with a Brooklyn-based clothing designer that birthed Cox Visuals, a branding and graphic design agency.
Brendan Cox in his office. Brendan Cox
Given so much experience at such a young age, Brendan has a unique perspective on business and the entrepreneurial spirit, which he shared with me in a recent interview.
Mary Juetten: What problem are you solving?
Brendan Cox: Everyone has different skills, and many people don’t have an eye for design. Branding is crucial when it comes to presenting your personal brand or business, as it’s the first impression any potential client will see. Our company helps those who don’t know how to present themselves or their business(which is many start-up companies) and creates a sleek and eye-catching brand image for them.
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Juetten: Who are your customers and how do you find them?
Cox: The large portion of our clientele is in the clothing industry. We’ve worked with hundreds of different clothing businesses to rebrand their companies’ image and improve their social media. So many companies have the right message, but don’t know how to present it in an appealing manner. We’ve been working with Habits 365 (Habits365.com) since the day they launched alongside their team to create what is now one of the next biggest streetwear businesses in the industry.
Another portion of the client base are realtors. Over the past few years, social media has become more and more crucial to realtors. We help them take their online presence to the next level with eye-catching content across all multiple platforms.
Juetten: How did past projects and/or experience help with this new project?
Cox: The unique aspect of Cox Visuals is that it created the business model used by all my start-ups. I started with Kicks Cases, (my phone case business) and have since gained experience and exposure by implementing Cox Visuals work within all my past and current companies.
Juetten: Who is on your team?
Cox: My team includes:
Lauren Kamienski is the Creative Director at Cox Visuals. She is currently studying Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware and is an experienced writer and has a keen eye for detail. Erika Witt is the Promotions Manager at Cox Visuals. She currently attends the University of Scranton and is getting her BA in Social Media Strategies and an MBA in Marketing. She has an innovative mindset and remains detailed-oriented while developing strategies.
Juetten: Did you raise money?
Cox: I’ve never raised money. It was never a necessity for my companies because I constantly reinvest profits from other projects into my new endeavors.
Juetten: Startups are an adventure — what's your favorite startup story?
Cox: My personal favorite startup story is Cole Bennett and his company Lyrical Lemonade. Cole worked on his multimedia company in his college dorm and has since taken over the music video industry through his widely popular YouTube channel and website. He is definitely someone I look up to and hope one day achieve a similar level of success.
Juetten: Any tips for early-stage founders?
Cox: I have ten tips, which I’ve laid out below.
Action Over Words: Take action and stop spending months perfecting every little detail on your business plan. Jump in and learn as you go. One of the perks of being a young entrepreneur is that your life doesn’t depend on the success of this company. Talk is cheap. It’s easy to make it look like you’re doing a lot, when really all you’re really doing is talking about the things you want to do. A lot of people start businesses without planning any proper course of action, and things tend to fall apart. You need to know exactly how you’re going to make something happen before you tell people you’re going to do it. Customers lose confidence in businesses that talk but never act. Set Realistic Goals: Setting goals is one thing but setting realistic goals is something different entirely. Your goals need to be challenging but still accomplishable. People tell me every day that they want to go from 0 to 100,000 followers on Instagram in a week but it’s not realistic. Don’t Start a Business to Make Money: Yes, I know that phrase sounds extremely contradictory. What I mean by this is to start a business doing what you love and are passionate about. Don’t start a business with the sole purpose of making money because you will lose interest very quickly and the business will flop. Connections are Key: I can’t stress this enough. Connections are everything in business. In the business world, it’s all about who you know not what you know. Build a network of people for everything so that way you have a person for everything. Social Media is Everything: If your business isn’t on social media, you barely have a business these days. Think of social media as a way to share your business among millions of unique users on a daily basis. Use social media to your advantage when it comes to marketing your business and creating an image for your brand. Don’t Be Afraid to Fail: Failure sucks, don’t get me wrong. I lost $10,000 in 8th grade after investing in an account to build a targeted Instagram brand. Then one day, the platform suddenly deleted the account. There’s no point in keeping your head down, use your failures to motivate you to succeed more. Capitalize off what you learned from failure. You Don’t Know It All: Education is a life-long process, nobody knows everything. You should always be willing to take advice and listen to others. Platforms and the business world are always changing. No matter the age or experience, listen to that person’s advice and then apply it to your knowledge and business so you can continue to expand and adjust. Understand Competitive Value: Use your competitors as motivation. Allow them to push you to improve your company and your skills set. But don’t become obsessed. Understand the value of competition and use it to focus more on your company. Don’t get sidetracked by your goals, while staring at someone else who is achieving new heights. Believe in Yourself: Stop second-guessing every decision you make. Just because it hasn’t been done, doesn’t mean it won’t succeed. When running a business, you are going to make mistakes whether large or small. It’s okay and it’s part of the process. You can do it, so stop telling yourself you can’t. Don’t Be Afraid to Re-Invest: Many companies stop growing because they become comfortable with a steady revenue. However, if you want to grow, you need to re-invest in yourself and your company. It’s okay to not always make profit overnight. Success takes time and you need to be willing to understand that.
Juetten: What's the long-term vision for your company?
Cox: In the long term, I see Cox Visuals expanding our clientele and team to take over branding amongst small start-up companies. We are looking to be the go-to company when it comes to branding. We have many projects in the works, including collaborations with large influencers and companies in the near future.
Impressive and cannot wait to see what Brendan does next. #onwards.
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d7841d40c17ab0655a873785e37906c0 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjuetten/2021/01/07/opening-up-entrepreneurship-to-all-the-resource-hub/ | Opening Up Entrepreneurship To All: The Resource Hub | Opening Up Entrepreneurship To All: The Resource Hub
Plenty of potential entrepreneurs have great business ideas but are held back in their pursuit of their goals by barriers: knowledge and resources kept out of reach of all but a few, as well as assumptions about who might be an entrepreneur and where they might come from. And while it’s understood that starting your own business is a tough road — particularly in the age of COVID, where many small businesses are struggling to stay afloat — it’s to the betterment of all that more people should have the tools available to them to try their hand at a startup.
Enter Nicole Loftus, the founder of The Resource Hub, a national directory for small businesses, as well as SkinX, a funding platform for entrepreneurs, both New York based. She’s working to help entrepreneurs succeed, including over 3,500 resources on the Resource Hub and adding new ones regularly.
Nicole has an impressive resume as an author, speaker and guest faculty member at multiple institutions, including Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management. She has also served on numerous boards such as The American Red Cross, and The Chicago Workforce Investment Council (CWIC) and has mentored entrepreneurs through The Clinton Foundation and The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE). Given that background, it was fascinating to hear her answers on what she’s learned from her own experience as she tries to help other founders on their journeys.
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Mary Juetten: When did you start your companies?
Nicole Loftus: In 2013 I walked out of my own company that was bringing in $40M per year and was Inc. 500 #8, to take on a mission to build a better model for funding entrepreneurs, creating jobs and equalizing opportunities in America.
The model was built by 2015, the tech build started in 2017 — including The Resource Hub — and now we’re ready to launch to the public in 2021.
Juetten: What problem are you solving?
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Loftus: Three prongs:
Entrepreneurs need support now more than ever. The country has thousands of free resources for entrepreneurs to get help launching, building and funding their businesses. Entrepreneurs have no way to find them. The system for supporting entrepreneurs is built and run by white guys in three states shutting out the other 47 states and entrepreneurs who aren’t white guys.
We built the first ever national directory of local resources for entrepreneurs.
These organizations are funded by taxpayers and they are the job creators of the country.
The Resource Hub supports organizations that support entrepreneurs that are women, minorities, veterans, disabled, LGBTQ and able-bodied white guys.
Juetten: Who are your customers and how do you find them?
Loftus: Our potential customers are every entrepreneur and wannabe entrepreneur in the U.S.
Juetten: How did past projects and/or experience help with this new project?
Loftus: I was raised in a blue-collar Italian family where women are still taught to make babies and spaghetti, not multi-million-dollar businesses that disrupt multi-billion-dollar industries. I took a different path. It was the free resources in Chicago that made me an entrepreneur (The Women’s Business Development Center and The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce).
I built my business to $40 million a year with 50+ employees and disrupted a $20 billion-dollar industry all with angel investors and bank loans. When the time came to raise venture capital I had no idea how predatory the system was, especially in Illinois, one of the 47 states shut out of venture capital. The vulture capitalists took control of my company, prevented any new money from coming in and forced me out. When I realized this happens every day to millions of entrepreneurs and that this broken system is the greatest driver of inequality in America, I decided to change the game.
Juetten: Who is on your team?
Loftus: Brilliant, proven leaders like Dr. Jasmin Sethi, who has a PhD in Economics and a law degree from Harvard; Anna Belyaev, an amazing technologist that started at the National Center for Supercomputing; and Anna Rode, Susan Dumont and my mentor Christie Hefner, former CEO of Playboy Enterprises.
Juetten: Did you raise money?
Loftus: I raised $2 Million - only debt and only from friends and family. I will not take money from venture capitalists again. After we’re done launching Skin, no entrepreneur will ever have to again.
Juetten: How do you measure success and what is your favorite success story?
Loftus: The only measure for success is freedom, especially for women and minorities: Freedom to choose a life you want, to live where you want, to be unmarried, to have children or not don’t have children.
Juetten: Any tips to add for early-stage founders?
Loftus:
Engage your free local resources. Spend more time choosing an investor than you do choosing your spouse; there’s no divorcing a bad VC once they’re in your business. Research your VC’s, meet their other portfolio companies; make sure they’re a fit for your company. Become a legal expert in all the language VC’s love to use – learn about block rights, liquidation preferences, pari passu, drag along, etc.
Juetten: And of course, any IP horror stories to share?
Loftus: Before I knew to not take on partners and that co-founders never work, I took on a partner. It didn’t work. She didn’t work as hard, wasn’t as committed and was a general nightmare. I let her take the whole company, all our IP, our brand, the url, the company name…EVERYTHING.
I went and started over again. She never did anything with it.
IP isn’t worth anything without the blood, sweat, tears to make the ideas into reality.
Juetten: What's the long-term vision for your company?
Loftus: SkinX is a long-term economic initiative intended to build a sustainable infrastructure for the way businesses are funded for centuries to come. It is full-participation capitalism. It is the renewed American Dream.
Thanks to Nicole for her insight; I hope her dream of a more inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystem comes true. #onwards.
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7c686bc406882191f765e2daf0370ce7 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjuetten/2021/01/12/learning-to-live-without-control/ | Learning To Live Without Control | Learning To Live Without Control
The television event of the spring for millions of viewers was The Last Dance, the ten-part series that served as a chronicle of the peculiar drive and pathos of Michael Jordan as much as a record of the Chicago Bulls teams he led to championships across the 1990s. At first blush, it might seem to be a product entirely for sports fans, given that its subject is athletes and teams and games and all the things that would seemingly be of interest only to those who have a vested interest in such things. But any story, regardless of genre, is ultimately a human story, and the lessons gleaned from a glimpse behind the curtain at a normally guarded Jordan can inform even the non-sports fan in their life and their work.
Some considerable percentage of Earth’s population is aware of Jordan’s athletic and commercial exploits, though that number diminishes as his playing career and consistent public presence recedes further into the past. Fewer are aware of the dark side of what propelled those accomplishments, which are laid bare in the series, either despite or because of Jordan’s attempt to excuse or hand-wave his behaviors: the relentless bullying of teammates and opponents alike and the competitive mania that fostered endless grudges and fueled an unyielding desire to win at everything. Pushing aside the hagiography and the hosannas on offer online, the takeaway is clear: what made Jordan great also made him a difficult person to be around.
Female entrepreneur looking away while standing by table at workplace getty
Being Michael Jordan is clearly a burden, and it’s one that we’re fortunate enough to never bear. There is, however, something in seeing that drive and ambition and competitiveness, even in that extreme form, that should give some entrepreneurs pause to think about their own approach to work.
It’s easy to point to a more aberrant form of your own behavior in an effort to minimize your own flaws, but that doesn’t or shouldn’t excuse those shortcomings. We’ve all been guilty of perhaps being too focused on a goal at the expense of everything else in our life, including the people closest to us. We’ve all been a little too controlling or perhaps inclined towards micromanaging in situations that might not have warranted it, all out of an earnest desire to ensure everything’s right. It’s our prerogative to do so as founders and managers if we so choose, but making that automatic by giving over to those impulses might end up doing more harm to our psyche than it helps out business.
No one starts their own company unless there’s an innate need for some level of control and power, and those needs aren’t definitionally unseemly or untoward. We all require some level of control in our lives, and most would gladly accept the power over their fate that founders set out to create for themselves. But both require moderation and purpose; the need to control every aspect of everything in your life and your work is not only a recipe for considerable stress and anxiety, it’s a goal outside of your reach. If even the great Michael Jordan can’t bend the world entirely to his will (though he came closer than most would), what chance do the rest of us have?
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We have to learn to let go, at least a little, of our need to exert control over every part of our lives, to have every interaction or transaction go in our favor. We should work towards that end, to be sure, but we should also be able to accept when things don’t fall our way because that’s simply the nature of life. For everything that we can influence and put our fingerprints on, there are exponentially more entirely outside of our sight, let alone our control, that influences what happens with our business. Understanding that and letting go can bring us far more peace than a futile effort to master the world around us.
It’s hard to say that any documentary about events twenty-plus years past generates concern, but to the extent that Last Dance gives pause moving forward, it would be in considering how that particular Jordan mindset might be taken onboard by previously unaware viewers as a path towards greatness. Why can’t you be the Michael Jordan of your field, and why shouldn’t you be? We’re told early on that hard work and desire win out (think 10,000 hours), so it makes a sort of sense that we simply need to ratchet those up to a level that renders our success inevitable. But in thinking about the gain, we fail to consider the cost extracted by placing such pressure on ourselves.
Everyone has to make their own calculations as to what and how much they’re willing to do in order to achieve what they want, and the sacrifices that are required to get there. Hopefully, a story about basketball can help us learn that winning isn’t everything after all. #onwards.
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8eaf5ddaea9b992e5c210c2eabda92c0 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjuetten/2021/01/14/tackling-our-stem-education-challenge-innoverge/ | Tackling Our STEM Education Challenge: Innoverge | Tackling Our STEM Education Challenge: Innoverge
If there is anything that can be surmised about the problems facing humanity in the future, it’s that smart and innovative minds are needed. We must start now by making sure youth today (and future generations) are getting the needed educational opportunities to reach their fullest potential.
Fortunately, we have dedicated people working to fill in the gaps where our current education system falls short. I recently spoke with Archika Dogra, the founder and executive director of Innoverge, a Bellevue, Washington non-profit that is looking to provide greater opportunities in STEM education for the traditionally underserved and underrepresented. Despite being only a freshman at Princeton herself, Archika has built an impressive organization that has already proved successful.
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Mary Juetten: When and where did you start?
Archika Dogra: Innoverge is an educational equity non-profit organization promoting STEMxHumanities opportunities for underrepresented youths, originally based out of the Greater Seattle Area. I started my journey in early 2017, when I began co-teaching five students at a local community center called Jubilee REACH in Bellevue, Washington. As of today, I’ve taught over 500 students across the Greater Seattle Area and beyond through free workshops, events, and camps.
We onboarded our very first chapter in late 2017 as well, headed by our current Internal Director Ilana Nguyen in San Mateo, California. In 2020, we re-launched our global operations as Innoverge and built a new structure, brand, and team from the ground-up.
Juetten: What problem are you solving?
Dogra: Innoverge’s mission is to diversify the next generation of changemakers through STEMxHumanities education, principally placing social impact and humanity at the forefront of project-based STEM learning. Innoverge’s focus has always been on educational equity, particularly for students from underserved or underrepresented backgrounds in STEM.
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Our global team has partnered with libraries, youth rehabilitation centers, community organizations, and Title I schools, working with K-12 students to empower them with the resources to use STEM for social good. Our free workshops have ranged from STEMxPolitics to STEMxNonprofits, truly encompassing a mission that promotes intersectional and socially minded STEM education.
Juetten: Who are your students and how do you find them?
Dogra: From the start, our primary methodology has been to integrate our free programming into central institutions within communities such as neighborhood organizations, libraries, and schools. We work with K-12 students from various socioeconomic, racial, and gender backgrounds – primarily from those vastly underrepresented in STEM fields.
Once we build these community connections, we often teach these same students over the long run, from anywhere between a few months to three years. Our Regional Directors also play an enormous role in understanding the demographics of their communities and working with the students in need.
During the pandemic, we’ve been working with students internationally in a virtual context as well. Our Programs team is holding monthly firesides with prominent young leaders in STEM, facilitating a virtual mentorship incubator program between older and younger students, and sending out monthly scholarship and opportunity-focused newsletters.
Juetten: How did past projects and/or experience help with this new project?
Dogra: Under a previous project where I co-organized STEM workshops and taught students across Seattle, I gained an instrumental reservoir of skills related to working within education. These experiences equipped and propelled me to expand our programs, raise grant funding, and develop the financial and logistical resources for our chapters worldwide.
Over the past few years, it’s been a constant process of learning and growing. However, the root of all this growth has always been the first 5 kids that I had the privilege of working with back in early 2017 at Jubilee REACH. Through those early workshops, I found the genuine enthusiasm and confidence to grow Innoverge as an organization that provides project-based and impactful STEM education to underserved students globally.
Juetten: Who is on your team?
Dogra: Our Executive Board is composed of students across the United States. I currently serve as the Executive Director, overseeing organizational operations and program development. Ilana Nguyen, our Internal Executive Director, helped lead Innoverge’s rebrand in the summer of 2020 and currently handles our internal operations and communications. Aryana Suhartono, the External Executive Director, joined shortly after and leads our programs growth and public relations.
Within our global team, we’ve worked with over 35 Regional Directors across the world in countries like Nigeria, Pakistan, and the Philippines.
Juetten: Did you raise money?
Dogra: We’ve raised thousands of dollars in both grant funding and donations from organizations such as Disney, Youth Service America, The Hershey Company, WE Foundation, Vital Voices, and AI4ALL. We endlessly appreciate our donors and grant sponsors who make our outreach possible.
Juetten: Startups are an adventure — what's your favorite startup story?
Dogra: Building Innoverge has definitely been an adventure. Some of my favorite memories of working on the organization has been the travel. In the nonprofit space, getting your mission out there is one of the best ways to build support.
In November of 2019, I had the opportunity to travel under the sponsorship of the Qatar Foundation to Doha and speak at the World Innovation Summit for Education. One of my favorite memories was getting to see Shakira talk about her rural schooling project in her home country of Colombia. While meeting individuals from all backgrounds, it was an eye-opening experience to see the collective passion for equity juxtaposed with the diversity of individuals participating in the education space.
Juetten: How do you measure success and what is your favorite success story?
Dogra: At Innoverge, success is all about the real impact, opportunities, and doors we open for the students who go through our programs. To date, we’ve worked with over 5,300 youths across 12 countries, spanning 200+ free events, workshops, and camps. The numbers are always wild to think about, but the stories are what really keep us grounded. Hearing our students say that they want to take up a career path they hadn’t previously considered, watching them pitch apps to solve important issues such as homelessness, and growing with them over the years is what defines the Innoverge experience.
One of my favorite successes was our first Remote Learning Program, a 3-week program for 3rd through 5th graders nationwide, launched by our Education team to combat the disparities of hands-on education during the pandemic. After shipping free STEM kits to families across different states, we received immensely positive feedback on our program and guiding curriculum. We’re running another Remote Learning Program in 2021 and hope to expand the number of families that we can work with.
Juetten: Any tips to add for early-stage founders?
Dogra: Be ready to put 100% into your cause and don’t be afraid to evolve throughout the journey! Catalyze negative experiences into positive changes and embrace the growing pains of founding an organization.
Juetten: What's the long-term vision for your organization?
Dogra: Innoverge is preparing for another uncertain and dynamically changing year ahead. We have our virtual fireside chats, mentorship incubator, and newsletter off the ground and running. We’re planning on launching more free remote learning programs during the pandemic, organizing Zoom and hybrid workshops, and working with our Regional Directors holding in-person events.
In the long run, our goal is to build a youth-run organization that will continue to operate and expand in the years to come. We want our vision of combining STEM and the humanities to continue reaching students globally. Our team is dedicated to setting the foundations that will support Innoverge’s model and impact in the long run, no matter which young changemaker is leading our work regionally or internationally.
Thanks to Archika for answering my questions, and to say that I am impressed is an understatement. I wish Archika and Innoverge nothing but the best of luck moving forward. #onwards.
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8dba30a3525ad503dafe936ba816809a | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryleesachs/2017/01/24/how-best-to-start-up-with-marketing-startups/?utm_campaign=buffer&utm_content=bufferdaa67&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com | How Best To Start Up With Marketing Startups | How Best To Start Up With Marketing Startups
Startups continue to influence how we go to market, disrupting the status quo and demonstrating more efficient, more effective, more sustainable ways to connect with the customer. What better way to kick off the new year than to try something new with a startup operating in the marketing space. But where does one start? How do you find the right partner? How do you establish a level of trust? Experimenting is all well and fine, but how can you make the most of a new relationship in unchartered territory?
Here are three views to help marketers navigate this confusing territory from: a successful marketing startup, a facilitator/enabler, and a leading house of brands.
Beckon
Meet Beckon, a startup that launched in 2014 which can now boast a healthy roster of A-lister clients including Coca-Cola, IBM, NBCUniversal, Gap, Bayer and more. Beckon offers omni-channel data management and performance analytics which it markets as “the source of truth for marketing.”
Jennifer Zeszut, founder and CEO, attributes Beckon’s success and fast growth to the pedigree of its team, “We are built by marketers for marketers. Many other tools out there don’t speak marketing.” In fact, 32% of Beckon’s team joined the firm from marketing jobs; 46% from engineering/tech jobs; and 14% from data science/analytics – which is captured creatively on Beckon’s "about" web page.
Another secret to Beckon’s success, Zeszut says, is that the company sets a very high bar: “If you want to sell to the world’s best brands, you better be one yourself.”
Jennifer Zeszut, CEO, Beckon (photo: Beckon)
Zeszut’s advice to marketing leaders looking to explore working with startups is three-fold:
1. Peers of marketing leaders all have function-specific software. “The head of sales doesn’t call the IT department and say ‘hey, could you build me a little access database that allows me to track my customer contacts?’ No, there's software that is specific for that function. The reason I say this is because I think it gives CMOs permission. If you look at everyone else around you, they're not calling IT and asking for IT to come save the day.” Zeszut sees the industry as moving so quickly in that direction where function-specific tools, marketing-specific tools for marketing, should absolutely be the way that to think.
2. Another criteria for CMOs should be that the CTO or the CIO should absolutely adore the software company just as much as the CMO does. “We like to say that we are as beloved by marketing as we are by IT. Put these vendors through security, controls, all of those sorts of things. Have the CTO and the CIO involved to make sure that they are vetted, and they should have veto power over anything that looks like it is not absolutely rock solid for your enterprise.”
3. The last piece of advice is around full data portability. “The CMO should make sure that any vendor provides full access to the data, that you're actually the owner of all of that insight and that data. Should you choose to go in a different direction in the future, there are some players that are on the small side that haven't invested in those types of features, so this is a very important point.”
McKinsey And Its New Startup Investment Landscape Analytics (SILA) Tool
McKinsey has been running its bespoke Innovation Bootcamps for some time, connecting leaders of established and emerging companies to help shape the future of the industry. When the SILA tool launches within the next couple of months, it will be a natural progression to enable corporates to more swiftly identify trends and potential partners in the startup space.With more than 10,000 companies backed by venture and private equity investment in the U.S. alone, SILA has been engineered to navigate early-stage startup activity in any industry and across multiple sources of data.
According to Judy Wade, Senior Advisor, McKinsey & Company, “Organic growth is becoming increasingly challenging for firms. Inorganic growth is really what they’re going to need to achieve, and a lot of that should come from what's a very robust and thriving startup community. With the rise in digital marketing, the decline of eyeballs on TV, and the challenge of having a fragmented spend across multiple channels, the startups are really the ones that have stepped in to help solve those problems.”
Judy Wade, Senior Advisor, McKinsey & Company (photo: McKinsey Fast Growth Platform)
“We definitely see corporates, whether it's the CEO or the CMO or the head of product or strategy, turning their eyes much more towards the startup communities. We believe that's actually critically necessary to achieve both revenue objectives and efficiency and effectiveness goals for many organizations,” Wade says.
To help guide corporates through the startup space, SILA has been developed by McKinsey’s Fast Growth Practice, and is part directory, part curation, and part vetting. Taking content from a variety of sources including its own research, SILA provides users with the ability to filter by location, size, funding activity, ownership status, industry sector and longevity, and it boasts a “watch list” function to enable users to keep track of developments.
SILA Report Overview (image: McKinsey Fast Growth Platform)
While SILA will provide corporates with a better compass to find and partner with startups, Wade advocates for improving processes to facilitate ongoing relationships. “Once a startup is identified and a project in place, the large corporates often don’t know how to go from pilot to scale. They might get incredible results but then struggle to drive usage throughout their entire marketing department. The larger you are the harder that is. For a lot of these startups, the reason they often start with the SMB rather than enterprise solutions is because they just get killed in the implementation process and in the length of time it takes. The more the CMO or the CIO can have a streamlined decision-making process and the more that they can do to help the startup scale in the organization, either through up-selling or cross-selling, the better. It's a win-win for everybody.”
The Unilever Foundry
Since its launch in 2014, the Unilever Foundry has worked on over 100 pilot projects partnering start-ups with its global brands and functions to stimulate and facilitate experimentation. Its objective has been to build and cultivate strategic partnerships for the future. Case studies fronted by short videos from Unilever marketing leaders are available on its website.
Unilever has showcased The Foundry at the Innovation Lions in the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity for the last two years. Last year’s portfolio included 50 start-ups operating across five key marketing areas:
1. The future of retail
2. Brand and content innovation
3. Data, insights and personalization
4. Social impact
5. Engaging millennials
Start-ups are invited to pitch against a brief or challenge, one is then selected and moved into pilot. If the project works, it is then scaled into a partnership. In simple terms, The Unilever Foundry connects start-ups with Unilever by inviting them to solve problems experienced by Unilever brands via a challenge posted online. The company uses a "pitch, pilot, partner" approach.
Brands or business functions approach the Unilever Foundry with a live brief and a budget to execute it. The Foundry will then shortlist startups who can answer that brief more efficiently or effectively than a traditional solution, to pitch for the project (they call it a pilot). If the pilot is successful, Unilever will then look at whether it would create efficiencies or effectiveness to roll this out throughout the business – they call this "scaling up."
There’s no investment by Unilever in the start-ups over a period of time as such. It might be a one-off project, or it might be a longer term partnership. There’s no time limit, and there’s no limit to the number of start-ups Unilever might work with at one time. It depends on the demand from the wider business.
In Summary
As new players, tools and processes increasingly become available, it's becoming easier to find and work with the right startups for any organization's marketing needs and challenges. And collaborating with the right startups may just provide the added agility and disruptive thinking that an organization or brand needs to boost awareness, consideration or loyalty.
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3af335c03dabf3d76b21fdda1b7d30c1 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/marymeehan/2014/07/08/innovation-ready-the-5-traits-innovative-companies-share/ | Innovation Ready: The 5 Traits Innovative Companies Share | Innovation Ready: The 5 Traits Innovative Companies Share
Invention and innovation are at the heart of our economy and our democratic society. They’re one of the drivers of the American Dream (flagging as it might be), catapulting lives, changing businesses and shaping our national image. America was founded on a certain brazenness and ingenuity. So we should be good at this, right? Innovation gets a lot of lip service, but success remains stubbornly out of reach for many among even our best and brightest companies.
In my work studying how consumer research can improve enterprises’ innovation processes and improve their chances of success, I’ve come across innovation management research that focuses on how companies can succeed by making their businesses innovation ready.
In 2007 Uri Neren, Innovators International, was commissioned by The Mayo Clinic to research the best practices of companies that most often succeed at innovation. His challenge was to build a curriculum for improving Mayo’s own innovation process. Along the way, it became much more than that.
After working with Mayo, Neren continued his research, working with consultants, CTOs, R&D folks, social scientists, innovation experts and economists to refine his findings and arrive at 27 commonalities among organizations that get great results. In this article, I’ll focus on the top five that serve as a guide to Neren’s broader findings.
As companies around the world already know, innovation is an elusive goal. Neren believes that’s because most organizations are programmed to standardize their practices. They value predictability and control, letting those benefits elbow out innovation. So how do successful companies avoid the predictability trap? According to Neren, you’ve got to “structure your organization to allow innovation to flow through it.”
Innovate for the future (Caleb Roenigk- Flickr)
During my interview with Neren, he described the five business practices that help make innovation repeatable and reliable:
Belief Systems
Getting everyone on the same page is a day-one activity. And for business, defining innovation is the place to start. We all think of innovation in a slightly different way. Through his research, Neren established a two-part benchmark definition:
Innovation is “focused on breakthrough, transformative, far end of the spectrum innovation as opposed to the incremental” types of change Innovation is engaged in the “bigger picture, issues outside your walls, creating human behavior change.”
From here, each company needs to define innovation to fit their own mission and goals. The definition must be understood by the entire organization. That was the case at Medtronic, where even a maintenance worker purportedly answered the question “What do you do?” with the simple response, “I save lives.” Companies where the mission was bigger than profit inspired passion for and deep knowledge about the company culture throughout the employee ranks, and allowed those organizations to grow without needing top management in on every decision.
In addition to agreeing on how to define innovation and on what it means to your company’s mission, you need to change your team’s perspective, shifting from thinking about innovation as a “risky endeavor” to it being an exercise in risk management. In short: Innovation is something to be managed, not something to simply throw money at.
Structure Equals Commitment
Four findings stand out for how to structure a repeatable, reliable innovation process.
Commit to the percentage of growth that the business expects from innovation and stick to it. Structure this commitment to be the catalyst for growing your top line. “Obsolete yourself.” Reward engineers and R&D for building, designing, or concepting the next innovation that will act to “obsolete” one of your products or processes before the competition does it for you. Create a set of “agreed to metrics, and a decision process by which products or services will be funded or killed.” Incorporate CEO ownership. Innovation teams should report to the CEO or COO and not just for the short term.
Johnson Controls made the boldest structural move Neren has seen by a public company. “They publicly announced that they would grow by 50% in one year, and they did it. They knew that organic growth would take care of a portion of this, that expansion in Asia another percentage, and they left the remainder to a new innovation team that looked not only for new technologies but for new business models that would make their old models obsolete - before the competition could do it to them.“
Process that Leans on Research
Most innovation processes start with discovery, move to invention, followed by improvement, socialization within the company, and then go to market. Teams tend to spend most of their time in the invention stage, developing great solutions. No wonder; it’s a fun and exciting area. Instead, substantial time must be spent in the discovery phase, at the front end, understanding the behavior and drivers of your intended audience and the problem you are trying to solve. Unless you design a really solid consumer research phase as a foundation, you won’t really understand the question. This also helps to keep the project more “objective and follows Einstein’s philosophy and Kettering’s quote ‘A problem well-stated is a problem half solved’.”
Who’s done it right? Wine and spirits maker Pernod Ricard has an especially robust Market Opportunity discovery process and structure in their Breakthrough Innovation Group led by Alain Dufosse.
Talent Encouraged and Rewarded
“89% of CEOs say that talent acquisition and management will determine the innovation outcome.” But Neren’s research doesn’t show that to be true. It’s more important to put the right people with the right skills in the right spots with the right team. Then get out of the way. “All people will generate new and successful ideas given the chance.” Much has been written about the prescribed mental free time that some companies give their employees. And it’s true, according to Neren’s work: Simply assigning innovation to employee scorecards, then rewarding and recognizing them is the opportunity and motivation employees are naturally geared for. Daniel Pink says that “the secret to high performance isn’t rewards and punishment but that unseen intrinsic drive, the drive to do things for their own sake, the drive to do things because they matter.”
Connected Culture
Neren admits that this last section — culture — is a hard one to study. But the one thing that keeps showing up is that innovation success is not dependent on whether the company culture is open to new ideas or requires strict work and substantiation for potential innovations. What matters most is that the culture is connected, so that people have access to one another and their ideas, and that all the contributing parties are recognized and rewarded. 3M had a rule that only one scientist’s name could be listed on a patent. As a result, the scientists were less likely to share information and work as a team to develop ideas and solutions. So 3M changed the rules to allow all the contributors’ names on the patent and scientists started sharing and generating ideas. It’s essential that individuals and teams have access to what and whom they need.
Each one of these sections, Neren says, is like the tip of an iceberg. There’s a wealth of information, insights and diversity that ladder up to these 5 practices.
At the end of our conversation I asked Neren what critics ask most often. He said that many say “innovation is harder than this.” And he agrees. It takes true dedication and the right leadership. Others say that you can’t structure innovation because the structure will kill it. But after years of study, he disagrees with that. Over hundreds of interviews and studies these are the practice areas that have proven to be the foundation for successful innovation. They are, of course, adapted and executed in many different ways to be consistent with company goals.
Lastly, I asked about the point at which innovation most often fails. His answer? Execution. Products or ideas often aren’t executed well because the originators of the idea were not as involved along the process as they should be. The inventors should be involved all the way to the “to market phase”, not simply running a process but representing the soul of the product.
And that speaks to my — and every — entrepreneurial heart.
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043bc6f0cde720219669dfdce25d65a1 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/marymeehan/2021/01/05/the-future-has-changed-2021s-5-biggest-trends-and-how-2020-shaped-them/?sh=4f99e84fa460 | The Future Has Changed: 2021’s 5 Biggest Trends (And How 2020 Shaped Them) | The Future Has Changed: 2021’s 5 Biggest Trends (And How 2020 Shaped Them)
Pierre Ducher-5-9Hcl427y8-unsplash
This pandemic year has been long, disorienting and filled with grievous loss. The cultural upheaval, though, is not only a time of destruction; there’s been creation throughout the last year, as well. As we look out to the trends of 2021, we’ll be reimagining, reckoning, reuniting and remembering the challenges of 2020.
System theory states that when a system, or in our case the interconnected elements of life, becomes stressed or unstable it is susceptible to disruption and sometimes momentous change. That’s where we are right now.
Foresights and trends are created by synthesizing what is bubbling up now with what has been known and understood in the recent past. It means identifying the forces pushing change forward from where we’ve been. This last year, however, has been a year that provides none of that same visibility to draw on. All of our norms have been blown up; some have catapulted ahead a dozen years, and others have regressed.
These are the greatest challenges for anyone trying to analyze trends and get an inkling of what the future holds. We will all be stitching together those broken, emerging, and reimagined pieces in order to understand where we’re headed.
Five Trends For 2021
1. R.I.P. E Pluribus Unum
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Protests rocked the nation and the world. Cooper Baumgartner-ZWOywgiNGdQ-unsplash
Truth, reality, facts, science and many norms we take for granted are undergoing transformation. Like an iceberg calving, our culture is splitting into something far beyond tidy niche-ready segmentations. Of course, now, blue and red is more than a color on the light spectrum. It’s a signal for political and tribal safety. The toxic polarization we’ve endured is now further dividing into alternate realities where citizens consume different information, see different “facts” and passionately hold opposite opinions.
This division manifests as greater inequality, debates about the usefulness of science, fights about whether news is real or fake, and differing beliefs about what to believe, trust, or fear.
To that point, President Obama lamented in a 60 Minutes interview about what he called “truth decay”, saying “not only do we not need to tell the truth, but the truth doesn’t matter.” The Atlantic reported on an MIT study showing that a false story reaches 1,500 people six times quicker than a true story.
This is not E Pluribus Unum.
What This Means For Business
Whether we like it or not, tribal divisions are here to stay, at least for a while. A consumer insights truism, particularly at a time like this, is to stay aligned with your audience and your brand. Reevaluate how much you actually know about who you’re trying to reach. Focus on understanding what is important to your customers and support them where it counts, connect with the fundamental values that define every person, family and community regardless of their belief system.
2. Our Common Ground
Thousands of volunteers came together to help stressed communities. Joel Mmuniz-3k3l2brxmwQ-unsplash
Despite cruel and systemic inequality, America is a country of immense privilege. Sacrifice defined earlier generations, but not our current citizens. The pandemic has been our era’s true test of character. Amid devastating loss, confounding uncertainty, and raging rancor, our better angels have won some heart-wrenching battles, renewing faith in humanity and restoring strength for many. The 7:00 pots and pans cheering for health care workers got us started acknowledging others. Then, there came many reasons to hope – science prevailed and generated not one but several effective vaccines. Thousands of people volunteered to help their communities far and wide. Americans voted in record numbers despite the health concerns. Cities prioritized people over cars and blocked off streets for biking, skating and walking. The most viewed GIFs were those of love and comfort. Journalists reported from bedrooms, closets and kitchen tables. Kids crashed Zoom meetings and even talk shows (most notably Jimmy Fallon’s daughter crashed an interview to tell her dad she had lost a tooth). And creativity controlled the youtubetiktokinsta-verse with beautiful concerts, crazy stunts, hilarious comedy, yummy recipes, spot-on memes, and stunning photography, lifting our spirits to face another day. Or maybe just another Zoom meeting.
What this means for business
The pandemic has changed us, and these kindnesses and optimism will not be forgotten. Tested, sure, but not forgotten. Nike captured the sentiment with Never Too Far Down To Come Back last May to remind us that we always find a way when it seems hopeless.
Sure, shallow, vacuous fads will emerge and delight us again, but we’ve now seen everyone’s dining room artwork and their cat walking across the computer screen. We’ve met our friends for walks in the freezing cold to bolster our moods. This authenticity and compassion will fuel our future and brands can play an important role in facilitating this life-affirming trend.
3. Taking Little Leaps
Working from home has been welcomed by many but also took some adjusting. Standsome Worklifestyle-wZJUt5mCbR0-unsplash.
We’ve become accustomed to the pace of tech innovation moving society along faster and faster, but nothing prepared us for the unexpected warp jump to new ways of living our lives. Some changes catapulted years ahead of predicted adoption:
- Education: while remote learning was hit or miss, it was clear that school is more than academics
- Public Life: Six feet apart still feels awkward, but will we ever trust the air we breathe again?
- Transportation: New bike lanes made getting around easier for some, but many were left with public transport
- Healthcare: Many people finally made the jump to tele-medicine. Will insurance keep covering it?
- Workplace: Companies large and small finally embraced flexibility. A hybrid of home and office is likely to stick.
- Malls: So many stores and brands have been shuttered. Malls will be reinvented or die very soon.
- Cities: Those who could, moved to other (safer or cheaper) locations. Urban areas will reshuffle.
- Office buildings: Vacant space will be repurposed for urgent urban needs.
Other social issues have received renewed attention, but reckoning still awaits in realms like policing, environmental reform and justice, racial justice, wealth, income, workplace inequality, and democracy. For starters, according to Google “the majority of consumers–67%–say they want brands to set an example when it comes to tackling racial injustice.”
What This Means For Business
Many economists are predicting the right economic landscape exists for a roaring 20s. If that plays out, we will see the surviving big brands get bigger but also new entrepreneurial growth—the lifeblood of the economy will come back. Even so, the setbacks for many will be a drag on their lives. Brands would do well to pay attention to how they can help customers rebuild their lives and businesses. ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance issues) is now the acronym guiding many strategic planning playbooks.
Consumers have adjusted and adapted, but exactly how much of this is going to stick is being debated in many venues. Worldviews and expectations, though, have changed—for better or worse. Brands will need to catch up and keep answering the call for convenience, access and empowerment.
4. Whither The Natural World
The pandemic gave many of us time to get outside and appreciate the natural world. Greg Rosenke-jd4_-NCdLE4-unsplash
Scientists have been warning us that we are reaching the point of global warming no-return. We’ve watched or suffered extreme heat, devastating wildfires, hurricanes, and tornadoes. Now, with the Anthropocene era upon us (more human made material than living biomass exists on the planet) we have physical evidence of another tipping point. How are we responding? (Are we responding?)
The pandemic gave us the space to appreciate the physical world again. Restricted from normal social events, we went hiking, stargazing, ice skating, kayaking, and hiking. We planted vegetable gardens, cooked, baked, and realized we waste too much food. Shelters ran out of dogs for adoption. Quiet cities and towns were visited by mountain goats, wild turkeys, monkeys, coyote and deer. Another reminder that we share the planet with others. Protein alternatives are mushrooming (sorry, had to) with kelp, lab cultures and even CO2 (!) as we adjust consumption to help the planet.
What This Means For Business
Given the chance, will consumers go back to their over-consumptive ways? The freedom of movement and enticing new retailers that emerge from the wreckage of 2020 will draw us in, but we are a changed society, aware of the waste of fast fashion, committed to supporting local businesses, and soothed by the beauty of the natural world. We’ve seen the scientific community work feverishly to give us solutions to the pandemic. Could the same focus be brought to the climate crisis?
Brands that continue to support and encourage this balance will find a stable and loyal audience.
5. Technology As Life Force
The move to ecommerce had to be the biggest and fastest consumer shift ever. Rupixen.com-Q59HmzK38eQ-unsplash
As much as everyone likes to complain about technology, imagine what the pandemic would have been like without the internet, apps, WiFi, streaming, laptops and mobile phones. With no other choice, tech adoption blasted off, as consumers embraced it at levels predicted for five or ten years in the future.
Technology has changed how and where we work, go to school, see the doctor, buy groceries, shop, read, watch TV and movies, play games, and (thank the tech gods!) stay in touch with friends and family.
Out of all that change, ecommerce has to be the biggest and fastest consumer shift ever, as most of the world logged on to get what they needed. Ecommerce won’t stay at this high level, but now that consumers have experienced the convenience of it, it’s here to stay. Voice, AR and VR are the relative new tech kids on the block and had a meaningful debut during the pandemic. For instance, Merrell, the outdoor brand, is leveraging voice–Alexa and Google Assistant– to “find a trail near me” and enhance their brand. Soon these technologies will be necessary shopping, education, gaming, viewing and working tools. Robots and AI will team up with workers to make us all more efficient. And 5G will download and process everything with lightning speed, so we can consume all the cool AR stuff wherever we are.
What This Means For Business
Whether a fun distraction or a necessary evil, people have integrated new devices, applications, and activities into daily life raising the bar on every other business and brand. However, as far as technology and platforms go, the rich got richer once again. Amazon emerges from 2020 as an even larger entrepreneur-swallowing black hole that it was before.
Customers will now expect touchless everything, frictionless journeys, personalization, and omnichannel consistency, real-time inventory in their phones, predictive analytics based on passed interactions and current needs, and multimedia content to draw them into the store—if they ever go to one again. Is there still room for new or emerging enterprises in this world? Only if you nail those convenience-focused values (and get a little lucky).
No Goodbyes
Loss. We’ve all had to leave a lot behind in 2020, with no proper way to do it. So many loved ones lost, valued life events a facsimile of what we had planned, and communities changed forever. Events that brought us together and tore us apart.
Will we shake hands again? Should we have our wedding now? Should I go back to college? Will we go to crowded live concerts or sporting events again? Do I really need a haircut? Will we ever come together? Reconciling with change will take more time for some and less for others.
Acknowledging loss and helping to rebuild with optimism and strength is a potent loyalty and brand-builder. Every business has its own role in the local and wider community. Consumers will be taking notice. A wrap to a year of loss, horror, and change, acknowledging it’s a gift to be alive from YAM HAUS in my hometown.
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c01dd1bedbf5a87f9293477136f4f290 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/maseenaziegler/2017/12/20/how-moonpie-became-the-unexpected-top-social-media-brand-of-2017/ | How MoonPie Became The Unexpected Top Social Media Brand Of 2017 | How MoonPie Became The Unexpected Top Social Media Brand Of 2017
The legendary but humble MoonPie. Made in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Mmm-hmm. (Photo credit: MoonPie)
MoonPie is a fifth-generation, family-owned company that offers only one product: an eponymously named, marshmallow-centered, chocolate-covered pie made with graham crackers.
They’ll also crack you up: MoonPie has become one of the “funniest and most personable brands on Twitter.” Buzzfeed wrote they’ve gone rogue but “that’s a beautiful thing.” MoonPie's Twitter feed is worth a read.
Now upon first glance, I reckoned their dispatches were penned by some silver-tongued outlaw, drunker than Cooter Brown with a skunk in his pocket…
Wait. It’s not 1917 anymore (even if MoonPie was created a century ago.) Let’s try that again:
When MoonPie tweets, in a tone redolent of a droll Seth Rogen as Ben in Judd Apatow’s comedy classic Knocked Up, you can’t help but wonder: Who comes up with this stuff? And on a scale from zero to 420, just how baked are those tweets?
It’s a legitimate question but redundant: MoonPie, a wholesome, whimsical brand has quite exquisitely found a contemporary voice —and simply mastered the art of being cool online.
Take, for instance, their response to Hostess, a snack cake brand and competitor, who declared its golden cupcakes the official snack of the solar eclipse last August on Twitter.
MoonPie opted against an all-caps rant—fighting words in the battle space that Twitter has become—and tweeted just two words in reply: “Lol ok”
Pithy perfection. Photo: Maseena Ziegler/Screenshot
It was unexpected of a legendary brand. Two words. No comma. But in the eyes of the Twitterati, MoonPie’s pretty pithy tweet was perfect.
The tweet lacked tartness but dripped with irony—and Twitter lapped it up—making MoonPie’s “Lol ok” one of the best brand tweets of all time with more than half a million likes, beating out other top food brand tweets in social engagement (such as Arby’s Pharrell Hat tweet and Oreo’s Super Bowl tweet). The success of the "Lol ok" tweet was surpassed this year only by Wendy’s McDonald's roast tweet. (When Wendy’s was asked in a Q&A a few days ago to name their favorite Twitter account besides their own, the fast food chain replied: “MoonPie.”)
MoonPie's “Lol ok” tweet generated a staggering 1.1 billion impressions across media channels.
Patrick Wells, senior creative at The Tombras Group manages MoonPie's social community. Putting a... [+] face to the tweets in this instance, is the Twitterati equivalent of finding out the identity of Deep Throat's great-grandson. (Photo credit: The Tombras Group)
“We posted it because it felt like something you’d honestly say back to someone saying something ridiculous to you,” said Patrick Wells, MoonPie’s totally sober community manager.
Seems fair. With “Lol ok,” MoonPie created a modern version of the South’s “Bless your heart” for the Twitter generation, if you will. In just two words and one fell swoop, MoonPie coolly disarmed a renowned rival—and across all the key demographics, gained an army of fans charmed by the company’s candor and clever cuteness.
Dooley Tombras of The Tombras Group created MoonPie's social media strategy. "When we started... [+] working on MoonPie, the social media program was a complete reset." (Photo credit: The Tombras Group)
“The social landscape has changed,” said Dooley Tombras who leads MoonPie’s social media strategy at the award-winning Tennessee-based firm, The Tombras Group. “Brands can get away with being edgier than they could in the early days.”
There’s a fine line, though, between being edgy (irreverent) and offensive. MoonPie gets it right on social media because they’re, well, super chill.
Tombras points out that MoonPie is still a wholesome brand that strives to retain a wide appeal even if “our voice is sarcastic and ironic and a bit transgressive.”
“Part of our magic is that we’re not trying too hard to be irreverent or cool or edgy,” said MoonPie’s marketing V.P. Tory Johnston. “We’re just having fun with it, and people respond to that authenticity.”
With whimsical musings, such as these, MoonPie entertains a fan base and manages to advertise-without-really advertising:
Should you ever encounter an alien? Photo: Maseena Ziegler/Screenshot
MoonPie's idea of sweet-talking. (Photo credit: Maseena Ziegler/Screenshot)
The lack of punctuation may give pause to grammar nerds, but if the whole point of social media marketing is to connect with a target audience, who cares, really—aside from your middle school English teacher?
According to Tombras, “Being wholesome—even ironically—in the face of so much negativity that exists online is nice. We can’t afford to sit around when the world is going crazy and say, ‘MoonPies are delicious! Please buy them.’ The brand has to have perspective and act appropriately. Even if it’s literally saying ‘We’re not gonna tweet today because of all the s*** that’s going on.’”
(They really tweeted something like that once.)
You have to wonder: What would motivate a conservative, centennial brand, widely considered to be an icon of the South, to suddenly get all spaced out on social media, surely a risky and bold move for any company?
“It took a lot of soul-searching,” admits MoonPie’s marketing Jedi Johnston. “We needed a plan to inspire a younger generation to enter the brand without diminishing the loyalty of our older base.”
On the back of the successful social media campaign, an old-fashioned Southern treat once again became a part of pop culture and the lexicon.
Then came the sales. This year MoonPie experienced a “huge surge in revenue” which, according to Johnston, social media played a big part in.
In August 2017, when MoonPie’s “Lol ok” tweet reached astronomical levels, with a little help from a rare full solar eclipse, the company’s bakery, ordinarily capable of churning out more than a million MoonPies a day, fell very behind on orders: Demand for the product had exceeded production capacity for the first time in decades. In September 2017, MoonPie’s sales were the highest on record in the company’s 100-year history.
Their contrarian marketing strategy—a giant leap for a traditionally risk-averse company, had paid off spectacularly in social media engagement and sales growth.
The Art of the Viral Tweet
MoonPie’s social media savoir faire may be a case study for some brands who aim for the moon attempting to create a viral tweet but land in the mud.
The constitution of a viral tweet is a difficult-to-define commodity, an abstract notion—no one knows for sure if a tweet will go viral because reactions on social media can be widely unpredictable.
Tombras and Wells, the supremely talented duo at The Tombras Agency ultimately responsible for MoonPie’s successful social media execution, admit they don’t even know what makes the perfect tweet.
“If we knew the answer to that, every one of our tweets would go viral. Honestly—know the climate, first and foremost,” said Tombras.
“Half of our posts are preplanned from our calendar but half of our tweets are created day-of to mirror what’s going on in popular culture and tie into the existing conversations on social media. Then, we attack them from every angle and if they still hold up, we push them out.”
“But then that’s just the half of it,” said Wells.
“The follow-up to the tweet: replying to people (even the trolls) is what really brings a brand’s personality to life. And so much of that comes from the comment sections; that’s where brands can really develop one-to-one connections with audiences,” he said.
Who needs SNL? MoonPie has perfected Saturday night satire. Photo: Maseena Ziegler/Screenshot
A key to success in just about any field is loosening one’s grip. For MoonPie’s management, this meant “letting go of the reins a little” to place trust in an independent social media team at The Tombras Group. Said Johnston, who’s been with MoonPie for 20 years: “MoonPie competes with huge brands that are many, many times our size, so we’ll never approach their spending levels. Competing as a challenger brand is a costly proposition due to share of voice—but social media is a level playing field.” (“A great equalizer against bigger brands with larger budgets” as Tombras phrases it). Johnston also notes that, “If the content resonates, consumers will engage at unbelievable levels.”
Ultimately, with just two words on social media, MoonPie reignited their existing audience and engaged a new generation of fans.
Said Johnston: “Our brand is a fun, simple, pretty unassuming brand that has a place in America’s history and heart—we couldn’t afford to sound like anything other than that; and if we tried to, it wouldn’t work. We’ve stayed true to who we are and tried not to overreach.”
And by doing so, in its own humble way, this family-owned company in the South became the marketing success story of the year—and the unexpected top social media brand of 2017.
Hit me up on Twitter @maseenaziegler or Insta @maseena
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adcfff2ee57a1d8be784f25353c8a3d3 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/masonsands/2019/03/26/the-fight-to-saveourinternet-is-about-to-get-local/ | The Fight Over The EU's Copyright Directive Is About To Get Local | The Fight Over The EU's Copyright Directive Is About To Get Local
Copyright directive concept in the Digital Single Market concept on European Union flag Getty
Earlier today, the European Parliament passed Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive by a vote of 348 to 274. The directive, initiated by the Commission of the European Union in an attempt to modernize copyright law for the 21st century, created an EU-wide debate with internet activists and tech companies fighting with music labels and publishers over two articles, 11 and 13, that will have massive repercussions for content online. With its passage in the Parliament, the fight now heads to the individual EU member states, as the next phase of the legislative process, incorporation of the directive into the national laws of EU member states, is poised to begin.
The Copyright Directive has been a project of the European Commission since 2012. However, the directive only became a flashpoint issue when it was brought to the Parliament in 2018 and more attention was given to the legislation, particularly Articles 11 and 13. Article 11 establishes a “link tax,” requiring that new aggregators like Facebook and Google News pay news organizations licensing fees to display their content. Article 13 extends this licensing requirement to social media platforms, holding companies like YouTube directly responsible for the copyright violations of their users, which could result in upload filters.
Concerns about what Article 11 and 13 meant for creative content on social media quickly mobilized a grassroots movement against the measures. Over 5 million people signed a Change.org petition in opposition to Article 13, making it the petition with the most signatures in European history. Meanwhile, activists organized protests, and tens of thousands of people demonstrated against the copyright directive in Austria, Poland, Portugal, and Germany on Saturday. Yet, these efforts failed to convince a majority of the Parliament. A legislative effort to remove these amendments (now called Articles 15 and 17 in the finalized text) failed by 5 votes, and the directive passed with the articles intact.
Nevertheless, the Parliament is far from the final decision maker for EU law, and following its approval, the next major hurdle for the directive is its mandate to be incorporated into national laws of the EU member states within 24 months. This devolution to member states always jeopardizes the uniformity of EU-wide policies, but the Copyright Directive makes this divergence particularly likely with its vague language.
In response to criticism about link taxes and upload filters, the European Parliament has passed legislation that shifts the responsibility to the national governments and companies to navigate the directive’s minefield of contradictions, a task which includes factoring the size and audience of a company to determine its required compliance with the directive’s copyright efforts and ensuring that fair use content is not subject to any blocking or penalty. This deflection gives a lot of power to EU member states in deciding how stringently they would like to pursue copyright. Based on the recent debate about the benefit of the directive, member states are likely to vary widely. In contrast to countries like Germany and Portugal that had demonstrations against the copyright directive, Poland had a protest for the measure’s adoption with Polish newspapers printing blank front pages on Monday to draw attention to the plight of publishers. Member states also have different experiences with trying to regulate tech and copyright. Both Germany and Spain tried measures similar a link tax and failed, an experience which perhaps will serve as cause for caution in incorporating Article 11 into the national laws.
The vote tally that defeated legislative attempts to remove or alter Article 11 and 13 reveals a lot about how rigorously the copyright directive may be pursued in EU member states with the Polish, Czech, and Austrian representatives largely voting to change the articles and the French, Spanish, and Portuguese representatives mostly deciding against any alterations to the document prior to the vote.
The importance of member state implementation is not lost on the proponents and opponents of the directive. YouTube and Wikimedia, two of the biggest opponents to Article 11 and 13 seemed ready to continue the fight at the member state level, with Wikimedia posting to Twitter, “the fight is not over: the impact of the copyright directive will be determined by how lawmakers in each country choose to implement it. Now is the time to advocate for the good and mitigate the harmful parts of the directive.” Meanwhile, L’ARP, the French guild of authors, directors, and producers was clear that, while the passage of the directive was a success, the battle is far from over as it heads to the member states.
Yet, these member state skirmishes for and against the copyright directive may have little effect. The lack of a consistent EU-wide policy on copyright could simply result in media platforms opting to adopt the regulations of the most stringent member state rather than change its policy on filtering or licensing in each individual country. As long as the copyright directive is an EU policy, the freedom of content in the European Union will remain vulnerable. Although the fight to save the internet is headed to member states, victory can only be achieved through actions at the EU-level, and with parliamentary elections around the corner in May, copyright may once again take center stage.
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91e8e12d31bcdc8b1668afa56b51b195 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/masonsands/2019/05/27/little-black-mirror-means-big-things-for-social-media-creatives/ | You Should Be Paying Attention To 'Little Black Mirror' (Even If You Can't Watch It) (Updated) | You Should Be Paying Attention To 'Little Black Mirror' (Even If You Can't Watch It) (Updated)
LOS ANGELES, CA - SEPTEMBER 17: The cast and crew of Black Mirror accept an award onstage during ... [+] the 69th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater on September 17, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Lester Cohen/WireImage) WireImage
This post has been updated: The original post incorrectly stated that 'Little Black Mirror' is a mini-series. It is actually a series of promotional videos inspired by Black Mirror.
Netflix’s Black Mirror has done it again. This time, instead of innovating how we tell stories as the show did with Bandersnatch (controversial opinion), it’s innovating how we market them and lift up social media content creators in the process. In anticipation for season 5 of the show, Netflix is releasing a Black Mirror inspired video series on its Latin America YouTube channel. With episodes dropping on May 26th, June 2nd, and June 6th, the videos will feature takes on Black Mirror from the YouTube community’s own Rudy Mancuso who will direct, score, and star in the episodes. This arrangement may help bridge the worlds of traditional and social media.
LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 04: Rudy Mancuso performs onstage during The ALMAs 2018 LIVE On Fuse at ... [+] L.A. Live Event Deck on November 4, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by JC Olivera/Getty Images) Getty Images
Advancement in the world of YouTube and advancement in the world of traditional media tend to run on parallel tracks. There are traditional media stars that have built strong followings on YouTube, like Will Smith. There are YouTubers who transition to traditional media, like Lilly Singh. However, for every success story, there are dozens of failed attempts to bridge the gap between these two worlds. The different nature of the two fields makes it difficult to move between them, frustrating YouTubers seeking to break into the industry and studios seeking to popularize their content through social media.
Little Black Mirror is the result of a synthesis between YouTubers and studios in a way that is beneficial to and maximizes the strengths of both parties. Netflix now has a creator who’s amassed millions of followers on YouTube and Instagram because of his creative social media work managing their latest creative social media project. Mancuso is now attached to one of the most popular shows on television (both regular television and streaming services): a major mainstream resume builder. An arrangement like that of Little Black Mirror may provide an alternative for YouTubers struggling to balance their goal of mainstream prominence with the commitment to the online community they have spent years interacting with. YouTubers may be able to become mainstream famous because of social media, not in spite of it, which is what seems to be the case so far.
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More than Mancuso, Little Black Mirror is a big win for the company that manages him Shots Studios. The creative studio and talent management firm that has focused on signing popular online content creators represent many of the others involved in Little Black Mirror. In addition to Mancuso, the promotional videos will also star Shot Studios’ Lele Pons, Hannah Stocking, Jeff Wittek, Delaney Glazer, Alesso, Anwar Jibawi, and Juanpa Zurita. Little Black Mirror is not the only involvement that Shots Studio has had with Netflix. The company’s CEO and co-founder John Shahidi produced a Netflix original unscripted series about Brazilian pop star Anitta (also managed by Shots Studio) in 2018. Nevertheless, Little Black Mirror will be the first mainstream opportunity for the company’s talent, and the weight of a deal with Netflix may make Shots Studio the destination for social media talent who aspire to mainstream stardom.
Still, Little Black Mirror will be as much a challenge for Mancuso and his social media-based co-stars as an opportunity. Creators like Mancuso, Pons, and Jibawi are former Vine stars who migrated over to YouTube when Vine was ended in 2017 and started to produce the same comedy videos now a bit longer than Vine’s six seconds. Given this history, starring in Black Mirror videos, a show known for being long, complex, and dark, might be out of the comfortable creative range of Mancuso and friends. But if the project becomes a success, Little Black Mirror could pioneer the middle path needed as online content creators seek to move into the mainstream and traditional media tries to reach social media audiences. Unfortunately, many will not be able to see Little Black Mirror as it will only be available in Latin American countries… but that’s why there’s VPN.
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4354d21d826a69dc2d9a668e71585a5b | https://www.forbes.com/sites/masonsands/2019/07/30/how-a-union-campaign-in-europe-could-change-youtube/ | How A Union in Europe Is Trying To Change YouTube Globally (Updated) | How A Union in Europe Is Trying To Change YouTube Globally (Updated)
HONG KONG - 2019/04/21: In this photo illustration the American video-sharing website Youtube logo ... [+] is seen on an Android mobile device with the European Union flag in the background. (Photo Illustration by Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) LightRocket via Getty Images
This post has been updated: YouTube recently responded to the pending negotiations standoff between the company and the YouTubers Union backed by IG Metall.
Last Friday, the YouTubers Union joined with IG Metall to start FairTube, a campaign that advocates for greater transparency from the YouTube company and a greater voice for independent creators on the platform in decision-making.
It's a joint venture between the newest union in a field that's not accustomed to collective action (the YouTubers Union only boasts around 15,000 and became active in 2018) and one of the oldest and largest unions in Europe. IG Metall started as a German metalworkers union 125 years ago and grew to be 2.3 million strong today, with more fields like plastics and IT under its umbrella.
One of the reasons that union activity hasn't been common among YouTube creators is that YouTube doesn't employ them. Creators are YouTube's partners and make money from ad revenue and merchandising. Traditional union demands like higher wages would be unnecessary in this context. The YouTubers Union and IG Metall have accordingly modified their message. FairTube focuses on improving the partnership between creator and company in decision-making and policy enforcement in a way that's familiar to many other fields but new for social media.
The biggest debate surrounding YouTube this year has been its Community Guidelines. Scandals like the discovery of secret pedophile rings and conspiracy theorists generated criticism that the company was too lax in its policy enforcement. Meanwhile, the Crowder-Maza controversy sparked protests that these policies were either too restrictive or not enough. YouTube has heavily exploited its demonetization tool in an attempt to find a happy medium, stopping short of removing controversial content and keeping creators and the public in the dark on how these type of decisions are reached.
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Given that demonetization has been an issue for creators on the platform for years, it's no coincidence that greater clarity on demonetization procedures is the first demand that FairYouTube makes on its website and greater transparency is a common theme on its list. It's an issue that personal for YouTubers Union founder, Jörg Sprave. He's a YouTuber himself who has accumulated over 2 million followers with his slingshot videos, many of which were removed in a YouTube crackdown on weapons-related content with little recourse.
The YouTube that the YouTubers Union and IG Metall want to achieve is one where creators have a larger voice. This begins with creators having a human contact to discuss and contest YouTube policy decisions but includes, according to FairTube's demands, the more traditional union goals of an independent mediation board and YouTuber Advisory Board that can allow for the formal participation of YouTubers in company decision-making.
YouTube states that the company already incorporates feedback from creators in its decision-making process and plans to do more of this in the future. Programs like YouTube Studio and Creator Insider and a greater social media presence are efforts to be more transparent and helpful to its creative community. Nevertheless, the company also has a responsibility to its advertisers. Monetization is less a company decision than a brand's willingness to air advertisements on certain types of videos. A union challenge may be the wrong platform to address issues with the company-creator partner relationship.
We're deeply invested in creators' success, that's why we share the majority of revenue with them. We also need to ensure that users feel safe and that advertisers feel confident that YouTube is safe for their brand. We take lots of feedback as we work to get this balance right, including by meeting with hundreds of creators every year. However, contrary to what is being claimed, YouTube creators are not YouTube employees by legal status. YouTube Spokesperson
The YouTubers Union and IG Metall seem to be willing to put a lot behind this effort. They've given YouTube 4 weeks to accept their invitation to enter negotiations. If this deadline is not met, they've threatened to sue the company for both false employment and data protection violations under the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation. If successful, these lawsuits could upend YouTube's business model.
Still, a lot of questions remain when it comes to how effective a European union-backed challenge to YouTube's operations will be in changing the company's policies worldwide or galvanizing a creator base unused to this traditional type of collective action. FairTube is not the first attempt by creators to band together. In 2016, 18 of Vine's top 20 creators tried to leverage their value to the company to get Vine to pay each of them $1.2 million, roll out several product changes to prevent creator harassment, and open up a more direct line of communication in exchange for three vines per week.
This effort fizzled out once creators were stonewalled by the company, and Vine would shut down a year later, but it does demonstrate how creators with larger platforms may be able to use their fame to wrest concessions. FairTube doesn't have this advantage yet. YouTubers with large platforms haven't spoken out about the campaign, depriving it of needed publicity and potential leverage at the negotiating table.
The lack of a social media buzz surrounding FairTube also jeopardizes its ability to go any further than Europe when it comes to changing YouTube's policies. FairTube is challenging the company under EU laws while backed by a European union. Sprave explicitly acknowledges that YouTube may move just enough to comply with EU laws without any major change in other areas, creating a type of "caste system" with only European creators reaping the benefits of the FairTube campaign.
Ultimately, FairTube is a test of whether traditional union methods have a place in advocating for creator interests on a novel platform like YouTube, and it's a sign of the platform's continuing maturation. It may have started as a place where people with shaky cameras and a penchant for comedy could upload videos they made during their free time for a few thousand people, but YouTube and its creators make money now. Inspired by success stories, being a YouTuber as a career is not as insane today as it was a decade ago.
But for the middle-of-the-road creators who aren't making millions from viral videos, the platform is still a ways away from being a safe and secure place to make a living. Just like any other occupation, independent creators and the YouTube company will have to figure out how to best work together to make YouTube a fairer place for all involved.
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cb62abd2a18720922119ae7e906b2181 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattballantine/2018/12/11/is-the-fax-machine-a-symptom-or-the-problem-in-healthcare/ | Is The Fax Machine A Symptom Or The Problem In Healthcare? | Is The Fax Machine A Symptom Or The Problem In Healthcare?
A fax machine. The UK National Health Service was recently revealed to be the world's largest... [+] procurers of the outdated devices. Getty
In a brief break in Brexit shenanigans this week, the UK's Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock announced that he was to ban fax machines from the National Health Service (NHS) by 2020. This statement came after revelations that the NHS was the world's largest purchaser of the outdated technology.
On the face of things, it would seem that this is a move to bring the country's largest employer into the 21st Century. However, we should take time to wonder whether the prevalence of facsimile machines in hospitals and doctor's surgeries across England and Wales is a symptom of more complex challenges that won't be as easy to resolve as simply telling staff to use secure email.
A few years ago, my wife was receiving treatment in a clinic and through conversation with a member of staff was told that the reason doctors preferred to use fax was that it meant that they didn't have to remember passwords. It's easy to take this kind of anecdote and extrapolate that doctors are Luddites. However, much of the business of medicine is about the adoption of new, healthcare, technologies, often at a rate that is impressive in comparison to other professions. We should not forget that not all technology is information technology.
But the password anecdote does point towards a significant challenge in using modern information technology, and that revolves around the management of highly sensitive personal information, the type of which is highly regulated by legislation such as this year's GDPR. Information security around information systems that hold such data tends to be extremely risk-averse, and this is further complicated by the necessity for staff from multiple agencies to access such data.
The idea that the NHS is a single cohesive entity is misplaced. It is a complex web of public and private agencies, from hospitals to healthcare trusts, doctor's surgeries and clinics to pharmacies (all often privately owned). The complex interaction between agencies is then further complicated by the volumes of temporary staff employed. Managing identity and permissions in such a context to provide robust, secure but accessible information is at the sophisticated end of the spectrum.
But not only is the information security landscape challenging; so is the workplace environment. It is easy to assume that the whole world works at a desk in an office, but medical environments are often much more challenging. Clinicians spend time on hospital wards or in theatres and need access to information in those places. Paper is often still a valuable medium, and if your data is on paper, fax machines may still make a great deal of sense.
While outside of the world of work many of us now regard our mobile devices as our primary means of connecting to information, there are few if any of the corporate clients with whom I work where mobile first for business systems is the norm. It should be no surprise that that is any different in the world of healthcare.
None of this is to say that fax machines in the NHS in 2018 and beyond are a good thing. But the work that might be required to remove them in such short a time frame might be a great deal more complex than the 2020 goal might first portray.
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9def7fa6699b58f22a6770784ea24e72 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattcarey/2017/01/10/the-7-ages-that-matter-most-when-planning-retirement/ | The 7 Ages That Matter Most When Planning Retirement | The 7 Ages That Matter Most When Planning Retirement
50, 59 ½, 62, 65, 66, 70, 70 ½: The birthdays (and half-birthdays) that matter most
The age you retire will likely differ from your neighbor, relative, or co-worker. But in preparing for retirement, there are certain ages that everyone has to be mindful of because of IRS rules on retirement accounts or government benefit programs like Social Security or Medicare.
Keep these ages in mind and you’ll be prepared to optimize the benefits you get.
Source: Shutterstock
50: Start Of Eligibility For Catchup Contributions To Your 401(k) Or IRA
Catch-up contribution rules in your tax-deferred retirement plan allow you to contribute in excess of the statutory limit of $18,000 (in 2017). In 2017, the catchup contribution is an additional $6,000 (so $24,000 annual limit in total) . The idea is that the closer you are to retirement, you may want to contribute more if you didn’t save as much as you would have liked earlier in your career.
What It Means For You: Before paying taxes on money meant for retirement, make sure, starting at age 50, you’re contributing up to the $24,000 maximum.
59 ½: Early Withdrawal Penalty Goes Away
This is the age when most tax-advantaged savings plans (such as a 401(k), IRA or the federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan) allow withdrawals to be made without having to pay a 10 percent “early withdrawal” penalty on investments, and their associated earnings.
What It Means For You: Just because you can avoid the 10% penalty does not mean it’s a good idea to withdraw money unless you need it. Why? You’ll still have to pay ordinary income tax on the money you take out and the more you take out, the less your portfolio will earn in the future.
62: Earliest You Can Start Social Security
The Social Security Administration allows Americans to start taking old-age benefits as early as age 62 (or 62 years and a month if you want to get technical).
What It Means For You: This is also one of those instances where just because you can doesn’t necessarily mean you should. The monthly paycheck you’ll get from Social Security goes up significantly the longer you can wait. You’ll only get a paycheck that is 75% of what it would be if you waited until Full Retirement Age (set at age 66 for current retirees).
65: Medicare Eligibility
You can enroll in Medicare as early as three months before your 65th birthday (and you should do it as soon as possible to make sure you don’t miss open enrollment).
What It Means For You: It’s a good idea to get informed about your options beginning at your 64th birthday because that’s probably when you’ll start to get inundated with sales pitches from private companies or brokers selling Medicare supplement (a.k.a. Medigap) plans. Some good resources are put out by AARP and the Medicare Rights Center to prepare you.
66: Full Retirement Age (FRA) For Social Security
Those born retiring now born before 1954 will reach what the Social Security Administration defines as a Full Retirement Age on their 66th birthday. Those born after 1954 will have to wait a bit longer. Check out the full table here.
What It Means For You: If you wait until Full Retirement Age, you’ll have a significantly higher paycheck than if you’d started benefits at age 62. But you can get higher benefits still if you wait until age 70. Want to learn more about this important decision? You can download a free, 20+ page Social Security guide here.
70: The Latest You Should Claim Social Security Benefits
This is the latest it makes sense to start benefits, even if you’re still working, since delaying claiming beyond this age won’t get you a bigger monthly check. (Should you forget to claim at 70, you can get up to six months of retroactive checks when you do claim.) Due to better consumer education and increasing awareness about the financial challenges associated with longer lifespans, more Americans are deciding to wait until age 70. The general rule of thumb is that for each year you wait from Full Retirement Age, your payments go up by 8% nominally. Said differently, if you waited two years past FRA, your monthly paycheck would be 16% greater. If you waited three years past FRA, that paycheck would be 24% greater.
What It Means For You: If you’re in good health and don’t need the income stream sooner, there are many reasons to wait until age 70. Here’s some more information on the topic from Charles Schwab. One thing to keep in mind — if your financial advisor is acting in his or her self-interest and paid based on the amount of your money they manage, he or she would have an incentive to encourage you to take Social Security earlier than age 70 because waiting (all else equal) would mean the advisor makes less money. Make sure your advisor has your best interests in mind.
70 ½: When Required Minimum Distributions Must Begin
The Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) is an IRS-mandated minimum amount you must withdraw from your tax-deferred accounts every year starting at age 70½. If you don’t take your RMD, you can be penalized by up to 50% of the amount you were supposed to have withdrawn. This is one of the reasons why knowing the ins and outs of RMDs is so important.
What It Means For You: Required Minimum Distribution rules can be tricky and if you don’t abide by them, you will have to pay a stiff penalty. My colleague at Abaris, Nimish Shukla, recently wrote a guide to RMDs that you can download here.
To summarize: Your age matters when it comes to retirement preparation. Miss an important milestone and you risk losing a benefit you could have been receiving or making an important decision without all the information.
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412c0666325b880cb31e3eedad2d53c0 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattconnolly/2016/06/22/urijah-faber-interview-mma-entrepreneur-talks-building-a-business-his-new-gym-and-whats-next/ | Urijah Faber Interview: MMA Entrepreneur Talks Building A Business, His New Gym And What's Next | Urijah Faber Interview: MMA Entrepreneur Talks Building A Business, His New Gym And What's Next
Urijah Faber has long been considered an MMA pioneer, helping to popularize the sport and its lighter weight classes as they began to garner mainstream attention.
Beginning with Gladiator Challenge (GC) back in 2003 before shifting to King of the Cage (KOTC), World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) and finally the UFC, Faber’s electric fighting style and charismatic persona quickly made him a household name.
But cagefighting was not Faber’s only hustle — far from it, actually. Not long after he embarked on his pro career, the Sacramento-area native took a chance on building one of the first major gyms dedicated to mixed martial arts. Realizing the importance of developing his own brand, the former world champion also began pursuing other entrepreneurial projects.
More than a decade later, Faber has over a dozen businesses to help cultivate with his competitive career winding down. Coincidentally, on the same day he signed a lease for a new gym, I caught up with “The California Kid” to talk about the past, present and future of his NorCal fight team (Team Alpha Male), what it takes to maintain a successful MMA gym and more.
Your gym (Ultimate Fitness) has been around since 2004. Was it the first of its kind — a big-name MMA fighter starting his own gym?
It was definitely ahead of the trend. I actually wasn’t a big-name fighter when I started the gym. I was fighting locally for the smaller organizations. I started to build up more notoriety around the same time that I was creating the gym.
Describe the evolution of the business and the challenges that came with it.
All the businesses that I’ve been a part of throughout my fighting career have come out of a need. I felt like, at the time, especially for Sacramento, there wasn’t a one-stop shop where you could do kickboxing, wrestling and jiu-jitsu, and have a focus on general fitness.
Basically, I found a partner that was coming in as an investor — I didn’t have a lot of money at the time — while I was coming up with the concept. We were 50-50, but I came up with the curriculum, was teaching classes, running the front desk … doing all those things at the same time as being a professional fighter.
Financially, what were the best and worst times for the gym?
Right off the bat, we had a lot of success. We were the first gym of its kind, and I had connections to a lot of fighters in the area. … I did pre-sales, where a lot of people paid in full to help with funding, giving us an influx of cash from the beginning.
At the end of 2005, early 2006, the economy was doing amazing, so everybody had extra cash. But then the economy crashed, so we went through a period where we had to weather the storm. Fortunately, my career took off from a financial standpoint around the same time, so that helped with keeping it open.
At what point was Team Alpha Male formed, with professional fighters separating themselves from the gym members coming in just for fitness?
It wasn't a planned thing. It was a kind of ‘if I build it, they will come’ situation where we had the energy, the curriculum, all the things to be a successful mixed martial artist. The focus from a business standpoint was still keeping it mom-and-pop for people just trying to learn self-defense. But within that, the team started to grow. The team was actually around before the gym, but it definitely blew up once we had the gym.
When did you come up with the concept of having a head coach?
As we started to get more popular, we had a whole new level of competitor at the gym, several guys in the UFC. It had always been run as a co-op — from a group of guys that I knew personally to fighters coming from all around the globe.
We would take turns running classes ... we had all these little pieces of the puzzle. But as I got busier traveling around the world, handling all these media obligations, we needed somebody to kind of bring the pieces together. It became too big for an active fighter to be a coach, promoter, gym owner and everything else. So it came out of necessity, and I believe we were one of the first places to do it.
Do you feel like the gym suffered when there wasn't a head coach taking on a leadership role?
A little bit. We’ve had a structure since before we brought an outside coach in. Everything still ran smoothly, but there was a little bit of a divorce in the family (with Duane Ludwig), and that can mess with peoples’ minds. But we did well with picking up the pieces. We had to kind of revert to the old school where we had different guys stepping in to run classes. It was kind of a hard time, though, because we did have kind of a disconnect with some of the guys.
Justin Buchholz seems to have taken on that role now, with Danny Castillo and Chris Holdsworth pitching in as well. Have they become a sort of three-headed monster when it comes to leading the team?
It’s more like a seven-headed monster. Justin’s really stepped up as a guy that's put some order in place. Martin Kampmann (TAM's last head coach) came in and ran a good practice, but he wasn’t really thinking outside the box, necessarily, on making things better. Justin’s really doing all the little things that needed to happen: attendance, weight checks, making sure that we’re holding guys accountable, checking in with them internally. That’s a big part of what Justin brings to the table.
And then Danny stepping up as a head coach for wrestling, Chris Holdsworth stepping up and having a role alongside Fabio (Prado) and Dustin (Akbari) and all the other (Brazilian jiu-jitsu) blackbelts we have at the gym. We have coach Joey (Rodriguez) running traditional boxing … I’m in there just trying to give input and keep up that co-op mentally, but it’s really all about everybody just giving back.
How would you assess the business right now? You have some up-and-coming stars like Cody Garbrandt and Paige VanZant that have really helped bring the team back into the limelight.
Things have been going great. You think about the guys we have on ... this is the best our team has ever been. It’s like a changing of the guard. I’m on my last couple years of fighting here. Justin and Danny just stopped their fighting careers, and we have guys that have been with us since they were teenagers that are now our pros. Joseph Morales, Angelo Trevino, Erick Sanchez … these are the next generation of guys, on top of Cody and Paige, who have already reached the highest level.
We also just locked down a new location (for the gym) where I actually had the opportunity to purchase the building, which is big from a business standpoint. It’s going to be a bigger fish bowl, more than double the size of our current gym. We’re really excited about it.
Wow, that’s awesome news. Have you already made an announcement on the new gym?
I actually just signed the lease today. ... We’re actually looking for a couple of sponsors to come on, and possibly get naming rights or be a big part of the branding within the gym.
I’ve already been able to bring in a key player, Josh Espley, who used to be the executive vice president of Onnit. He’s come on and been acting as a CEO to get this new gym positioned correctly and bring this team to the next level. This is sort of the next big chapter in the story of Team Alpha Male.
You hinted at finishing up your career after your last fight. Especially with this new gym, would you consider taking on a larger role with the team?
Well, I have a lot of different ventures. TAM, the team, is just a small part of what I do from a business standpoint. I feel like a lot of people don’t understand how many hats I wear. Whether it’s a clothing line (Torque), a supplement company (Purus Labs), a kombucha distribution company (Kombucha Kulture) … I have a management company (MMA Inc.), a dental company (Briteway Dental), a construction business with my dad (Faber construction). We’ve also got a UFC Gym coming to Rocklin, about 40 min. from where we’re currently located.
Do Dana White and the Fertittas offer any sort of assistance with helping you guys pursue business ventures?
I think it’s something you have to explore on your own behalf, but I do think the UFC, Lorenzo (Feritta) especially, are pretty proud of the fact that their fighters are intelligent. I’m part of something called EO, Entrepreneurs Organization, and when Lorenzo was in town, he was kind enough to come in and speak to my group about being an entrepreneur. It was cool to see how passionate he is about that world. So they definitely encourage it, and they’re offering opportunities with the UFC Gym franchise.
A lot of fight fans associate your last TUF co-star, Conor McGregor, with big business. How would you say he’s doing on that side of things?
I think he’s doing great. He’s coming as a young star at the pinnacle of mixed martial arts … it’s an accumulation of all the hard work guys have put in over the years to get it to this point, on top of him having a big personality and great fighting abilities. He definitely understands business. I don’t know if he understands saving money, but he definitely understands making it.
Circling back to your gym, what do you think are the essential qualities an MMA gym needs to stay relevant over time, particularly with so many of them popping up everywhere?
I think the gym needs to have a heart. It can’t all just be about the money, it has to be about passion, a community — those are things that have set us apart. It’s about leadership, really. You look at teams in college, the MMA world, and beyond that allow bullying, where guys get jealous during training and stuff like that. You need to have a space where everyone feels like they have an equal opportunity — like they have support, people watching out for them.
Of course there are products, but any business comes down to people. So making sure you get the right mix of people and have the right energy, focus, drive and goals is really important.
What about this new trend of gyms paying fighters to train with them, like the Elevation Fight Team out in Denver with (former Team Alpha Male member) T.J. Dillashaw?
I try not to worry about what’s going on outside of my team, but I will say this: At the end of the day, who’s going to be with you at the very end? There’s a real comradery that happens through blood, sweat and tears, and I think you can build that in a paid situation or unpaid situation.
When you’re looking at the new model of being able to pay people, that’s great. I wish I was able to pay everybody to come be a part of (TAM). But it still comes down to people. Who are you going to surround yourself with? Money shouldn’t be the driver for where you spend your time. Time is something you can’t get back.
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d04e4abd898a41c6aa38d0f3cfa4f23d | https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattconnolly/2016/08/25/new-numbers-cement-conor-mcgregor-as-ufcs-most-popular-fighter-ahead-of-ronda-rousey-and-brock-lesnar/ | New Numbers Cement Conor McGregor As UFC's Most Popular Fighter Ahead Of Ronda Rousey, Brock Lesnar | New Numbers Cement Conor McGregor As UFC's Most Popular Fighter Ahead Of Ronda Rousey, Brock Lesnar
In case it wasn't already clear that Conor McGregor is the UFC's most popular fighter, some figures that recently came to light should put this debate to rest — for now.
Conor McGregor is the UFC's undisputed pay-per-view and social media king. (David Becker/Getty... [+] Images)
On Tuesday, ESPN's Darren Rovell reported that UFC 202, headlined by a rematch between McGregor and Nate Diaz, was the MMA promotion's third best-selling pay-per-view:
UFC: UFC 202 had the 3rd most PPV buys in UFC history, behind UFC 196 (3/5/16) & UFC 100 (7/11/09) — Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) August 24, 2016
While Rovell did not offer an approximation for UFC 202, it very likely did somewhere between 1.2 and 1.5 million buys given the most reliable industry estimates for UFC 200, UFC 194, UFC 193 and UFC 116 (all around 1.1-1.2 million buys). UFC 196 and 100 are both believed to have done 1.5-1.6 million buys, though comments from McGregor and UFC President Dana White indicate that 196 may have sold even more.
Regardless of the exact totals, McGregor's last three headliners — UFC 194 (McGregor vs. Jose Aldo), UFC 196 (McGregor vs. Diaz) and UFC 202 (McGregor vs. Diaz II) — account for three of the UFC's six biggest shows, all of them coming over the past year.
Comparatively, Brock Lesnar's most recent showcase — a co-main event booking at UFC 200 in July — fell short of McGregor's last two buy rates. Both of his PPV record-setters were also boosted by the UFC's strongest main cards to date, including a Georges St-Pierre co-main event at UFC 100. Ronda Rousey, due in part to her past dominance of the women's bantamweight division, has only topped 1 million pay-per-views once, at UFC 193.
As impressive as McGregor's drawing power is for paid TV, his following on social media is what really separates him from the pack. On Tuesday, Global Social Media Analyst Colin Oliver published a study on the UFC featherweight champion's mentions across Twitter , digital news and MMA blogs/forums over the past year. The Irishman totaled 6.4 million mentions, up 4.4 million from the year prior.
Brock Lesnar has significantly less social mentions than Conor McGregor over the past year. (Rey Del... [+] Rio/Getty Images)
In the same period, Lesnar — who also has a massive WWE following — had a little more than half of McGregor's mentions at 3.4 million. Rousey has been largely inactive in that timeframe, but Oliver's year-long study during the peak of her stardom (August 2014-2015) counted 3.9 million mentions using the same measures. So, half a million more than Lesnar, but still well short of McGregor.
Taken together, iy is apparent that McGregor is the UFC's biggest draw and most talked-about fighter. With that said, don't be surprised if Rousey gives him a run for his money when she makes her much-anticipated return in late 2016-early 2017.
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e47b3dac8dcb30f75b436a87b982b63a | https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattconnolly/2016/12/13/asian-mma-in-2016-ranking-the-top-promotions-executives-and-fighters/ | Asian MMA In 2016: ONE Championship Leads Rankings For Top Promotions, Executives And Fighters | Asian MMA In 2016: ONE Championship Leads Rankings For Top Promotions, Executives And Fighters
With the UFC’s $4 billion sale and the rise of Bellator, 2016 has been a record-setting year for MMA in the U.S. But on the other side of the globe, international and regional promotions for the world's fastest-growing sport have also enjoyed unprecedented success.
ONE Championship Chairman Chatri Sityodtong (Image courtesy of ONE)
In Asia, ONE Championship continued to raise the bar as the continent’s MMA leader, while Japan’s Rizin Fighting Federation also announced its arrival as an international player. Of course, there are also a handful of smaller organizations that made gains in the Far East.
What follows is a year-end ranking of the most influential Asian MMA promotions, executives and fighters for 2016.
Promotions
1) ONE Championship
In five short years, ONE Championship has become the consensus #1 sports media property in Asia, broadcasting to over one billion homes and over 100 countries across the globe via Fox Sports Asia and other local networks.
The promotion put on a record 14 events in 2016, including the first ever fight card by a major MMA organization in Thailand and the most attended fight card in Macau’s history. ONE also broke ground in two new Chinese cities (Changsha and Anhui), a trend that will continue in 2017, and crowned the youngest female world champion in MMA history in then 19-year-old atomweight Angela Lee.
2016 also saw the promotion secure an undisclosed eight-figure sum from a division of Temasek Holdings, a national wealth fund owned by the government of Singapore, where ONE is headquartered. At the time, ONE founder and chairman Chatri Sityodtong called the investment the “biggest moment in (ONE's) history.”
In addition to helping open doors in China, the Temasek partnership should expedite ONE's push for a $1 billion USD valuation. The prospect of surpassing that mark allowed the company to be nominated for the CNBC’s Asian Business Leaders Unicorn Award, which recognizes startups nearing the $1B milestone.
2) Rizin Fighting Federation
Since bursting onto the scene with a pair of year-ending Grand Prix events in 2015, Rizin Fighting Federation has firmly established itself as the most headline-grabbing international MMA promotion Asia has to offer.
Keeping with the PRIDE Fighting Championship model that led to the sport’s explosion in Japan, Rizin has featured an eclectic blend on MMA greats, theatrical characters and up-and-coming talent to drum up global interest in its four-pack of 2016 fight cards. The first leg of its 2016 Grand Prix in September was particularly successful, reportedly garnering over 10 million viewers on Fuji TV in Japan — more viewership than any American MMA event in history.
As the saying goes, “PRIDE never dies.”
3) Pancrase
Since a changing of the guard in 2012, which included a much-needed adoption of the Unified Rules of MMA, Pancrase has been widely regarded as the top regional promotion in Japan.
In 2016, the promotion will hold 13 events across Tokyo, Sapporo and Osaka, with its sights set on a cross-promotional show in Las Vegas next summer. Pancrase currently broadcasts on the UFC’s digital network (Fight Pass).
4) DEEP/JEWELS
DEEP set itself apart in the Japanese MMA scene by absorbing all-female promotion JEWELS in 2013, giving itself the top collection of female fighters in the country. Unfortunately, it has lost a lot of its top female and male talent to larger MMA promotions.
In 2016, DEEP/JEWELS will hold 20 events in cities all across Japan.
5) Shooto/Vale Tudo
Shooto, the final of the three regional MMA staples in Japan, rebranded itself with sister organization Vale Tudo before announcing its partnership with UFC Fight Pass earlier this year. Like DEEP, it has served as a feeder league for larger promotions of late, most recently losing two-division champion Hiromasa Ogikubo to the UFC (via The Ultimate Fighter).
In 2016, Shooto/Vale Tudo will hold 22 events in cities all across Japan.
Honorable Mentions: Road Fighting Championship (Korea), Pacific Xtreme Combat (Guam/Philippines), Kunlun Fight (China)
Executives
1) Chatri Sityodtong (ONE Championship Founder and Chairman)
(Image courtesy of ONE)
Sityodtong, together with the next man on this list, has turned a small Singaporean startup into one of the biggest brands in MMA.
Each year the former Wall Street hedge fund manager has been at the helm, ONE has expanded into new territories with steadily rising attendance and viewership numbers, reporting a market share in Asia comparable to the UFC in America (approximately 90%).
With his company on the verge of an IPO, the Thai-Japanese entrepreneur stepped into the limelight in 2016, speaking at several big-business symposiums including the Forbes Global CEO Conference and Milken Institute Asia Summit.
2) Victor Cui (ONE Championship CEO)
(AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
Cui, a former senior executive at ESPN Star Sports, has been Sityodtong’s right-hand man throughout ONE’s rise. His work has centered on the promotion’s landmark broadcasting deals and expansion into marquee venues across Asia.
Most recently, Cui has taken his talents to China to head up the company’s offices in Shanghai and Beijing — a huge added responsibility given ONE’s plans to corner the country’s burgeoning MMA market.
3) Nobuyuki Sakakibara (Rizin Fighting Federation Founder And CEO)
(Image courtesy of Rizin FF)
Sakakibara, a founder and president of PRIDE during the peak of Japanese MMA, has breathed new life into his native country’s combat sports scene with the introduction of his new but familiar MMA venture.
His concept of inviting fighters from all different promotions separates his product from others, as does his less-is-more approach in booking only a select number of events per year. His penchant for “freakshow fights” will always have its share of detractors, but it’s a sacrifice the former PRIDE boss is willing to make to deliver a truly unique brand of MMA entertainment.
4) Nobuhiko Takada (Rizin Fighting Federation General Manager)
A handful of former high-level PRIDE employees joined Sakakibara in the formation of Rizin, but none more prominent than Takada. The Japanese pro wrestling legend and mixed martial arts pioneer has been paramount in getting Rizin back into the public consciousness, and — together with Senior VP Jerry Millen — booking big names the likes of Fedor Emelianenko, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filopovic, Wanderlei Silva, Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal, Kron Gracie and Gabby Garcia.
5) Masakazu Sakai (Pancrase CEO)
Sakai was the main individual responsible for resurrecting Pancrase — a promotion that once featured greats including Ken Shamrock, Frank Shamrock and Bas Rutten — several years back, bringing in stiffer competition to raise the stock of its championship belts. Sakai’s current stable of title-holders, regarded as the Kings and Queens of Pancrase, include former UFC fighters Rin Nakai and Issei Tamura, as well as WEC vet Hiromitsu Miura and TUF standout Andy Main.
Honorable Mentions: Moon Hong Jung (Road FC CEO), Shigeru Saeki (DEEP/JEWELS President), EJ Calvo (Pacific Xtreme Combat CEO), Matt Hume (ONE Matchmaker/Recruiter), Jerry Millen (Rizin Senior VP)
Fighters
1) Ben Askren (ONE Welterweight Champion)
(Suhaimi Abdullah/Getty Images)
#6 WW in MMA Junkie Rankings And MMA World Rankings
Askren may not have had a very active 2016, but the former Olympic wrestler remains undefeated at 15-0 and is still considered one of the very best 170-pound fighters in the world.
2) Bibiano Fernandes (ONE Bantamweight Champion)
(Suhaimi Abdullah/Getty Images)
#4 BW in MMA Junkie Rankings
Young Aussie Reece McLaren gave Fernandes a run for his money earlier this month, but "The Flash" was able to stretch his undefeated streak to 12 and remain ONE’s most dominant and active champion.
3) Marat Gafurov (ONE Featherweight Champion)
(Suhaimi Abdullah/Getty Images)
#13 Featherweight In Fight Matrix Rankings
Gafurov handled Narantungalag Jadambaa in their November rematch, finishing his sixth-straight fight via rear-naked choke. The Dagestani champ is 15-0 in his career.
4) Jarred Brooks (Pancrase)
#1 Strawweight In Fight Matrix MMA Rankings
He’s new to the Japanese MMA scene, but if the 11-0 youngster from Indiana sticks around, it’s only a matter of time before he gets to test his mettle against Pancrase’s reigning flyweight champion.
5) Yoshitaka Naito (ONE Strawweight Champion)
#2 Strawweight In Fight Matrix MMA Rankings
The 12-0 Naito, a champion with Shooto before coming over to ONE, has yet to taste defeat in four years as a pro. He defeated Thailand’s Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke in May before defending his strap against the Philippine’s Joshua Pacio in October.
6) Mitsuhisa Sunabe (Pancrase Flyweight Champion)
#3 Strawweight In Fight Matrix MMA Rankings
Sunabe has a 13-fight win streak dating all the way back to 2011, but Brooks should prove to be the Pancrase vet’s biggest test to date.
7) Rin Nakai (Pancrase Women’s Flyweight Champion/Rizin)
#7 Women’s Flyweight In Fight Matrix MMA Rankings
Nakai was 0-2 competing as a bantamweight in the UFC, but the Queen of Pancrase remains a perfect 16-0 in her natural weight class. She will face possibly her stiffest test at 125 pounds in fellow countrywoman Kanako Murata later this month.
8) Tatsuya Kawajiri (Rizin)
#26 Featherweight In Fight Matrix MMA Rankings
Kawajiri also stumbled in the UFC, but the former Shooto champion remains one of Asia’s top featherweights as he looks to right the ship in his native Japan. His first test: Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace Kron Gracie.
9) Eduard Folayang (ONE Lightweight Champion)
#39 Lightweight In Fight Matrix MMA Rankings
Folayang pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the year when he TKO’d Japanese MMA star Shinya Aoki in November, capturing ONE’s 155-pound title in the process. The Filipino wushu practitioner was a perfect 3-0 in 2016.
10) Shinya Aoki (ONE/Rizin)
Aoki may have stumbled against Folayang, but he still boasts one of the most impressive resumes in the history of Asian MMA. At age 33, he has plenty of time for another title run at lightweight or featherweight.
Honorable Mentions: Angela Lee (ONE), Soo Chul Kim (Road/Rizin), Mizuki Inoue (JEWELS), Kazunori Yokota (DEEP/ONE), Yuki Motoya (DEEP/Rizin), Jenny Huang (ONE), Rafael Silva (Pancrase), Reece McLaren (ONE), Weili Zhang (Kunlun), Brandon Vera (ONE)
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dd137c2c56ca13cafaa55ae0bfd38fda | https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattconnolly/2017/01/26/nba-trade-rumors-odds-of-carmelo-anthony-jimmy-butler-and-other-stars-being-dealt-at-2017-deadline/ | NBA Trade Rumors: Latest Odds Of Carmelo Anthony, Jimmy Butler, Other Stars Being Dealt At Deadline | NBA Trade Rumors: Latest Odds Of Carmelo Anthony, Jimmy Butler, Other Stars Being Dealt At Deadline
No major deals have been swung since the Kyle Korver-to-Cavaliers transaction, but with just a little over a month between now and the Feb. 23 NBA trade deadline, rumors surrounding some of the Association’s top talents are beginning to pick up steam.
(Elsa/Getty Images)
While no shortage of big names have found themselves tied to rival teams in recent weeks, the reality is that most of them will end up staying put. The average deadline is lucky to see one or two All-Star caliber players shipped out, as evidence by 2015’s marquee deals featuring the likes of Tobias Harris, Brandon Jennings and Channing Frye. The year before was an exception, as three point guards with All-Star upside — Goran Dragic, Isaiah Thomas and Reggie Jackson — were all moved.
The last blockbuster deadline trade was actually back in 2011, when the Knicks gave up four players and three picks to bring in Carmelo Anthony — who, coincidentally, is the feature of this rundown. But with Melo, Jimmy Butler, and a collection of the league’s other stars that currently being bandied about, what are the odds that a deal actually goes down?
Given all that we know about their respective situations, let's examine the likelihood that each of these players experiences a change of scenery.
Note: These odds are not affiliated with any sportsbook. To keep things simple, we are using percentages out of 100 rather than fractional, decimal or moneyline odds.
Carmelo Anthony
(Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Anthony reaffirmed his commitment to the Knicks in a Tuesday sit-down with team president Phil Jackson, according to The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski, but that doesn’t mean the face of the franchise is guaranteed to stay put.
After a loss to the Raptors on Sunday — one of New York’s 11 defeats in a 13-game stretch — Anthony said he hadn’t thought about waiving his no-trade clause despite rumors to the contrary. Melo solidified that stance in the “business-like” meeting he had with Phil, per Woj, though it’s unclear if he bought Jackson’s attempt to distance himself from the critical column written by good friend and former assistant coach Charley Rosen last week.
In his article, Rosen mentioned that Anthony would be open to nixing the no-trade for a deal that landed him with the Cavaliers or Clippers — put another way, with one of his best friends (LeBron James or Chris Paul) on a championship contender. While it’s unlikely Cleveland would bring in anything beyond another complimentary piece being so far over the cap, L.A. — a team clinging to the West’s #4 seed — could be a wild card considering they are still without Blake Griffin and just lost Paul for six to eight weeks. The rival Celtics were also thrown into the mix by the New York Post's Marc Berman.
But for the Clippers, Celtics or any other potential suitor, taking in Anthony would also mean accepting the remaining two-and-a-half seasons left on the soon-to-be 33-year-old's massive five-year, $124 million contract — plus an additional $10 million fee courtesy of Melo’s “trade kicker” for agreeing to switch teams. That alone would be enough to scare off most teams, and there’s also the matter of Jackson demanding a sizable return for his much-maligned star.
All things considered, the odds are low that Melo uproots the life he has made for himself in NYC, particularly if Phil trying to push him out is the chief motivator. If the Knicks (18-24, 11th in East) don’t make necessary personnel changes and continue to spiral out of playoff contention, however, Anthony might open himself up to a short list of preferred destinations.
Update: Thursday, Jan. 26
On the heels of a report from The Vertical that the Knicks are "determined" to deal Anthony by the deadline, Frank Isola of the New York Daily News has reported that Jackson and Doc Rivers are discussing a swap that would land Melo with the Clippers.
New York has also reached out to the Celtics and Cavs, per Woj, and had an Anthony-for-Kevin Love offer turned down by Cleveland, according to ESPN.com's Marc Stein.
Update: Saturday, Jan. 21
Anthony is now considering waiving his no-trade clause, telling Newsday he is willing to weigh a deadline deal if the Knicks "want to start rebuilding for the future."
New Odds Of Being Traded: 40%
Past Odds (From 1/17 & 1/21): 15%
Jimmy Butler
(Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
One of the more head-scratching rumors in the lead-up to this year’s deadline surrounds Bulls star Jimmy Butler, who Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher says is “available for the right price."
Head-scratching in the sense that Butler has more than justified the five-year, $95 million deal he signed with Chicago two summers ago, and the fact that he is in the midst of his best season to date. “Jimmy Buckets” has taken the next step playing at the 3 for the first time in his career, posting a gaudy stat line of 24.9 points, 6.8 rebounds, 4.6 assists on top of his usual all-NBA defense. He has also emerged as one of the league’s most consistent players in the clutch.
But despite Butler’s best efforts, the Bulls (21-22) are still just one of several teams vying for one the East’s final playoff berths, with the Hornets and Pistons nipping at their heels.
Behind the scenes, it’s unclear how exactly this uneven play will impact the front office’s plans for the future, but it’s unlikely that GM Gar Forman sits idly by with Chicago floundering in the middle of the pack. Head coach Fred Hoiberg continues to find himself on the hot seat, while free agency bust Rajon Rondo has gone from starter to benched to back-up all within the last couple of weeks.
Is Butler’s job security also in question?
I’d say no unless the Bulls shock the NBA world with a fire sale, in which case there are several teams that could put together a competitive offer for his services. It’s just hard to see Forman and John Paxson giving up on one of the league’s best two-way players on the heels of an offseason spending spree to build around him.
Update: Saturday, Jan. 21
Butler ripped himself and his Bulls teammates after their second-straight loss on Friday, calling their effort "bad" and "terrible," per ESPN.com's Nick Friedell. Earlier in the week, Friedell reported that "there continues to be debate within the organization about whether to press the button on a full-scale rebuild."
New Odds Of Being Traded: 20%
Past Odds (From 1/17): 10%
Other Stars In Trade Rumors
Rajon Rondo
(Elsa/Getty Images)
It looks like Rondo and the Bulls are trying to make it work, and eating the remainder of his two-year, $28 million deal would be a big ask of any team — particularly the Cavs, the only team the four-time All-Star has been tied to directly. Getting Rondo back in the rotation may be a calculated move to up his trade stock, but he’s going to have to play a lot better for any team to seriously consider him.
Odds Of Being Traded: 10%
Ricky Rubio
(Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)
With the young Wolves (14-28) still a ways away from contending out West, it’s no surprise that Tom Thibodeau is “actively shopping” his veteran point guard to fast-track rookie Kris Dunn, as Woj reports. Rubio seems to have reached his ceiling despite being just 26 years old, and his trade value might never be higher as he’s averaging a double-double in January.
Odds Of Being Traded: 50%
DeMarcus Cousins
(Rob Carr/Getty Images)
Year after year, the hot-headed Cousins finds himself in trade rumors, but recent reports of a max extension indicate that his tumultuous tenure in Sacramento will continue on. At this point, it would take a king’s ransom to pry the All-Star big man from team owner Vivek Ranadive, even if the Kings (16-24, 10th in West) keep losing ground in the standings.
Odds Of Being Traded: 5%
Paul Millsap
(Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Millsap was briefly put on the block earlier this month along with the now departed Kyle Korver, but the Hawks have cooled trade talks with Mike Budenholzer’s boys back to their winning ways (9-1 over their last 10). But Millsap’s looming free agency, along with the reality that they are no longer one of the top two teams in the East, could see Atlanta dangle its best player at least one more time before the deadline, according to Woj.
Odds Of Being Traded: 20%
Blake Griffin
(Jae C. Hong)
Chris Paul’s injury has reignited the intrigue surrounding a potential Blake-for-Carmelo Anthony swap, but Berman has snuffed out that possibility, reporting that the Clippers “have long said privately they would never deal Blake Griffin for Anthony.” L.A. was on another Griffin-less roll (seven-straight wins) before CP3 went down, though, which gives you the feeling that Doc Rivers would at least listen to offers if the star big man’s return does not lead to similar success.
Odds Of Being Traded: 10%
Brook Lopez
(AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
It doesn’t look like the Nets have backed off their asking price of two first-rounders, but the more they continue to struggle (the team has not won a game since Dec. 26), the more GM Sean Marks will have to consider lowering his demand for Lopez. Though the big man has added a 3-point shot, there's no denying that Brooklyn — the NBA leader in pace — is a bad fit for the 7-footer as currently constructed.
Odds Of Being Traded: 40%
Goran Dragic
(AP Photo/Alex Gallardo)
While it appears that Hassan Whiteside is off limits, there’s a decent chance Dragic is shipped out as the injury-ravaged Heat (12-30, 14th in East) continue to move toward a full-blown rebuild. ESPN.com’s Zach Lowe reports that the Magic have already shown interest, with more teams soon to follow, but that Miami would need a “hefty return” given that it cost them four players and two picks to acquire the star point guard before the 2015 deadline.
Odds Of Being Traded: 25%
Rudy Gay
(AP Photo/David Goldman)
Gay might be less attractive to the Thunder now that he’s repped by Roc Nation, according to CSN Bay Area’s James Ham, but OKC isn’t his only potential suitor, with teams like the Clippers and the Magic also popping up in rumors. Unless the Kings (16-24) are dead set on trying to break their long playoff drought, they would be wise to try and get a return on Gay before he opts out of the final season on his three-year, $40 million contract.
Update: Thursday, Jan. 19
Gay suffered a likely season-ending injury (torn left Achilles) in a Kings loss on Wednesday, rendering him untradable. The question now becomes if he will opt into the final season of his contract with Sacramento.
New Odds Of Being Traded: 0%
Past Odds (From 1/17): 30%
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75a8195dd3f682ca3c83047298f435f0 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattconnolly/2017/03/18/is-floyd-mayweather-vs-conor-mcgregor-really-a-1-billion-fight/ | Is Floyd Mayweather Vs Conor McGregor Really A $1 Billion Fight? | Is Floyd Mayweather Vs Conor McGregor Really A $1 Billion Fight?
The Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor super-fight is looking more like reality than fantasy these days, but could the bout would be worth a whopping $1 billion, as McGregor so boldly predicted back in January?
To get to the bottom of this, we’ll use the data we’ve researched on Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao — the richest night in sports history, and a good starting point for any debate on the money behind Mayweather versus McGregor.
According to FORBES, Floyd versus Pac-Man was a $600 million show — $430 million from U.S. pay-per-view buys, $72 million from ticket sales, also known as the live gate, and $50 million from foreign TV rights. International pay-per-view buys, commercial venues, sponsorships and merchandise made up the rest.
Mayweather and McGregor almost doubling that wouldn’t be easy, but could we get to our magic number with MMA and boxing fans joining forces?
Pay-Per-View/TV
Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather could become the richest night in sports history. Image via @TheNotoriousMMA
To start, Conor and Floyd would have to smash the pay-per-view record set by Floyd and Manny in the U.S., moving at least six million units. With most customers paying $100 to watch in high definition, that would equate to almost $600 million right out the gate.
International pay-per-view buys and TV rights is where we could see the biggest jump, though, since McGregor is a huge draw in his native Ireland, the UK and, really, anywhere in Europe that follows MMA. Foreign pay-per-view customers wouldn’t have to pay nearly as much, but revenue from across the globe could still total $100-$150 million.
The Gate
Michael Reaves/Getty Images
If ticket prices come in above Mayweather versus Pacquiao, which averaged almost $5,000 per seat, a 20,000-person crowd at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas would add another $100-$150 million to the pot.
The Rest
Dan Mullan/Getty Images
From there, tack on the revenue from commercial venues like hotels, bars, and restaurants, plus sponsorships and merchandise, which totaled $40 million for "Money" versus "Pac-Man," and we’re looking at another $50-$100 million.
In Conclusion
Michael Reaves/Getty Images
To recap, around two-thirds of the revenue would come from U.S. pay-per-views, with the other third coming from foreign broadcasts, gate sales and a few other sources. In total, these estimates take us all the way up to 1 billion, but only if we’re being very generous.
Indeed, the chances of Mayweather versus McGregor hitting 10-digits are slim, but I’d still take those odds over McGregor actually beating Mayweather in the ring. But the Irishman does have a puncher’s chance, and that alone might be enough for the most lucrative event sports fans have ever seen.
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d2443378958c0c2caef0ca02d13d4fec | https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdrange/2016/05/30/peter-thiel-hulk-hogan-lawyers-charles-harder/ | Hulk Hogan's Lawyers Have Made Suing Gawker Their 'Bread And Butter' | Hulk Hogan's Lawyers Have Made Suing Gawker Their 'Bread And Butter'
Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel has been paying the Hollywood entertainment law firm Harder... [+] Mirell & Abrams LLP to pursue lawsuits on behalf of former wrestler Hulk Hogan against Gawker Media. (Photo: Gerardo Mora/Getty Images)
By Ryan Mac and Matt Drange
It was April 5 and Charles J. Harder was confident. More than two weeks removed from a landmark victory for his client Terry Bollea, a.k.a. Hulk Hogan, the Los Angeles-based attorney had just published a guest column in The Hollywood Reporter detailing how his law firm won a $140 million jury verdict in a lawsuit against Gawker Media.
Harder explained how he came to represent Hogan following the publication of the now infamous sex tape and why he was so public in his defense of the former wrestler. “We needed to send a message,” Harder said of the decision to hold a press conference immediately after he filed a lawsuit against Gawker in Oct. 2012.
What Harder didn’t mention in his 2,668-word column was that his firm was paid by a third party to represent Hogan. Last week, FORBES first reported that venture capital investor Peter Thiel had been secretly footing Hogan’s legal bills against Gawker.
While Thiel’s financial arrangements with Hogan's lawyers are legal--and common in certain types of litigation--the revelation of the Silicon Valley billionaire’s involvement has raised more questions in a case that was already being watched for its implications involving privacy, the First Amendment and press freedom. At the center of the battle is Harder Mirell & Abrams LLP, a Beverly Hills, Calif. law firm whose lawsuits against Gawker in various courts across the country have been a major focus since its founding in early 2013.
Harder declined to comment for this story. A representative for Thiel also declined to comment.
FORBES conducted more than a dozen interviews with people close to Harder and his partner Douglas Mirell to understand the firm’s approach against Gawker and its ties to Thiel. Many of the people who spoke to FORBES did so on the condition of anonymity, citing their relationships with the firm and the fear of reprisal from other members of Hollywood’s tight-knit legal community.
What emerged is a composite picture of a boutique law firm, whose lawyers’ disparate backgrounds and extensive experience with celebrities made it the perfect tag-team to represent Hogan. After taking on the wrestler’s case, Harder Mirell has made lawsuits against Gawker its “bread and butter” said someone close to the partners of the firm.
Forming A Firm
Gawker.com published Hogan’s sex tape on Oct. 4, 2012, prompting a frenzy of media coverage and a takedown request from Hogan’s personal attorney, David Houston. When Gawker refused, Hogan’s legal team, led by Harder, filed suit 11 days later.
At the time, Harder was a partner at Wolf Rifkin Shapiro Schulman & Rabkin LLP. Named by The Hollywood Reporter in 2012 as a “Power Lawyer" Harder developed a reputation as a well-connected celebrity attorney whose clients included Sandra Bullock, Clint Eastwood and Julia Roberts. Prior to his time at Wolf Rifkin, Harder spent years working under renowned Hollywood attorney Marty Singer, who the The New York Times dubbed the “guard dog to the stars.” Former associates said that Singer, who in early 2014 sued Gawker on behalf of director Quentin Tarantino following the publication of a script to “The Hateful Eight,” was Harder’s mentor. (Tarantino and his lawyers dropped their suit a few months later.)
“Charles is very well-known in the right of publicity space,” a former employee said of Harder. “That’s his wheelhouse. If I came across a right of publicity issue, he’s the first person I’d call.”
It’s unclear exactly when Thiel became connected to Harder, but another former employee said that they met through a cold call while Harder was at Wolf Rifkin. “[Thiel] basically cold called looking for an entertainment lawyer and that was pretty much that,” they said.
By late 2012, Harder had made moves to start his own practice. With plans to take some of his clients with him, he teamed up with Mirell, a First Amendment expert who spent 32 years at Loeb & Loeb LLP, and Jeffrey Abrams, a celebrity estates specialist who worked with Harder at Wolf Rifkin.
Multiple sources who know Harder and Mirell told FORBES that while Harder was the face of Hogan’s Hollywood legal team, Mirell was the brains. Known in the legal community as a First Amendment defender for his argument against gag orders in the O.J. Simpson trial, Mirell represented Seinfeld actor Michael Richards following the actor’s 2006 tirade at a comedy show where he identified audience members by racial slurs. Mirell also previously served as president of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and has given “newsroom seminars on various media law issues for publishers, reporters and editors,” according to an online biography on his firm's website.
“It certainly raised eyebrows when he joined up with a plaintiffs firm,” said an old friend of Mirell’s. “The First Amendment side of the bar is sacred. It is typically not something that you cross. And if you do, you don’t ever go back.”
Harder, Mirell or Abrams had yet to announce their new venture when, on Dec. 28, 2012, when Harder filed an amended complaint on behalf of Hogan. Below his signature at the end of the document, Harder wrote “Harder Mirell & Abrams LLP.” Hogan’s lawsuit was the firm’s first case.
The Cases Against Gawker
Gawker has been sued at least 11 times in federal courts since 2013. Harder’s current firm has worked for Gawker’s opposition in at least five of those lawsuits, including two on behalf of Hogan. Earlier this month Hogan filed a second lawsuit against Gawker, alleging that he had been extorted before the publication of his sex tape.
Of the cases that Harder Mirell has brought against the online news organization, it’s unclear which other than Hogan’s have received money from Thiel. In an interview with The New York Times, Thiel said that he has spent an estimated $10 million to fund lawsuits against Gawker.
“It’s safe to say this is not the only one,” Thiel told the Times, when asked which other cases he has backed.
Thiel, through a spokesperson, declined to comment for this story. When reached by phone on Sunday, Harder also declined to comment, telling FORBES “I don’t have anything to say. I don’t know how I can say this in a nicer way, but I’m not having this conversation right now.”
In addition to Hogan, Harder is representing plaintiffs against Gawker in other lawsuits around the country, including a defamation case on behalf of Shiva Ayyadurai, the subject of critical story by Gawker journalist Sam Biddle. The case, filed in federal court in Massachusetts earlier this month, garnered headlines in part because Ayyadurai, who is seeking “no less than $35 million in damages,” claims to have invented email. Biddle’s 2012 story disputed this.
Ayyadurai wrote on his blog last week that he was “totally unaware of any behind-the-scenes financial arrangements involving my attorneys and anyone else.”
Harder is also representing Ashley Terrill, a writer who sued Gawker and Biddle in New York in January alleging that they published “a false and highly defamatory hit-piece” about her. That story, which ran last November, detailed how Terrill had become caught in the middle of a dispute involving the cofounders of dating app Tinder. Earlier this month Gawker’s lawyers argued that Terrill’s case should be dismissed and on May 18, a judge gave Terrill’s legal team two weeks to amend its complaint. No additional documents have been filed in the case since.
Sources who spoke to FORBES suggested Harder’s firm may be involved with other lawsuits against Gawker without being named as part of a plaintiff’s legal team. One case, involving former unpaid Gawker interns, provides a glimpse of how that may have transpired.
In June 2013, a group of former employees sued the online publication, alleging that the company violated minimum wage laws in compensating them for their work. Harder Mirell did not go on to represent those interns in court, but a deposition shows that Harder made contact with at least one of them. That former employee, Andrew Hudson, said he met with Harder, who later connected him to his eventual lawyer in his suit, Andrea Paparella.
Hudson and Paparella could not immediately be reached for comment.
In a deposition from April 2014, Hudson said that he had been asked to meet with Harder to “discuss a class action lawsuit about the unpaid internship I had been a part of.” Hudson also added that in December 2013 he "signed documents" including a "declaration of facts" related to the case for Harder, who based on past cases and clients, had little previous experience dealing with labor disputes. (In late March, just two weeks after Hogan’s initial victory against Gawker, a judge dismissed Hudson’s case.)
When asked why Harder Mirell would get involved in such a suit despite its focus on celebrity clients, one person who used to work for the firm speculated it was a matter of following the money. Given the involvement of a third party who was financing the Hogan suit, the firm likely had an incentive to find more cases against Gawker. “If you have somebody giving you money for a lawsuit against Gawker, wouldn’t you try to find more cases?” the person said.
Nick Denton, founder of Gawker Media. (Photo: John Pendygraft for The Tampa Bay Times)
Gallery: Gawker vs. Hogan: The Movie 7 images View gallery
‘Bankrupt, Buy Or Wound’
Since he has been revealed as Hogan’s financial backer, Thiel, has only given one interview to explain his actions. Despite admissions that he considers his actions “one of my greater philanthropic things that I’ve done,” plenty of questions still remain. Among them: How many other cases did Thiel fund against Gawker? How long had Thiel been planning to go after Gawker? And how much say, if any, did he have over Harder Mirell’s decision-making process?
Gawker founder Nick Denton also had his own pointed inquiries, penning an open letter to Thiel with 10 “immediate questions” for the Silicon Valley billionaire. “Is your goal to bankrupt, buy, or wound Gawker Media?” Denton wrote.
Amidst the ongoing legal battles, Gawker’s future remains uncertain. On Thursday, reports surfaced that Gawker had hired a banker to explore a possible sale, though Gawker moved quickly to dampen the speculation. Last week, a judge upheld the verdict for Hogan in the case, denying Gawker's request for a new trial. Both sides are due back in a Florida court on June 10 as Gawker's lawyer prepare an appeal.
Thiel’s involvement has also brought renewed attention to the practice of employing third parties to finance litigation. According to legal experts, outside funding for lawsuits tends to be more common in product liability cases and other mass torts, where there is a possibility for a large payout that could be split between the plaintiffs and the third-party financiers. Thiel has made it clear that financial gain was not his motivation.
“You have all this excitement about Thiel’s involvement,” said Darren Oved, a New York-based attorney with experience in entertainment law. “It could be chilling, but it could also be equalizing. Ultimately, the press will think twice before publishing something like this.”
Some have also questioned Gawker’s lawyers. Venture capitalist Keith Rabois, Thiel’s long-time friend--and who like Thiel has a law degree--said on Twitter that Gawker’s representatives should have asked in depositions whether there was outside funding involved in the Hogan case. There are no requirements, however, for plaintiffs or their attorneys to disclose a financial tie like the one Thiel has with Harder Mirell.
San Francisco intellectual property attorney Terry Gross said that while there was nothing inherently wrong about financing litigation, “in a perfect world, all sorts of financial arrangements would be visible to everyone.”
With reporting from Nathan Vardi in Jersey City, New Jersey and Kate Vinton in San Francisco.
Follow Ryan on Twitter at @RMac18 or email him at rmac@forbes.com. Follow Matt on Twitter at @MattDrange at or email him at mdrange@forbes.com.
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f0673b31f74c0c37c52447fe0daac202 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdrange/2016/06/21/peter-thiels-war-on-gawker-a-timeline/ | Peter Thiel's War On Gawker: A Timeline | Peter Thiel's War On Gawker: A Timeline
Graphics by Nick DeSantis In May, FORBES broke the news that Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel bankrolled Hulk Hogan's infamous sex-tape lawsuit against the now-bankrupt Gawker. You might be wondering: so what? Why should I care? Critics have argued that Thiel's money gives other billionaires a blueprint for how to silence media outlets they dislike. Thiel's approach has also added a new twist to what's known as "alternate litigation financing," which, until now was strictly a business opportunity. No longer.
August 2004: PayPal cofounder and venture capitalist Peter Thiel becomes Facebook's first institutional investor when he commits $500,000 to the company for a more than 10 percent stake. He takes a seat alongside CEO Mark Zuckerberg on the board in April 2005, a position which he still holds today. When Facebook goes public on May 18, 2012, Thiel is one of the company's biggest winners. He is now worth an estimated $2.7 billion and has sold off most of his stake in the social media company.
December 19, 2007: Gawker.com publishes a story with the headline "Peter Thiel is totally gay, people." Many feel the story is a public outing of Thiel, though Gawker defends the post, saying Thiel had come out to close friends in the past. Regardless, those close to Thiel tell FORBES the story left a mark, and that it was likely part of his motivation for going after Gawker in court. In a recent interview with The New York Times, Thiel says "Gawker has been a singularly terrible bully."
May 18, 2009: Peter Thiel compares Valleywag, Gawker's Silicon Valley-focused website, to Al Qaeda in an interview. "I think they should be described as terrorists, not as writers or reporters," he said. "I don’t understand the psychology of people who would kill themselves and blow up buildings, and I don’t understand people who would spend their lives being angry." Valleywag would go on to publish dozens of stories about Thiel and other high-profile figures in Silicon Valley.
October 4, 2012: Gawker publishes video clips showing Hulk Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, having sex with his friend's wife, Heather Clem. Former Gawker editor AJ Daulerio details the scene in a story that remains on the site today. "Because the internet has made it easier for all of us to be shameless voyeurs and deviants, we love to watch famous people have sex," Daulerio writes. "We watch this footage because it's something we're not supposed to see..." The story draws more than 7 million views.
October 5, 2012: Hulk Hogan's personal attorney, David Houston, demands Gawker remove the sex tape clips he says were filmed without Hogan's knowledge. Gawker initially refuses, prompting Hogan to hire additional lawyers and prepare a lawsuit. Houston sends two letters to Gawker in the days after the clips were published. Gawker eventually removes the video in the ensuing litigation, publishing a story update: "The video posted here has been removed pending litigation."
October 15, 2012: Hulk Hogan's new lawyer, Charles Harder, files a lawsuit against Gawker in a Florida court. Harder became involved with the case between the publication of the tape and the complaint filing. Based in LA, Harder has represented celebrities like George Clooney. It's unclear how Harder became connected to Hogan and when Peter Thiel began funding the litigation. Both Harder and Thiel have declined to discuss specifics of their agreement with FORBES.
December 5, 2012: Charles Harder's partner and friend, Jeffrey Abrams, files incorporation paperwork with the California Secretary of State to start a law firm. Insiders say the firm, Harder Mirell & Abrams LLP, has made suing Gawker its "bread and butter." Harder disputes this, telling FORBES, "The matters against Gawker is one aspect of my firm’s practice. We represent numerous businesses and individuals in a plethora of legal matters that have nothing to do with Gawker."
December 28, 2012: Charles Harder files an amended complaint with a Florida court on behalf of Hulk Hogan. Underneath his signature, Harder signs "Harder Mirell & Abrams," making the filing the firm's first. Harder brought Hogan's case, along with work for a slew of other celebrity clients, with him when he left his former firm, Wolf Rifkin Shapiro Schulman & Rabkin LLP, around the same time. Hogan's lawsuit would drag on in court for more than three years, drawing lots of media attention.
February 7, 2013: A plaintiff in an eventual class action lawsuit against Gawker signs a retainer agreement with Harder to have the lawyer work on his behalf in a case involving unpaid interns. Harder, who typically represents celebrity clients, would not go on to represent the plaintiffs in court; the case was eventually dismissed. Harder later tells FORBES, "It is shocking that Gawker would rather spend a million dollars on lawyers to fight its interns, than simply pay that money to the interns."
June 17, 2015: Meanith Huon, a plaintiff in one of many lawsuits currently pending against Gawker, tells a judge during a court hearing in Illinois that he isn’t worried about continuing his case against the media company because he was “getting support from Hulk Hogan’s lawyers in California.” Huon and Harder would both decline to comment on the case when questioned by FORBES. The suit is now on appeal in the 7th circuit court. Huon is an attorney and represents himself in the case.
January 2016: Gawker executives, led by founder Nick Denton, agree to sell a minority stake in the company to Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg and his company, Columbus Nova Technology Partners. The deal would mark the first time the company has taken outside investment. Gawker later says the money was used, in part, to defend itself from ongoing litigation. Denton tells FORBES that, if not for the slew of lawsuits he's up against, the company would be profitable.
January 19, 2016: Charles Harder files a lawsuit against Gawker on behalf of writer Ashley Terrill, alleging the website “published a false and highly defamatory hit-piece." In the Gawker story, journalist Sam Biddle details a series of back and forth exchanges between Terrill and executives at the dating app Tinder. "At the center is Ashley Terrill, a Hollywood columnist on an obsessive, possibly unhinged pursuit of what she says is the truth about [Tinder cofounder] Whitney Wolfe," Biddle writes.
March 7, 2016: Hulk Hogan’s case against Gawker begins in a state court in St. Petersburg, Fla. Hogan, who alleges that the New York-based news organization invaded his privacy when it published a video clip of him having sex with his friend's wife, testifies that Gawker’s airing of the video “turned my world upside down.” Hogan and his attorneys seek $100 million in damages from Gawker, its CEO Nick Denton and its former editor AJ Daulerio.
March 18, 2016: A Florida jury awards Hulk Hogan with a $115 million judgment after finding that Gawker invaded the former wrestler's privacy. That amount is later bolstered by an additional $25 million for punitive damages for a total of $140 million. (Gawker is now working to appeal the verdict as it navigates bankruptcy proceedings.) Founder Nick Denton says in a statement, "We feel very positive about the appeal that we have already begun preparing, as we expect to win this case."
April 5, 2016: Hulk Hogan's lawyer, Charles Harder, publishes a guest column in the Hollywood Reporter detailing how his client won his case against Gawker. Harder wrote "The jury's verdict sends a message to irresponsible websites: Think twice before you invade someone's privacy or violate their rights." The articles includes a picture of Harder's legal team, along with Hogan, celebrating their win over a champagne-fueled dinner the night the verdict was announced.
May 2, 2016: Hogan files a subsequent lawsuit against Gawker alleging extortion around the publication of his sex tape. Charles Harder represents Hogan. Gawker responds to the suit by calling it "ridiculous" and accuses Hogan of "abusing the court system to control his public image." The case does not draw as much attention as the former wrestler's previous lawsuit, in part because the proceedings have been overshadowed by Gawker's subsequent bankruptcy filings.
May 10, 2016: Harder files a lawsuit in Massachusetts against Gawker on behalf of Shiva Ayyadurai, who alleges that the website defamed him when journalist Sam Biddle wrote an article in 2012 for Gawker-owned Gizmodo, challenging Ayyadurai's claims that he invented email. In his suit, Ayyadurai, an MIT graduate married to actress Fran Drescher, seeks $35 million in damages. Ayyadurai later tells FORBES that no lawyer would take his case before Harder agreed.
May 24, 2016: FORBES breaks news that billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel funded Hogan's expenses in his lawsuits against Gawker. "It is not illegal for an outside entity to help fund another party’s lawsuit, and the practice, known as 'third-party litigation funding' has become increasingly common in the U.S," FORBES notes. "Typically, the outside party negotiates for a defined share of any proceeds." The news prompts calls for Facebook to remove Thiel from its board.
May 25, 2016: Peter Thiel explains his reasoning for funding Hulk Hogan's case, along with others brought against Gawker (he declined to name them), in an interview with the New York Time. Thiel referred to his funding of the litigation as "one of my greater philanthropic things that I've done," and says he's spent roughly $10 million bankrolling lawsuits against Gawker. Funding arrangements like this are usually done to make a return on investment. Thiel, though, said it's "not a business venture."
May 26, 2016: Gawker founder Nick Denton pens an open letter to Peter Thiel, raising a host of unanswered questions. "Is your goal to bankrupt, buy, or wound Gawker Media? If you were to own the company after a final judgment in the Hogan case, what would your editorial strategy be?" Denton asks. He continued, "When you say your aim is deterrence rather than revenge, whom do you aim to deter?" The letter comes on the heels of Thiel's first extended interview about the lawsuit.
June 10, 2016: Gawker files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after a Florida judge denies a request for a stay that would have allowed the company to avoid immediately paying Hogan's judgment as it worked on an appeal. At the same time, the company begins an auction supervised by the court. Publisher Ziff Davis is the first bidder and enters an asset purchase agreement for less than $100 million. (At one point Gawker was valued at more than $250 million. Nick Denton still controls the company.)
June 15, 2016: FORBES reveals that conservative blogger Charles "Chuck" Johnson, widely regarded as an internet troll, had contact with Charles Harder's firm about his own defamation lawsuit against Gawker. Johnson sued Gawker in Missouri in the summer of 2015, alleging that Gawker had defamed him in a series of articles. Before the case could be dismissed, he filed a nearly identical lawsuit in California. Johnson is representing himself in the case, which is due back in court this year.
August 1, 2016: Gawker founder Nick Denton files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to prevent Hulk Hogan from collecting his share of the $140 million jury verdict. In his filing, Denton estimates his own net worth to be between $10 million to $50 million. Denton is also leading Gawker’s efforts to sell of its assets in a court-advised auction. “The brands and the business, which we have built together, are in amazingly robust shape,” Denton wrote in a memo to employees.
August 16, 2016: Univision Communications agrees to buy Gawker Media’s assets for $135 million after outbidding digital publisher Ziff Davis in a bankruptcy auction. Univision, which oversees publications like Fusion and The Onion, ends Gawker’s 14-year run as an independent company. Denton, who previously valued Gawker at $250 million, said he’s “pleased” employees will be able to continue to work at Univision “disentangled from the legal campaign against this company.”
August 18, 2016: Univision and Gawker Media announce Gawker.com will shut down after 13 years. Univision says it will continue operating Gawker Media's other six sites, including Jezebel, Gizmodo and Deadspin. In a meeting with Gawker staff, Isaac Lee, Univision's chief digital officer, says the decision not to continue Gawker.com had been made the day a Florida jury awarded former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan more than $140 million in his invasion of privacy lawsuit against Gawker.
November 2, 2016: Gawker agrees to a settlement with Hogan and two other plaintiffs represented by Charles Harder, the Hollywood attorney who has made suing the company his firm's ' bread and butter.' In addition to paying out more than $32 million, Gawker agrees to remove from its archives the stories that spurred the lawsuits. The deal must be approved by a federal bankruptcy judge and the group of unsecured creditors before it is finalized.
December 13, 2016: Gawker's final liquidation plan is approved by a bankruptcy judge, bringing an end to a four-year legal battle with Hulk Hogan. The deal was accepted by former Gawker employees, who received protection from future legal liability. Gawker's estate also agrees to settle with a pair of other plaintiffs who sued over stories about them: Meanith Huon and Mitch Williams.
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d1d511a538eda2d8250424f8c45fe1ec | https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdrange/2016/08/18/former-gawker-editor-lashes-out-at-peter-thiel-calls-freeze-on-his-checking-account-ludicrous/ | Former Gawker Editor Lashes Out At Peter Thiel, Calls Freeze On His Checking Account 'Ludicrous' | Former Gawker Editor Lashes Out At Peter Thiel, Calls Freeze On His Checking Account 'Ludicrous'
Former Gawker editor A.J. Daulerio sits in a Florida courtroom earlier this year during a trial... [+] against Terry Bollea, aka Hulk Hogan, over a story Daulerio wrote that included an excerpt of a sex tape featuring Hogan and his friend's wife. (Photo by John Pendygraft/Getty Images)
By Matt Drange and Ryan Mac
A.J. Daulerio, the ex-Gawker editor who wrote the 2012 story that originally included an excerpt of the Hulk Hogan sex tape he and his employer were successfully sued over, lashed out at Peter Thiel on Thursday. Daulerio questioned the motives of going after his personal assets to satisfy a portion of the $140.1 million judgement in the case.
"It's ludicrous that a billionaire like Peter Thiel is spending his wealth on lawyers to freeze my $1,500 bank account and figure out the value of my rice cooker and old furniture," Daulerio told FORBES in a statement. "If Mr. Thiel really believed in the First Amendment, he would not be funding lawyers to chase my meager assets and instead would try to justify the $115.1 million verdict in front of an appeals court. Instead, he's using his fortune to hold me hostage to settle a decade-long grudge that has nothing to do with me or Hulk Hogan."
As FORBES first revealed in May, Thiel financed Hogan's lawsuit as part of an effort to bring down the media company. Daulerio's comments are his first public statements about case since the jury awarded its verdict in March.
The judgement, awarded to Hogan (real name: Terry Bollea) earlier this year after a Florida jury found that Gawker invaded the former wrestler's privacy, triggered a series of events that culminated today in the approval of Gawker Media's sale to media conglomerate Univision. Daulerio is jointly liable, along with Gawker's parent company and Denton, for $115.1 million of the judgement. Daulerio, however, is the only defendant in the case who hasn't filed for bankruptcy protection. Hogan's lawyers are now going after Daulerio, even though he has told the court he is essentially broke.
In a signed affidavit submitted to the court last week, Daulerio said he had just $1,505.78 in his checking account, all of which has been frozen by Hogan's attorneys. With student loan debt and credit card debt, Daulerio's net worth is negative, according to his affidavit. Daulerio was deposed for hours on Wednesday afternoon about his assets.
Thiel declined to comment through a spokesman. In an op-ed published by the New York Times in advance of Gawker's auction earlier this week, Thiel said that "cruelty and recklessness were intrinsic parts of Gawker’s business model." He condemned the website for blurring the line between an individual's right to privacy and the public interest. "For my part, I am proud to have contributed financial support to his case. I will support him until his final victory — Gawker said it intends to appeal — and I would gladly support someone else in the same position."
Denton announced earlier on Thursday that Gawker's flagship website, Gawker.com, will cease to exist after next week. Denton, who is expected to leave once the sale he negotiated with Univision is completed next month, told staff that he was unable "to find a single media company or investor willing also to take on Gawker.com. The campaign being mounted against its editorial ethos and former writers has made it too risky."
Lawyers for Hogan declined to comment, but are expected to continue pursuing Daulerio in the coming weeks, starting with a review of his bank statements going back four years. Daulerio is living in a short-term apartment in Florida, and hasn't worked since shutting down the startup he founded after leaving Gawker, a website called Ratter.
Daulerio is due back in court on Oct. 31, when he will face possible sanctions from the court for allegedly misrepresenting the value of his limited shares in Gawker Media. Before the company filed for bankruptcy in June, Daulerio and Denton pledged all of their shares as collateral while Gawker's lawyers appeal the verdict in the case. Daulerio doesn't have his own attorney, and Gawker's request to cover the cost of his continued legal defense is currently pending with a federal judge in New York (Hogan's lawyers objected to the request, arguing that it would constitute a conflict of interest).
Gregg Leslie, the legal defense director for the Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press, said the case is exceptional. Leslie's organization represents news outlets around the country, and is unaware of any case where an individual journalist has had to pay the lion's share of a jury verdict. "It’s hard to say whether it’s a particularly vindictive streak on [Hogan's] part, or is the just the normal way they do business, where you win a verdict and go after anything you can," Leslie said. "It certainly starts to look like an act of harassment if you aren’t ever going to recover anything meaningful from the person and you are dragging them through it."
Follow Ryan on Twitter at @RMac18 or email him at rmac@forbes.com. Follow Matt on Twitter at @MattDrange or email him at mdrange@forbes.com.
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157817d1fff4de9109de215488b29e4d | https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdrange/2016/08/23/facebook-responds-to-congressional-inquiry-on-gun-sales/ | Facebook Shoots Down Congressional Inquiry Into Gun Sales | Facebook Shoots Down Congressional Inquiry Into Gun Sales
Gun sales remain common on Facebook, despite the company's ban on private party sales in January.... [+] (Screenshots of gun sales via Facebook.)
A United States Senator released Facebook's response on Tuesday to a slew of questions he sent company officials last month about gun sales initiated through the site. But the two-page response, which was supposed to address what impact, if any, Facebook's ban on gun sales has had, left many questions unanswered.
"While I commend the platforms’ facilitating the reporting of prohibited content related to gun sales by users, I urge Facebook and Instagram to redouble their efforts to develop and deploy technology that can enforce their gun-sales ban without relying so heavily on user reporting," Sen. Edward Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, said in a written statement. "Facebook and Instagram’s ban on private firearms sales should have the teeth it needs to be effective, so that it can truly prevent guns from falling into the hands of those who should not have them."
Markey's inquiry, which he announced on July 13, came on the heels of news reports that the man suspected of shooting and killing five police officers in Dallas last month had purchased an AK-47 rifle from someone he met on Facebook. Subsequent reports, however, indicated that the gun was not used during the shooting spree. On Tuesday, Markey urged Facebook to do more to enforce its strict ban on peer-to-peer gun sales, saying that "it remains too easy for users to solicit and conduct private gun sales through Facebook and Instagram." Facebook instituted a ban on the sale of guns and ammunition through the site earlier this year in an effort to reduce the number of guns sold without a background check.
Among the questions Markey asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom:
Since the ban on gun sales was announced in January, "what was the impact, if any?" "How many Facebook users have attempted to post content in furtherance of a gun sale in an open group, closed group, or on a personal profile page? What percentage of Facebook users is that? How many of those postings were blocked and how many were allowed?" Have Facebook or Instagram "shut down any 'groups' or accounts promoting or facilitating gun sales? If so, how many and when?" Since 2014, "how many requests have Facebook and Instagram received from law enforcement for assistance investigating gun sales, including requests for records?" "What information, if any, does Facebook have about the reports that, in 2014, the Dallas shooter, Micah Johnson, purchased an AK-47 through Facebook?"
In its response, signed by U.S. policy vice president Erin Egan, Facebook said it was "constantly adapting to new developments and strengthening our robust and aggressive internal system to better respond to and remove reported content from Facebook and Instagram that violates our Community Standards." A Facebook spokesman declined to comment for this story. You can read Facebook's full response below.
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Facebook has struggled to enforce its ban on gun sales since introducing the new policy in January, relying entirely on user reports to flag suspected violations. As FORBES first reported in March, sales continue, with thousands of private groups functioning as online flea markets dedicated to buying, selling and trading guns and ammunition. In response to the ban, many gun groups on Facebook went from "private" to "secret," an unlisted setting that makes it impossible for outsiders--including those who have taken it upon themselves to report gun sales to Facebook--to find them. Some groups made the change after being shut down and subsequently reinstated in the weeks following the announcement of the ban, with many crediting their second chance to Facebook engineer Chuck Rossi. Rossi organized a secret group, which FORBES gained access to, in an effort to bring banned pages into compliance and back online. Rossi, who says he acted on his own, told members of the group in February, "I know this new policy sucks. I personally don’t agree with it and everyone in Facebook is pissed about how it was rolled out."
Since FORBES revealed the shortcoming's in Facebook's enforcement of its ban, many media outlets have followed suit. In July, a Facebook representative told Mashable "We do have content up on Facebook that violates most of our policies at any given point. It's not unique, in that perspective, that this relates to our gun policies." Shortly afterward, the New York Times published a story with the headline "Facebook Banned Gun Sales. So Why Is It Still ‘Full of Them?'" And just two weeks ago, BuzzFeed demonstrated how easy it is to complete a gun sale initiated through Facebook.
In Facebook's response to Markey, dated July 27, the company offered to meet with the senator to "address any additional questions." It's unclear why Markey's office did not release the response until now; in similar situations, Facebook officials have left it up to lawmakers and government agencies to publicly announce the result of inquiries. A spokeswoman for Markey did not respond to numerous requests for comment for this story.
Read more about Facebook's ban on gun sales:
Selling Guns On Facebook A Problem Even Facebook Can't Solve
Inside The Secret Group For Gun Owners Banned From Facebook
5 Reasons Why Facebook's Ban On Gun Sales Isn't Working
Gallery: Guns For Sale On Facebook 13 images View gallery
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8459a22cfa1fe846076647ebad4fdeb0 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdrange/2017/03/02/a-basic-design-feature-makes-it-easy-to-create-fake-advertisements-on-facebook/?utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=partner&utm_campaign=yahootix&partner=yahootix&yptr=yahoo | In Fake News Era, Facebook Still Struggling With Bogus Ads | In Fake News Era, Facebook Still Struggling With Bogus Ads
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at the company's annual developer conference in San Francisco... [+] last year. (Photo by Eric Risberg / Associated Press)
As Facebook continues to deal with the public backlash over its role in distributing fake and hyperpartisan news, the site remains vulnerable to another potentially dangerous, but much less publicized, risk: fake advertisements.
Facebook ads purporting to direct users to a website but, when clicked on, go somewhere else entirely are easy to set up. In some cases these ads are approved in minutes. The bait-and-switch approach, sometimes called “domain spoofing” or “clickjacking,” involves displaying a URL that users would be likely to recognize and trust, but sending those who click on the ad to an unrelated page. It poses a risk for users who unknowingly click on an advertisement and end up on a potentially malicious website. In some cases the landing pages serve as vehicles to distribute malware, often disguised by what appear to be legitimate brands or media outlets, littered with ads for supplements and other products. In theory, the technique isn’t difficult to detect. But a basic design feature of Facebook’s advertising system--the option to manually enter the URL displayed in the ad--makes the reality tricky to enforce.
Canadian hacker Justin Seitz first identified the problem last summer, when he authored a Medium post outlining how easy it was for him to set up his own fake ad campaign after he was fooled into clicking on one himself. Seitz was recently dismayed when, in a demonstration shared with Forbes, he discovered that not much had changed since then. It took Seitz less than 15 minutes to get an ad featuring a bogus display URL approved and up on Facebook.
Using his own company, an online organizing tool aimed at journalists at private investigators called Hunchly, Seitz quickly clicked through to his advertising dashboard. Borrowing text from a previous ad and directing it to his website, "www.hunch.ly," Seitz changed the display URL at the bottom of the ad to read "CNN.com." Above it, he typed “Hunchly is the best investigations software ever," a tongue-in-cheek attempt to see how far he could push the boundaries of phony advertising. “It’s like my 10-year-old wrote it," he said with a laugh.
An example of an advertisement with a fake display URL, in this case "CNN.com" The ad violates... [+] Facebook's ad policies, but was approved in minutes.
After setting a daily budget for his campaign and targeting adults living in the United States, Seitz submitted the ad for approval. Less than 13 minutes later, he received a notification informing him that his ad was approved. Seitz then toggled over to his user dashboard, and watched as the impressions started to rack up. “I wouldn’t even attempt this with Google,” Seitz said, echoing what he wrote in 2016: “If you tried this in Google AdWords, you would be laughed right out of your account.”
Preventing advertisers from being able to change the display URL is "low-hanging fruit" that Facebook isn't addressing when it comes to policing fraudulent advertisers, Seitz said. "It’s the bare minimum to protect your users from going to malicious sites."
While the demonstration is limited in scope, Seitz has come across numerous examples of fake ad campaigns that appear to have been active for months, driving traffic to questionable websites such as "dftrack6.com", "evolutiotv.com" and "vicinitieser.com"--all claiming to direct users to established, reputable publications.
A Facebook spokesman acknowledged that advertisers had been caught doing what Seitz demonstrated, and that some have been blocked as a result. Facebook’s review process is largely automated, with human review only in instances where a red flag is been raised by the site’s filtering system or by user reports.
“Spoofing domains with the intent to mislead by mismatching the preview domain and the destination domain is a violation of our ad policy. Our goal is to prevent any misleading ad from appearing on Facebook, and we use both human and automated methods to flag these ads before they go live,” the spokesman said in a written statement to Forbes. “Occasionally, policy-violating ads get through, and we use signals from our community such as user feedback to identify and quickly remove them. For the worst offenders, we will take additional steps such as blocking the entire advertising account and any connected accounts.”
While Seitz faced little resistance when setting up his bogus ad campaign, he ran into trouble when he tried to more narrowly target it. A couple days after demonstrating how easy it was to exploit Facebook's URL loophole, Seitz got an automated message informing him that his ad had been removed. The reason? His display URL didn't match the landing page. Facebook eventually caught Seitz, but the hacker stressed that the time between his ad being approved and removed was more than enough to cause damage unbeknownst to an average user.
***
Facebook is a behemoth in online advertising, and its presence is still growing. In its most recent quarterly financial results, Facebook reported ad revenue of $8.6 billion, up more than 50 percent. But as digital ad revenue projections grow, the lion's share will be claimed by one of just two companies: Facebook or Google. Combined, the pair accounted for as much as 90 percent of total online ad revenue growth last year, according to one estimate.
Despite this shared dominance, in some ways Facebook lags behind Google’s AdWords platform, which powers the advertisements in online search results. Industry experts interviewed for this story called Google’s system the “gold standard” when it comes to weeding out bad actors, citing the platform’s edge in experience over Facebook (Google started AdWords in 2000, four years before Facebook was launched) and more proactive enforcement.
A Google spokeswoman confirmed that “any modifications to the ad text,” including the display URL, triggers an automatic human review. Google does not track how many ads are removed specifically for domain issues, the spokeswoman said, pointing to the company’s annual report which contains aggregate figures. In its most recent report, Google said it had removed 1.7 billion ads in 2016, more than double the previous year.
The extent of fake ads on Facebook is unclear. Seitz has identified numerous examples of bogus display domains in his own research, but Forbes was unable to independently verify this. A Facebook spokesman declined to disclose how often ads are removed for violating the company’s policies, or say whether the company tracked even this information.
Regardless of the scope, advertising that misleads users “is a problem,” said Ginny Marvin, a reporter at the website Search Engine Land who has written extensively about online ads. Marvin said Facebook’s policy of allowing advertisers to change their display URLs is baffling. “The fact they aren’t thinking about that is crazy," she said. "That’s either a willful misstep, or a learning curve issue."
Facebook spokesman Tom Channick defended the URL editing option, and said the “use of this feature is not always misleading or malicious.” Channick gave an example of a nonprofit organization running a donation campaign through a third-party site and linking to it directly from a Facebook ad. In this scenario, the company “may want the preview URL to be their own homepage,” Channick said. “This is not always an unexpected or misleading experience for a user.”
Seitz disagreed, and argued that allowing differences in the display URL and landing page “is a terrible idea." In the hypothetical case of the fundraising nonprofit, Seitz said the organization could easily set up a landing page on their own website that directs users to donate. “Regardless of who is running the ad with a different preview domain, it is always misleading for the user if the displayed domain is different than where they landed,” he said. “No matter how good the intentions of the advertiser are, it is still misleading and is bad advertising platform practice.”
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7949ea195a5c276e788550141e659f9b | https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdrange/2017/05/11/judge-refers-waymos-uber-lawsuit-to-justice-department-grants-partial-injunction-in-case/ | Waymo V. Uber Suit Could Become Criminal Case Following Judge's Referral To Justice Department | Waymo V. Uber Suit Could Become Criminal Case Following Judge's Referral To Justice Department
Uber engineer Anthony Levandowski speaks in Pittsburgh in September, 2016. Levandowski is at the... [+] center of a landmark lawsuit brought by a subsidiary of his former employer, Google, against his current employer. (Photo by ANGELO MERENDINO/AFP/Getty Images)
By Alan Ohnsman and Matt Drange
The high-stakes legal battle between Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo and Uber over the alleged theft of Google trade secrets took a stunning turn Thursday, when the judge overseeing the case referred it to federal prosecutors to determine if criminal charges are warranted.
U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup also denied Uber’s request to have the case resolved in private arbitration. Both decisions are major blows to Uber in its ongoing legal battles with Waymo, and they come just days after revelations that Uber is under a separate Justice Department investigation.
Judge Alsup also granted "in part" Waymo's request for a temporary injunction that could halt the development of portions Uber's self-driving car program. But his decision on the injunction request was filed under seal, so its full extent is unknown.
For Uber, the most damaging part of the judge's actions may well be his referral of the case to prosecutors.
“This case is referred to the United States Attorney for investigation of possible theft of trade secrets based on the evidentiary record supplied thus far concerning plaintiff Waymo LLC’s claims for trade secret misappropriation,” Alsup said in a brief order posted late Thursday.
Alsup did not take a position on whether criminal charges were warranted. At a hearing in the case last week, however, he made clear that he believes Waymo has a strong case against Anthony Levandowski, the former star engineer at Google’s self-driving car project at the center of the alleged tech theft. Waymo’s suit claimed that Levandowski downloaded 14,000 technical documents from an internal Google server, transferring more than 9 gigabytes of data onto a personal drive, six weeks before he resigned from company. “It’s overwhelmingly clear that the downloads occurred,” Alsup told Waymo’s attorneys at a May 3 hearing. “You have one of the strongest records I’ve seen in a long time of anyone doing something that’s bad. Good for you.”
An Uber spokeswoman said the company had no comment on Alsup’s referral of the case to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Last week, news broke that the Justice Department had opened a separate investigation into Uber’s use of a software tool code-named “Greyball” that helped its drivers avoid detection from local transportation authorities in cities where use of such a device was illegal.
Alsup’s recommendation in the Uber case appears to take into account a newly enacted U.S. law that specifically protects trade secrets, the “Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016.” That law was created to federalize trade secret protection for the first time.
Alsup's decision on Waymo’s request for a temporary injunction, meanwhile, was filed Thursday under seal. It’s unclear when the decision will be made public. The court only described the decision as “granting in part and denying in part” Waymo’s motion for an injunction halting Uber’s R&D efforts in this fast-developing, highly competitive autonomous car market until the case is over.
An Uber spokeswoman declined to comment on any potential injunction decision.
Regardless of the scope of the injunction, the case will move forward toward a public trial. Uber had argued that arbitration was the best way to resolve the matter since Waymo’s claims centered on alleged actions taken by Levandowski, and disputes arising from Levandowski's employment at Waymo were supposed to be arbitrated. Levandowski left to start his own automated vehicle company, Otto, in early 2016. Otto was acquired by Uber a few months later.
Alsup said Thursday that Waymo’s lawsuit should proceed to trial since it was filed against Uber and Otto, and didn’t name Levandowki as a defendant. What’s more, Alsup said, Waymo already has begun arbitration proceedings against Levandowski.
“Waymo has honored its obligation to arbitrate against Levandowski by arbitrating its claims (concerning employee poaching) against Levandowski,” Alsup said. “Its decision to bring separate claims against defendants in court was not only reasonable but also the only course available, since Waymo had no arbitration agreement with defendants.”
The legal battle, which lawyers had been quietly building since early last year, became public in February, when Waymo filed suit detailing how in late 2015 Levandowski, who was then a senior member of Google’s self-driving car project, downloaded more than 14,000 documents, including thousands related to a Google-designed laser LiDAR sensor, from an internal server and transferred the data to a personal drive. The actions occurred about six weeks before he resigned from to found Otto, which Uber bought in August 2016 for a reported $680 million.
Waymo believed that Uber was developing a LiDAR sensor circuit identical to Google’s own, when it was inadvertently included on an email from an Uber parts supplier.
Along with the massive payment made for Otto, which was developing technology for driverless semi trucks, Levandowski became the head of Uber’s self-driving vehicle program. He was recently demoted from that role as a result of the litigation.
Waymo, meanwhile, is seeking an injunction to temporarily halt Uber’s R&D efforts into the highly competitive and potentially very lucrative world of autonomous car technology. It’s not clear when Alsup’s decision on Waymo’s request to grant a temporary injunction -- a potential major blow to Uber’s driverless car work -- will be made public. A Waymo spokesman praised Alsup’s decision to keep the case in public court late Thursday.
“This was a desperate bid by Uber to avoid the court’s jurisdiction,” spokesman Johnny Luu said in a written statement. “We welcome the court’s decision today, and we look forward to holding Uber responsible in court for its misconduct.”
Given that Levandowski wasn’t included among the defendants in the case, Uber’s argument in favor of arbitration was always “a longshot,” said attorney Courtland Reichman, who works on intellectual property cases in Silicon Valley for McKool Smith. “Uber has been pushing the arbitration argument so hard because they seem to be really concerned about the public relations implications of all this.”
Read Judge Alsup's order denying Uber's request to send the case to arbitration here:
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2feca896b5faff57cc5e86623551fddc | https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattgardner1/2019/10/01/review-what-the-golf-might-be-the-funniest-game-of-the-year/ | Review: ‘What The Golf?’ Might Be The Funniest Game Of The Year | Review: ‘What The Golf?’ Might Be The Funniest Game Of The Year
For what it's worth, this is a surprisingly tame level of 'What the Golf?'. Triband
You only need a couple of minutes of What the Golf? to get completely sucked in. What initially seems to be a silly interpretation of classic videogame mini-golf soon unravels into a full-blown fever dream, but it’s one you’ll be unwilling to wake up from.
What the Golf? comes to PC today (October 1) courtesy of the Epic Games Store, following a brief stint of Apple Arcade exclusivity; a Nintendo Switch port is to follow sometime this winter. Its Danish creators Triband proudly “know nothing about golf,” creating this as a “golf game for people who hate golf.”
This openly cynical, humor-loaded approach isn’t the first of its kind; BAFTA-award-winning dev Dan Marshall’s similar approach to soccer, Behold the Kickmen, went viral three years ago with the same jokey set-up but sadly, his effort wasn’t best received.
Luckily, What the Golf? is far beyond a one-note joke: it’s a polished, hilarious, enthralling and highly addictive game.
How it works
When you first load it up, What the Golf? forgoes a menu and dumps you straight into a bluntly basic first level: a simple ball on a simple green. It’s predictable enough: you click-drag your mouse in the required direction and let go to putt the ball, which hits the flag and takes you onto the next stage.
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Next up, cartoonish cats sit on the green surrounded by fishbones, partially blocking your shot. It’s weird, but whatever; you make the shot with ease and move on. Then, you’re a man ready to drive the ball. You pull back and your character swings his club back. You let go and the ball remains unmoved; the man himself is catapulted down the fairway.
You’ve not put too much power into your swing; the hole doesn’t reset as if you’ve made an error. Instead, the man is the ball. On the next stage, it’s a golf club, and before long you’re flipping a house towards the flag. Soon after, the credits roll and you find yourself in the heart of the campaign.
Your tutorial is over, with one key takeaway: you can’t bet on anything except a keen sense of humor, which underpins the entire experience.
A story-light jaunt
Capturing the essence of What the Golf? isn’t easy, but there are a definite comparison to an improbable combination of the Katamari series and Portal: a colorful, hilarious veneer with happy-go-lucky characters and a charming art style, which overlays a deep-space “laboratory” setting that feels like it’s masking a deeper, darker reality.
Marking your progress is a friendly-looking computer–a less complex, flatscreen GLaDOS–that requires “tests” to be completed for you to move forward, before periodically challenging you to a minigame “boss” battle of sorts. Once you’re done with these, the screen explodes to reveal the next set of levels, with portals connecting you between What the Golf?’s ten sets of stages.
The map-style menu for 'What the Golf?' is just as varied and wacky as the levels themselves. Triband
The game’s world makes little sense, but you won’t care. By establishing itself early as an anarchic take on a heavily populated genre, What the Golf? focuses on entertainment which, despite its anti-golf MO, is universally accessible and enjoyable.
A rebellious exercise in developing gameplay
While golf game tropes and mechanics are the initial backbone of What the Golf?, these are dispensed with in minutes. The game doesn’t demand you to play with a remarkable amount of skill, or to reach the end of a stage in a certain number of “strokes”–it’s just taking you along for an enjoyable ride.
In its early stages, the game jumps between a variety of styles, jokes, and self-aware, pun-heavy ideas. The “Holesome Joke” level, for example, literally has you firing a hole into a 1-shaped chasm to get your “hole in one.” But all the while, the game steadily and carefully curates its world, helping you understand how it works but constantly reminding you that things can, and most definitely will, change at any moment.
'What the Golf?' is filled with its own characters, objects and motifs, but they're never ... [+] predictable. Triband
There’s a real expectation that What the Golf? will eventually stop being funny or engaging, or that it’ll run out of fresh ideas, but it continually ups the ante. Sometimes it’ll make an outright reference to another game (e.g. Flappy Bird and Super Mario), while elsewhere it takes on a WarioWare-esque mantle, where you do something completely non sequitur. But it’s never boring.
Once you think you’ve got the hang of things, What the Golf? introduces a crowned flag mechanic, stepping things up a gear. A bird on a plinth tells you to collect “five crowned flags” to move on; these are a secondary currency gleaned from revisiting levels, completing two further, related challenges at each one.
From here, every hole is split into three sections:
The initial level, showcasing a new idea, mechanic or pun; A challenge, which is either a mystery or par-based; and The crowned flag challenge, which is when What the Golf?'s ridiculousness–but not necessarily its difficulty–goes above and beyond.
It’s here the game really comes into its element. These levels can be tough but, if you fail, they’re mercifully quick to restart, encouraging you to try again. What’s more, these challenges are where the Triband team gleefully descend into madness, with early examples including:
“Beat the sheep,” where you must navigate an office chair to the flag quicker than what appears to be a gas-powered lamb; “Clear the trees”, where you use rocket-powered TVs to rid the landscape of firs to make it “SPACIOUS;” “Revenge ball,” where you get payback on several annoying, football-kicking kids by committing multiple presumed child homicides with an exploding black orb; “Become the king of the cloth,” in which you, a sheep, must defeat other sheep for the sole place on a simple red rug; “Ruin the hotdog party.” where you use a swing to fire cows, sheep and dogs at hotdog stands to result in the “WURST PARTY EVER.”
And if you think these are at the wildest end of the scale, you'd be wrong. But where's the fun in spoiling surprises?
It’s not entirely perfect
One thing that’s clear about What the Golf? is that it’s clearly better suited to smartphones. While far from unplayable on PC, certain levels–particularly those with the soccer ball or other items that require quick, repeated guidance–are better suited to the innate accuracy of finger gestures. Luckily, I’m in the minority by having a touchscreen laptop, which immeasurably helped on specific levels.
The soccer levels can be particularly frustrating when using a mouse. Triband
Gameplay-wise, clipping can be an issue: a seemingly fine shot can disappear through the scenery, or not react to an element in the way you expect it to. Luckily, the quick-to-restart nature of the levels means it isn’t the worst problem in the world.
The only time the game gets a bit boring is in the menu. While fun and reflective of What the Golf?’s oddball world, with secrets galore hidden throughout the map, it can be a chore to navigate and regularly slows the pace of the experience, especially if you’re looking to revisit one specific level.
Finally, while it may have been a pre-release issue or a fault with the Epic Games Store–something I’d not used until playing What the Golf?–there were two, post-update instances of the game starting afresh and losing my save file, only to rediscover it on a subsequent playthrough. It’s nothing to start a petition about, but something to bear in mind if you find your hard work’s seemingly gone to waste.
Infectiously fun
The most striking thing about What the Golf? is the clear love that’s been put into it. The Triband team clearly enjoyed making the game and they’ve clearly carried this enthusiasm across with a seamless, enjoyable and hilarious game. Even in the soundtrack, which is also a hoot, it really sounds like everyone singing is barely stifling laughter.
Like those moments in a TV show when an actor breaks character and starts corpsing, you identify and join in with the laughter that so obviously powered the development of What’s the Golf?; it’s infectious in the best possible way.
All in all, it’s hard to fault Triband’s release. Even if the novelty wears off after a while, you’ll soon no longer resist the temptation to revisit it. One thing’s for sure: there’s only three months left for another game to steal its crown for funniest game of 2019.
Disclaimer: I was provided with a review copy of What the Golf? in exchange for a fair and honest review.
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c5bc4baa6bbc7f5d3570b64c87acc8d5 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattgardner1/2019/11/01/review-call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2019-is-the-finest-single-player-fps-experience-in-years/?sh=3f98483ad090 | Review: ‘Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare’ (2019) Is The Finest Single-Player FPS Experience In Years | Review: ‘Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare’ (2019) Is The Finest Single-Player FPS Experience In Years
'Modern Warfare' provides the series' greatest single-player campaign. Infinity Ward
One week since its release, and after much reflection, it’s safe to say that 2019’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is the best single-player campaign experience in the history of the series. I’d go so far to say that it’s even more than that: with the possible exception of Titanfall 2, it’s hard to think of an FPS from the last five or ten years that could hold a candle to it.
I make this incredibly grandiose statement with the greatest of respects to both the Call of Duty games since the original Modern Warfare back in 2007, as well as the dozens of excellent first-person shooters released during that time. But I really don’t make this claim lightly.
After years of fans and onlookers complaining about Call of Duty’s stale campaign formula and, most recently, the actual lack of a single-player campaign (thanks, Black Ops 4), Infinity Ward–with the help of High Moon, Beenox, Raven and Sledgehammer–is back to prove a point.
What Modern Warfare delivers is not just the game that both the series and 2019 deserves, but it also provides the new benchmark for the genre.
Often, you forget you're actively playing, and not watching, the game. Infinity Ward
If you’re yet to play it, don’t worry: this round-up will be spoiler free.
It’s not just beautiful–it’s consistently cinematic
Within seconds of playing Modern Warfare, you come to realize that every shot is worthy of the silver screen. From the more relaxed strolls right through to the most frenzied compound assaults, you’ll regularly find yourself watching in awe rather than playing, whether it’s gawping at a simple fire or getting distracted by the rising haze from a freshly fired bullet as you’re lining up your next target through the scope.
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It’s beautiful to the point that in pre-mission build-ups, you’re surprised to see names hovering over other characters because no, it’s not an FMV: it’s the in-game graphics at work and the mechanics are live. There’s no quick crossfade to bring the quality down before you go weapons free; what you see is what you get.
Sometimes, you just stand back and take the landscape in. Infinity Ward
This is further underlined by the HUD, which actively drops off the screen after a short time if you’re not actively using your weapon. It’s the best decision the developers made; it removes yet another barrier of fiction between you and the Modern Warfare experience.
It’s all done so well that it made me change something which, for me, is an audio-visual crutch. For years, I’ve played nearly every game with subtitles because I never want to miss a thing. Within the first ten minutes of Modern Warfare, I switched them off. While they’re obviously incredibly important from an inclusivity perspective, they nonetheless detract from the impact of the art direction. Nothing demonstrated this quite as much as “[CROWD SCREAMING]” when an incredibly framed suicide bomber steps out into Piccadilly Circus in the game’s opening scenes.
Subtitles in Modern Warfare may be best avoided if you don't rely on them. Infinity Ward
Now, that’s not to say the game always looks perfect; the uncanny valley is often in effect, specifically in intermissions and Captain Price, Modern Warfare’s link to the past. Other character models, like newcomer and all-round great addition SAS Sergeant Kyle Garrick, look true to life. Depending on the lighting and dialogue, characters can look a little odd–but it’s still the most realistic-looking FPS going.
Gameplay is frantic, realistic and wonderfully varied
The core mechanics of Modern Warfare are nigh-on perfect. Shooting feels weighted and impactful; running feels like a physical chore; levels never seem restrictive, linear or forced. New mechanics are introduced which, although often being part and parcel of rival games for years (such as wind and distance-affected bullet mechanics), are done well and never feel crowbarred in.
During battle, there really is a gravity to everything to see, do and feel. Trees splinter after being caught up in explosions; bodies falter and fall as you’d expect them to; watchtowers burn and collapse exactly how you’d predict.
Over the course of the game, you’re also treated to a variety of gameplay styles:
That classic FPS action switching between gung-ho fighting and stealth elements; Out-of-body, remote-controlled experiences; Tactical point-and-click drone action; A very specific but surprisingly enjoyable camera-based stealth section; and Regular opportunities to adjust your combat style with prior planning.
DIY drone strikes are an interesting addition to 'Modern Warfare'. Infinity Ward
On a side note, it’s also worth pointing out that you feel about two feet taller in Modern Warfare than any other FPS. Not falsely, though; it just seems like the proportions and distance from the ground are truer to life, and switching between standing, crouching and prone is more accurate than ever. No more eyes-resting-on-the-floor sniper antics here.
The fog of war is real
The first mission in the game is called Fog of War, which undoubtedly refers to the toxic gas that underpins the storyline. However, the incredible visuals, combined with the all-new gameplay, make for an actual fog of war experience to the extent you may find yourself running into a corner of a room or courtyard just to collect your thoughts. Indeed, the loading screen occasionally recommends you to leg it if things get too hot.
I’m a fan of enjoying the story on Regular or Hardened mode and then revisiting on Veteran, but never, in a Call of Duty game, have I struggled so much with an entry-level difficulty as during Modern Warfare. It’s all because of the way it captures the true-to-life chaos you’d expect from a real battle, as opposed to your standard videogame shootout.
'Modern Warfare' regularly combines time-honored combat with new, exciting dynamics. Infinity Ward
Bullets fly from all directions. The dynamic lighting ensures that enemies in pitch-black areas really can’t be seen at all. Gunshots don’t make cartoonish trails, voices aren’t made to sound like they’re obviously coming from a specific place, and the AI feels like it’s living and breathing with its tactical movements.
This unpredictable adaptability of the AI is true to such a degree that if you fail, die and reload from a checkpoint, you might see the imminently inbound enemy that killed you taking a different path or strategy, or somehow getting killed by an ally before they reach you. It’s not random, either; it’s reactionary. As a result, you can’t predict the state of play half a second after you restart, even after many deaths.
While watching me fight through the streets of London, my partner asked: “Which ones do you shoot?” She hit the nail on the head, because it’s the first time in a Call of Duty game where it’s just not obvious. From a distance, people may be terrorists, SAS, armed police or even civilians. For the first time in the franchise’s history, the campaign mode portrays what feels like a living, breathing world. That can be a bad thing, too, but in the best possible way for the storyline.
Helplessness is a constant, heavy undercurrent
It might be something to do with the graphics, or a wider symptom of modern world we find ourselves in, but Modern Warfare hammers you with a genuine feeling of vulnerability that cuts through you like a knife, something compounded by that fog of war effect. Once again, Piccadilly Circus provides the first real example of this.
The opening in-game scenes of 'Modern Warfare' are a sight to behold. Infinity Ward
While we’ve had No Russian in Modern Warfare 2, or the London dirty bomb of Modern Warfare 3, these feel tame and simplistic compared to the horrific themes and experiences of 2019 Modern Warfare, which lays it on thick in the most realistic manner from minute one. Standing in an open square while active shooters, exploding cars and suicide bombers come from all directions makes you feel like a victim, not a soldier.
Prior to this, Modern Warfare introduces foreboding, slow-building dread immediately, with a Scandi-noir-style intro that cuts from true, terroristic horror in the heart of London to a silent title card, before dumping you thousands of miles away at a previous time. It immediately sets the tone for what is, quite frankly, the grown-up experience the franchise has been crying out for.
Before you know it, you’re back in London, helplessly watching a clearly terrorist-filled Ford Transit rock up to one of the most heavily populated areas of the city, knowing exactly what’s going to happen. From here most of the time you find yourself overwhelmed, feeling ultimately human: a cog in a war machine.
The inimitable Piccadilly is the scene of the game's powerful introduction. Infinity Ward
Throughout Modern Warfare, you're reminded that you can’t save everyone. You might find yourself reloading a checkpoint to rescue that woman, or simply having another bash at killing more terrorists after dying, but you’ll see innocents slaughtered regularly for no good reason, just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And it always feels horrible, digging into both time-honored fears of death and modern worries about terrorism.
But it never feels over the top or sensationalist, like No Russian does in retrospective comparison. Occasionally, Modern Warfare does come across as a bit lazy with its portrayal of some enemies, specifically the Russians–the first enemy in level Hometown is a good example of this, without giving too much away–but everything has an ultimate purpose to further the game’s gripping narrative.
The story, and its players, are genuinely brilliant
While speaking too much about it will give the game away if you’re yet to play it, you won’t ever feel let down by Modern Warfare’s storyline. While it’s reached a new, mature level to match the franchise’s latest direction, it still manages draw from the formula that made it so enjoyable in the first place. You’ll still get plenty of those narrative twists, moral gray areas and several examples of WTFery which keep the suspense high and your predictions inaccurate.
The game's four core protagonists are well balanced and superbly acted. Infinity Ward
At the same time, the cartoonish enemies–and performances–that often typified Call of Duty games are gone. The original Modern Warfare’s Imran Zakhaev–the one-armed bandit who bizarrely looked and acted like an even hammier version of Bitores Mendez from Resident Evil 4–is replaced with the seemingly selfless Omar Sulaman, who never feels like a “proper” bad guy.
Then there’s Price, looking like a refined Thoros of Myr from Game of Thrones, who shuns the bulletproof, burly Brit schtick for a much more rounded, measured and balanced personality. Farah, Hadir, Alex and Kyle never act stereotypically or predictably; each one feels real, maintaining proper relationships that aren’t sensationalized for a stupid undercurrent plot, like a two-day battlefield romance.
Even the foreboding Nikolai, apparently portrayed in this game by a more dapper-looking Eugene from AMC’s The Walking Dead (though it's actually Stefan Kapičić, Colossus from Deadpool), is a question mark factory of a man. Presuming–hoping–there’s a sequel, we’ll only see him flourish into something different entirely.
Nikolai's morally gray appearances set the character up for an exciting future. Infinity Ward
Night vision is where it’s at
While this could have been mentioned during the earlier fawning over the graphics, the night-vision mode is worthy of its own salute. Perhaps this is borne out of luck. Given that genuine night vision is restricted by technology, real-life footage we see of it on TV or online is in lower definition. As such, Modern Warfare seems to benefit from a “meeting in the middle” situation: where the game falls slightly short in graphical fidelity, it more than surpasses expectations of what we’re used to seeing in monochromatic green.
The fact the night-vision-heavy missions (specifically Clean House and Going Dark) are an utter delight to play only makes the experience all the better, but you’ll never see a game more true to life than the moment in Modern Warfare where you’re silently climbing the stairs of a London townhouse. It’s the first time in years that I’ve literally rubbed my eyes in amazement at how realistic a game looks.
The night vision mode in 'Modern Warfare' looks true to life. Infinity Ward
It’s very clear Modern Warfare is geared to campaign
While I’ve never been a big fan of Call of Duty multiplayer modes (save for local co-op on Zombies or MW2’s phenomenal Spec Ops mode), it’s often felt like the MP element has somewhat shifted dev attention away from the campaign . Modern Warfare, from the very beginning, is clearly story first.
Little changes make sure you enjoy it, too. Gone is the interminable intel collectables model, which only seemed to exist to make you run around the whole map instead of making you simply appreciate your surroundings. Meanwhile, the achievements list–at least on Xbox One–is entirely campaign related, with great in-level challenges that give you alternative and often challenging ways to approach each stage.
Throughout its eight-hour playthrough, 'Modern Warfare' always keeps you on the edge of your seat. Infinity Ward
But for all its progression, Modern Warfare’s campaign doesn’t dismiss its roots, or try to rewrite history. The remastered version of the series’ former genre-defining release is only two years old, but this is a separate entity entirely. Even if Captain Price’s familiar face ties the two experiences together, 2019 Modern Warfare is a totally different beast and as such, the two can (and should) be enjoyed in isolation.
Luckily, though, it’s 2019 Modern Warfare that will shape the future of the franchise. After playing it, you’ll be desperate to see what comes next.
Disclaimer: I was provided with a review copy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare in exchange for a fair and honest review.
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e0c33a7281cbcb9514d39bf8c0a92550 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattgardner1/2020/04/06/british-video-games-combat-coronavirus-by-adding-stay-at-home-adverts/ | How British Developers Are Sending The ‘Stay At Home’ Coronavirus Message To Gamers | How British Developers Are Sending The ‘Stay At Home’ Coronavirus Message To Gamers
'DiRT Rally 2.0' is among the games rolling out coronavirus advice. Codemasters
A trio of U.K. developers has committed to combating COVID-19 by adding in-game adverts that provide coronavirus safety advice, in line with wider government messaging.
The move is being made by Rebellion, Codemasters and Activision-Blizzard’s freemium mobile game specialist King, and will see games such as Sniper Elite 4, DiRT Rally 2.0, Candy Crush Saga and Farm Heroes Saga kicking off the campaign by promoting the “Stay home. Save lives.” slogan that has come to dominate TV, radio, news and even billboards across Britain in recent weeks.
Despite the fact that Dirt Rally 2.0 is over one year old, Codemasters’ decision to add the adverts to its fantastic rally sim will coincide with the game’s inclusion on Sony's PlayStation Plus from tomorrow (April 7). The game has been an established part of Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass since last September, and with more people exploring their gaming options than usual, it’s likely to make an impact there, too.
Explaining the decision, vice president of business development at Codemasters Toby Evan-Jones said: “[W]e came to realize that technology within our games, which enables the remote updating of banners within the virtual environment, could be repurposed to assist with the coronavirus communication effort.” The company collaborated with in-game advertising platform Bidstack, which Codemasters will partner with in an upcoming game in 2020.
'Candy Crush Saga' is among the games taking part in the COVID-19 advertizing. ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Meanwhile, King, the firm responsible for millions of casual gaming addicts, is replacing existing ads with COVID-19 messaging. On top of this, the company has announced it will be donating 230 slots booked across digital advertising screens, which will also be used to give coronavirus-related advice and information.
British culture secretary Oliver Dowden said of the news: “It is absolutely vital that we all follow the simple government advice to stay at home, protect the NHS [National Health Service] and save lives. I’m delighted to see the U.K.’s brilliant video games industry stepping up to strongly reinforce this message to gamers across the U.K.”
While the news has been positively received across social media, that hasn’t stopped some users on Twitter complaining that gaming provides respite from the current news, and that adverts such as these only undermine these moments of escapism. However, given the global death toll is already closing in on 70,000 at the time of writing, every little helps.
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164ac05ab756fa80a195d59c344c4aa4 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattgardner1/2020/10/01/review-art-of-rally-is-a-beautiful-love-letter-to-classic-racing/?sh=8707df962f36 | Review: ‘Art Of Rally’ Is A Beautiful Love Letter To Classic Racing | Review: ‘Art Of Rally’ Is A Beautiful Love Letter To Classic Racing
'Art of Rally' is available now on PC via Steam. Funselektor Labs
2020 is an unmitigated tire fire, and any opportunity to flee its asphyxiating grasp is a small mercy. In the future–if that concept becomes reality–we may look back on these 12 months as the “Year of Escapism”. Some of us decorated our homes. Others baked bread. Many hosted massive Zoom calls for a few weeks, until realizing they were often more dispiriting than avoiding them altogether.
Meanwhile, a very lucky group of people will look back on that time they absconded from the reality of 2020 by playing Art of Rally. It’s the very definition of an escapist’s dream.
It’s rare that a game’s title so succinctly captures its essence, but Art of Rally ticks every box. While it’s a perfectly capable rally racer, it goes so much further by delivering a unique, fun and absolutely stunning sojourn through the history of a racing championship that’s as colorful as its hazy, pastel palette.
Art of Rally makes all feelings of anxiety, sadness, or anger disappear in a matter of moments, even if you’re plowing your Audi Quattro into a Japanese cherry blossom, or rolling your Ford S200 over an Italian cliff. But then again, it’s hard not to adore a game when its developers’ passion and heart are so obvious.
Canadian developer Funselektor Labs combines a clear love of rally racing with meticulous research, a simple vision, and a top-down camera that’s idiosyncratic for its sub-genre. While you may initially expect the pick-up-and-playability of similar-looking titles like Mashed or Funselektor’s own Absolute Drift: Zen Edition, Art of Rally offers a surprisingly challenging experience that’s closer to simulation racers than you might initially think.
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Under the hood of this game is a devilishly challenging experience, which stays true to both its source material and the racing genre. While it may not be a simulation in the classic sense, it’s no arcade racer; you have to have your wits about you if you’re going to get to grips with its mechanics, which change in line with the cars’ year-by-year evolutions.
Every stage truly does feel like art. Funselektor Labs
The game follows rally history from 1967 to 1996, giving you access to one season for each year, encompassing everything from the Monte Carlo-winning Morris Mini Cooper S through to Colin McRae’s immortal Subaru Impreza WRX–with all those delightful Group B behemoths in between.
Not that any of these are licensed; while names like “Il Gorillona” (Lancia Delta HF Integrale) and “La Montaine” (Renault Alpine) are just as arty as the game, the cars’ designs and descriptions are enough to portray the majesty of genuine, historic machines, which go on to have their real-life personalities on the tracks themselves.
Cars like the Lancia Delta HF Integrale are represented without a license, but it isn't needed. Funselektor Labs
Courses have clearly been chosen with an eye for the spectacular. Sweeping Italian vistas are matched by tough, stone-lined forest trails of Germany, or the sheer beauty of Japan’s rolling hills. Stage designs are also quite true to life, even evoking the likes of modern WRC games from time to time with sharp, right-angle turns, hay-bale chicanes, and archway-marked jumps.
The art direction of the game means that one of the game’s strongest assets is its photo mode, which can turn even the least impressive corner of the most boring stage into an art book cover. It often feels more important than the game itself–I spent more time photographing than playing, though this may be to do with the mode’s confusing UI–but when the game is this beautiful, it becomes a core part of the experience.
Admittedly, Art of Rally’s in-race performance can occasionally take a hit. Screen tearing can be a real issue, especially with wider camera angles, which can be a real shame as it disconnects you from an otherwise hypnotizing experience. Some cars can also feel remarkably unbalanced around corners, especially with twitchy handbrakes, so you may find yourself regularly testing other available vehicles to better match your preferred driving style.
The photo mode is often the game's biggest draw, and never gets old. Funselektor Labs
What’s more, controllers are a must. Playing Art of Rally with a keyboard is a mug’s game, not least due to the lack of delicate throttle and brake control, which is critical at higher difficulties. Lower difficulties pose almost no challenge whatsoever in single-player–the standard level will see you routinely beating AI by two minutes or more–but once you raise this bar, it provides a tough trial.
And yet, even if you don’t win a stage, it never feels like a failure. As you advance through the years, you uncover new machines with exciting histories, while the game coughs up more delightful tracks to test them on. Stages are short and usually sweet, making it the perfect game to dip in and out of. Controls are intuitive but challenging, giving you constant satisfaction of nailing a corner, even if you only do it once a race.
At its core, Art of Rally occupies a perfect middle ground. Rally nuts get a new, unique experience to add to a surprisingly busy market that seems to stick to a rigid formula. Meanwhile, newcomers to rally–or even racing as a whole–are given a creative, inspired and thoroughly enjoyable alternative to everything that may have dissuaded them from driving games in the past.
All in all, Funselektor Labs has absolutely smashed it. More of this, please–especially while 2020 is as bleak as it is right now. And please port it to consoles.
Disclaimer: I was provided with a copy of Art of Rally in exchange for a fair and honest review.
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e13059da4506d78ce6b4a61eed3fc69f | https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattgardner1/2020/10/07/how-to-get-the-best-cheap-fifa-21-epl-ultimate-team-starter-squad/?sh=d0c4b185c2cb | How To Get The Best ‘FIFA 21’ EPL Ultimate Team Starter Squad | How To Get The Best ‘FIFA 21’ EPL Ultimate Team Starter Squad
'FIFA 21' is here, and with it, a whole new year of Ultimate Team development. EA
We’re only a day into FIFA 21’s new reign as the go-to soccer game for this season, thanks to the early release of its Ultimate and Champion editions on October 6. Its full release arrives on Friday (October 9), meaning countless gamers will be feeling the heat to create a strong, initial Ultimate Team to compete online. Thankfully, expertise is on hand to help build an impressive early squad.
To give new players a decent headstart with the new campaign, Seattle-based esports bookmaker unikrn has analyzed the Ultimate Team market to recommend the best starter squad for fans of the English Premier League, with a wallet-friendly budget of just 25,000 coins.
Based on a 4-3-3 (4) formation, with a focus on maintaining impressively high chemistry of 99 (100 with manager), here’s a great-looking starting 11 that won’t break the bank, based on data captured on October 7. While the market is fluid, there’s a chance you’ll only see rises and falls of 100-200 coins.
Goalkeeper (GK)
Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Portuguese goalkeeper Rui Patrício (84) appears to be the go-to pick if you want a solid goalkeeper from a small budget (just 1,900 coins). For under 2,000, you can also grab Chelsea’s Kepa Arrizabalaga (82)–or Everton’s Jordan Pickford (81), who has helped Liverpool’s blue team secure a perfect record of four wins from four at the start of the 2020-21 campaign, even if he’s hardly won over the fans after some high-profile errors.
Rui Patrício is the hot pick for between the posts. Getty Images
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Left-back (LB)
Chelsea’s young left-back Ben Chilwell (81), who joined the London club from Leicester City over the summer, costs just 2,300 coins and may be a stronger option when compared to teammate Marcos Alonso (81). His high stamina rating of 88 will be more than enough to play out from the left-hand side.
Center-backs (CB)
In FIFA 21, cheap center-backs are hard to find, even with a budget of 5,000 coins. It’s important to spend big at this crucial position, so Liverpool’s Joël Matip (83), who has an 85 defending stat, is a great option for 3,900 coins. As a second CB, Manchester United captain Harry Maguire (82) is a steal at 2,100 coins. What he lacks in pace is more than made up for in a 90 strength stat and 86 heading ability.
Right-back (RB)
Tottenham’s Serge Aurier (80), who made headlines by grabbing the fifth goal in a 6-1 thrashing of Manchester United last weekend, is a strong choice at right-back, with 92 jumping and 81 crossing. What’s more, he’s stronger and quicker than new Spurs signing Matt Doherty (81).
Center-midfielders (CM)
There are plenty of good, cost-effective centre-midfielders, but way out in front is Manchester City’s İlkay Gündoğan (83) for 3,300 coins, as he offers 88 ball control and 86 vision, along with strong defensive attributes (77 interceptions and 75 defensive awareness). Alongside him, another Portuguese Wolves player, João Moutinho (83), offers more than enough composure and vision (89 and 87), plus much more, for 2,300 coins.
German international İlkay Gündoğan might not be the first pick for Man City, but he should be for ... [+] your Ultimate Team. Getty Images
Center attacking midfielder (CAM)
He may be largely absent from Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal teams so far this season, but for just 1,200 coins, Mesut Özil (82) has been pegged as an early favorite for FUT bargain of the year by unikrn.
Right midfielder (RM)
Like Özil, Swiss winger Xherdan Shaqiri (81) isn’t a regular feature on Liverpool’s team sheet, but his technical and physical attributes could prove more than effective on the right-hand side, and comes at the price of 1,400 coins.
Left winger (LW)
Aston Villa talisman Jack Grealish (80) is the highest-rated left-winger in the EPL for a 2,000-coin budget. He offers decent pace, good finishing, and an 85 dribbling stat. It just depends if you can live with having one of England’s most divisive personalities on your team.
Striker (S)
Last but not least is your striker, and for the sheer value, Danny Ings (80) offers 85 finishing and 83 positioning–two skills that have already seen the former Liverpool man bang home three goals in three games for Southampton this season. Plus, he only costs around 850 coins.
Esports bookmaker unikrn gives the thumbs up for Southampton forward Danny Ings. Getty Images
Team in full
GK: Rui Patrício, Wolves (84 rating / 3,400 coins / 9 chemistry / 969 total stats)
RB: Serge Aurier, Tottenham (80 / 1,900 / 9 / 2,019)
LB: Ben Chilwell, Chelsea (81 / 2,300 / 9 / 1,986)
CB: Harry Maguire, Manchester United (82 / 2,100 / 9 / 1,876)
CB: Joël Matip, Liverpool (83 / 3,900 / 9 / 1,817)
CM: João Moutinho, Wolves (83 / 2,300 / 9 / 2,111)
CM: İlkay Gündoğan, Manchester City (83 / 3,300 / 9 / 2,112)
CAM: Mesut Özil, Arsenal (82 / 1,200 / 9 / 1,796)
RM: Xherdan Shaqiri, Liverpool (81 / 1,400 / 8 / 2,004)
LW: Jack Grealish, Aston Villa (80 / 2,000 / 10 / 1,907)
ST: Danny Ings, Southampton (80 / 850 / 9 / 1,859)
Total: 24,650 coins, 99 chemistry
NB: All prices were averaged at FUTWIZ.com by unikrn; players don’t include additional power-up, chemistry or positional changes.
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66557610418824cb396e09f650f0eeee | https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattgardner1/2020/10/29/map-shows-ps5-and-xbox-series-x-global-demandand-one-runaway-winner/?sh=1d30a8b3174b | Map Shows PS5 And Xbox Series X Global Demand–And One Runaway Winner | Map Shows PS5 And Xbox Series X Global Demand–And One Runaway Winner
In this battle of black vs white, the popularity difference is black and white. Microsoft / Sony
Next month, the biggest confrontation in history will take place, shaping the world forever. In the dichotomous world of 2020, sides have already been taken to the extreme, framing these dramatic party lines as a battle of good versus evil.
I am, of course, talking about the launch of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. But while I’m here, if you’re American, go vote–there’s still time.
Ahead of the dual release (and release duel) of Sony’s PS5 and Microsoft’s XSX this November, British search agency Rise at Seven has crunched the numbers to discover which console brand is in the highest demand on a country-by-country basis, breaking down its data into no fewer than 161 nations across the globe. And by golly, it’s a whitewash in more ways than one.
That’s because the company’s report sees the snowy-colored PlayStation 5 named over the Xbox Series X as the most-wanted games console in 84% of the world’s gaming markets, sweeping a whopping 148 of the countries surveyed in a landslide victory for the blue team.
The PS5 is taking no prisoners, on a global scale. Rise at Seven
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Rise at Seven leant on its expertise by utilizing global Google search data and market share in the mammoth task to break down every possible country around the world and predict which tech would sell highest on release day.
As with all elections, you expect the hometown hero to claim their own region–hell, even Walter Mondale’s Minnesota gave him his only U.S. state in the 1984 U.S. election, even if it was just by 0.2%–but while the Japanese market is an incredible 99% in favor of Sony, the U.S. spurns Microsoft; the PS5 wins out, 57% to 43%.
Just 13 countries desire the Series X more, and had it not been for China, New Zealand, Mexico, Hungary and Jamaica, Microsoft’s visual global footprint would be much harder to discern. Admittedly, Americans have become famous for their less-than-perfect ability to find countries on a map, but even Rhodes Scholars might find it difficult to pick out XSX fans like Gabon, American Samoa, the Cayman Islands, Anguilla, Guyana, Monaco, and Belize.
Oh, and the Series X’s biggest fan, according to the report? Afghanistan.
The projected dominance of the PS5 may come as no surprise. Sales of the PS4 far outstripped the Xbox One; the former is the fourth best-selling console of all time with over 110 million sales, compared to around 50 million Xbones. Even the PSP shifted 80 million units.
And yet, in this time of online strife, anger and hatred between people with different priorities, passions and desires, it’s worth remembering that games consoles are literally designed to be enjoyed–and so long as you’re happy with whatever you choose, that’s all that matters.
Other things matter much more than what you do with your hard-earned free time. Seriously, go and vote.
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a30f628b99bb3c6864024619ba85fb88 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattgardner1/2020/12/09/the-top-10-gaming-photo-modes-revealedwith-a-surprising-winner/ | The Top 10 Gaming Photo Modes Revealed–With A Surprising Winner | The Top 10 Gaming Photo Modes Revealed–With A Surprising Winner
'Forza Horizon 4' is one of ten games making waves on Instagram right now. @leopardsang / Playground Games
Photo modes are becoming an integral part of gaming, and why shouldn’t they? Even before the likes of the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 landed, we’ve enjoyed utterly stunning games for years, which deserve to allow gamers to immortalize them in new and beautiful ways.
Ahead of the release of Cyberpunk 2077 tomorrow (November 10)–which is introducing its own top-of-the-line photo mode–research carried out by the photography community Shotkit has analyzed the popularity of gaming photography on Instagram, where trends like #ingamephotography and #virtualphotography are in their millions.
Thanks to the organization’s hashtag-heavy deep dive, we now have a definitive idea of which games dominate the image-happy social media site more than any other. And yet, despite the predictable appearances of games like Fortnite and Forza Horizon 4 on the top-10 list, a much more cinematic experience sits at number one, thanks to its deep and flexible photo mode.
'Fortnite' may have a player base of 350 million and rising, but it's not number one on Instagram, ... [+] according to Shotkit. @leopardsang / Epic Games
10. The Sims 4 (4,800+ posts)
Six years on, The Sims 4 is still going strong in the Instagram gaming community. It’s hardly surprising; after the year we’ve had, it’s understandable that people escape to a game that allows them to create a more attractive version of themselves (in my case, at least)–one who can live in a more trouble-free world, where the biggest danger is still the possibility of drowning in a fenced, ladderless swimming pool.
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9. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (4,900+)
While it might not have quite matched the generation-defining brilliance of its second outing–and the series’ original PS3 audience has largely matured to prefer Naughty Dog’s grittier The Last of Us–Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is still one of the most beautiful and cinematic games on the PS4. The tenth Jeep-driving chapter, The Twelve Towers, must account for at least half of its 5,000 photos.
8. The Last of Us Part II (5,300+)
While it might not let you take a Watch Dogs: Legion-style selfie with the Rat King, The Last of Us Part II is still one of the most incredibly beautiful games of its generation–and certainly one of its most visceral. Its world is the gaming equivalent of Talking Heads’ ‘Nothing But Flowers’: one gradually reclaimed by nature, where as things fell apart, nobody paid much attention. Then again, there was a deadly virus kicking about, so you can’t blame them. Let’s move on before we get even more depressed about 2020.
7. Ghost of Tsushima (16,900+)
It’s not even five months old, but Ghost of Tsushima is an Instagram hottie. It’s entirely predictable, given its art direction–and the fact it’s so loved, it yesterday won The Game Awards’ Player’s Voice Award (something that has since been hit with allegations of impropriety). Pictures like this, from Jafree’s Perspective, only prove how magnificent it can look.
'Ghost of Tsushima' is the newest game in the top 10. @jafreesperspective / Sucker Punch
6. Forza Horizon 4 (33,100+)
I’ve plowed about 150 hours into Forza Horizon 4: one quarter completing it, another quarter somehow getting three stars on all drift zones, and half of it on photography. Its effortless photo mode and a huge selection of endlessly customizable cars mean it’s too easy to get snapping; the fact Playground Games later added the “Picture Perfect” photography achievement, which also featured in its prequel, undoubtedly got more people taking shots.
5. Horizon Zero Dawn (40,500+)
While The Last of Us Part II captures a more believable downfall of modern society, Horizon Zero Dawn presents its most beautiful: the aftermath of a technocratic dystopia, now governed by increasingly deranged Machines that threaten humanity a second time. Its brighter color palette, beautiful vistas, and ridiculous action make for some pretty incredible shots.
4. Skyrim (46,200+)
Well, this isn’t a surprise: Skyrim is fourth, not least because it’s been released on nearly every console of note since its 2011 debut, as well as Alexa, Etch-a-Sketch and your fridge. But its deep modding community, which also made the leap to consoles, continues to make this classic even more beautiful and photogenic.
3. Fortnite (135,000+)
The king of battle royale is relegated to duke status in the royal succession of Instagram photos, picking up third place despite a player base last registered at 350 million and growing. Maybe it’s because of youngsters’ embrace of different social media platforms, but it’s still a good showing–and its popularity may push it up the rankings as time goes on. I’m now hyper-aware of my own age by referring to Fortnite players as “youngsters”.
2. Grand Theft Auto V (146,500+)
The PS2 gave us three GTA games, while three consoles have coughed up GTA V. And yet, the game’s initial technical achievement, and subsequent upgrades, have made it an “enduring mystery” in terms of never-ending sales. Photos unsurprisingly follow this trend–but interestingly, it’s a more recent Rockstar game that takes the crown.
'Red Dead Redemption 2' is the biggest hit on Instagram among virtual photographers. @leopardsang / Rockstar Games
1. Red Dead Redemption 2 (165,200+)
Despite being just over two years old, Red Dead Redemption 2 tops the Instagram list for the most popular game on the photo front. Given it’s the closest we’ll ever get to immerse ourselves in a spaghetti western, it’s perfectly understandable. The largely untouched features of 1899 America provide some of the most jaw-dropping landscapes known to man. The filters, as evidenced above, only add to the game’s majesty.
Speaking to Shotkit, Leo Sang–an insanely talented Brazilian virtual photographer whose skills have led to sponsorship by NVIDIA, whose own photos are above–explained what makes the perfect photo mode. He said: “A familiar and easy-to-use photo mode is less intimidating if you’re getting used to virtual photography; the basic camera controls and settings should have easy access and be intuitive.
“The camera's movement can’t be too restricted; the wider the movement range, the easier it is to compose your shot. The same applies to the other settings: field of view, roll angles, depth of focus, and so on... being able to fine-tune your shot helps you experiment and create a lot easier.”
However, high-quality graphics aren’t everything to Sang, who added: “An element of fun is always important, especially if you’re trying to do this professionally. If the game is fun, your motivation to find great shots increases as you want to do the character justice. It’s what explains why games like The Sims 4 and GTA 5 made it onto the list.”
The only disappointment in this list is that Control doesn’t feature, despite being what I think is the most uniquely gorgeous game of its generation. But who needs Instagram when you’ve got books, especially when we’re inevitably robbed of the internet with our own, HZD or TLoU-style apocalypse?
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55127b426889442eb170039fa301ca15 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattgardner1/2020/12/16/gaming-vs-2020-online-social-team-play-rockets-during-pandemic/?sh=157d318227ce | Gaming Vs. 2020: Online Social Team Play Rockets During Pandemic | Gaming Vs. 2020: Online Social Team Play Rockets During Pandemic
Online gaming has become a force for good in 2020. getty
Technology truly connected the world in 2020, but for the most part, it’s been Zoom calls with relatives, Zoom quizzes with friends, or Zoom meetings with work colleagues. Luckily, gaming has also played a massive part in keeping people together–so we can at least guarantee some people had fun during this boom in online socialization.
Research by processing giant AMD and British retailer Currys PC World discovered that 60% of gamers have played more social games than usual since the beginning of the pandemic; this was one of many positive findings in a study that discovered countless ways that gaming has helped people on emotional, social, and developmental levels during 2020.
The major focus of gaming experiences has been teamwork. While 2020 breakthrough hits like Among Us and Fall Guys have pitted players against one another, AMD and Currys discovered that gamers preferred the positive camaraderie of team-based games, whether they were taking on AI in horde modes, or simply going head-to-head as a unit against other strangers from around the world.
This need for personal interaction apparently runs deeper. One in three gamers surveyed said the main reason they pick up a controller in the first place is to share an experience with companions. However, that doesn’t stop many from exploring new friendships outside their established group–over a quarter of gamers (28%) also said they played games to meet new people.
It may be due to one of the biggest positives discovered in the survey: that gaming promotes positive mental wellbeing by overcoming understandable feelings of loneliness, brought on by the current state of affairs.
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That’s not to say the study overlooked those classic, one-player experiences. Even when gaming solo, gamers claimed that “well-crafted storylines and lifelike graphics” offer “the perfect form of escapism”, and one-third (34%) claimed this immersion was their “key motivation to play.”
One-player 2020 games like 'Ghost of Tsushima' also get their dues. Sucker Punch / Sony
Noel McDermott, a psychotherapist and presenter of live podcast The Well-Being Show, explained: “Gaming, especially online, can provide immeasurable benefits to those who are lonely and isolated. It provides safe social contact and a place where skills can be developed.
“Gaming has opened up new ways of socializing, with online platforms encouraging engagement and providing spaces that people with social anxieties and phobias can excel in. They also promote connections among people who would never meet in real world contexts–crossing national, cultural, political and economic barriers.”
Once lockdown ends, there’s a good chance that these experiences will carry over to better, real-world friendships, too. Dr Rachel Kowert, research director at mental health non-profit Take This, explained that gaming can maintain and build new relationships by boosting self-esteem and a “sense of belonging.”
She continued: “Gameplay can also teach skills that have long been associated with increased happiness and prolonged life satisfaction, including openness to experience, self-care, a growth mindset, solution-focused thinking, mindfulness, persistence, self-discovery, and resilience.”
While 2020 has been a tough time for everyone, one more finding from AMD and Currys may point to a brighter future: the total global gaming population has likely grown by 4% since the outbreak of COVID-19. The family grows, and so too do the benefits of the world’s most diverse pastime.
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9197e68d56ea15ebfc2c4e0ab5a205b7 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattgardner1/2021/01/07/how-the-xbox-and-playstation-can-help-children-learn-during-uk-lockdown/ | How The Xbox And PlayStation Can Help Children Learn During U.K. Lockdown | How The Xbox And PlayStation Can Help Children Learn During U.K. Lockdown
Young students across the U.K. are now being taught online - and games consoles can help those ... [+] without laptops. dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images
The U.K. is now facing its third lockdown. It comes as no surprise to many Brits, given Boris Johnson’s decision to allow (but not allow) people to see each other at Christmas. Now, the nation’s education system is in disarray due to a sudden, sharp closure–but Xboxes and PlayStations in homes around the country are being promoted as temporary life-savers for parents and their children.
Thousands of kids had already returned to classrooms on January 4, only to go home and learn they wouldn’t return the next morning. As local authorities and parents scrambled to figure out how to keep teaching pupils, a helpful tweet from October has resurfaced, highlighting the role that consoles can play in helping youngsters connect with teachers and lessons.
Thanks to the tech-savvy William–a youngster attending Birchgrove Comprehensive School (Ysgol Gyfun Gellifedw) in Swansea, Wales–his school was able to share an excellent idea of turning consoles, seen by many parents as straightforward entertainment systems, into tools of learning.
While the young lad will undoubtedly get a lot of flak from his contemporaries about how he taught The Man to transform their beloved gaming machines into tools of educational torture, his ingenuity is a godsend to countless families who don’t have, or can’t afford, a laptop or computer with the power to run learning environments online–or parents who simply require their laptop to do their day job from home.
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Initially, William’s idea was to help families access the Hwb network–a Welsh government-run digital platform for learning and teaching. However, dozens of schools in the last 24 hours have cottoned on to the fact parents will be able to run the likes of Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom, and more–even though many mums and dads may only think they’re good for Call of Duty, FIFA, or Fortnite. Glow, Scotland’s Hwb equivalent, can also work on consoles.
Before and since the news recirculated–with the help of Tes, a global education business that originally started out in print as the Times Educational Supplement–dozens of primary schools (for ages four to 11) and secondary institutions (11 to 16) have adopted the method in areas like Manchester, Birmingham, Barnsley, Grantham, and Cardiff.
If you have an Xbox One, One S, One X or Series X, or a PlayStation 4, the key details of accessing the internet for your school’s online learning are as follows. Sadly, the PlayStation 5 only has a very perfunctory browser, as Push Square explains here; hopefully, those kids lucky enough to get a console upgrade may still have the predecessor to hand.
Xbox online learning
Power on your Xbox and wait for the home screen to become visible. (Optional) Plug a keyboard into the Xbox’s USB slot. Hit the glowing Xbox logo button in the centre of the controller and select “My Games and Apps”. Find and select “Microsoft Edge”. Use the browser to type in the web address of your school’s online learning platform.
PlayStation 4 online learning
Power on your PlayStation and wait for the home screen to become visible. Head to the content area – the horizontal row of large icons used to launch games and applications. Scroll to the right until you come across the Internet Browser (a www icon with dots around it) and select it. Use the browser to type in the web address of your school’s online learning platform.
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6dc8a83d7771f51b44fdedf7506d4726 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattgardner1/2021/01/14/adidas-and-g2-esports-unveil-blockbuster-sportswear-partnership-for-2021/ | G2’s Ambitious Adidas Partnership Aims To Shake Up Esports In 2021 | G2’s Ambitious Adidas Partnership Aims To Shake Up Esports In 2021
Adidas and G2 Esports are coming together in a multi-year deal. SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
This post has been updated.
G2 Esports, one of the world’s leading esports brands, has announced a major new partnership with global sportswear powerhouse Adidas–an agreement that could not only revolutionize G2’s “entertainment empire,” but also help push esports closer to acceptance as performance sports in their own right.
The multi-year deal–which was formally announced at 9:00AM ET through a global Zoom press conference with international media, including Forbes–will see Adidas, Forbes’ 11th best employer in the world last October, enter a two-year deal to become the major sports apparel provider to G2, the eighth most valuable esports company in 2020.
After a brief introduction from G2 CEO and League of Legends superstar Carlos ‘ocelote’ Rodriguez, an incredibly polished video preview of the partnership was played out, featuring G2’s textbook confidence and sense of humor, as well as Rodriguez himself. To coincide with the official conference announcement, G2 dropped the trailer across its social channels to its millions of followers.
Initially, Adidas will manufacture the esports team’s jerseys for the 2021 season. This new “G2 x adidas” shirt will offer new and unique features to the team, combining the brand’s AEROREADY technology with an all-new design for upcoming tournaments.
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In the coming months–and to take a greater grip of a rapidly-developing esports apparel market, which David Beckham’s all-new Guild Esports also entered last November–Adidas will also develop and create a lifestyle apparel collaboration for G2, though details about this range are yet to be revealed.
“Ever since I was young, Adidas has always been part of my life, as well as culture–across music, arts and sports,” Rodriguez told journalists. “They combine performance with artistic beauty and design. But it’s not just focused on the sports market; the collaborations they do with people like Pharrell [Williams] are some cool s***, and we really want to be part of that too.”
G2 Esports was founded in 2015 by Rodriguez and entrepreneur Jens Hilgers. During these last five years, it has amassed no fewer than 25 million registered supporters and is now valued at $175 million; it currently makes 80% of its revenue from esports, with a franchise team in LoL and non-franchise squads playing the likes of CS:GO, Fortnite, and Hearthstone.
Rodriguez took plenty of questions during the live Zoom press conference on January 14. G2 Esports
This partnership with Adidas will undoubtedly improve G2’s non-competition income, but the German sportswear brand isn’t its first big-name sponsor. Over the last five years, the team’s roster of partners has grown to include more predictable patrons like Twitch, Pringles and Domino’s, as well as much more prestigious companies like BMW and Mastercard.
In his initial comments, Rodriguez said it was a “landmark day in G2 history” and “a real game-changer for us and the wider esports industry,” adding: “As a lifelong gamer and now proud team owner, this partnership is truly a watershed moment and a childhood dream of mine.”
During the conference, Björn Jäger, vice president of brand at Adidas Central Europe, was keen to stress the deal was a brand partnership and not a simple kit supply deal, as his company sees incredible potential for its brand to tap into a youth-dominated and burgeoning esports market.
He said: “With this partnership, we continue being a part of the growing gaming culture and are excited to tap into G2’s creativity and experience within this area. As a Berlin-based brand with global relevance, G2 will help us drive brand presence not only in our home market but also reach global gaming communities.”
At the moment, G2 Esports offers an extensive, brand-free collection of clothing, and its range of jerseys only differ based on game-related sponsors. For example, Valorant players are backed by Aimlab, while BMW provides its logo for Rocket League, Fortnite, and League of Legends teams.
G2 Esports' 2020 jerseys (pictured) are apparently unbranded; Adidas will change that for 2021. G2 Esports
While it’s certainly its most high-profile step into the market, the G2 deal is not Adidas’ first foray into esports. Back in November, it partnered with French squad Team Vitality to customize its sporty AM4 sneakers to create the AMT VIT.01.
Naturally, it led to those predictable, tiresome comments about how sportswear shouldn’t be designed for those whose sport requires them to sit down, but this next step in “esportswear” will hopefully help the industry take another step forward towards acceptance–and help talented players get the credit they deserve.
Update (January 14, 9:30AM ET) —
The article has been updated to reflect further news and quotes as revealed during the G2 and Adidas press conference.
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dd96b8e8d987a42c39c27cfecfdc89c4 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewcampione/2011/11/29/revenue-neutral-2012-fixes-to-social-security-tax-and-amt/ | Revenue Neutral 2012 Fixes to Social Security Tax and AMT | Revenue Neutral 2012 Fixes to Social Security Tax and AMT
Image by 401K via Flickr
Unless Congress and the President enact changes, the reduction of the employee Social Security tax and the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) exemption patch are set to expire by the end of 2011. For 2012 lower, middle and upper-middle income taxpayers will pay as much as $250 billion more in taxes as a result of the termination of these benefits. If we choose to save these benefits we should do it so that the net affect to the government is at least revenue neutral. This means the additional AMT and employee Social Security tax revenue that would otherwise be paid will be extracted from someone else or through spending reductions.
After the expected Supercommittee failure to propose a debt reduction plan to Congress, it is unlikely we will see any significant spending reduction or major tax legislation before the 2012 elections. However, Democrats and Republicans may both seek to gain political capital by agreeing to extend the above referred to tax benefits through 2012, while each wait to gain the high ground for 2013. After all, what is another $200 to $250 billion of deficit before 2013? Perhaps as in December 2010 the Republicans will seek to extract other concessions in return for a continuation of these benefits. This could result in even bigger deficit increases. The parties could also allow the benefits to expire and blame each other. But is it possible they could agree to a revenue neutral extension of these benefits?
For 2011 only the employee Social Security tax was reduced from 6.2% to 4.2% on personal earnings up to $106, 800. This meant savings of as much as $2,136 for an employee. When one considers households with both spouses working, the family savings could be as much as $4,272. Of course, most households do not earn enough to receive the full benefit, and the average per household benefit has been estimated to be closer to $900. The arguable purpose of this benefit was to provide working families more spending money to help stimulate the economy. However, the actual reason may be that it was a political counter balance to the generous concessions President Obama made in December 2010 by agreeing to extend the Bush tax cuts and adding new estate/gift/GST benefits for two years.
If we decide to reduce employee social security taxes for another year, we should do two things. First, limit the lower 4.2% rate to the first $50,000 of earned income. Second, we should increase the maximum amount of personal earnings subject to Social Security tax so as to bring in as much employment tax revenue if there was no reduction in rates; instead of $110,100 already scheduled for 2012 the earnings ceiling could be raised perhaps to $140,000 or so, or a higher amount if only the employee share of Social Security taxes will be used to make up the difference. This could be the model for future years as well so as not to erode political support for Social Security benefits because of dwindling employment tax revenue.
Making up for lost revenue related to AMT is more difficult. If the higher AMT exemption is continued, perhaps additional adjustments can be added to reach wealthier taxpayers (the original intended purpose of AMT) to make up for the lost revenue. For example, qualified dividends in excess of $20,000 could be added to AMT income. The affect would be to tax qualified dividends above $20,000 at AMT tax rates (26% or 28%) instead of the 15% rate. Another example would be to limit the charitable contribution deduction for purposes of AMT to 20% of adjusted gross income, or make the value of charitable contributions of property in excess of basis (above a specified amount) an add back to AMT income. A third example, gain from the sale of a “carried interest” above a specified rate of return could be added to AMT income, in lieu of Congress changing the law to treat such gain as ordinary income. This too could be a model for revenue in future years.
I suspect the President and Congress will find common ground to make simple changes for 2012 even if the changes increase the deficit.
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4e23cf54e424c149a6393b2e73a6360f | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewcampione/2012/03/09/will-the-country-run-on-amt-this-year/ | Will the Country Run on AMT This Year? | Will the Country Run on AMT This Year?
It is already March and many people are still looking backwards focusing on their 2011 tax returns. A good number of you and “you know who you are”, will procrastinate until April to complete your returns. However, proactive taxpayers are already planning for 2012 and 2013.
If you are still looking in the rear view mirror you probably are not aware of a substantial increase in 2012 income tax that may affect you unless federal tax law is changed. This is because Congress and the President have not yet enacted legislation increasing the 2012 Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) exemptions, as they have done so the past several years. Without the exemption increases, sometimes referred to as the AMT patch, mostly middle and upper middle income families will pay more than $100 billion additional income tax in 2012. So I guess you could say that the country will (at least in part) be running on AMT if the law is not changed. (I always try to bring closure to my puns.)
In November 2011 I highlighted the 2012 increases in AMT and the employee payroll tax unless the AMT patch and the employee payroll tax cut were extended to 2012. Last month legislation extended the employee payroll tax cut to all of 2012. Although the federal government is very much aware of the AMT patch issue, there is no imminent legislation extending the AMT patch to 2012. Without the AMT patch many middle and upper middle income families will pay more AMT then they saved from the employee payroll tax reduction.
When are Congress and the President going to address this issue? As more and more people become aware of the AMT problem and related additional tax liability doesn’t this diminish the economic stimulus benefits of the payroll tax cut? Without the AMT patch it seems that the government is giving with one hand while taking away with the other. As if the government has not done this before, will taxpayers be left to twist in the wind while the issue remains unresolved? The federal government should address the AMT patch (whether enacted or rejected) now.
Of course, everyone should understand that extending the AMT patch to 2012 probably will increase the 2012 deficit more than $100 billion. It is unlikely Congress will be able to agree on offsetting measures in an election year. Unless this issue is brought to the forefront, there is a chance this issue will remain unaddressed until perhaps as late as early next year. Come on everybody, let’s do the twist.
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ee484368b6c8946cdc2c295ec071254b | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewcarroll/2011/11/01/3-future-waves-of-innovation-in-e-commerce-for-fashion-apparel-quora/ | Three Future Waves of Innovation in E-Commerce for Fashion & Apparel | Three Future Waves of Innovation in E-Commerce for Fashion & Apparel
Here is the basic overview to give you an idea of what this article addresses.
1. Introduction & Overview
2. 3 Underlying Trends of the Future Waves
2.1. Social
2.2. Private Sales
2.3. Mobile Commerce
2.4. Tertiary Trends
3. Detailed Analysis of the 3 Future Waves of Innovation in E-Commerce
3.1. [Wave 1] Men's Curated Subscription Fashion
3.2. [Wave 2] Vertical Integration of Demand Signaling & Planning
3.3. [Wave 3] Infrastructure as a Service
3.4. Deep Dive Investigation into Wave 1 - What does a Men's Subscription Site Look Like?
NOTE: I have revised and edited this article dozens of times over the past year & expanded on several sections to the point where this answer is 32+ pages long. For your convenience, there is a PDF version that you can purchase $10 (think about it like buying a beer) that I keep up to date with new research, charts, stats, and trend evolutions. Please check out: Fail Harder's Three Future Waves of Innovation in Fashion & Apparel E-Commerce on Fail-Harder.com
We all know that E-Commerce is accelerating its assault on brick and mortar retail. Let’s take a look at the overall Online Retail Market Revenue & Growth Rate:
One of the main segments of E-Commerce that is prime for disruption is Apparel & Fashion. Historically (i.e. before 10 years ago), if a fashion-savvy teenager wanted to purchase an item from Abercrombie & Fitch & there wasn't one located in the local mall - there were two options: 1. purchase via mail order catalog or 2. wait until they took a vacation to a location that had an Abercrombie retail store. The web ostensibly flattened the playing field by enabling anyone in the contiguous US to purchase any item from an online retailer.
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This article originally appeared as an answer on Quora the question: What is the next wave of innovation in e-commerce after flash sales and private sales? You can find me on Quora @ Matthew Carroll Quora Profile & the Full answer @ Matthew Carroll's Answer to What is the next wave of innovation in e-commerce after flash sales and private sales?
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This article is going to focus on fashion and brands driving the next waves of innovation in E-Commerce:
Social Facilitated the Generation of Economies of Scale of Users: Prior to '07, it was inordinately challenging to generate sufficient online traffic for most E-Commerce startups, brands, and online retailers in general. In order to generate traffic, an online retailer had to build significant customer mindshare, to even have, the customer "think" to go to their website to check out a brand or product & make significant investments to put online retailers in the workflow process of the user (i.e. sending an email with product information relevant to the users). In addition, the technology, required to power these systems, was expensive, specialized, and young/immature. Over the past 5-years, we have seen 850m+ people join Facebook, a massive boom in tech startups building & refining solutions for workflow process problems (i.e. email marketing), and a drastic reduction in the cost of implementing these solutions.
Hence in 2011, the process to generate significant audiences and thereby acquire new customers is much easier. As such, E-Commerce is one of the pillars to building a modern brand & a significant monetization tool for consumer web products.
Powerful Relationship between Individual & Product - One of the most important aspects of fashion is that it is a highly emotional experience for purchasers of the products & the payoff of it’s use. Humans are inherently social animals & have a powerful desire to be accepted by the herd (i.e. social & professional networks) - thereby, your choice of what you wear is a direct reflection of who you are as an individual (or how you want to be perceived as a member of the herd).
Over several hundred thousand years of evolution, humans have learned to draw immensely on visual cues as a means of assessing character risk about the people we interact with &, therefore, leveraging apparel as a means of establishing an individual's “similar to me” visual references (i.e. if I wear tight pants + gingham check collard shirt = SOMA startup hipster). Fashion is one of the main external manifestations of whom we are as individuals and serves as the impetus for visual feedback to observer about our personalities.
Recognizable Transition - The purchasing of apparel online represents a systemic behavioral change from the old way of doing things (i.e. purchasing apparel from a limited assortment at a physical retail location). Everyone pretty much associates purchasing of apparel with physicality of being in a store, engaging in an economic transaction (i.e. purchasing product), and immediate satiation of the desire to purchase (i.e. walking out of the store with the product in hand). We were able to try on clothing prior to purchasing and we received immediate satisfaction from the transaction (we walked out with the product immediately following the conclusion of the transaction). Thereby, purchasing online separates the transaction from the satiation of the desire (i.e. the impetus for engaging in an economic transaction).
Direct Communication - Brands have embraced the web & social media with voracious enthusiasm. Before the social revolution, brands had a tertiary relationship with the customer, whereby the customer had dealt with the retailer & the brand served as the product of the retailer. If the customer loved the brand, the retailer received the customers goodwill/happiness as the provider of the garment (versus the brand as the producer of the product - it's a level of abstraction away from a direct relationship between product & consumer). The retailer controlled the relationship and therefore is the recipient of the customer's projected satisfaction or enjoyment of the product (as opposed to the brand that created the product).
Social media transformed the ability of a brand to communicate with their target demographic - from a proxy relationship (brand -> retailer -> customer) to a direct relationship (brand -> customer -> retailer).
Strategic Focus on Building E-Commerce - More so than most other areas of consumer products (aside from books, music, & video), brands have started to strategically focus on building their direct business with customers. Currently, direct business (brands selling product directly to the customer (via it’s website) has been an ancillary consideration to most brands (i.e. the direct business took the back seat to wholesale (Major retailers like Nordstrom & Bloomingdales). A couple of reasons behind this are:
Lack of Experience - One of the main reasons for this was that it was E-Commerce was relatively new and most CEOs didn’t have enough direct experience to champion investments in E-Commerce as a strategic priority. Based on this inexperience with this channel as a significant revenue driver, most CEOs have not devoted significant financial resources to cultivating this revenue channel. Conversely, the maybe stymied from investments in E-Commerce in the '04 - '05 boom that didn't generate miracle returns (that's a combination timing (just too early), technology assimilation (pre-Facebook & Pre-iPhone), and artificial macroeconomic growth incorrectly supporting dying business models).
Inability to Gain Considerable Audiences - Prior to the social media revolution, engaging in a direct relationship with a brand required a fairly substantive investment on behalf of the customer to find the brand. Supporting the previously mentioned Direct Communication trend, the customer associated a brand with a particular retailer (i.e. Nordstrom) and was accustom to, comfortable with, and meta-tagged as going to that retailer for the brand. Therefore, the Brand’s website (and subsequently the E-Commerce business) had insufficient traffic to signal an area of material concern.
After years of languishing in the single-digits, most brands finally “get it” & have made building their direct businesses as a core new growth opportunity. In addition, with the huge cost pressures that fashion is under fire from (See Secondary themes) along with retail pricing pressure - brands are turning to the 65-70% margins from their direct businesses as a huge opportunity. Furthermore, the ability to harness a direct dialogue and engage the customer in a long term relationship (through the massive adoption of social media) means that this represents a huge opportunity for most brands.
Let's take a look at how this can impact margin.
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NOTE: I have revised and edited this article dozens of times over the past year & expanded on several sections to the point where this answer is 32+ pages long. For your convenience, there is a PDF version that you can purchase $10 (think about it like buying a beer) that I keep up to date with new research, charts, stats, and trend evolutions. Please check out:
Fail Harder's Three Future Waves of Innovation in Fashion & Apparel E-Commerce on Fail-Harder.com
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The Underlying Trends Driving the Future Waves of Innovation
Fashion is also the industry that leads tech trends in terms of marketing & branding - leveraging online tools to craft a relationship with customers that facilitates & fosters dialogue and aspirational affinity for the brand (99% of brands are aspirational in one form or another regardless of the market segment). In an effort to understand where the next waves are going to be, we need to understand the current waves that are driving the market.
1. Social is hands down one of the most significant influencers of the next wave of E-Commerce - that is driving the current wave of E-Commerce 2.0. Social (primarily Facebook) transformed web behavior (in the aggregate) from receivers of information (i.e. reading a news article) to interactive engagement (commenting or sharing - anything that basically promotes a user action). As incredibly important & transformative as Social is, it’s the current wave - Signs that tell you that this trend is in motion:
Since Facebook Fan/Like pages were introduced, Fashion Brands were socializing their marketing efforts to facilitate E-Commerce (i.e. “Check out our new collection”). Retailers like ASOS, Urban Outfitters, et al have Facebook Shops open - and major retailers are currently running major campaigns around informing the Retailer's Facebook followers about the channel and developing the revenue channel Startups are currently being built around Facebook (Social) Commerce, ranging from white label stores (al la Payvment) to analytics (al la AddShoppers) - an ecosystem rising around trends supports it's current position in the product lifecycle and state of diffusion - it's happening now.
This isn’t really a new wave or an innovation - it’s just something that is a logical extension of the technology. We are in the early adopter stage of this trends evolution - it’s new, but it’s definitely not the “next” wave.
For example, Forrester Research predicted that Social Commerce would reach $14b by 2015. Granted, it’s a current trend in motion, but it is forecasted to represent ~5% of Online Retail’s revenue in 2015 - and that’s after ~10 years! (let’s say that the social trend really kicks off in ‘06 when Facebook is released to a wider audience - so that means this trend (by 2016) will be in motion for 10 yrs. Think about where Google was after 10 years and the contribution they made to Online Sales development over the period - $14B is fairly muted when compared to overall theme).
2. Private Sales are a glorified email marketing fad that exploded onto the retail landscape and, over the past two years, has been quickly commoditized with 100s of players jumping into the space. This trend truly represents a wave because of it’s voracious growth over the past 4 years and subsequent crashing of this industry as a business model as 100s of competitors have ostensibly commoditized the industry out of existence.
Private Sale Sites and their corresponding incredible growth rates have imbued some profound developments in the marketplace:
Time Value of Economic Value - The most incredible development in E-Commerce was that Private Sales sites (al la Gilt Groupe, JackThreads, Rue La La, Plndr, HauteLook) conditioned the customer to trade cost savings for product delivery. Before this, Zappos was setting the expectation of Free Shipping & Gilt Groupe (primarily) fundamentally transformed this expectation.
Price is a Deadly Value Proposition - Competing on price is one of the most challenging positioning decisions in business. When a brand makes the decision to market itself purely on price (i.e. purchase these items at 50% discounts), then there is no place to go but down (citation Walmart stalled growth as prices have continued to increase). By virtue of focusing on the price, you are inherently devaluing the product the Private Sale Site is purveying. The retailer is in a falling knife market environment that is extremely challenging to navigate and almost always ends up in a bad place.
The Pivot Out of Deals - Gilt Groupe has been the only player to being the transition (pivot) out of pure Daily Deals (into Park & Bond - but more on this later) - something that all of the Private Sales players need to figure out their pivot out of the deadly margin game. 90% of the time this is going to be a Private Label play that will support a blended margin near the levels of those Gilt enjoyed when it still held it's first mover advantages.
[NOTE: In honor of the 1 year anniversary of my most up-voted piece on Quora (Matthew Carroll's answer to Gilt Groupe: How does Gilt's business model work?). I am writing a follow-up about the industry and the state of the game - So stay tuned to a lot more on this front.]
3. Mobile / Location is one of the most powerful tsunami’s that was introduced in the marketplace in ‘07. The pervasive adoption of smartphones (lead by the iPhone's introduction in ‘07) - consumers began interacting with the web in a fundamentally new way - on the go (away from their desk/laptop)
The smartphone revolution championed a new world of the internet as a physical manifestation of the digital world (al la foursquare led by the brilliant work of the laudable Tristan Walker). There are two major factors to this wave:
Check-ins - a new interaction with the “on the go” lifestyle of most consumers to earn rewards and receive discounts based on the interaction of the real world and the digital world. M-Commerce - (Mobile Commerce) was an entirely new genre of E-Commerce whereby a user is enabled to purchase products regardless of geographic proximity to a computer.
Forrester Research predicts that M-Commerce will grow to $31 Billion over the next 5 years in the US - thereby doubling Social Commerce. Let's take a look at Forrester's estimate:
Forrester Research estimates that M-Commerce will grow into $31b industry, nearly double their forecast for Social Commerce (Hence why I am not very big on it becoming the Next Wave, when it's a wave that's already in motion) by 2016. Let's take a look at how they predict the next 5 years will evolve:
This wave of E-Commerce where an individual's physical location facilitates purchasing of goods or services in three main forms:
Purchase Online & Pick-up in Store Geographically Targeted Discounts Mobile Check-Ins for Loyalty Points & Discounts
However, like Social, the Mobile / Location wave is currently underway diffusing in through the marketplace and does not represent the “next wave”.
Tertiary Trends[Note: There are some fairly profound secondary / tertiary trends that support my position on the next waves of innovation, but these will be discussed in a later post. Some of the most salient secondary themes are:
Experiential Development of Web Users - as people gain more experience with the internet, they will become more competent and willing to more fully integrate E-Commerce into new aspects of the their lives.
Collapse of Inexpensive Foreign Goods & Increasing Input Costs - The era of cheap manufacturing is quickly dying with 20% YoY wage inflation in China compounded by BRIC's ascension into the middle class. Competition for input commodities in all products will systemically change how we all purchase goods & services.
Rise of US Manufacturing - With rising Chinese RMB and a depreciating US Dollar, the US is strongly positioned to champion a manufacturing boom over the next 5 -7 years (pretty much all the good t-shirt & jeans factories in LA are at full capacity. Made in USA will become increasingly important (as it was for 150 yrs prior to 1950s, when we GDP per capita (PPP) rapidly appreciated). Although this trend is in its infancy & has considerable hurdles (lack of vertical supply chain, a labor force (look at what happened to Alabama's tomato crop after the immigration legislation), and infrastructure) to overcome - it is a major theme that could enable the US to realize something similar to what we are seeing with Germany's GDP in Early - Mid 2011.
There are two really important themes that are necessarily Innovations in E-Commerce right now.
1. Retailers Driving Content Creation: I first noticed this at the beginning of the year with a Carnival Cruise Web Commercial about a family on a holiday. In addition, tonight I read about Karmaloop (a street E-Commerce player that I reference a lot in my posts) having users upload vids to create a new web series. [More on this later (when I flush it out more but it's pretty interesting).]
2. Private Label: I have a REALLY long post on Private Label and why it's becoming a critical aspect of the Revenue Development of a Fashion Brand. I would go so far as to say that it's going to be one of the main pillars of brand strategy over the next 10 years - but more on this later.
These tertiary themes will be discussed in excruciating detail in a subsequent post - I’ll update with links]
Summary - These three trends lay the foundation for the next waves (all of which would not be possible without at least 1 of these trends. In addition, the next waves of innovation will be built upon these three trends. Therefore, for purposes of looking forward, the consumption medium has been set and the next waves will not be an entirely new means of interacting with or engaging in E-Commerce - the next waves of innovation will be within the same context (web-based & mobile).
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NOTE: I have revised and edited this article dozens of times over the past year & expanded on several sections to the point where this answer is 32+ pages long. For your convenience, there is a PDF version that you can purchase $10 (think about it like buying a beer) that I keep up to date with new research, charts, stats, and trend evolutions. Please check out:
Fail Harder's Three Future Waves of Innovation in Fashion & Apparel E-Commerce on Fail-Harder.com
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Three Waves of Innovation in E-Commerce
All three of these trends are fairly independent - the order is fairly arbitrary
1. Curated Personal Style Subscription
Over the past 6-years social and E-Commerce have evolved into a way of life for the vast majority of internet users. However, recommendation of products pretty much sucks. For example, Amazon Recommendation Engine is useless (maybe it’s just my experience - but every single recommended item I have either purchased or a competing product that I have decided against purchasing) & the best in the business, Netflix, is only moderately insightful.
I am fairly well versed in machine learning & NLP, but have failed to see an implementation of recommendation algorithms on a product basis (although Hunch is getting pretty close) that present a substantively compelling recommendation that compelled me to purchase a product.
The next wave of E-Commerce will be services that fundamentally leverage the massive data sets in conjunction with expert curation - to drive purchases by introducing the product to the customer that presents a clear value proposition. There are three salient aspects of this model:
Leveraging of Data: Online Retailers of all shapes and sizes have vast treasure troves of data that are currently not fully being employed - most of the time they are not even being connected. This next wave of innovation will involve the connection of various data sources into a central platform that delivers more insight into the product selection, procurement, & merchandising process.
Subscription as a Business Model: The first time that I really noticed subscription gaining product/market fit (in online fashion) was ShoeDazzle. Smaller E-Commerce Fashion Sites should be focusing on a deeper, more personal relationship with the customer - thereby leveraging the power of the subscription model to deliver more product and round out their cash flow cycle.
Expert Curation: As I mentioned before, pure algorithmic recommendations suck - I mean if Amazon's "you would also like" can't produce a decent recommendation so save it's life - then I don't believe that anything is ready for prime time. However, if done correctly, these algorithms could focus the selection criteria. Thus, making the work of a stylist / expert easier and more efficient.
There has been loads published in the last 6 months about the coming revolution in Men’s fashion E-Commerce into style curation (a la StyleBop - Buy the Look - and MrPorter.com - The Look & The Story). It is well understood that men purchase fashion very differently than women and want to buy style that is “put together” or curated (Man Shops Net - WSJ).
Here’s the real kicker - no one has fundamentally implemented this process into a product. The majors like Mr. Porter, Gilt Man, and ShopBop have jumped way out in front with editorialized content. However, their scale is an inherent weakness to the personalized approach that a curated personal stylist subscription model could offer for men. In addition, these major players are positioning themselves to compete with the Bloomingdale’s of the world with expensive items - Mr. Porter, for example, has most of their items at $500+ and there is a huge market for everyone else who simply doesn’t have this kind of disposable income to spend on fashion.
Why is this the next wave:
People Want Cool Stuff: The web will progressively become more individualized as users find their niche, form new relationship, and discover new ideas/products/art etc. This wave fully embraces this trend and delivers a service to monetize the relationship.
Tech. Maturity & Sophistication: To a certain extent, this evolution was not possible until probably 2011. The Social Web needed to mature (and an ecosystem built on top of it), users needed to mature and gain more experience (and sophistication) with the web and interacting with it (versus being receivers of the web al la Web 1.0), and the analytical environment to build a better web needed to mature as developers tailored their offering into the appropriate Product/Market Fit.
Personal Relationship: The web will become increasingly personal and E-Commerce must respond to deliver products and services that feel like they are “made for the user”. As you’ll see in the startup model, the relationship is paramount in delivering a subscription fashion service.
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FULL Startup Business Model Analysis - most of you know how I really hate it when authors give copy-blogger generics to shorten the post - or textbook over-simplifications that don’t really articulate the complexity of the real world. So I have added a full business model with screenshots & financials to showcase what a curated fashion site would look like, how it could be implemented, and what the potential revenue would look like.
Please take a look at Matthew Carroll's Answer to: What are the next waves of innovation in E-Commerce?
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2. Open, Vertically-integrated, Analytical Demand Signaling & Planning
Fast Fashion (Zara & H&M) has fundamentally revolutionized the fashion-industry by upending the traditional “seasonal” approach* for retail primarily through their analytics driving a modern, vertically integrated manufacturing beast. This transformation is akin to Toyota kaizen (along with the other Asian car manufacturers) that reshaped the automobile landscape in the United States where foreign manufacturers wiped the floor with it’s US competitors.
The ability to transform actionable analytical insights into demand-responsive product compositions presents the core strategic value proposition for fast fashion & the driving factor that will revolutionize the industry as a whole (we are moving to a whole new level above the prompts “innovation” mandate).
The traditional way does not work and is ever increasingly augmented by the under-performance of traditional “seasonal” firms and out-performance by those fast fashion market leaders. In an effort to fully investigate this wave, we need:
Understand the background as to how industry norms were established as a means to illustrate how disruptive Fast Fashion is. Define the push factors & technical developments that will foster in the next wave of E-Commerce. Layout the How the Solution Works.
There is an emerging trend for each E-Commerce site to try and harvest their own proprietary "demand signals" based on like / want data. For example, Bonobos has their new "Want" feature, Amazon has their yellow "like" button, Bluefly similarly with a "Want" feature. Individual players in the space are all trying to go it alone - which never results in a favorable outcome in the aggregate.
I completely understand the need to begin to harness demand signals based on analytics, but having every E-Commerce site build out their own functionality is ridiculous. What makes this ridiculous is that no one player has sufficient scale to truly capitalize on these data points to make constructive decisions. In addition, this information needs to be distributed to all stakeholders. There must be standardization for the implementation and utilization of demand signals.
In the traditional retail model, retailers guard sales data and statistics about product performance. Brands have been significantly inhibited for maximizing revenue & being a true partner in delivering the best product in the correct quantities to the retailer by virtue of the disconnect (and often discord) between the two player. Traditionally, brands have not had access to the retail performance data and have been forced to proxy methods for estimating demand &, therefore, production quantities for products. By retailers controlling this data today inhibits brands (vendors to the retailers) from delivering products that maximize the retailer's merchandise offering. The current information asymmetries heavily rely on buyers (who let's face it REALLY aren't factoring customer mindshare, the brands level of diffusion, or the individual factors of the brand - buyers are buying in their overall patterns for the category as a whole). This is the same thing with proprietary demand signaling products like wants / likes as a proxy for understanding market & audience.
The one retailer in the space that I have MAD respect for is Amazon's Vendor Central. They are definitely leading the charge, but it still needs a lot of work - to flatten data communication and leverage all parties working together.
Please don't suggest that Facebook Like Button solves this - the company is evil and can't put something like this together that will actually benefit other companies businesses. COME ON - It's Facebook they won't even let the users of their products have their data - do you REALLY think that they would do anything that presents monetary value to other stakeholders?
When you take a look around the internets, the only company positioned to do this is Amazon - but it has to be an open standard that:
What Does this Innovation Look Like?
Distributed System - This wave will be about massive distribution of a service that harnesses demand, centralizes and then distributes it to all the stakeholders
Vertical Integration - This wave embraces the spirit of the internet - pushing development to take on the “Man”. In order to compete with larger, better financed, and highly efficient teams - the web needs to pull partners together and build a better ecosystem. Although the 2011 prevailing tech theory revolves around Apple Inc./iPhone controlled Apple AppStore for quality - this simply won’t exist in the web as a whole for the better part of 8 - 10 yrs.
Retailers need to communicate better with suppliers to maximize capitalizing on demand based on supply-based opportunities & brands need to leverage marketing & promotion to drive the retail & brand businesses together.
Integrated into workflows - don't make me log into another dashboard. The demand signaling product should push to Google Analytics (the fairly universal tool that everyone uses, even if they have more advanced analytics tools). This is a big limitation of Bitly in the fact that they aren't making data analysis easy for me by controlling my analytics within their product - I'll use your product more if you give me the data to put to work. The way that this tool is going to create value is by making data widely available and located in a place where people can actually see it & use it.
* The “traditional seasonal” approach is where product available for purchase at retail (i.e. what you see at the stores) is produced in two main production cycles - Spring/Summer & Fall/Winter.
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3. Infrastructure as a Service - The Missing Link
This gilded age of the consumer/mobile web has it roots in the commoditization of technical infrastructure that Amazon championed stemming from their CapEx investments from the early/mid-00s (what ultimately becomes Amazon EC2 through Amazon’s excess server capacity).** Now as the incredible technical developments of the web gave rise to Amazon EC2, the huge growth of E-Commerce will push the back-end infrastructure to innovate.
The world before Amazon EC2, tech startups were forced to engage in a massive CapEx build out. An article that beautifully illustrates this is Marc Andreessen’s Wall Street Journal OpEd - Why Software is Eating the World). This is ostensibly the same thing that is still happening in Online Retail & retail in general. The Major’s are building out the infrastructure:
Walmart Takes over Supplier Logistics - BusinessWeek or B-Net Article
Urban Outfitters Prepares to Grow Online - Internet Retailer
Macy's Breaks Ground on Fulfillment Center in WV - Internet Retailer
Now these retailers have hundreds (and in some cases thousands) of different brands. For example, Zappos has 312 Men’s Footwear brands ALONE and Walmart has something in the order of 50,000. There needs to be a scalable, easily implemented solution for the brands that the retailers sell.
Think about how beautiful Amazon EC2 load balances and effectively responds to traffic spikes. It also is extremely easy to implement - even a pretty JV coder like me can get an instance up and running without much fuss. There needs to be a player that delivers order fulfillment & inventory management (remember we already established how much larger E-Commerce is going to become) in a capacity that enables leveraging of economies of scale through services only an aggregated player can provide.
Now there are two main players that kinda do this:
1. Shipwire Fulfillment - Shipwire is a specialized E-Commerce Fulfillment company that lead the industry in formalizing a pricing structure & delivering 3rd party logistics services as a service. Although they are small and relatively new, they are hands down one of the market leaders in the space and on the right track. They need to drop prices considerably and flush out their model, but all things considered it’s a good start.
2. Amazon Fulfillment Services - Amazon is currently operating a fulfillment service, but it’s not dialed and it’s pretty expensive. With Amazon operating 13 Fulfillment facilities in the US, and opening 4 more (as of the week of Sept. 12 Amazon made in-roads to opening fulfillment facilities in CA - W00T!). If the server infrastructure buildout of the early 00s is emblematic of Amazon's future fulfillment capabilities in 5 years, then this could be in the innovation that the industry desperately needs.
The killer part about this is that there is already the physical infrastructure built - in every city there are 3PL (third-party logistics) warehouses that will store, pick-n-pack your orders. However, they don’t solve the critical aspect of inventory management.
Here is what the solution to this wave will look like:
Load Balancing Inventory Between Warehouses: By virtue of clarity in the demand signals, the new service can shift inventory from Warehouse A to Warehouse B (that’s located closer to the demand source) to drive cost efficiencies.
Long Haul Injection Shipping: The main profit center for United Parcel Service & FedEx is the volume of packages driven to any one location on any given day that allows them to combine hundreds of shipments into one large container. By virtue of aggregating hundreds of brands and coordinating the logistics, the entire ecosystem derives cost efficiencies from scale.
Great Clarity into the Supply Chain: A system like this will reinforce Wave 2 in that all players will better understand where their supply is and how to structure product promotion strategies accordingly.
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Wave 1: Deep Dive Investigation into Curation
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[Note: I want to define a couple of terms so we are all playing on the same level - here are some definitions that I am going to use:
Majors: The 800lb gorillas in Fashion E-Commerce like Nordstrom Bloomingdales (Macys), Saks Fifth Avenue, Net-A-Porter,Urban Outfitters. To get an idea of their scale:
Independents: These are the Online Retail / Fashion sites that are primarily focused on being boutiques -> they mainly sell the new, high-end consumer fashion. The main players in this space are RevolveClothing, Tobi, eModa (even though they suck and don’t pay their bills), and Karmaloop
Here are the push factors to why this trend will emerge:
1. Low Competitive Advantage in Product Offering
In the mid-late-00s the Majors (i.e. Macys, Bloomingdales, et al) were facing a problem - they all sold +/- the same brands, at the same price level, and were in the same locations - thereby commoditizing their entire retail segment by virtue of growth aspirations fueling homogenization (and thereby progressively destroying value proposition. During the Mid-00s consumption boom - the Majors all sold the same brands, focused on Jack Welch-Style Efficiencies & Synergies (like cutting customer service to increase profitability - http://on.wsj.com/nC98ZM, and ultimately destroyed any discernible value proposition that enabled them to be price setters in the industry. In the same manner, most fashion E-Commerce sites are in direct competition with the majors - offering the same brands and pretty much the same prices.
Back in the mid-00s the Major’s were still riding high on engendered brand positions & established customer mindshare (from the last 40 years of evolution - customers, only just maturing with the internet, still primarily held a mental association that “I go to Nordstrom to buy nice Clothes:). Most of these Major retailers simply didn’t understand the true threat that Zara & H&M posed to their core businesses - instantaneously responding to demand signals that delivers product in the emerging trend and at sufficient quantities that the customers wants.
Simply put - they had better product in the right places & the Macys and the Bloomingdales of the world could not compete (and arguably are still only in 2011 beginning to achieve substantive market progress in response to the massive changes in the macro-retail environment. Surprisingly, JCPenny is leading the charge through a fast fashion boutique approach with their Mango partnership.
(WSJ - Penny Introduces New Weaves of @Fashion Line )
Currently, most independent online fashion sites are falling victim to this same trend (that Major Department stores did in the mid-00s - commoditized product offering). The Independents’ (RevolveClothing.com or Tobi.com, or Karmaloop) compete with the Majors (Nordstrom.com, Bloomingdales.com, Net-a-Porter) - they have VERY similar product offerings in the consumer fashion space (i.e. not when it comes to High Fashion like Zegna, Loutboutin, Gucci, etc)
2. Portable & Effective Data Extraction Best Suited for the Smaller Players
Traditionally speaking, boutiques were a place that the shop owner knew who you were and was “the fashion expert” that provided some value add services (being in the know and having a relationship with the customer to make recommendations about purchases).
E-Commerce has exploded in the last 5-6 years as the process matured and more people have experience with it.
- The advantage of E-Commerce is the ability to emotionally engage your customer base by virtue of your smaller scale - it’s a lot easier to apply qualitative customers insights that fosters your customer development strategy
3. Buying Traffic Sucks! Play to your Strengths
- Google AdWords drives significant traffic to the fashion retailers & the smaller guys simply don’t have the financial resources to compete.
- The big boys have crazy, advanced tools, like Marin Software’s Pay Per Click Management Solution. In addition, they have the staff & the tools to blow the little guys out of the water.
- The Independent Players won’t have the ad-buying budgets, highly specialized Pay Per Click or data analysis staff, or advanced tools to win against the big boys. Even if you do have some of it, they major fashion sites will simply copy your strategy. For example, some of Internet Retailers most recent estimates have paid Search Taking up a significant portion of ad budgets:
4. Understand Your Position & Embrace Strengths to Maximize Value Proposition
- Leverage your small scale to have a direct communication strategy that emotionally connects consumers to the E-Commerce channel.
- Just think about it - trying to effectively segment an email list to 1m people (like let’s say Nordstrom's) versus an smaller competitor who is segmenting a 4k email list is completely different. The smaller chains have the luxury of dealing with 000s of visitors/orders/customers versus the majors like Nordies that has 000,000s - use this to your advantage. For Example, a smaller player has the considerable strength of:
Over the course of 1 month, 5 “stylists” (who are most likely already on the team as customer service reps) would add build out profiles for each customer It would take 5-mins a day & be a rather fun exercise for customer service (who have the most customer insights about people) to say “hey we need your help in building out “who you “think” these customers are - to be more effective at reaching them” Everyone loves to people watch, we are now just applying that past time to building profiles that will help the company more effectively target customers This approach also engages the EEs of the independents in a new capacity - They are contributing insights that value a different range of a traditional customer service’s skill sets. Thereby (according to Herzberg’s Hygeniene Principles) will lead to greater job satisfaction & productivity (good for org. culture!)
- Once you have built customer profiles over a couple of months, you can have more insights about how to segment an email list to effectively engage & communicate with your customers.
5. The Big Boys in Online Retail Are Swamped in Data
- Many of you know, that I have a personal vendetta against the “big boys” and believe that they scale inherently their ability to innovate.
- The big boys have xx millions of visitors per month & trying to add customer insights requires such a significant investment that it’s really not possible at scale
- As a smaller player you are at a significant advantage to have substantive insights that drive profound impacts on your product offering.
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NOTE: I have revised and edited this article dozens of times over the past year & expanded on several sections to the point where this answer is 32+ pages long. For your convenience, there is a PDF version that you can purchase $10 (think about it like buying a beer) that I keep up to date with new research, charts, stats, and trend evolutions. Please check out:
Fail Harder's Three Future Waves of Innovation in Fashion & Apparel E-Commerce on Fail-Harder.com
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e55f01104a36c475b87512adc00eac45 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewcatellier/2020/11/24/sean-connerys-rolex-submariner-could-follow-the-same-path-as-the-paul-newman-daytona/ | Sean Connery’s Rolex Submariner Could Follow The Same Path As The Paul Newman Daytona | Sean Connery’s Rolex Submariner Could Follow The Same Path As The Paul Newman Daytona
A 1969 Rolex 'Red' submariner PA Images via Getty Images
A few weeks ago, famed Scottish actor Sean Connery passed away at the age of 90. Connery was best-known for his role as the original James Bond, a role that would go on to define not just his career but an entire film franchise. However, Connery can also be credited with the popularity of one of the world’s most iconic watches, the Rolex Submariner.
Now, if you’re a Bond fan, you’re probably well aware that Connery wore the Submariner. But what you might not know is that it was never supposed to be that way. As a matter of fact, in the Ian Fleming novels, Bond wears a Rolex Oyster, not a Submariner. This makes sense, if you think about it. Bond is a spy, and the Oyster is a formal, but understated watch. The Submariner is eye-catching. Not only that, but in the early 1960s, tool watches had not yet caught on as a fashion trend. The Submariner was a rare watch, used only by actual divers.
Sean Connery as James Bond Getty Images
But on the first day of filming, someone in the props department had failed to get a watch for Connery. Director Terence Young was willing to settle for a Rolex, any Rolex, and someone on the beach was wearing a Submariner. A legend was born, and while Bond has worn Seikos in the 80s, Agent 007 has returned to the Submariner again and again.
The original Bond Submariner sold for $567,000 in 2018. That’s pretty impressive, but its value is likely to increase in the future. What might we expect? If we’re going to make any comparisons, let’s look at the most expensive watch ever sold: the Paul Newman Rolex Daytona.
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The $17.75 Million Watch
On October 26th, 2017, a world record was set that still stands today. Paul Newman’s Rolex Daytona “Exotic” became the most expensive wristwatch in the world, when it sold at auction for a whopping $17.75 million, including dealer’s fees. So, what was it about this particular watch that allowed it to fetch such an impressive price?
The first is that the “Exotic” variant of the Daytona is already an exceedingly rare watch. While it was produced from 1963 to 1988, it was a slow-selling variant. As a result, only between two and three thousand of them were ever produced. If you want to get very technical, the exact watch, the Ref. 6239, is the original Daytona Exotic, and was only produced from 1963 to 1969. You can expect to pay north of $250,000 for any model of Daytona with the Exotic dial, much less a Ref. 6239.
Paul Newman Daytona Black Dial MediaNews Group via Getty Images
Paul Newman’s watch in particular also gained value from his celebrity status. Newman was one of the biggest stars of his day, and he wore his Daytona in many publicity photos. Like Elvis’ suit or Jimi Hendrix’s guitar, there’s something to be said for a high-quality item that was also owned by a one-of-a-kind individual.
Related to this was the buzz surrounding the auction itself. News of the sale merited a write-up in the Wall Street Journal, and it was all anyone was talking about in horology magazines. This publicity attracted a ton of attention from wealthy collectors. In fact, the second bid of $10 million was too rich for anyone inside the New York auction house. The rest of the bidding was done over the phone.
What Does This Mean for Connery’s Submariner?
Connery’s Submariner has a couple of things in common with Newman’s Daytona. The Submariner Ref. 6538 isn’t quite as rare as the Daytona 6239, but it’s close. On today’s market, a 6538 will sell for just over $150,000, making it one of the more expensive vintage watches out there.
But Connery’s watch was historic in one way Newman’s was not. While Newman put the Daytona “Exotic” on the map, it still remains a niche watch. Connery helped drive the popularity of dive watches at a critical point in watchmaking history. Tool watches started to gain popularity as fashion accessories just as the quartz revolution provided cheaper, more accurate alternatives.
Could this historic value mean that Connery’s Rolex Submariner will beat Newman’s record? Only time will tell.
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7e99162aaadca0f3b97810d578bdc59b | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewcatellier/2020/11/25/the-great-debate-rolex-daytona-vs-zenith-el-primero/ | The Great Debate: Rolex Daytona Vs Zenith El Primero | The Great Debate: Rolex Daytona Vs Zenith El Primero
WatchReviewBlog.com
This is quite a popular comparison, and lots of variables come into play when comparing the iconic Rolex Daytona and the historic Zenith El Primero. I will say before we even begin, that the stainless steel Daytona is currently unobtainable at retail price from the Rolex authorized dealer, but it is certainly readily available for purchase at a premium from grey market dealers. The El Primero on the other hand is widely available at authorized dealers and can even be had for a slight discount from the grey market.
With that out of the way lets jump into the specifics of both of these watches, and take a look at why watch enthusiasts compare these models so vigorously.
Why the Comparison
So whats the big deal between these watches? After all they’re offered from two completely different brands and and are embroidered with two completely different model names. Well, with the apparent outer design differences aside these two watches were originally running on a very similar mechanical movement, created by Zenith and named 3019 PHC which has now been re-named to simply the "El Primero" movement. This was the first ever fully integrated automatic chronograph movement for a wristwatch revealed in 1969. There's been an ongoing debate about who actually created the first ever automatic chronograph because Seiko was actually in the process of creating one at the same time as Zenith, but it was most likely Zenith who came out with the first working prototype.
Zenith Defy 'El Primero' © 2017 Bloomberg Finance LP
The first of anything is usually not the best version because there are usually plenty of areas that can be improved on, and this seems to be the case with the El Primero movement. While Zenith was the first to create it, the final iteration of the mechanics was extremely complex and almost over engineered in a way. Lots of moving parts and unnecessarily fragile areas of the movement can cause issues in the long run, and servicing the movement is extremely complex, often requiring the full removal of the movement in order to fix simple issues.
This is where Rolex steps into the scene and decides to simplify things in order to create a more efficient movement for their own watch, the Daytona.
Early version of the Daytona MediaNews Group via Getty Images
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The early models of the Rolex Daytona used the in-house calibre 4030, which was almost a replica of the El Primero calibre 400 movement, a near re-issue of the original 3019PHC. As time went on Rolex began to make tweaks to the El Primero engineering. They essentially created an improved version of the El Primero, one that has less parts and that is easier to service - holding up to the rigours of daily wear much better than the original movement.
Exterior Design Choice
One area that these watches differ quite a bit is the actual exterior design. While they are both chronographs of course, sporting the essential functions like side pushers and timing sub-dials, the non functional decorative aspects of todays modern examples are quite different.
Zenith El Primero Tourbillon WireImage
The El Primero is offered in a variety of sizes and styles, with the Chronomaster available in a 38mm and a 42mm, and the Revival in 37mm. Depending on which size you choose will determine the location of the date function on the Chronomaster, which by the way the Daytona lacks entirely. Some chronograph purists will actually prefer the Daytona simply because of the lack of date function and overall dial simplicity, allowing zero distraction away from the main task of timing.
While both models have the side pushers, the El Primero retains the classic pusher style and the now modern Daytona has incorporated screw down pushers. The screw down pushers on the Daytona may provide an extra level of security especially against water, but they do make the use of the chronograph cumbersome to operate.
Rolex Daytona Getty Images
The dials on both models are very different, with the El Primero offering variable shades of sunburst silver with multi coloured sub-dials and even skeleton versions. The Daytona keeps it minimalist with the choice of either a white or black dial on the stainless steel version with contrasting sub-dials and the only splash of colour being the Daytona wording inscribed on the dial in red. Other dial colours are available on precious metal variants. The Daytona is also only offered in one size, and that being a classic 40mm according to Rolex. If you measure the Daytona with callipers the actual size is more around the 39mm mark, with most enthusiast claiming the Daytona wears small. Interestingly enough both models have kept very similarly styled hour and minute hands with very little change through each iteration dating back to the original models.
Which Should you Choose?
It all comes down to personal preference, and which piece of history you'd prefer to adorn your wrist. If you find the history of Zenith's venture to creating the first automatic chronograph fascinating and you want the original, then the El Primero may be the model for you. You may simply want to consider the aesthetics of both watches and try them on to see how they suit your wrist.
If you like idea of Rolex's efficiency and incremental improvements throughout each reference the Daytona may be the one for you. The Daytona is also known to be a store of value due to the incredible amount of demand for this model and its fame attributed to Paul Newman.
Either way I recommend visiting your local Authorized Dealer to try on both models which is always the best way to decide on a watch purchase.
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e5d38bc5ea431c2c25eee9c3cef2a036 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewcatellier/2020/11/27/holiday-gift-guide-2020-the-best-microbrand-watches-to-look-out-for/ | Holiday Gift Guide 2020: The Best Microbrand Watches To Look Out For | Holiday Gift Guide 2020: The Best Microbrand Watches To Look Out For
WatchReviewBlog.com
Black Friday is here and the biggest shopping time of the year has just begun. For watch enthusiast that means big discounts for some of their favourite brands. Sometimes the biggest discounts and value purchases can be with microbrands, since these brands are very value centric often out performing big brand names while also keeping the style unique and on trend. Let’s take a look at some of this years outstanding microbrand watch models that could be excellent personal purchases or gift ideas for the holidays in 2020.
Undone Aero
WatchReviewBlog.com
Undone watches is making incredible progress in terms of building its brand reach for a company that is only two years old. There’s a reason for that, just take a look at their Aero model with the “scientific” cream coloured dial, syringe shaped hands and 24 jewel Seiko NH35A automatic movement. This is a brand that truly listens to its customer base, frequently launching new models with new features and highly desired retro designs.
Isotope Goutte d’Eau Orange
WatchReviewBlog.com
Dive watches are incredibly popular at the moment and Isotope has certainly capitalized on this with their own version of a 200 meter diver. Behold the Goutte d’Eau Orange, an ultra cool watch with a vintage compressor style layout and layered sandwich dial. The cherry on top has to be its very wearable size, coming in at a comfortable 40mm case size and 13.3mm thickness.
SYE Mot1on Automatic Chronograph
WatchReviewBlog.com
SYE coming out of Paris, France has their gorgeous Mot1on racing chronograph on offer. The dial has a nice grey hue with two chronograph sub-dials on the left and right side for timing minutes and hours. The SYE Mot1on also features a date at the 6’oclock position and a blue chronograph seconds hand. One of its highlights happens to be the integrated strap with a deployant clasp for quick fastening and removal of the watch. Be warned though that the strap is not interchangeable with regular straps, only those offered by SYE will fit.
Zero West CR-1 Cafe Racer
WatchReviewBlog.com
The Zero West CR-1 Cafe Racer is for those with larger wrists and a passion for racing. This British inspired race watch is very large with a case size of 44mm, but it’s beautifully finished with a high polished look. The CR-1 is also sporting a classic mechanical movement known as the Valjoux 7750, quite famous in the watch industry for being extremely reliable.
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Hervé Alvia
Herve Alvia inside the WATCHPOD travel case WatchReviewBlog.com
If you’re after something a little more classic looking the Hervé Alvia could be the one. This is a watch with a restrained aesthetic clearly evident by its simple time only dial and smooth contouring case shape. The case size is only 38mm large and 12mm thick making it one of the most comfortable watches on our list. The Alvia is no slouch spec wise either as it has a domed sapphire crystal, SLC1 luminescence, and a Seiko NH35 automatic movement. Sometimes less is more and this is an excellent example.
Biatec Golden Ratio LE 03
WatchReviewBlog.com
The Biatec Golden Ratio is a piece of microbrand art for the wrist designed in Slovakia by Michal Stasko. This is a visually stunning watch that is truly pushing the limits of design and creativity in the microbrand world of watchmaking. Starting from the center of the dial a Fibonacci spiral emerges giving off a sense of motion even with the lack of a second hand. This is a watch that needs to be handled and worn in person to truly appreciate.
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7864cac200797f20dc9cb61948f2bc0a | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewcatellier/2020/12/26/social-medias-influence-on-the-watch-industry-artificial-popularity/?ss=watches | Social Media's Influence On The Watch Industry: Artificial Popularity | Social Media's Influence On The Watch Industry: Artificial Popularity
© 2019 Bloomberg Finance LP
At the 2019 SIHH industry conference, Audemars Piguet debuted the CODE 11.59 watch collection. The CODE 11.59 collection had been in the works for years, and was supposed to be the watchmaker’s biggest launch since the 1970s. In an effort to attract a newer, younger customer base, AP had eschewed traditional marketing. In the leadup to the conference, the watch was not given out to traditional media. Instead, AP went with a social media approach, and paid a number of influencers to promote their new line.
When the press and the public actually received the watch, it was a major disappointment. Horology press used words like “boring” and “bland,” not exactly the words you want to hear when you’re debuting a new luxury product. Worse yet was the damage to the brand’s reputation for honest marketing.
As it turns out, there had been a lot of hype leading up to the CODE 11.59. Driven by rave reviews from social media influencers, customers and collectors were dying to get their hands on one. When it came out that all of those rave reviews were paid for, while traditional press had not been given the opportunity for a review, people were understandably upset.
But this problem isn’t unique to Audemars Piguet. In fact, it’s been an issue for many watchmakers, and for the broader consumer market at large.
Technical Products, Unqualified Reviewers
getty
Social media influencers, generally speaking, aren’t watch experts. For example, suppose a watchmaker pays a popular fashion YouTuber to promote one of their new watches. The fashion YouTuber probably knows a thing or two about how to dress. After all, they decided to make a fashion YouTube channel, so it’s something they’re already passionate about.
AFP via Getty Images
But just because they know whether or not a watch looks nice, or pairs well with a particular outfit, doesn’t mean they know the first thing about watches. Do they understand the history behind the brand? The function of the complications? The reliability of the movement? All of these are just as important as how the watch looks.
Horological media and real horology enthusiasts actually understand what makes a five figure watch worth five figures. If a few qualified people had gotten an early look at the CODE 11.59, Audemars Piguet could have avoided a fiasco.
No Transparency
Another problem with paid influencers is that they often don’t disclose that they’re paid. This is illegal in many countries, but enforcement is virtually nonexistent. No-one is actually going out and filing criminal complaints against YouTubers for failing to disclose their paid reviews.
This creates an artificial sense of popularity in a way that traditional marketing doesn’t. When you see a traditional ad, you know it’s advertising. Similarly, when you see a trusted horology reporter write a rave review, you know the watch is actually good. Unqualified, paid influencers blur the line between marketing and honest reporting, which increases popularity for watches that shouldn’t be so hard to get. If you’re wondering why it’s so hard to find a Rolex Submariner Hulk, Rolex Pepsi GMT, Stainless Steel Daytona, or Patek Aquanaut, this is part of the reason.
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da12b9201107703dc7243114c2dbedfa | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewdepaula/2011/01/26/smart-fortwo-electric-drive-tiny-car-humongous-price-tag/ | Smart Fortwo Electric Drive: Tiny Car, Humongous Price Tag | Smart Fortwo Electric Drive: Tiny Car, Humongous Price Tag
Mindy Kimball with her Smart Fortwo Electric Drive - Image by Nick Wass/AP Images for Smart USA
An electric Smart car is on the streets.
Smart USA has delivered the first of 250 Fortwo Electric Drive cars as part of an early-adopter leasing program. The lease rate is $599 a month for a coupe and $649 a month for a cabriolet, not including a security deposit, tax, title, license and dealer fees.
Smart's lease price factors in a $7,500 federal subsidy for electric vehicles. State or local subsidies might be available to further reduce the cost.
Mini charges $850 a month to lease an experimental electric powered version of its Cooper, called the Mini E, which like the Smart Fortwo, only seats two occupants.
Drivers interested in owning an electric car must also factor in the cost to have their home inspected by a certified electrician and, if necessary, pay to have a circuit added. This can cost anywhere from $300 to $3,000, sources say, depending on where you live and what type of work needs to be done.
At a rate of $599 a month for the required four-year lease term, owners will pay a minimum of $28,752 for a Smart Fortwo Electric Drive.
The Nissan Leaf electric car, which seats five instead of just two, starts at $26,200, including the federal subsidy. It is more powerful, more comfortable and can go farther on a single charge than the Smart Fortwo.
UPDATE: Rick Burgoise, director of communications for Smart USA, said that comparing the price of the Smart Fortwo Electric Drive to the Nissan Leaf is like comparing apples to oranges, because the Fortwo is still under development and the Leaf is a production vehicle. The production version of the Fortwo Electric Drive slated to go on sale in 2012 will be a better comparison in terms of pricing, he said. But that car is still 18 months out, so he couldn't give specifics.
The first Fortwo Electric Drive owner, Mindy Kimball, 36, of Silver Spring, Md., is a major in the United States Army and volunteers at The Climate Project, a nonprofit associated with Al Gore that educates on climate change. She is also an active member of the Electric Vehicle Association of Washington, D.C. Her background is exactly what Smart is looking for as it selects Fortwo Electric Drive owners: They must have enough knowledge and interest in electric cars to act as ambassadors.
Besides private individuals like Kimball, Smart is targeting companies, municipalities and other organizations willing to commit to a four year/40,000 mile lease. Geographically, the company is focusing on areas that already have charging infrastructure in place or have federal grants to get it up and running.
The Smart Fortwo Electric Drive uses an electric motor powered by lithium-ion batteries. On paper, it’s supposed to be able to travel up to 98 miles on a full charge. But in combined city and highway driving, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates the range to be 63 miles.
Using a 220-volt outlet, the batteries take 8 hours to fully charge. They take 3.5 hours to charge from a state of 20% to 80% capacity.
Smart Fortwo Electric Drive - Image by Matthew de Paula
Last fall, I did a short test drive of the electric Smart Fortwo in the photo to the right and found it to be just fine for basic transport. It accelerates like a normal car, but when it gets up to 40 mph or so, the power plateaus -- push the accelerator to the floor, and it just slowly picks up speed.
Other than the propulsion system, the Smart Fortwo Electric Drive behaved just like a regular Fortwo, which is to say that the ride is a bit choppy, but surprisingly stable for such a small vehicle. You don’t feel like you’re driving a clown car, but the interior isn’t as quiet or accomodating as that of the Nissan Leaf.
Smart will use its early adopter program, which it calls "Team 250," as a field trial to test and improve the electric-drive technology, much like Mini has been doing over the past couple of years with its own lease program for the Mini E electric car.
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1364fbb5763695ad308c86f276fb8800 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewdepaula/2011/05/28/natural-gas-could-be-the-next-big-thing-but-probably-wont/ | Natural Gas Could Be The Next Big Thing For Cars, But Probably Won't Be | Natural Gas Could Be The Next Big Thing For Cars, But Probably Won't Be
2011 Honda Civic GX - Image by Matthew de Paula
The Honda Civic GX, which is just like a regular Civic except it’s powered by natural gas, is a great idea ahead of its time.
The United States is sitting, literally and figuratively, on hundreds of trillions of cubic feet of untapped natural gas, with no way of getting at it right now. So as much as any of us would love to make use of this clean-burning, readymade fuel source that works with today’s engine technology, we can’t. At least not without some serious inconveniences, like having to relocate to live near one of the 830 fueling stations spread across the country; or else pay $4,000 for a home filling station—assuming your neighborhood even has natural-gas pipelines, and you can afford to have your car sit idle for nearly half a day as it slowly gases up.
In her post on the forward-thinking Civic GX, which Honda recently announced will go on sale nationwide after only limited availability in previous years, Hannah Elliott pinpoints the crux of the conundrum this car creates:
"The real issue here isn’t about the performance or looks of the car at all, it’s about deciding whether or not natural gas could and should be a viable energy source."
Well, natural gas certainly could be a viable energy source, particularly because cars would have to change very little to run on it. The question of whether it should be an energy source for automobiles is one that I’m glad I don’t have to answer. Because before I started digging into the details of this resource, I naively assumed that indeed it should.
Americans consume an average of 22 trillion cubic feet of natural gas annually.
But the more one learns about the realities of our country’s natural-gas reserves, the more it becomes apparent how little anyone, even experts, really know about how much of it there is and how to access it. For example, the government has various classifications for the types of natural gas it thinks have been discovered. “Proved reserves” are those that everyone agrees “with reasonable certainty to be recoverable in future years from known reservoirs under existing economic and operating conditions,” according to U.S. Energy Information Administration. The EIA pegged proved reserves at 284 trillion cubic feet as of the end of 2009, following an increase of 11 percent that year.
There are also “undiscovered, unproved and unconventional” natural gas reserves, which the EIA puts at—get this—2,587 trillion cubic feet as of January 2008. This is the stuff that experts think might be beneath the surface, or definitely is but we have no way of accessing it.
These numbers might go up in the future, as new reserves are discovered, or new ways of getting at previously unreachable quantities are invented—or they might go down, as we consume more and more of this irreplaceable resource. Who knows?
What we do know is that Americans consume an average of 22 trillion cubic feet of natural gas per year, according to the EIA. And based on yet another educated guess, this time by the nonprofit Potential Gas Committee, the future supply of the United States’ natural gas reserves stands at 1,898 trillion cubic feet, which means at the current rate of consumption, it will all be gone in 86 years.
Now that doesn’t leave much hope for burning natural gas at an even faster rate by using it to power cars like the Honda Civic GX. But perhaps new "undiscovered, unproved and unconventional" reserves will help offset increased consumption in future decades.
Again, who knows?
More Info:
U.S. Energy Information Administration
Potential Gas Committee
NaturalGas.org
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18c57953f2362fac44276d17c2161929 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewdepaula/2012/06/30/soon-we-might-spray-paint-batteries-onto-any-surface/ | Soon We Might Spray-Paint Batteries Onto Any Surface | Soon We Might Spray-Paint Batteries Onto Any Surface
Could batteries like this one become a relic of the past? (Photo credit: Sh4rp_i)
Scientists at Rice University in Houston have invented a spray paint that functions as a battery.
The scientists turned lithium-ion battery materials, such as copper, into a sprayable liquid form, which can be applied to any surface and turn it into an energy storage device. They used glass, stainless steel, ceramic tile, flexible polymer sheets and even a mug to demonstrate how well the paint works.
The downside—and it’s a big one—is that engineering lithium-ion battery materials into paint is hazardous and costly, so applying this method on a large scale isn’t currently possible. But perhaps less toxic battery compounds could be explored.
The promise for the future is tantalizing. Every battery-powered device could be affected, from cell phones to cameras to electric cars.
Consider how this method of battery construction might benefit automakers, which struggle to fit large battery packs into hybrids and electric cars. Hypothetically speaking, body panels already used on a vehicle could be treated with the battery-like spray paint—potentially replacing, or at least reducing, the size of bulky battery packs used on current hybrids and electric vehicles.
There are issues that would have to be worked out though, such as what would happen when the sprayed-on batteries no longer hold a charge. Perhaps they would have to be applied only to panels that could be easily swapped out, such as interior trim panels.
Another hypothetical scenario might have the roof, hood and trunk lid made of two layers: solar cells on top, spray-on batteries on the bottom. Solar power would be used to keep the batteries charged. And maybe just the layer of batteries could be replaced when it no longer holds a charge.
It’s all speculation at this point. Still, there’s no question spray-on batteries have the potential to revolutionize energy storage.
One experiment, conducted by the scientists in Rice University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, featured nine ceramic tiles with sprayed-on batteries. Fully charged, the nine battery tiles powered 40 red LEDs for more than six hours.
One of the tiles had solar cells on the other side, to show that solar power could be used to charge the battery.
In another experiment, the scientists stenciled the battery-like paint onto a mug, spelling out the word “rice.” This was done to illustrate the virtually limitless forms and shapes that could be created.
Creating the battery actually requires several layers of the specially engineered paint, with each layer containing different material and contributing a necessary function.
Read more about the work on sprayable batteries at Rice University here.
Join me on Twitter @matthewdepaula
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6ea5e1d55ce11cf6ac9e2f4a2d36d007 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewdepaula/2012/12/21/top-10-most-popular-car-colors/ | Top 10 Most Popular Car Colors | Top 10 Most Popular Car Colors
The pearl white paint of this 2013 Tesla Model S costs an extra $1,500 because it requires multiple... [+] layers to create its deep finish. Click the photo to see a slideshow with the full top 10 list of most popular colors for new cars. (Credit: Tesla Motors)
In a world full of color, most people prefer black and white—at least when it comes to cars.
For a second consecutive year, white is the most popular color for new cars, according to the 2012 DuPont Automotive Color Popularity Report. Black, silver, gray and red round out the top five.
“White especially has been a constant top runner since really 1998,” says Nancy Lockhart, DuPont color marketing manager. “Silver had its reign from 2001 to 2006 as being the leading color and now black has come up as being the leading color in certain segments, especially luxury.”
Both black and white are seen as denoting status, luxury and quality, she says.
In Pictures: Hot New Cars in the Top 10 Hottest Colors of the Year
Trends in the electronics industry had a big impact on car colors over the past decade. For example, silver became the color of choice for cell phones, computers and home entertainment systems in the early to mid-2000s. Consequently, it also became a prominent car color. “It was a color that said, ‘Look, I have a modern piece of technology,’” Lockhart says.
Then, in the mid-2000s and beyond, Apple made a splash with white iBooks, iMacs, iPhones and iPods and helped establish white as a hip color of status. Thus, Apple inadvertently helped propel white to prominence in the auto industry.
But it’s not just electronics that have an impact on car colors. The use of browns and beiges in home decor is influencing automakers too, Lockhart says. These earthy tones rank as seventh on the list of most popular car colors this year. They account for 5 percent of the automotive market, both globally and in North America.
Green is also having a resurgence lately, but still only accounts for 1 percent of the world automotive market and 2 percent in the United States. It ranks ninth in popularity.
“Those colors that may be lower popularity, they get the most recognition,” Lockhart says. “More people notice them because all of these neutral colors kind of pass them by—white, black, silver, gray. They kind of go unnoticed now. And some of these lower popularity colors are getting more news.”
Still, white, silver, gray and black vehicles vastly outnumber cars of other colors, not just in the United States, but the world over. Collectively, they account for 76 percent of the automotive market. But that could change.
“It’s a trend I think people are getting a little tired of, because we’ve had so many of these neutral colors on the road,” Lockhart says.
Keep Reading >
Benltey offers a vivid hue on its Continental GT Speed called Apple Green. Click the photo to see... [+] more new cars in the top 10 most popular colors. (Credit: Bentley)
At least they’re getting more interesting with advances in paint technology that allow manufacturers to use multiple layers to create shimmery silvers, three-dimensional blacks and pearly whites.
“Colors were more flat 20 or 30 years ago,” Lockhart says. “So we now have a lot more what we call ‘travel,’ where a color looks very bright from one angle and dark from another.”
This trend is starting to spread from neutral tones to bright colors, like yellow and gold. Using white primer as a base underneath the paint to make hues of all kinds brighter is another trend on the rise.
In Pictures: Hot New Cars in the Top 10 Hottest Colors of the Year
DuPont puts together a palette of new colors and presents them to car designers every year at a show for them to mull over and consider incorporating into their lineups. This gives the company insight into what colors consumers will see more of in the future, and Lockhart shared some of the changes that are brewing.
“Typically, it takes anywhere from two to four years for a color to be developed and processed. So we really have to think far in advance in order to get these colors into the designers’ hands so they have time to be developed and made for production,” Lockhart says.
One area of interest for the auto industry is trying to reinterpret colors associated with fuel-efficient vehicles. The intent is to freshen up the colors, but still connote the idea of being “green.”
“When you look at hybrid vehicles at auto shows, you see a lot of bright whites, you see a lot of light blue and maybe some light greens. So we tried to take this a step further and modernize this color group,” Lockhart says. DuPont came up with muted metallic hues that have hints of blue and other cool tones. The new colors also contain varying degrees of metallic flakes.
For the luxury segment, DuPont developed a bold bronze and jewel-like green, the latter of which happens to be similar to the emerald color that Pantone, another paint company, recently unveiled as its color of the year for 2013. Unlike DuPont, which focuses on the auto industry, Pantone focuses primarily on the fashion and home decor industries, where its color of the year is seen as a trendsetter.
The rankings in DuPont’s Automotive Color Popularity Report are based on production numbers from the automakers. In other words, the number of vehicles manufactured in each color for the 2012 model year determines where on the list that color turns up. Prior to white’s two-year streak in the top spot, silver had been the most popular color for 2010.
DuPont announced earlier this year that it will sell its Performance Coatings division to alternative asset manager The Carlyle Group for $4.9 billion in cash.
After the sale, expected to close in the first quarter of 2013, Performance Coatings will still develop colors and paint for cars. DuPont will be out of that business, but will continue to develop technologically advanced products for the automotive industry, focusing on lightweight materials, environmentally friendly refrigerants, bio-based seat fabrics, and biofuels.
Follow me on Twitter @matthewdepaula
Gallery: Top 10 Most Popular Car Colors 10 images View gallery
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cfc1f1e88900fd07c7c61fba5ee662af | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewdepaula/2013/02/26/2014-jeep-cherokee-polarizes-with-new-design/ | Jeep Revives Cherokee For 2014 With Polarizing New Design | Jeep Revives Cherokee For 2014 With Polarizing New Design
Gallery: In Pictures: The 2014 Jeep Cherokee 8 images View gallery
Jeep is bringing back the Cherokee, a nameplate it hasn’t used in North America for more than a decade. It will adorn a new crossover that represents a big departure for the brand in terms of styling.
The 2014 Jeep Cherokee, which replaces the lackluster Liberty in the lineup, makes its debut at the New York International Auto Show in late March, but the design is already stirring up controversy.
“The evolution from the old, boxy Cherokee to the current Liberty and now to this has been pretty stunning in terms of the shape-shifting that we’ve seen,” says Mike Wall, auto analyst with IHS Automotive, a consulting firm in Northville, Mich.
The original full-size Cherokee, sold from 1974 to 1983 and known to insiders as the SJ series, was one of the very first sport utility vehicles. A downsized version, called the XJ series by Jeep enthusiasts, replaced it in 1984 and lasted until 2001 with few changes in between. It is exalted among off-road enthusiasts for its rugged capabilities and simple, handsome design.
The compact Liberty that replaced the Cherokee in 2002 is another story. It never quite lived up to its predecessor’s reputation, partly because it simply lacked the Cherokee’s rustic charm. Now, the 2014 Jeep Cherokee fills the void left by the Liberty, discontinued after the 2012 model year, and goes in an entirely different direction.
The new Cherokee retains the brand’s trademark front grille with seven vertical slats, but that’s about all its bulbous front end has in common with other Jeeps. “This is going to be polarizing, no question,” Wall says of the radical design change.
In Pictures: The 2014 Jeep Cherokee
The lights, in particular, have a unique look. Small trapezoidal headlights are set low, toward the bottom of the grille. Orange and white turn signals look like angry eyebrows above the headlights, while small fog lamps are recessed into the lower bumper.
Considering how much of a departure this new look is for the brand, Jeep is likely trying to broaden its appeal and attract buyers that normally wouldn’t consider its vehicles, Wall says. “I do think they’re trying to carve out a niche with some other demographics, whether it’s a more youthful buyer or perhaps a female buyer.”
The 2014 Jeep Cherokee probably won’t appeal to the typical Wrangler or Grand Cherokee fan, though, and not just because of the styling: It lacks the rugged underpinnings of its predecessors. That means it won’t be a workhorse capable of heavy-duty towing and hauling or serious off-roading. “It’s much more akin to a soft-roader, for lack of a better term,” Wall says.
Jeep does use the expression "no compromise" to describe the new Cherokee in the brief press release announcing its debut, which implies that it will have at least some off-road capability. "The question is, will it get that 'trail rated' badge as an option," Wall says, referring to the rating Jeep gives vehicles it has engineered to withstand the abuse of the treacherous Rubicon Trail, a 22-mile-long route in the Sierra Nevada mountains where it conducts testing. "They may be able to thread the needle with that, but it is a different vehicle than the Wrangler."
Jeep is not the only manufacturer to water down its SUVs of late. Ford and Nissan have already done so with the Explorer and Pathfinder, respectively. This follows a trend where automakers are replacing robust, truck-based SUVs with lighter, more fuel-efficient, car-based crossovers.
The upshot is that the 2014 Jeep Cherokee will ride better on the road and will see improvements in fuel economy of more than 45 percent compared to the outgoing Liberty, according to Chrysler, Jeep’s parent company. (Chrysler, in turn, is now owned by Fiat Group .)
The Jeep Cherokee first launched as a 1974 model, shown here. It was basically a two-door version of... [+] the Jeep Wagoneer, which dated back to 1963. (Credit: Jeep)
The Liberty’s six-cylinder engine averaged a low 17 to 18 miles per gallon, according to Environmental Protection Agency estimates, depending on whether it was paired with two-wheel drive or four-wheel drive. Chrysler has not released details about the engines for the 2014 Cherokee.
“The big question in general would be why Jeep didn’t go with a completely new name for this thing, because it is such a marked departure from the previous Cherokee,” Wall says.
One reason could be that the company wants to play off the heritage of the nameplate to bolster the brand. Plus, Wall points out that the Liberty was already called the Cherokee in other markets outside the United States, so using the name fits with Chrysler’s current focus on creating cars with global appeal.
“It’s interesting that you’re seeing them take chances on the design side,” Wall says. “It won’t necessarily fit with everybody’s tastes, especially the Jeep fans who like that traditional, boxy look of the old Cherokee and Grand Cherokee. But an argument can be made that Jeep will still be able to support those traditional buyers with other offerings as it tries to move into other areas of market.”
After its unveiling at the New York auto show, the 2014 Jeep Cherokee is expected go on sale in the third quarter. Chrysler says it won't release any technical details about the Cherokee ahead of the auto show.
Though pricing has not been announced, Wall says he expects the Cherokee to be priced close to the 2012 Liberty, which started at $23,395.
Get a closer look at the new Cherokee and its predecessors:
Gallery: In Pictures: The 2014 Jeep Cherokee 8 images View gallery
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47cc6662c4630efb4dda832b49017b6a | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewdepaula/2013/02/28/paintball-wielding-audi-wagons-duke-it-out-in-viral-video/ | Paintball-Wielding Audi Wagons Duke It Out In Viral Video | Paintball-Wielding Audi Wagons Duke It Out In Viral Video
Audi featured its RS 4 Avant in a viral video that pitted two of the high-performance wagons against... [+] each other in an epic paintball duel.
A Chevrolet Spark parachuting out of a plane and a Mini Cooper doing a back flip off a snowboard ramp are a couple of recent examples of viral videos created by automakers to spur interest in their cars. As impressive as those are, Audi might just have outdone them with a new video that pits two 2013 RS 4 Avant wagons against each other in an epic paintball fight.
It’s called “Ultimate Paintball Duel." The action takes place inside a decommissioned aircraft hanger. Both cars have a paintball gun mounted to the hood and a remote switch in the cabin for the driver to fire it.
A white Audi RS 4 Avant shoots yellow paint balls. A black one shoots blue paint balls.
The two cars start out with their rear bumpers practically touching. Once they peel away, mayhem ensues.
Black racks up an early lead with multiple hits before unleashing a streak of blue paint from its tailpipe, which scores big by causing White to skid out of control. But White retaliates by returning fire and dropping a yellow paint grenade that makes a direct hit.
The winning move comes as White lures Black toward two large obstacles in the middle of the hanger, narrowly avoiding them. Black isn’t so fortunate and knocks one of the obstacles over, getting dowsed in yellow paint.
It’s White for the win.
This is a clever and entertaining video. And it’s a good example of how automakers are increasingly using social media to engage consumers. Audi posted "Ultimate Paintball Duel" to one of its official YouTube channels, AudiChannel, on February 26. Only two days later, it already had more than 550,000 views.
The Audi RS 4 Avant, which isn't sold in the United States, is a high-performance version of the A4 Avant.
Follow me on Twitter: @matthewdepaula
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66f3acb0d7493e37886a4c20102d0b2d | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewdepaula/2013/03/31/the-2014-jeep-cherokee-is-a-glutton-for-punishment-in-more-ways-than-one/ | The 2014 Jeep Cherokee Is A Glutton For Punishment In More Ways Than One | The 2014 Jeep Cherokee Is A Glutton For Punishment In More Ways Than One
2014 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk (Credit: Jeep)
Jeep hopes to quash the controversy over whether the all-new 2014 Cherokee will shirk its off-road roots and become a so-called “soft-roader,” confined to highways, streets and parking lots like so many sport utility vehicles these days.
During the vehicle’s unveiling at the New York International Auto Show, the Cherokee scaled and descended steep inclines of man-made boulders to get on stage. Touché.
“I think it takes the concept of social climbing literally,” said Mike Manley, president and CEO of Jeep, after the Cherokee came bouncing to a halt.
In Pictures: 2014 Jeep Cherokee
Social climbing is indeed what the new 2014 Jeep Cherokee is all about. The Jeep Liberty it replaces was a laggard, and Manley says the Cherokee will better position the company to gain market share in the midsize SUV segment, which is one of the largest in the United States and growing.
“Our segment share was roughly 3 or 4 percent in the midsize SUV segment,” Manley said in a one-on-one interview at the New York auto show just before the Cherokee’s unveiling. (Read the full interview here.) “So when we styled this vehicle, when we set our engineers to create this new generation, we wanted to make sure that we were progressive, not just in terms of its capabilities—it is more capable than Liberty—not just in terms of its fuel economy—it’s 45 percent more fuel efficient than the previous vehicle—not just in terms of its styling or its interior, but the complete package.”
Basically, the old Liberty was very capable off-road, but it did not keep up with consumer demands, which now value refined road manners, good fuel economy and lots of interior space more than the ability to hop boulders and ford streams.
Jeep says the 2014 Cherokee will do all of the above and then some. It rides on a new platform derived from the one that underpins the larger Jeep Grand Cherokee. This stiff structure coupled with a new suspension will make for a much smoother ride than the Liberty had, Jeep says.
The 2014 Jeep Cherokee will also be up to 45 percent more fuel efficient when equipped with a standard four-cylinder engine, which puts out 184 horsepower. Preliminary fuel economy estimates for highway driving are 31 miles per gallon.
2014 Jeep Cherokee Limited (Credit: Jeep)
Jeep is touting a couple of fuel-saving features it says are unique: a segment-first nine-speed transmission, standard on all Cherokee models, and an industry-first rear axle that disconnects from the driveline when four-wheel drive is not needed.
Two-wheel drive is standard on most models. There are three four-wheel-drive systems to choose from.
Jeep Active Drive I is for people who rarely if ever venture off-road and are simply looking for better traction on slick or snowy roads. Active Drive II is for serious off-road driving. It lifts the vehicle by one inch for better ground clearance and has a low-speed mode with locking drive shafts front and rear for crawling over rough terrain at a slow pace.
2014 Jeep Cherokee (Credit: Jeep)
Jeep Active Drive Lock is the third and most robust system. It’s only available on a version called the Trailhawk, which is the only new Cherokee model to get Jeep’s vaunted “trail rated” status.
This four-wheel-drive package raises the vehicle another inch, adds a locking rear differential, and special bumpers designed to allow for better approach and departure angles in relation to steep obstacles. Larger wheels and tires, tow hooks, underbody skid plates and other beefed-up equipment are also part of the package.
A new and improved V6 is optional and puts out 271 hp. It allows for towing capacity of 4,500 pounds, which Jeep says is class-leading for a V6 engine.
The interior seats five. There’s no third row. One probably wouldn’t fit with the full-size spare I saw under the cargo floor in the Trailhawk model I checked out at the New York auto show.
The 2014 Jeep Cherokee comes with the usual laundry list of amenities and safety features, including some normally only seen on luxury vehicles, such as adaptive cruise control. There's also a parking assist function that will help you park the car in a parallel or perpendicular spot by controlling the steering wheel while you shift, brake and accelerate.
So what about that styling? If Jeep had released pictures of the 2014 Cherokee Trailhawk first, instead of the street-oriented Limited version, perhaps it could have headed off much of the grumbling about the new Cherokee’s polarizing design. The Trailhawk almost looks like a different vehicle altogether, with its blacked-out bumpers and rough-and-ready stance.
Manley is unapologetic—and rightly so. “I’ve heard a lot of people say the new Cherokee is not true to the Jeep style, but I can’t survive on 3 percent market share.”
That means it’s time for a change.
Follow me on Twitter @matthewdepaula
Gallery: In Pictures: The 2014 Jeep Cherokee 8 images View gallery
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971da6d17c1e05e44279c1ac899d0db8 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewdepaula/2016/05/01/toyota-gets-even-weirder-with-new-c-hr-suv/ | Toyota Gets Even Weirder With New C-HR SUV | Toyota Gets Even Weirder With New C-HR SUV
Toyota is about to get weird, but in a good way.
The Japanese automaker’s traditionally conservative car designs have been getting increasingly offbeat — witness the Mirai fuel-cell vehicle and latest Prius hybrid.
A new small SUV called the C-HR is about to take the weirdness even further. That’s partly because — unlike those two alternative-fuel vehicles, the Mirai and Prius — it will bring Toyota’s curiously strange aesthetic into the mainstream.
The production version of the Toyota C-HR, shown here, made its public debut at the Geneva Motor... [+] Show in March.
But there are other reasons too.
“It’s got four doors and a hatch, but it’s not a hatchback,” said Andrew Gilleland, vice president of Scion, at the unveiling of the concept version of the C-HR in the fall. “It’s large, with room for five, but it’s not an SUV. And it’s got a fast-sloping roofline, but it’s not a sports car.”
In short, the C-HR is the next step in the ongoing evolution of the so-called crossover SUV, one that moves it further away from the “U” (where there is no pretension of off-roading “utility”) and closer to the “S” (where that letter stands not only for “sport” but “style”).
Basically, this car is meant to appeal to urban hipsters. Unlike the bland Toyotas of the past, its body is full of creases and complex shapes, reminiscent of origami.
“No more boring Toyotas,” declared Karl Schlicht, executive vice president of sales functions with Toyota Motor Europe, after unveiling the European production version of the C-HR at the Geneva auto show.
“This shows that we have the capability and the desire to change our design language and be more aggressive, polarize, not try to be kind of vanilla for everyone,” Schlicht said. “If that upsets a few people, that’s ok. We also want people to love the brand.”
Schlicht emphasized that the design of the production car has changed little from the concept version, a departure from Toyota’s past practices. Flashy styling at the concept phase was invariably dulled down for the production version of its vehicles.
The pursuit of emotional appeal has been ramping up for years now, thanks to sweeping changes instituted by president and chief executive Akio Toyoda, a staunch car enthusiast. He is all about making Toyota vehicles less appliance-like and more fun to drive. (Read about the design-led transformation within Toyota and its luxury brand Lexus, here.)
The C-HR is the latest in that endeavor and, arguably, will take the company the farthest out of its comfort zone as it has ever been.
“C-HR stands for ‘compact’ size with ‘high ride’ height, and much to our customers’ delight, it’s kind of weird,” Gilleland said of the concept version when it was unveiled at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November. “It doesn’t fit neatly into any category, and that’s exactly why we and our customers think it’s perfect.”
The C-HR will be built with the Toyota New Global Architecture, or TNGA for short. It is the second Toyota to use this platform, with the latest version of the Prius being the first.
Toyota boasts that its new architecture is lighter and stronger than ones it will replace and allows for more interior space in its vehicles. It’s also modular, enabling Toyota to drastically reduce the number of platforms it uses across its product portfolio. The company expects that TNGA will underpin half the vehicles it sells by 2020.
Crucially, this new platform allows for a lower center of gravity, which aids in creating sporty driving dynamics, an attribute that is now a priority for nearly every Toyota vehicle, executives say.
To that same end, Toyota also has been touting a specially designed rear suspension that is designed to make vehicles feel sporty and responsive. The suspension debuted on the new Prius and will be adapted for the C-HR.
“When the C-HR goes on sale in the U.S., we expect it to appeal to people who want a high-style, high-function, great-handling vehicle at a value price,” Gilleland said.
A Scion logo was on the hood of the C-HR concept when it was first shown to the public in L.A. But the Euro-spec production version that debuted in Geneva in March has a Toyota logo instead — evidence of more changes at the Japanese automaker.
Toyota recently announced that it will dissolve its youth-oriented Scion brand, which launched in 2003, and fold some of its vehicles — the iA, iM and FR-S — into the regular lineup starting next year. Part of the reason is because Toyota itself now has enough youthful appeal with its reinvigorated lineup that a separate brand is no longer needed, executives say.
But regardless of what logo is on the hood, the C-HR is poised to take advantage of booming sales in the crossover segment. “The small SUV segment has increased 20 percent in the last year to become the largest segment in the industry,” Gilleland said. “Half of that growth is coming from entry-level SUV models.”
The C-HR that will go on sale in Europe later this year will offer the choice of a new 1.2-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine or a 1.8-liter hybrid system, with either front- or all-wheel drive. A 2.0-liter engine also will be available in some markets.
Toyota has not confirmed what engines will power the U.S. version of the C-HR, nor when it will go on sale.
It will have plenty of competitors in the compact SUV segment, including new entries like the Honda HR-V and Mazda CX-3.
Read more about Toyota:
The Stunning FT-1 Heralds A More Exciting Future
How the Toyota Mirai's Fuel Economy Compares To The Prius And Other Hybrids
Toyota First With Cars That Talk to Each Other
Follow me on Forbes and on Twitter (@matthewdepaula).
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3407afb90957ce4dd5e1e4115f1db096 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewerskine/2020/11/09/what-a-difference-a-year-makes-income-tax-changes-since-december-2019/ | What A Difference A Year Makes! Income Tax Changes Since December 2019 | What A Difference A Year Makes! Income Tax Changes Since December 2019
'Tax time' memo on 1040 individual tax form getty
What a difference a year makes! Even before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic earlier this year, there have been changes to the income tax code with a significant impact on individual taxpayers. Here is a reminder of those significant changes and how they might affect you:
Deadlines
The deadlines for filing federal 2019 income tax returns, and payment of taxes due, has been extended until July 15, 2020. Those who file for an extension will still need to file by October 15, 2020 and this applies to federal and not state tax returns, although many states have followed suit. The deadline for paying the first quarter 2020 estimated tax is also extended to July 15, 2020, as are the second quarter 2020 estimated tax payments. There is no interest or penalties for delayed payment until July 15, 2020.
2019 IRA Contributions
2019 contributions to an IRA were also extended til July 15, 2020. If you have already if you have already filed your 2019 tax return, you can amend the return to take the full deduction ($6,000 plus $1,000 for age 50 and over) as well as having contribution to a Roth IRA count for the retirement saving credit. The age limit of 70 1/2 for making contributions to an IRA has been lifted for IRAs.
Charitable Donations
$300 of cash donations to charity are deductible "above the line" regardless of whether you itemize deductions. A cash charitable contribution is deductible against 100% of your Adjusted Gross Income ("below the line"). Donation made directly to charity from an IRA is still allowed for those who are o70 1/2 or older up to the limit of $100,000.
Required Minimum Distributions
Required Minimum Distributions are waived for 2020. This means that Qualified Charitable Distributions will not have an immediate income tax effect in 2020, but will in future years as the RMD is reduced. The IRS has not yet addressed the impact on RMD from inherited IRAs that was radically changed with the SECURE Act in December of 2019. If you have taken your RMD for 2020, you had 60 days to roll the distribution over into an IRA. RMDs for 2021 will be increased to the extent that the RMD was not withdrawn in 2020. You could take the tax savings from not taking the RMD in 2020 and use it for the tax due on a Roth conversion.
MORE FOR YOUEven Scotland Could Investigate Trump’s Business EmpireSilicon Valley Shifts To London In U.K. Tech BoomThe Year Ahead - Proposed Tax Changes And Their Impact.
Early withdrawal Penalties
The 10% early withdrawal from an IRA penalty if you are under the age of 59 1/2 is waived in 2020 if you, your spouse or a dependant is diagnosed with Covid-19 or if you experience "adverse financial consequences" as a result of the pandemic. The withdrawal will be taxable unless it is repaid, such repayment can be spread out over three years. The withdrawal is limited to $100,000.
Tax Rebates
The rebates, designated as credits under the CARES Act, will not be counted as income in 2020. The rebate, up to $1,200, is based on your AGI for 2019, or if you have not yet filed your AGI for 2018. When your 2020 tax return is filed you will need to reconcile the rebate you received with the rebate you qualify for and if you received less than you qualify for then you can claim that in your 2020 return. If you received more than you were due, you do not need to repay the excess.
Kiddie Tax
The tax rate for taxpayers under the age of 18 (and students up to age 24) is reduced from the compressed estates and trust tax schedule to their tax schedule or the tax schedule used by their parents, which ever is higher. This is retroactive to 2018 and 2019.
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16ff50919cd1a479bbf9e7477c3a5da9 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewerskine/2020/12/02/the-2020-2021-irs-priority-guidance-plan-and-estate-plans/ | The 2020-2021 IRS Priority Guidance Plan | The 2020-2021 IRS Priority Guidance Plan
Internal Revenue Service sign with a traffic signal in the foreground indicating a red light. getty
The IRS issued the Priority Guidance Plan for 2020-2021 on November 17, 2020. This plan contains the guidance projects that will be the focus of efforts during the 12-month period from July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2021 (referred to as the plan year). The 2020-2021 Priority Guidance Plan contains 191 guidance projects and, as of September 30, 2020, 57 guidance items have been released.
A Guidance Plan is created to make sense of the projects on the IRS Guidance Priority List. In many instances, the IRS and the U.S. Treasury will release a priority Guidance Plan for the year, then provide updates each quarter. The Guidance Plan identifies all the items the two departments need to work on and includes regulations that can affect individuals, small businesses, and corporations.
Several items are of interest to Estate Planners:
· Regulations clarifying the deductibility of certain expenses that are incurred by estates and non-grantor trusts;
· Regulations regarding the limited deductibility of more than $10,000 in state and local taxes, and work-arounds involving charitable gifts and taxes paid by flow-through entities;
· Final regulations regarding basis consistency between estate and person acquiring property from decedent;
· Final regulations describing the circumstances and procedures under which an extension of time will be granted to allocate Generation Skipping Transfer Tax exemption;
MORE FOR YOUWhat Do The New IRS Life Expectancy Tables Mean To You?The Minsky Moment: Why Stability Leads To Panic And What To Do About ItWhat Will The Stock Market Return In 2021?
· Guidance regarding a private foundation's investment in a partnership in which disqualified persons are also partners;
· Guidance regarding the excise taxes on donor advised funds and fund management;
· Guidance on basis of grantor trust assets at death;
· New guidance on user fees for estate tax closing letters;
· Regulations regarding imposition of restrictions on estate assets during the six-month alternate valuation period;
· Regulations regarding personal guarantees and the application of present value concepts in determining the deductible amount of expenses and claims against the estate;
· Regulations regarding the use of actuarial tables in valuing annuities, interests for life or terms of years, and remainder or reversionary interests;
· Final regulations on the exchange of property for an annuity contract; and,
· Guidance on foreign trust reporting and reporting with respect to foreign gifts, and regulations relating to certain transactions between U.S. persons and foreign trusts.
Since Guidance Plans can impact the way business taxes are filed, how retirement income is calculated, and more, so understanding the guidance plan is critical to ensuring compliance and avoids tax penalties, the IRS seizure of property, and other issues. Please consult your tax professional about how this Priority Guide might affect your planning.
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fced173f28d24550c93680704338ed91 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewfrancis/2015/06/11/the-problem-with-naming-observatories-for-bigots/?sh=47393aa7695b | The Problem With Naming Observatories For Bigots | The Problem With Naming Observatories For Bigots
Should we name the next big American space telescope for an actively homophobic man who helped ruin the careers of LGBT scientists and civil servants?
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a major observatory slated to launch in 2018. It's often talked up as the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, and it will be amazing. If all works as designed, JWST will see some of the earliest stars in the cosmos, look into regions close to black holes, and possibly see the atmospheres of planets orbiting other stars. In other words, it's a big deal to a lot of astronomers working in many different areas of the field. (It's also a project with a lot of problems: budget overruns, technical difficulties, and so forth that have delayed it, but that's a story for another day.) Many of my personal friends and colleagues will use JWST when it finally flies.
Full-scale mockup of the James Webb Space Telescope. [Credit: NASA/Maggie Masetti]
NASA
He wrote,
That of course was the party line in the era when homosexuality was classified as a mental illness in the US, and various laws criminalized "perversions" of all sorts. Webb wasn't alone in persecuting LGBT people: it was government policy, just another brick in the closet wall. And Webb's NASA in the '60s wasn't a bastion of equality — women were deliberately excluded from being astronauts, with some male astronauts like John Glenn actively testifying against their inclusion — but that also reflected the culture of the times. Update: in her book Operation Paperclip, Annie Jacobsen notes that Webb also aided with the fallout over NASA rocket engineer Wernher von Braun's Nazi past, including his role as an SS officer.
We often love to pride ourselves (irony intended) on being above all that today, even as we seem to refight the same civil rights battles over and over. Astronomy also loves to promote itself as being socially progressive: we wouldn't hire an actively discriminatory person to lead a major project today! But does naming the next-generation space telescope after Webb send a good message?
I confess I didn't know about Webb's detailed biography, including his State Department witch-hunts, until very recently; astrophysicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein first informed me of his anti-gay activities. It's easy for white male physicists like me to ignore the less savory aspects of our scientific heroes, but it's long past time we stopped.
People aren't all one thing. We can find things to praise about Webb, but still acknowledge he did damage to people's lives. The important thing is to stop valuing the good things over the damage in every instance, pretending that past problems are irrelevant today. If we value inclusion in science, we should avoid naming our observatories for people who built their careers by tearing down others.
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02948e3a490d59c684f54b736ac86020 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewfrancis/2015/10/06/2015-nobel-prize-in-physics-the-discovery-of-neutrino-oscillations/ | 2015 Nobel Prize In Physics: The Discovery Of Neutrino Oscillations | 2015 Nobel Prize In Physics: The Discovery Of Neutrino Oscillations
The 2015 Nobel Laureates in physics are Takaaki Kajita of the University of Tokyo and Arthur B.... [+] McDonald of Queen's University. [Credit: AFP PHOTO / JONATHAN NACKSTRANDJONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images]
The 2015 Nobel Prize in physics
Takaaki Kajita of the University of Tokyo
Arthur B. McDonald of Queen's University
Kajita is one of the leaders of the Super-Kamiokande experiment in Japan, while McDonald led the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) in Canada. These experiments complement each other in the type of observations they perform, but over the last two decades their results pointed to the same conclusion: neutrinos were oscillating, or changing from one "flavor" to another as they travel. Neutrino oscillation experiments have proliferated since, confirming and strengthening confidence in everything researchers at Super-Kamiokande and SNO discovered.
Neutrinos are some of the most abundant particles in the cosmos, and some of the most elusive. Though they are produced in huge quantities in nuclear reactions, neutrinos barely interact with ordinary matter. Trillions pass through your body every second, but almost none of those score a direct hit on any of your atoms. Earth itself is nearly transparent to neutrinos, something that turned out to be very useful for the Nobel-winning research. Specialized experiments like Super-Kamiokande and SNO involve huge detectors, and even those only collect a tiny fraction of the total neutrino flux passing through.
Neutrinos have no electric charge; their name approximately means "little neutral ones" in Italian. They come in three "flavors": electron neutrino, muon neutrino, and tau neutrino. (Each flavor is paired with an electrically charged partner, electrons, muons, and tau particles, which explains their names.) According to the Standard Model, which describes the identities and interactions between subatomic particles, neutrinos have no mass.
Early experiments found only about one-third of the expected number of electron neutrinos that should have been produced by the Sun. This was known as the "solar neutrino problem", which led some physicists to speculate that if neutrinos had mass in violation of the Standard Model, they could change flavor. In other words, the reason we weren't seeing enough electron neutrinos is because they were oscillating into the other flavors. To test that hypothesis, researchers began developing new detectors capable of tagging other flaors of neutrino, not just electron neutrinos. The 2002 Nobel Prize in physics was partly awarded for that effort.
The Super-Kamiokande experiment was one of the next generation of detectors, capable of identifying muon neutrinos. (The experiment was actually constructed for several purposes, including looking for decaying protons, but neutrino oscillations made it famous.) In the early 2000s, under the leadership of Nobel Laureate Kajita, the detector found only half number of muon neutrinos passing through Earth compared with those coming directly from the atmosphere. Since it was unlikely for both electron and muon neutrinos to be vanishing entirely, this was a confirmation of neutrino oscillation.
SNO provided complementary evidence: that experiment is able to detect all neutrino types. Around the same time as the Super-Kamiokande results, SNO researchers led by McDonald found that when they could account for all the flavors of neutrinos rather than just electron neutrinos, there were no more missing neutrinos from the Sun.
If neutrinos oscillate, then they must have mass, so the Super-Kamiokande and SNO experiments were the first direct evidence for physics beyond the Standard Model. (Dark matter, the invisible substance that holds galaxies together, is also beyond the Standard Model, but we don't understand how that works yet.) Neutrino masses are very tiny, likely a millionth of the mass of an electron. Thanks to the difficulty in detecting them and their lack of electric charge, we don't have a direct way to measure neutrino mass, but current and future experiments are getting nearer to solving that problem.
It's worth pointing out again that huge experiments like Super-Kamiokande and SNO aren't the work of individual scientists. While they are worthy of respect and honor for their accomplishments, Kajita and McDonald weren't running these labs all by themselves: the work of hundreds of people went into the results awarded by this year's Nobel Prize. This year is also the 52nd anniversary of the last Nobel Prize in physics awarded to a woman, when Maria Goeppert Mayer shared the 1963 prize. I won't repeat all my criticisms of the Nobel Prize, but the flaws in the philosophy of the award are in evidence.
Nevertheless, congratulations to Takaaki Kajita and Arthur B. McDonald, and to everyone who helped discover neutrino oscillations. May we keep working to solve the mystery of neutrino mass, and reveal the true natures of these strange ubiquitous particles.
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1c6efab6409fad6e21c64ad8b8a0e0ea | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewfrancis/2018/06/13/astronomers-use-the-doppler-effect-to-find-three-newborn-planets/ | Astronomers Use The Doppler Effect To Find Three Newborn Planets | Astronomers Use The Doppler Effect To Find Three Newborn Planets
We can't witness the birth of our own Solar System, but the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is providing a picture of how it may have happened. ALMA spotted signs of three giant planets forming around a young star in our cosmic neighborhood. The technique astronomers used to study these planets is one that can be used to find other newborn worlds, and see exactly how clouds of gas and dust turn into something like the Solar System.
ALMA image of the protoplanetary disk around the star HD 163296. The gaps in the disk are where... [+] three newborn giant planets are hiding. ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO); A. Isella; B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF)
The star, which astronomers gave the memorable name HD 163296, is only about 4 million years old, which in cosmic terms makes it a baby. Researchers used ALMA to take detailed images of the disk of dust and gas surrounding the star, which showed three gaps. By studying the motion of carbon monoxide gas within the disk, the astronomers showed it was being moved by massive objects living in those gaps — a telltale sign of newborn planets. These findings were published in a pair of articles in Astrophysical Journal Letters.
We've known for a long time that star systems form out of protoplanetary disks: flat, spinning platters made of gas and dust around a newborn star. Lumps inside those disks collect matter and grow into planets, which explains why all the planets in the Solar System orbit the Sun in the same direction and on more or less the same plane. That much is uncontroversial, but the details aren't clear, especially since most other star systems we've observed don't look much like the Solar System. So, finding newly forming planets might help resolve some of the difficulties.
That's where ALMA comes in. It's an observatory in the high-elevation Atacama Desert in Chile, made up of 66 individual telescopes that observe light around one millimeter in wavelength, at the border between infrared and microwave. This kind of light is particularly useful for studying newborn planets, because it shows where the dust and certain types of molecules live.
In this case, two groups of astronomers around the globe used ALMA to study the flow of carbon monoxide (CO) molecules in the protoplanetary disk around HD 163296. While carbon monoxide is a poisonous component of air pollution on Earth, it's also a very common part of many interstellar clouds of gas (along with comets in the Solar System). These astronomers measured the speed of the CO using the Doppler effect, which is familiar from the shift in the sound of ambulance sirens as they pass by. In this case, the motion of the molecules produced a shift in the wavelength of the light emitted by the CO, which the researchers used to measure how fast it was moving.
They found the gas wasn't just orbiting HD 163296: it was being pulled toward objects hidden in the gaps in the disk. The researchers were even able to estimate the mass needed to pull the CO out of its ordinary orbit: each gap contained something a few times the mass of Jupiter. In other words, the most likely suspect is three giant planets forming inside the disk. (Even giant planets aren't very bright, so it's rare for astronomers to be able to photograph them.) They're much farther out from HD 163296 than Jupiter is from the Sun, but astronomers think many planets may form that far out and migrate inward.
The great thing is how precisely ALMA was able to measure the Doppler effect: to a few meters per second. In perspective, that's measuring the motion of gas 300 light-years away to within about 10 miles per hour. Since CO is a common molecule in protoplanetary disks, this method is likely to be useful for studying other young star systems. It might not quite be our Solar System's baby pictures, but it's about as close as we can get.
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c6b6a195b37d36bb4badbbbfb58e897b | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewgabriele/2019/01/06/children-in-the-middle-ages/ | What You Didn't Know About Children In The Middle Ages | What You Didn't Know About Children In The Middle Ages
Every historical period has its "zombie myths" - ideas so ingrained into the popular imagination that they're almost impossible to kill, ones that rear their ugly heads again and again, as if they've returned from the dead. The European Middle Ages have their own myths and so are no different from any other period in this regard.
One particularly odd (and persistent) myth about the medieval world, recently brought back to life in the pages of The Economist, is the idea that childhood "didn't exist" in the Middle Ages and that parents had a "relative lack of interest" in their offspring.
This is nonsense.
By studying surviving sources, in both text and image, scholars of the European Middle Ages have been able to develop a much more complex (and rigorous) understanding of what medieval families were actually like. Here, the truth is much richer than the myth.
Schoolchildren at their books, UK, AD 1338-1344. From Bodleian manuscript MS. Bodl. Misc. 264.... [+] (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Getty
Over email, Prof. Miriam Shadis of Ohio University told me that the idea of not caring about children in the European Middle Ages has much to do with a more general struggle between "sameness and difference" when talking about the medieval past. Were they like us or were they not like us?
In the case of children, we see their staggering (?) mortality rate and wonder about how emotionally attached a parent could be in the face of it. Then, we put that next to a wide variety of medieval cultural practices that seem so strange to us today, and can easily leap to conclusions.
For example, when we try to justify things such as:
"cradle betrothals, child oblation, the appearance of an unwillingness to name children (especially daughters), reliance on wet-nursing, etc., we tend to explain it by thinking that if medieval parents were willing to do this, to thrust their children into seemingly adult environments, then they must not have thought of their children as children."
This line of thinking, however, leads us into problems because it ignores context. It ignores the fact that the practices described above belonged to a tiny segment of society and emerged from a certain kind of political necessity. In addition, we have ample evidence of parents doing the opposite - "taking extra care to preserve their children’s mental and physical status as children."
In other words, there's lots of evidence that children in the European Middle Ages were protected, loved, and recognized as different from adults. We have numerous portrayals of adults allowing children to play, of a mother's heart-rending grief at the death of a child, of parents behaving in expected ways that we can put alongside those moments when parents behaved in ways unexpected for us in the 21st century.
Virgin and Child with Catherine of Alexandria, 13th century Romanesque frescoes in St Catherine's... [+] Crypt, Church of Notre-Dame in Montmorillon, France. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images) Getty
Prof. Shadis concluded that we "still have a long way to go to fully appreciate the medieval attitude toward childhood because it will always be chronologically and culturally specific." In other words, the past is simply different from where we are now and it takes a lot of work - and training - to first understand it on its own terms, even before we can arrive at any conclusions. But scholars such as Barbara Hanawalt, Nicholas Orme, Ronald Finucane, and Daniel T. Kline, and many others are leading the way.
In the end, we today love the idea of progress - that things "now" are better than things were "then." But the reality of history is much more complex. History simply doesn't move in that way. It doesn't go from "worse" to "better," just from "different" to "different."
This is a truly important point to grasp because, when we do understand that key point, we realize that the value judgment we attach to either of those "differents" tells us more about us making those judgments than the people we're judging. This perhaps tells us something about our expectations but little about their realities.
In this specific case, if we nod agreeably along with the idea that medievals didn't value their child but also agree that modernity has made an "economically useless but emotionally priceless child" then what value are we - really - placing on our own children?
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19d47c33f879d92b4da2acc564c57b5c | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewgabriele/2019/02/05/bud-light-game-of-thrones/?sh=474b55346d9b | About That Medieval Bud Light/ Game Of Thrones Super Bowl Ad | About That Medieval Bud Light/ Game Of Thrones Super Bowl Ad
One of the most shocking moments of Super Bowl LIII had nothing to do with the game (there was, in fairness, little shocking or exciting about the game). During a series of medieval-themed ads for Bud Light, including one that sparked a retort from the corn lobby, one seems to open with those same characters attending a joust.
The king and queen cheer for the "Bud Knight" as the joust begins, but that happiness turns to shock as the Bud Knight is unhorsed, then to horror as his opponent strides over to him and crushes his skull. And their shock becomes ours when it turns out that the Bud Knight's opponent was none other than Gregor Clegane, the so-called "Mountain" from Game of Thrones. If that isn't enough, one of Daenerys' dragons then shows up and burns the crowd to a crisp.
I'm not joking. The Bud Knight is dead.
It's a minute of TV that entertains and intrigues but it also does something more. But if we read a little deeper, there's a fascinating tension in the ad, a maybe unintentional battle between two very common understandings of the Middle Ages that tells us something really interesting about how we think about the medieval in the modern world.
Death of the Bud Knight, from the Bud Light/ Game of Thrones 2019 Super Bowl Ad. HBO
The Game of Thrones series has come under legitimate criticism for its portrayal of its pseudo-medieval world, even as it remains hugely popular. As I've written before, the series flattens the medieval world into one of uncompromising darkness. It's violence, ignorance, and horror. People are enslaved, women are degraded, the poor are senselessly butchered. It seems gritty, serious, somehow more "real" to us because we "know" that the past was more violent than now (even if it really wasn't).
The Bud Light "medieval" ads, having aired since 2017, are the opposite end of the spectrum. They're (intentionally) ridiculous, evoking Monty Python or Mel Brooks' Robin Hood. Everything is silly in this medieval world, from the dress of the characters to the nonsensical "Dilly Dilly" catchphrase. That strangeness was fully on display during the 2019 Super Bowl, all the ads in fact varieties of an homage to the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. They're funny because they present the opposite view of the Middle Ages from Game of Thrones. They're funny because the lives of those medievals seem just like ours, except they're not as smart, not as advanced.
So, in some ways, that encounter between the Bud Knight and the Mountain resolves the tension between these two strands of medievalism, the comic and the brutal. One clashes with the other and seems to emerge victorious. Even the "Dilly Dilly" medieval eventually has to play with, and lose to, the medieval of Game of Thrones.
But, it's more complicated than that.
Commenting on another of the Bud Light Super Bowl ads, one featuring a "medieval Trojan Horse," Dr. David Perry pointed out how often this "telescoping" of historical periods happens with the European Middle Ages.
Sit back im gonna @KevinMKruse this one. Ready? Actually this was a recreation of the 13th century retelling of the Odyssey written by an anonymous Occitan poet in the court of the Counts of Toulouse during the Albigensian Crusade. /1 https://t.co/m6lnICXVP2 — David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) February 4, 2019
If you follow the twitter thread all the way down, Dr. Perry himself also makes the connection between the Bud Light ads and Game of Thrones, specifically in that they both ultimately seem to be doing the same work. They both rely upon our assumption that the medieval world was primitive.
In other words, the Bud Knight and the Mountain are really the same figure, the medievalisms they represent the same thing at their respective cores. Our nostalgia for the Middle Ages, massaged by problematic pundits like Steven Pinker, places our own sins on the past as a way of excusing them. That was a past we've moved beyond, evolved from. We think we're like this, therefore they back then were like that. We're smarter, more peaceful, more cultured, etc. They're ignorant, violent, boorish, etc. That's happening in both medieval worlds and why they can exist together in the same ad.
But a historian's job is to be a remembrancer, to remind people of what they might otherwise like to forget. That means reminding us that the Middle Ages is more similar to our own age than we might like to admit - both and at the same time comic and brutal, silly and serious, joyful and heart-wrenching. They were people too, after all.
So, in the end, we have to put all of this together. We might be heartened to see the Bud Knight meet his end, and we might anticipate the Mountain (maybe) meeting his in the coming season of Game of Thrones. But if we also understand both as the same kind of nostalgic medievalism, a way of thinking about the past intended to displace the troubles of the 21st century onto the 12th, it leaves us with uncomfortable questions: were they the ones afraid of dragons or are we? Are we trying to escape their world or ours?
Watch the full Bud Light/ Game of Thrones ad here:
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09a2b302574e740046fa8aebabc41cbb | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewgabriele/2019/03/07/no-such-thing-renaissance/ | There Was No Such Thing As The 'Renaissance' | There Was No Such Thing As The 'Renaissance'
Festival attendees at the 55th Annual Renaissance Pleasure Faire held on April 29, 2017 in... [+] Irwindale, California. (Photo by Albert Lt. Ortega/WireImage)
On a bright Spring day in Tuscany, sometime around 1500 CE, a dowdy merchant in the lovely city of Florence rolled out of bed. He smelled something different in the air. He sprang from his bed, but his wife and the animals in the house still asleep, moved quietly to the shutters and opened them to a bright, sunshine-filled day. "Oh my!" he yelled, waking everyone around. "Finally, the Middle Ages are over. It must be the Renaissance!"
But, of course that didn't really happen.
We tend to understand intuitively that historical periods don't suddenly "begin" or "end." We know, for example, that the example above is ridiculous. We say, for example, that "Rome wasn't built in a day" and understand what it means. Similarly, we understand that Rome and its empire didn't crumble in a day either. But we're still attached to those ideas, still wedded to the idea of a sudden apocalypse. We want clean breaks - Greece gave way to Rome, which gave way to the Middle Ages, which gave way to the Renaissance, to the Reformation, etc.
The biggest break, of course, is between "pre-modern" and "modern" with the line usually drawn right after the Middle Ages. This we still call the "Renaissance." But the "Renaissance" is nothing more than air, a myth created by 14th-century Italians to tell themselves they were different - better - than their ancestors. And the "Renaissance" survives to today because we find it comforting like a warm blanket.
The invention of the Renaissance, which goes hand-in-hand with the invention of the Middle Ages, is a story often told (though maybe told best in Wallace Ferguson's 1948 book). In literature and art, men from the Italian peninsula, wanted to show that they were different from what came before. For example, Petrarch in the 14th century, then Giorgio Vasari in the 16th, spoke of a great, sudden transformation.
For Vasari, art was transformed by the Florentines, particularly Michelangelo. But to do this, he had to show that what came before wasn't as good. He coined the term "gothic" for the art and architecture north of the Alps, not as a term of respect but to link it to the "Goths" - the barbarians, the uncultured.
For Petrarch, literature was transformed by, well, him. He looked back at a world in darkness, in longing for the thinkers of Rome and in disdain for most of the thinkers of the immediately preceding centuries. That transition had happened quite suddenly. And although he admitted he still lived in an age of darkness, he saw the seeds of transformation (sown in part by he himself) and seemed to "know" that a new age would dawn soon.
The expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple, 1511-1512, by Raphael (1483-1520), fresco, Room of... [+] Heliodorus, Apostolic Palace, Vatican City. Getty
In the 19th century, the great Swiss historian Jakob Burckhardt cemented these ideas into the modern sense of self. The son of Protestant clergy, Burckhardt was born and died in the city of Basel, and although he initially wanted to become a priest, he became a historian of art instead. In his most famous work, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, he wrote:
In the Middle Ages both sides of human consciousness... lay dreaming or half awake beneath a common veil. The veil was woven of faith, illusion, and childish prepossession, through which the world and history were seen clad in strange hues. Man was conscious of himself only as member of a race, people, party, family, or corporation—only through some general category. In Italy this veil first melted into air; an objective treatment and consideration of the state and of all the things of this world became possible. The subjective side at the same time asserted itself with corresponding emphasis; man became a spiritual individual and recognized himself as such.
I love to teach with this passage because it does so much work. The Middle Ages was a time of sleep, able only to see the world through a "veil" that obscured reality. People had no sense of themselves as individuals. Then, in Italy that world "melted into air." Reality could be seen "objectively" and mankind moved towards a spiritual awakening (towards Protestantism).
This is less history than polemic, less an argument against the medieval world and more an argument for the modern one. In other words, Burckhardt (just like Petrarch and Vasari before him) was working backwards from his own time, seeing in himself something better than that what came before. The movement of time, the story in history, therefore (by this logic) had to move necessarily towards him, towards his own time. History became a search for 19th century European ideals about religion, about self, about politics, etc. in the past. And the opposite - the antithesis - of that ideal was the Middle Ages, as "Catholic," as communal, as mystical and not rational.
In that way of thinking, long, slow processes of change don't work. For Burckhardt and those who think like him, there needs to be a break."Then" needs to be different from "now." The Italians melted the Middle Ages into air and created the modern world. And the word "Renaissance," or rebirth, does so much to convey that idea. "Renaissance" says that culture, art, ideas, and literature were dormant, near death until they were revived once more.
But we know that isn't true.
We know that the European Middle Ages were far from static, far from dark, but instead filled with vibrant, garish colors. To say all this in no way diminishes the accomplishments of those Italians, those Michelangelos, Donatellos, Leonardos, and Raphaels. To say that there was no such thing as "the Renaissance" is simply to say, as historians always should, that it's more complicated than that. For every Ghiberti there was a Gislebertus. For every Sistine Chapel, there's the Sainte-Chapelle. For every Vesalius, there was an Avicenna. And so on, and so on.
Perhaps then it's time for the "Renaissance" to melt into air - not because the Middle Ages surpassed it but because both periods, like the atmosphere, are a complex mixture of elements, some good, some bad, but all of them necessary to a full and complete understanding of our world.
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6e484612122444489cd43e8e9223560a | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewgabriele/2019/03/12/medieval-trump-signing-bibles/ | The Medieval Precedent For President Trump Signing Bibles | The Medieval Precedent For President Trump Signing Bibles
Just a few days ago, while visiting an Alabama church, whose residents were recovering from recent tornadoes, President Trump raised eyebrows by signing (at their request) the Bibles of some of the parishioners. His supporters loved it and others thought it all a bit odd. And indeed, as the original piece in The Washington Post noted and then the Associated Press later reported, there's precedent for presidents signing Bibles in specific instances.
But there's a longer precedent at work too, one that goes all the way back to the European Middle Ages. This is a precedent that intimately connects the Bible (as a bound book) and the owners of those Bibles to political leaders. In other words, some people have wanted rulers to "sign" their Bibles for around 1,200 years .
Bible from the Karakallou monastery (XIIIth century), displayed at the 'Mount Athos and the... [+] Byzantine Empire, Treasures of the Holy Mountain' exhibition at the Petit Palais in Paris. AFP PHOTO OLIVIER LABAN-MATTEI (Photo credit should read OLIVIER LABAN-MATTEI/AFP/Getty Images) Getty
The practice of producing biblical books for rulers was relatively common in the early Middle Ages. There are dozens of these Bibles from the 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries with images of the rulers for whom the books were intended.
Take, for example, the Gospel Book produced somewhere in northern France precisely to 870 CE (the 2 scribes name themselves and the date at the end of the manuscript) but it was later gifted to the the abbey of St. Emmeram in Regensburg at the end of the 9th century. This is known as the Codex Aureus of Saint Emmeram - the "Book of Gold."
Just 5 pages in, we see the image below - but in blazing, garish color. This picture of King Charles the Bald (yes, his real name) appears just after a written prologue to the 4 Gospels, even before the text properly begins. Here he is enthroned, the hand of God visible above him, flanked by angels, surrounded by personifications of the lands he's conquered. Taken together, this imagery is of a 9th-century ruler framed as a modern day incarnation of a biblical king. But a king very much connected to this Bible. The text (not easily visible in the image here) claims Charles as its patron, a fact emphasized in that the book when completed was almost certainly sent directly to him for his approval, for his (if you will) "signature."
Charles the Bald, Dedication image in the Codex aureus from St Emmeram to Regensburg, Germany,... [+] digital improved reproduction of a woodcut publication in the year 1885. (Photo by: Bildagentur-online/UIG via Getty Images) Getty
But why?
The King Charles the Bald ruled from 840-877 CE. The grandson of the great Charlemagne, son of Louis the Pious, Charles and his brothers saw - and caused - the Carolingian empire splinter into pieces. Civil war raged. Poets lamented in biblical terms the horrors they saw. Civilization as they knew it seemed to be falling apart.
But as political unity broke down, culture continued. The monasteries of the empire produced gorgeous works of art - illuminated manuscripts that are still stunning to behold. And unsurprisingly, given where they were produced, given the way in which they lamented their own times (harking back to the Israelites) many of these books were Bibles.
Those books connected the ruler to those that produced them, as well as where the books finally ended up. The reason they did this, the reason they needed those books with those images of their rulers, is because that connection meant something. It drew the book owner/ creator and the ruler together by creating an object related to that materialized that relationship. Maybe more importantly though, that "signed" book also drew a link between past and present - a connection between biblical history and their modern world.
And in the late 9th century, as the empire splintered and civil war raged, as the Vikings invaded, in a world in which everything seemed to be falling apart, that connection seemed to reveal a surety about the ruler's relationship to God that gave them some much-needed comfort.
And in the end, that sense of dislocation of worry about a world falling apart, a desire to bring the past back to life in the present; these were reasons enough to ask a ruler to "sign" their Bible - in the 9th century and perhaps in the 21st.
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452e367a860805178e674b420a8e7e6b | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewgabriele/2019/03/18/new-book-religion-death/ | This New Book Will Change How We Think About Ancient Religion And Death | This New Book Will Change How We Think About Ancient Religion And Death
One of the most difficult things about studying religion as an academic is convincing people that things in the past were different from what they are now. To put it another way, what most people think of as essential elements of "Christianity," or "Judaism," or "Islam" (just to take the 3 major monotheisms of the world) have not always been there. The simple phrase of "things change over time" has to be the mantra of any historian and is particularly relevant when applied to concepts. We have to take our subjects of study on their own terms and not impose our own modern assumptions onto them - to be wary of, as James T. Palmer has coined it, falling into the Jurassic Park paradox and grafting frog DNA into dinosaur DNA, thereby creating a hybrid monster.
One easy assumption we make - even as historians sometimes - is that Christianity has always had a defined relationship with death. We assume that the early "Jesus Movement" always offered a sense that the individual Christian was responsible for their own soul, that each person needed to police their behavior in order to ensure their entrance into Heaven.
But not so.
A new book, Moment of Reckoning: Imagined Death and Its Consequences in Late Ancient Christianity, to be released this April 2019 by Oxford University Press, suggests something very different. Prof. Ellen Muehlberger, an associate professor at the University of Michigan lays out a compelling case that attitudes towards death among Christian communities changed radically between ca. 300-600 CE . Death became a moment of reckoning. As she explains:
that cultural narrative enabled Christians to think of others with whom they disagreed as recalcitrant, willfully misguided, and in need of correction, rather than simply differently minded; such people would regret their stubbornness when faced with pain and judgment. Eventually this logic was applied not just to the moment of death, but also to compulsion, punishment, and even torture.
In other words, this change in attitudes towards death could - and did - justify violence. Prof. Muehlberger was kind enough to speak to me over email.
Roman. Mosaic depicting human skeleton and the inscription 'Know thyself.' From the Convento di San... [+] Gregorio on the Via Appia. (Photo By DEA / A. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini/Getty Images) Getty
The book charts a shift in perceptions of death in late antiquity. What led you to that research focus?
The last project I worked on was about angels, and there was a strange thing I kept running in to in my research that I couldn’t really understand: lots of ancient Christian sources told stories about people who died and were taken away by either angels or demons, depending on how they had lived their lives. Those stories were very physical, especially in the case of demons, who did things like drag people away after death or pull them away by the hands or feet. This suggested that there was a dead body and then another body, a postmortal body, that could be dragged away.
So, when I investigated, I found an entire literature that said human beings persist after death with a body that can be dragged away by demons for physical punishment. It wasn’t theological treatises but rather visions and dreams and other kinds of narrative. So, a big step in my research was to turn away from all the usual places you’d look to see what ancient Christians thought and to look at other kinds of texts.
As you were approaching this new topic, were there any moments in which you wished the sources would tell you something and they were reluctant?
No. I try very hard not to go looking with notions already in mind. It’s impossible, of course, not to have some preconceptions; after all, writers start books and put in all this time because we think there’s something there. That said, there’s a fascinating thing that happens to me in long projects: what I think I know before I start reading for a project falls by the wayside as I read and discover other, more interesting things.
It’s as if those initial ideas are the map that gets you to the trailhead, but they don’t have anything to do with the actual terrain you’ll be hiking—and you’d be totally lost if you went on to the trail assuming they were the same thing.
This book (and really, everything I write) starts with noticing something that seems "weird" to me. Then I ask how this seemingly “weird” thing fits - because nothing in a culture is weird to the people who live in that culture, and if it seems weird to me, it’s just because I don’t understand it yet.
I like this analogy of the trailhead and starting with an idea. Indeed, your new book could be seen as an “intellectual history,” but not in a traditional sense – more about how ideas made people do things. Is that fair?
I think it’s long been clear that ideas about the past can get people to act certain ways, or can justify for certain actions. But in this book I thought about something else: whether the future that people imagined for themselves would influence how they acted. And, I found that ancient Christian preachers taught people to imagine how they would feel at death, it seems in order to get them to reflect on their behavior in the present.
In the sermons that survive, preachers almost always talked about death as a terrible, frightening, painful event, a moment of reckoning—hence the title of the book!—for people who acted immorally during their lives. But, eventually, that frightening, painful death seemed to be waiting for everyone. That idea changed how Christians were willing to act toward one another. The logic was: if you were doing something immoral now, you would clearly experience a terrible death, so I could be justified in intervening to stop you from doing that immoral thing. My intervention would be doing you a favor.
On that basis, Christian writers like Augustine made a case that was right to force others, including through violence, to think and act rightly—and, what’s more, you could ask the empire to exert that force. That’s a radical step for a tradition that started by venerating a man (Jesus) whom they thought unjustly executed by the state.
Saint Augustine (354-430) in His Study, detail - Painting (detail) by Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510),... [+] fresco, ca. 1480 (152x112 cm) - Ognissanti Church, Florence, Italy (Photo by Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images) Getty
It proves, though, something that other writers have already noticed: what we imagine for other people’s futures affects a lot of what of what we’re willing to do for them, or to them. If I think you have a bright future and successful career ahead of you, I might be tempted to let you slide on a criminal charge, or to give you an easy sentence; if I don’t think you have a bright future, I will treat you quite differently. So, there’s an ethical lesson here, too: unexamined assumptions about who other people will become drive so much of society and we should be responsible for the assumptions we make about others’ futures, because we say that we hold all people to be equal.
But do we? Do we imagine all people to have equally open and promising futures? Have we ever?
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490c92618e9bfabe0e462cd3a786b719 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewgabriele/2019/03/24/historians-as-tax-collectors/ | Why Historians Are Like Tax Collectors | Why Historians Are Like Tax Collectors
There has been some debate recently about how - or even if - academics should engage with the public, with that conversation focused particularly around the role of the historian (which I define broadly as anyone who seriously studies the past). Indeed, historians seem to be everywhere, celebrated for their viral Twitter threads, profiled in national publications, etc.
Certainly, not all scholars are happy about this. They sometimes lament the "twitterization" of the mind or say that public engagement is not "real" scholarship.
But in response to that idea, one historian wrote:
Writing and print are not powerful enough to stop the spread of myths... What they can do, however, is to preserve records of the past which are inconsistent with the myths, which undermine them - records of a past which has become awkward and embarrassing, a past which people for one reason or another do not wish to know about, though it might be better for them if they did... Herodotus thought of historians as the guardians of memory, the memory of glorious deeds. I prefer to see historians as the guardians of the skeletons in the cupboard of the social memory... There used to be an official called the 'Remembrancer'. The title was actually a euphemism for debt collector. The official's job was to remind people of what they would have liked to forget. One of the most important functions of the historian is to be a remembrancer.
Was that a Facebook post? On someone's blog? A screenshot of a note posted to Twitter? Nope.
This was written by Prof. Peter Burke... 30 years ago, way back in 1989.
People gather around the remainder of the monument following a rally where the Confederate statue... [+] known as Silent Sam was toppled from its pedestal by protesters at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C., Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome) ASSOCIATED PRESS
The point Burke was making was that historians are actually not at all like what Herodotus said. They don't preserve memory. In fact, they're the opposite. They work to challenge memory. In our own time, the actions taken by scholars engaging with the public - Kevin Kruse, Kelly Baker, Nicole Hemmer, Sarah Bond, Carol Anderson, Ibram X. Kendi, Annette Gordon Reed, and so many others - is that they act as a bulwark against weaponized nostalgia, against the re-presentation of the past to suit modern political agendas.
To say that these historians "correct the record" isn't to say that it's all about getting the "facts" right. That will never be enough. It will never get people to ask more questions. Instead, what Burke was trying to get at was that studying the past - and then, importantly, talking about it with an audience - is about revealing the mess behind the myth, the story behind what we think we know. A #twitterstorians Twitter thread, an opinion piece in a magazine, an appearance on TV, all in their own way asks questions in order to break down that myth into is base parts, to see how it works and why it was put together in the way it originally was. And that can be uncomfortable.
For example, both sides agree on the names and dates associated with the so-called "Silent Sam" statue - now toppled but formerly at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (image above). Where the disagreement lies is about the meaning of the statue, and on both sides their understanding of the meaning of the past led them to act. White supremacists protested to protect the statue, students and scholars tore it down. But historians, as Burke said, remind us of what we'd like to otherwise forget. In this case, it's the moment of the statue's dedication and the terribly racist speech given then by Julian Carr.
Maybe it's not pleasant to be reminded of things that you wish had stayed buried, maybe we all don't like paying our taxes. But the tax collector is necessary for a society to function. Those "taxes" they collect allow that society to build, to grow, to change.
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0216526b20b49dc9a67e11c3b8d5d285 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewharris/2019/01/23/investment-management-entering-choppier-and-shallower-waters/ | Investment Management: Entering Choppier And Shallower Waters | Investment Management: Entering Choppier And Shallower Waters
This is part two of a two-part article written collaboratively with David Snider. Read part one.
The investment management industry is ripe for disruption. Whether it be wealth management (advising individual and institutional investors where to allocate their capital) or asset management (creating investment vehicles to manage capital), fees are trending down and client expectations are trending up.
This dynamism has created opportunities for new entrants to quickly take share, albeit often in ways that are catalysts for overall industry profit pool reductions.
So where does that leave market incumbents? Their survival will depend on their ability to successfully navigate the changes underway by effectively leveraging new technology to capture more of the value chain from both new and existing customers and expanding into higher margin segments
Asset management: The impending decline and potential future of the fund
Investment management companies used to talk about how smart they were. You probably recall the slogan, “When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen.” And you might remember the rock star promotion of portfolio managers like Fidelity’s Peter Lynch. The underpinning assumption was that if you didn’t work on Wall Street, you needed to buy products from a manager who had wise advice and valuable insight. The industry was selling out-performance, powered by intellect, and charging a high fee for it.
That dogma has reversed almost entirely, particularly as it relates to the stock market. Led by Vanguard and Blackrock, investors have swarmed towards low fee, beta-oriented ETFs. This longer term trend has gathered steam in a 10-year cycle where passive has been outperforming active.
While the amount of money being invested in active long-only public strategies has been in decline as passive funds have taken share, there has been an increase at the opposite end of the spectrum – the alternatives space.
We are seeing the birth of portfolios that look like a barbell. On the one hand, you have beta-oriented strategies like ETFs that track market returns with very low fees. On the other hand, you have growth in alternative assets (see exhibit below) where people seek some combination of alpha and beta diversified from the public markets – venture capital, hedge funds, commercial real estate and private equity. These asset classes are becoming more broadly accessible and part of the portfolios of a much wider array of investors.
This move towards alternative investments has provided some bulwark against fee compression for both wealth managers and asset managers. However, we’re now seeing the scale institutional investors, the so called “real money” investors (endowments, foundations, pensions and sovereign wealth funds), beginning to put downward pressure on alternative asset fees as well.
A friend who runs a university endowment recently told us: “What I really want is to get my money into the hands of the next Mark Zuckerberg and help build his or her business. Right now, I can only do that through venture firms and in some cases through a layer of fund-of-funds, but I ultimately want to get money into the asset itself with as little fee extraction as possible.” CalPERS, as one example, with $333.3 billion in assets, is aggressively trying to find ways to reduce the $800 million in private equity fees it pays every year.
We’re seeing even more advanced discussions in real estate. Traditionally, real money investors would give their money to advisors and asset managers like Brookfield Real Estate, who would invest in a commercial building and employ a local team to do the leasing and property management. What the end investor really wants is rental income and valuation growth on the asset itself, but there’s a long chain of people involved, all of whom are extracting economics.
That's just inefficient in an era where information can move much more easily than in the past.
What’s more, an investor might have a viewpoint that s/he wants to hold real estate in, say, city centers instead of suburban office parks, or in Germany but not Spain. That can be hard to execute if your money is in a fund, over which you have no discretion and which can take years to unravel. It’s much easier to do as a direct investor.
Asset managers warn that direct investment is trickier and riskier than it looks, and that may be true. But it’s possible to measure the risk of adverse selection against the savings on fees combined with enhanced discretion and liquidity and make a rational decision. More and more, that equation isn’t looking good for asset managers.
So, real money investors are working to do more direct deals in high-growth startups, local real estate and other alternative assets – with help from fintech firms that are looking to disrupt markets that are inefficient. For example:
In real estate, Cadre has created a marketplace to connect local building operators with endowments, foundations and wealth funds, allowing them to buy specific buildings that fit their strategies. This reduces fees as well as “compounded illiquidity,” thus allowing investors to shift asset allocations with fewer fund lock-ups and other asset restrictions. Roofstock (one of our portfolio companies) is doing this in another real estate sub-sector: the single family rental asset class. CircleUp has created a crowdfunding platform that connects investors directly with consumer packaged goods companies that are looking to raise money. YieldStreet is pursuing a similar strategy in the credit space, allowing individuals and institutions direct access to high-yielding assets like dry bulk cargo vessels and self-storage facilities.
For the wealth managers and advisors who allocate capital to alternative asset funds, this development may serve as an opportunity to leap forward in the value chain. Whereas a private banker or RIA (or a pension consultant on the institutional side) in the past might have recommended a Starwood Real Estate fund or a traditional venture fund, perhaps in the future s/he can curate offerings on Cadre or AngelList directly, and capture some of the fee savings for themselves.
For the asset managers who manufacture these “2 and 20” funds, this is another piece of bad news – they will face fee pressure as well. There will likely be a significant stratification of fees across alternative funds with only the top-tier, consistent performers (who truly add value) garnering what today is the standard two percent management fee with 20 percent of investment profits.
For many funds, investors will expect new structures that get their capital directly invested in the assets themselves, and will expect to pay less for that service.
At least in part, this shift will end up benefitting the scale players, who can add ancillary services to their clients to defend their fee structures. One of Blackrock’s fastest-growing businesses is Aladdin, its software and services business. Blackrock’s clients use Aladdin to understand and manage credit risk. As a result, they buy more fixed income products from Blackrock (and perhaps negotiate less fiercely on the fees).
Massive hedge fund Bridgewater Associates has hundreds of people who advise institutional clients on asset allocation and risk management, with the expectation that the quid pro quo for this value add is that these investors remain loyal limited partners in Bridgewater, regardless of performance.
Wealth managers, who used to build businesses based on fancy offices, hidden fees and great golf games, are going to have to operate in a more entrepreneurial manner. They will need to address a broad and holistic set of client needs, better align their incentives with those of their clients and perhaps develop ways to create alpha for clients on these new alternative asset platforms.
Asset managers will increasingly give away beta-oriented products for free, fighting a rear guard action to defend fees on their alternative asset products and figuring out technology-driven ways to add value and build stickiness with their clients.
Both sectors will have to figure out how to leverage new technology to reach the Gen-X professionals and millennials who expect to be served differently from baby boomers and will soon represent the majority of U.S. assets.
These trends are a recipe for a cascade of client-friendly disruption, and a terrific opportunity for entrepreneurs on the right side of history.
Matt Harris is a partner at Bain Capital Ventures and is based in New York City. He is consistently ranked as one of the top investors in fintech.
David Snider is the founder and CEO of Harness Wealth, a WealthTech business that guides accomplished individuals to financial opportunity. Previously he was CFO and COO of Compass.
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ffeef8b8d733f6b7696fb35810052726 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2010/09/23/penile-amputation-nightmare-side-effect/ | Penile Amputation: Nightmare Side Effect | Penile Amputation: Nightmare Side Effect
When you wind up in the emergency room, do tell your doctor about every medicine that you are taking. Case in point, a recent medical journal report I found while researching a widely used psychiatric drug.
WARNING: The included link contains graphic medical photographs that may not be safe for work.
"Penile Amputation After Trazodone-Induced Priapism: A Case Report," was published in the Primary Care Companion to The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry this year, and recounts the case of a 35-year-old man who was prescribed trazodone, an antidepressant that predates Prozac and Paxil and is still the #12 most-used psychiatric drug, by a psychiatrist to treat sleep problems. The article was written by doctors at hospitals in Germany and Belgium.
This man, who had a history of blood clots and was taking a blood thinner, developed priapism – the hours-long erection that advertisements for Cialis and Viagra warn about. The patient presented to the emergency room with an erection that had lasted 15 hours. The doctors successfully treated him with what is known as a Winter shunt, which is used to drain extra blood from the spongy tissues of the penis. The patient did not mention his trazodone use, and the doctors assumed that his priapism had been caused by a blood clot.
Ten days later the patient was re-admitted for a second case of priapism, this one lasting four hours. This time he did let the doctors know that he had not only been taking 150 milligrams of trazodone every night, he was also occasionally doubling the dose. Discontinuing the medicine would probably have prevented the second case of priapism. This time, the Winter shunt did not work, and blood clots did form in the man's penis. Two days later, a dry necrosis appeared. After three weeks of treatment, amputation was performed.
The authors warn doctors to carefully monitor use of trazodone and other antidepressants in men who have clotting disorders. Also, those ads for erectile dysfunction drugs? Don't complain about them. They should probably be even more explicit – and scarier.
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a032597ca25b10c105751840cb51dedd | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2010/10/11/dont-get-too-excited-about-the-first-embryonic-stem-cell-patient/ | Don't Get Too Excited About The First Embryonic Stem Cell Patient | Don't Get Too Excited About The First Embryonic Stem Cell Patient
Human embryonic stem cells via Wikipedia
This morning, Geron of Menlo Park, for years a leading company in embryonic stem cell research, announced that the first patient had been dosed in a study of its embryonic stem cell treatment for spinal cord injury.
Geron shares are up 7% to $5.70, but there's really no reason to get excited. While this is a political victory -- it has taken more than a decade to get this study off the ground -- it does not represent any real leap in knowledge or in Geron's odds of success.
A new drug starting human safety studies has an only one in ten chance of being safe and effective. Geron's stem cells are probably chancier than that. And progress has been glacial in this field, partly because of all the political controversy about embryonic stem cells and partly because the science is very very difficult and the Food and Drug Administration has been cautious about letting studies start. In 2001, I wrote that stem cell treatments were "at least a decade away."
Emphasis on "at least," I guess. That and my other assessments of Geron from back then turn out to be almost embarrassingly credulous.
When will embryonic stem cells be used as treatments? Ten more years of waiting sounds as likely as anything else. Science is slow, and that is easy to forget amid all the political rhetoric.
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26407e49ff11e5315b0ca3c3187ab9a3 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2010/12/23/the-medical-power-of-ritual/?boxes=businesschannelsections | The Medical Power of Ritual | The Medical Power of Ritual
Harvard researcher Ted Kaptchuk trained for five years in traditional Chinese medicine, but then became one of the leading researchers into the placebo effect. In his hands, the fact that patients with some kinds of illnesses get better with dummy pills is a gateway into the ways that other aspects of medicine, including the capacity of doctors to generate feelings of hope, are overlooked in our technology-obsessed health care system.
This morning, Kaptchuk is out with his latest salvo in this research: a study that showed that patients with irritable bowel syndrome improved more if they were given inert sugar pills – even though they were told the pills had no active ingredients and the bottles were labeled "placebo." Fifty-nine percent of patients who got the obviously fake pill got adequate symptom relief, compared to 35% of those who got nothing. In a press release put out by the Public Library of Science, the medical journal that published the study, Kaptchuk's co-author, fellow Harvard professor Anthony Lembo, says: "I didn’t think it would work. I felt awkward asking patients to literally take a placebo. But to my surprise, it seemed to work for many of them."
Kaptchuk, in the release, gives the caveat that the study, with only 80 patients, is too small to draw firm conclusions but adds: "Nevertheless these findings suggest that rather than mere positive thinking, there may be significant benefit to the very performance of medical ritual. I’m excited about studying this further. Placebo may work even if patients know it is a placebo."
Much of the placebo effect seen in clinical trials is the combination of the natural tendency of patients to get better and measurement error. If you pick a lot of sick people, a lot of them will improve; there is concern that, particularly in psychiatry, doctors and patients exaggerate the severity of symptoms in order to enter patients in clinical trials, but stop doing so once the study has started. But beyond that, there can be benefits from taking the sham treatment. Kaptchuk showed this brilliantly in another study of IBS patients, in which those who got fake acupuncture (the needle doesn't pierce the skin) with lots of warm caring talk from the practitioner did better than those who got the fake acupuncture in a cold, clinical manner, who in turn did better than those who were put on a waiting list and told they would have to wait for treatment.
We tend to think of the doctor's bedside manner as beside the point when it comes to treatment; Kaptchuk's view seems to be that the interaction between doctor and patient can actually be key to making patients healthier – though he is careful to say that he does not expect placebo to replace cancer or heart drugs. Doctors tend to worry about the "white lab coat effect" because it makes people's blood pressure higher in exams, but there are also probably benefits to the hope that maybe that person in a white coat can make your gut pain go away.
In 2009, a big trial found that Amgen's anemia drug Aranesp doubled the risk of stroke in some kidney patients. What amazed me about those results, though, was how much relief from their anemia patients got from placebo, along with other usual care. At a medical meeting a year ago, I asked Marc Pfeffer, another Harvard researcher who led that study and is one of the top clinical trialists in the world, for an explanation. "There is an art to medicine," Pfeffer said. A caring doctor can give a patient hope, he said. "It's a wonderful feeling to make somebody feel better. Some of that is taking some of the weight off their shoulders."
The idea that ritual has profound effects on the way we feel shouldn't be shocking. It's why many smokers have a very specific routine – banging the pack against their hands several times to pack the tobacco, for instance – and why people are very particular about their cocktails. And ritualistic behavior is a common thread in songs and books about addiction. "Where is the ritual? And tell me where is the taste?" singer Mark Sandman, of the alternative rock band Morphine, sang in the title cut of the 1993 album Cure For Pain. If ritual affects the way we use recreational drugs, why not real medicines?
That doesn't mean, for instance, that we can discount the effects of the antidepressants in cases where they're washed out by the placebo effect – these drugs worked when they were tested in sicker patients and in indications where the placebo effect isn't as big. It does mean that there are powerful treatments hidden in the way good doctors talk to their patients and that we need to figure out ways to study them.
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287a791d37d95a53e976395fca25e3fa | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2011/01/06/why-you-cant-have-your-1000-genome/ | Why You Can't Have Your $1,000 Genome | Why You Can't Have Your $1,000 Genome
Image via Wikipedia
It's been the catch-phrase of science geeks hoping to drive DNA sequencing to the next level: The $1,000 genome. There is a National Institutes of Health project to get us there, an X Prize to reward whoever gets there first, and a book (a great read) named after the idea. The $1,000 genome – it promises a day when we all carry around our genetic code on thumb drives and use it to decide what medicines to take, what to eat, and what diseases to watch out for.
Great buzzword, but it may never happen, especially not any time soon and especially not at a cost of $1,000. Research costs for sequencing a human genome may drop that low very soon, but that doesn't include paying the doctors or the cost of information technology to process the data. Research genomes are not accurate enough for medical use. Getting better accuracy requires sequencing the DNA more times, which drives the cost back up. I'd think if we're talking about actual medical use, $10,000 is a more accurate number. Certainly, it is not going to drop below the $2,000 level for a magnetic resonance imaging scan. And once the technology is in use, I think it is possible that the costs will go back up.
Even in consumer electronics, costs don't always go to zero. Buying a decent computer (not the chintzy netbook I use for everything) costs as much now as it did ten years ago – the power behind the device you get has simply increased. But medicine is not like consumer electronics. That's why we often pay astronomical prices for drugs that have real benefits –$93,000 per patient for Dendreon's prostate cancer drug Provenge, or $200,000 per patient per year for one of Genzyme's rare disease drugs. Sequencing isn't going to mirror the drug business. It might be more like the PET scan and MRI business, with select hospitals buying huge, expensive machines. Or it might be that people don't get their whole genomes scanned except when they have a hard to diagnose disease – patients with cancer might have a few hundred or a thousand of their tumor genes sequenced in order to pick the right drugs, for instance. All of this comes with the hurdles that neither doctors nor regulators really understand sequencing yet, and that's bound to come with all sorts of hiccups. On the other hand, the first cases of using sequencing in medicine are arriving now.
That said, one of the arguments that this could be quite big is that you can get to pretty gigantic market sizes whether the cost comes down a lot or not. To quote Jay Flatley, chief executive of DNA sequencing leader Illumina: "If you look at the potential it verges on being insatiable through the next ten years," says Flatley. "If you look at sequencing entire countries the potential volumes are really staggering, even at $1,000 a genome."
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fa80995fd85184e79c74fd2319490927 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2011/01/31/clinical-datas-data-problem/ | Clinical Data's Data Problem | Clinical Data's Data Problem
Last night I published a long story on Clinical Data, the tiny company whose stock is soaring because of the FDA approval of its antipsychotic Viibryd.
Because of a technical problems, this piece does not seem to have gone to the investor pages at Yahoo Finance. I'm writing this post mainly to let the investors to go read my story, "Clinical Data Could Use More Data." So really, go read that one.
The gist: I spoke to three psychiatrists about the Viibryd label, and they were skeptical about one of the drug's main selling points: the idea that Viibryd causes fewer sexual side effects than other antidepressants. They said that the data that's been collected so far don't prove this.
But here's a little riff that didn't make it into the last story because I couldn't figure out where to put it. The investment case for Clinical Data hinges on the value of Viibryd, but also on the odds of a buyout. Investors who don't believe in the stock have been comparing it to Vanda Pharmaceuticals, which got surprise FDA approval for an antipsychotic back in 2009.
One of the doctors I interviewed for this story, Columbia University's Jeffrey Lieberman, was incredibly skeptical about Vanda's drug when it was approved. (See this story.) We talked about the differences between the two stories this time, and Lieberman said that he does view Viibryd as being more differentiated from other antidepressants than Vanda's drug Fanapt was from other antipsychotics. Fanapt didn't add anything, he says; with Viibryd, there is at least the potential that it might be different from other drugs, and work better for some patients. Still, he really thinks doctors need comparative data. Those are studies Clinical Data is hoping to conduct.
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897e92876846e947493a620543888797 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2011/02/18/why-the-new-dendreon-analysis-does-matter-and-why-it-doesnt/ | Why The New Dendreon Analysis Does Matter -- And Why It Doesn't | Why The New Dendreon Analysis Does Matter -- And Why It Doesn't
Last night, a researcher from Duke University presented an analysis that may help cement the case that Dendreon’s Provenge extends the lives of men with metastatic prostate cancer – if, that is, you think additional proof is needed.
A step back: I think the evidence that Provenge is a life-extending treatment is strong, based mainly on the 512-patient randomized, controlled trial, IMPACT, that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine last July. IMPACT shows that patients who received Provenge were 22% less likely to die, which translates into a four month median survival advantage. I view two previous studies as less convincing, but as supportive of IMPACT.
Dendreon had asked the Food and Drug Administration to approve Provenge based on the two studies I don’t find convincing back in 2006; an FDA advisory committee voted overwhelmingly that Provenge should be approved based on this data, but the FDA rejected it in 2007. Last year, the FDA approved Provenge based on the IMPACT data.
Passions still run high over that panel vote. But since the IMPACT results were first presented, any argument that Provenge is not effective had to deal with the fact that a relatively large, well-done clinical trial – medicine’s gold standard – had shown that Provenge does in fact extend survival.
The main arguments against Provenge have to do with way IMPACT was designed. One Achilles heel: patients in the control group did not get a real placebo. The immune cells used to make Provenge, a personalized cancer vaccine that must be made individually for each patient, were taken from the placebo patients and frozen. The control patients got the frozen Provenge – Wall Street types like to call it Frovenge – if their cancer started to get worse.
One argument is that somehow removing the immune cells used to make the vaccine causes harm, and more harm in the control group where they are not replaced. (See this for a rebuttal of this idea.) A second is that the frozen Provenge was actually harmful – again making Provenge look better than it actually is.
The new analysis, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Genitourinary Symposium in Orlando, takes on this second question. Dan George of Duke University presented data from an analysis comparing the survival of patients in the control arms of the IMPACT study who received the frozen Provenge and those who did not. George does do paid consulting for Dendreon and for other drugmakers in the prostate cancer field.
What George found is that the patients who got the frozen Provenge lived longer than those who didn’t. But the comparison is problematic, because the patients who got the treatment were healthier than those who did not. Two thirds of the patients got Provenge, and one-third got placebo.
“The way I would interpret this is conservatively,” says George. “We looked, by a number of measurements, to see if there was any worse outcome [with the frozen product] and we really didn’t see a worse outcome. We saw some evidence that would support that there was an immune effect – to what extent that was clinically significant can’t conclude.”
George adds: “If there was a biologic clinical effect of the frozen product it was modest, because we saw less immune activation and less toxicity with sipleucel-T [the generic name for Provenge].”
The argument was made to me on Twitter that this means that we should think of IMPACT as showing an even bigger survival advantage, because survival was extended in the control group, too. This is a huge leap. Generally, in these situations, its best to stick with the clinical trial data and hope that sources of bias canceled each other out. It is possible that this could encourage some doctors to try Provenge after other therapies, though.
One implication of the study, George says, is that in future studies that test Provenge in healthier patients, researchers might be justified in not including a frozen Provenge arm.
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898858a4091e77a33f0fa8d5d5705615 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2011/02/22/biotechs-best-investor/ | Is Randal J. Kirk Biotech's Best Investor? | Is Randal J. Kirk Biotech's Best Investor?
This morning, Forest Laboratories announced plans to buy anti-depressant maker Clinical Data for $30 per share, plus a $6 dollar payout contingent on sales of the company's drug, Viibryd. I wanted to get this story -- a portrait of Clinical Data's main backer, billionaire investor R.J. Kirk -- out as quickly as possible.
The print story, which I wrote with Robert Langreth, will appear in the next issue of Forbes magazine. The deal pays out less than Clinical Data's $33.90 closing price on Friday, but still locks in plenty of gains for Kirk, who has been backing the company for years. The full magazine story appears below.
Grand Plans
Investor Randal J. Kirk became very rich making small improvements to old drug classes. Now he and partner Thomas Reed want to change the world.
By Robert Langreth and Matthew Herper
Biotechnology produces few billionaires. The high costs of drug development mean that most early investors no longer own big stakes by the time a medicine finally gets to market. Randal J. Kirk, a Virginia biotech investor whose net worth FORBES estimates at $2.2 billion, upends this rule. Instead of spreading his bets and taking profits early like most venture capitalists, Kirk bets big on a few small companies and stays the course until a product gets to market. He reaped $1.2 billion in 2007 when he sold his New River Pharmaceuticals and its attention deficit disorder drug to Shire for $2.6 billion. His next big score could come from his biotech company Clinical Data, whose antidepressant Viibryd was approved in January. Its shares have doubled this year on speculation that Kirk will soon sell to a big drug company desperate for new products. Kirk, with common stock, convertible notes and warrants, is sitting on a 52% stake worth over $600 million. [Note: Clinical Data today announced plans to sell to Forest.]
But Kirk says everything he has done in the past pales next to the potential of his latest project: Intrexon, a secretive research-stage company that is working on the hot new field of synthetic biology—basically genetic engineering on steroids. Kirk and his investment fund, Third Security, have poured $200 million into the closely held 180-person company based in Blacksburg, Va., which has no drugs on the market.
“I’ve been a biotech investor for 27 years, and Intrexon is by far the best thing I’ve ever seen,” says Kirk, 56, who raises falcons and composes electronic music on a 7,200-acre cattle farm in rural Pulaski County, Va. He likens Intrexon to “the Google of the life sciences” and predicts that in a decade it could become “the largest, most significant company” in its burgeoning field.
Today’s biotech industry makes modest genetic tweaks to living cells—adding or deleting single genes so bacteria will produce insulin or corn will resist pests, for example. Synthetic biology aims to make much more radical changes and reengineer living cells from the ground up. One goal is to make protein drugs far more cheaply and efficiently than is possible today. Another is to transform living cells into tiny molecular factories to make everything from gasoline to construction materials. Some scientists even want to create entire new life forms from scratch.
Lots of big scientific names are working in synthetic biology, which so far has produced lots of hype and headlines but few practical breakthroughs. Gene jockey J. Craig Venter, known for sequencing the first human genome in 2000, leads a company called Synthetic Genomics that has a $300 million deal with ExxonMobil to make designer biofuels.
Intrexon has released few details about which products it is pursuing. Its lead drug is only at the earliest stage of human trials. It is so obscure that three prominent synthetic biology researchers contacted by FORBES—including Venter—said they had never heard of it. Kirk shrugs. Among other colossal ambitions, he wants to revitalize the troubled field of gene therapy, make dozens of inexpensive protein drugs and produce better genetically engineered crops that will benefit consumers, not just farmers. The company is also working on biofuels, designer enzymes, bioplastics and unspecified consumer products. Keeping the work secret is part of the plan, Kirk says. “If we were in the business of publishing, we could get the cover of Science magazine any issue we wanted,” he boasts.
The scientist behind Kirk’s mystery company is the 45-year-old molecular geneticist Thomas Reed. He founded Intrexon in 1998 while still completing his Ph.D. and postdoctoral work in cardiovascular genetics at the University of Cincinnati. “I think of him as the Henry Ford of DNA,” says Kirk. “We are all living in his dream.”
Click here to read the rest of the story on Robert Langreth's blog.
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21dbc08ce06fded4c44ff8865f2468c4 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2011/03/07/the-aids-awareness-ad-you-must-see/ | The AIDS Awareness Ad You Must See | The AIDS Awareness Ad You Must See
I don't think I've ever seen a public awareness spot that drives its point home more dramatically than this one.
The ad, for the Topsy Foundation, a South African group that delivers HIV treatment, follows three months of the life of a patient with AIDS, rewinding her life from a time during which she is looks healthy and happy and back until when she was emaciated and sick -- back until when she first takes anti-retroviral pills.
The pills reverse the disease -- although it is also true that they won't work forever. It is hard not to think what an amazing thing drug companies like Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, and Bristol-Myers Squibb did by developing these medicines. It is also easy to understand why some activists think that the medicines should be made available as cheaply as possible to people in need. And suddenly otherwise arcane arguments about intellectual property seem very important indeed.
I found the clip via Maria Popova of Brain Pickings and Jeri Ryan, the actress; it was apparently shown at TED.
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aac1138ea2e1a4f9c6fa5799abd93c65 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2011/05/20/the-case-for-performance-enhancing-drugs-in-sports/?sh=8e938251949c | The Case For Performance-Enhancing Drugs In Sports | The Case For Performance-Enhancing Drugs In Sports
Image via Wikipedia
A former cyclist is accusing Lance Armstrong of using performance-enhancing EPO shots to improve his endurance. Armstrong denies the allegations, thereby continuing a cycle that continued for much of Armstrong's career. The allegations will be aired on 60 Minutes this Sunday.
I have no idea whether Armstrong used EPO, as many other cyclists apparently have. As Michael Specter elegantly laid out in the New Yorker in 2002, the question on Armstrong has always been whether he is physically superior to everyone else simply by dint of genetics and hard work, or whether he took enhancers. Armstrong's heart rate is uncannily low, Specter wrote, and his blood carries an astounding amount of oxygen. Either Armstrong is so physically superhuman that it's hard to believe, or he has avoided drug tests in a way that equally strains credulity. Take your pick.
I've been writing about performance-enhancing drugs for nine years, and I'm convinced of three things. Some of these medicines, like EPO and anabolic steroids, do improve athletes performance to such a degree that those who do not use them are at a severe disadvantage. Many more of these substances are not providing much more of a benefit other than acting as placebos, although the placebo effect in athletes is very strong. And lastly, our ability to detect these substances and prevent athletes from using them is pretty bad.
To me, the most obvious solution has always been to legalize those drugs that work, and to experimentally monitor new entrants, including dietary supplements, for both efficacy and safety. Biological improvement would be treated much as athletic equipment like baseball bats and running shoes. This could improve both athlete's performance and their health, and would be a lot better than having everybody trying whatever additive they can sneak, attempting to stay ahead of drug tests, and trusting anecdotes as a way of measuring safety and efficacy.
But I recognize this is the libertine argument of a bio-geek who doesn't care about sports, and also that we are getting better at rooting out the use performance-enhancing drugs -- which is the other way to level the playing field. In fact, if prosecutors do succeed in nabbing Armstrong, there's no doubt that this will be good for sports, because it will help show that, in fact, you can't dope your way to being a legend. That is, if he did use performance-enhancing drugs.
An ironic coda: Armstrong has lent his name and his visage to promote a supplement called FRS Energy that is billed as helping athletes combat exhaustion. He also serves on the company's board of directors. The company sites studies showing that the active ingredient, quercetin, improves athletic performance. Researchers who believe in the supplement argue that although studies of it are small, they are reliable because each patient was studied on quercetin and off. Personally, I'm skeptical – but if it works, isn't it a performance-enhancer?
Bonus: Here's what I wrote about quercetin last year, in a story called Snake Oil In Your Snacks:
Web ads for FRS health energy boast the steely face of cyclist Lance Armstrong with the caption "Tired of being tired?" The liquid concentrate contains quercetin, a chemical derived from the skins of berries and grapes. The ads claim quercetin is "the only antioxidant clinically proven to boost energy." This bold promise is based on science done in animals and cells, along with some small human trials. One study of 11 elite cyclists found that those who took quercetin for six months were able to complete a time trial 3.1% faster than before, though the difference compared with a placebo was not significant. Some scientists say quercetin holds promise for fighting fatigue and even infection. "The science is far beyond almost all of the other nutritional supplements on the market," says University of South Carolina professor Mark Davis, who has consulted for the FRS Company. But last year researchers at the University of Georgia found no benefit from the supplement in 30 healthy volunteers tested on seven different performance measures. (The study was funded by Coca-Cola, which apparently was thinking of launching its own quercetin supplement.) Lead researcher Kirk Cureton has tested 60 more patients since then, with the same null result. He says there is little evidence backing other popular energy additives, including the amino acid taurine in Red Bull. The exception: caffeine. "It's the marketing folks within these companies that make these decisions, not scientists," says Cureton. "When the marketing people decide what they want to say, they go try and find some evidence to back it up." FRS says the science behind its supplement is "unassailable."
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a8ddb20dab3db1cc77305244e2cc1c27 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2011/05/24/vertexs-biggest-advantage/ | Vertex's Biggest Advantage | Vertex's Biggest Advantage
The battle between Vertex's Incivek and Merck's Victrelis, both of which treat hepatitis C, promises to be the biggest drug marketing fracas since Merck's Vioxx and Pfizer's Celebrex went toe-to-toe at the beginning of the decade.
Analysts are in love with Incivek, expecting it to get as much as 75% of the U.S. market. Some of their enthusiasm seems overwrought, but Vertex's drug does have one clear advantage that cannot be dismissed: dosing.
That might sound mundane, but the existing drugs used to treat hepatitis C, ribavirin and pegylated interferon, cause anemia and fatigue and must be taken for 48 weeks. That's a year of feeling awful. Both drugs allow many patients to shorten how long they are treated, but Vertex's drug can make the time shortest -- just 24 weeks-- and is simpler to dose.
Patients who have not been treated before start taking Incivek immediately, along with ribaviring and interferon. If there is no measurable hepatitis C in their blood in 12 weeks, they take another 12 weeks of the traditional regimen and are done. Otherwise, after 12 weeks of Incivek, they take another
The label for Victrelis says to give patients one month of interferon and ribavirin first, then start the drug. If they have no hepatitis C at both 8 and 24 weeks, they take all three drugs for 28 weeks. If they previously been treated and wind up with undetectable viral loads on both tests, they can stop treatment at 36 weeks. (I'm actually leaving out some of the complexity of the Merck dosing regimen.) Incivek costs $49,700 for 12 weeks, whereas Victrelis costs between $26,400 and $48,400, depending on how the patient responds.
Many of the reasons that people have touted Incivek -- for instance, its supposedly better efficacy -- seem shake to me. Yes, patients in Vertex's trials were more likely to be cured. But the control groups in Vertex's studies also did better than in Merck's. The standard talking point has that while Incivek causes rash in half of patients, Merck causes anemia. But here, again, we see differences in how the control groups behaved between studies of the two drugs. The anemia rate in Vertex's study was 36% for Incivek compared to 17% for the control group; compare that to 45% versus 20% in one of Merck's trials. The differences aren't striking.
Aside from dosing, many of the differences between the drugs wash each other out -- on paper, at least. Psychiatric side effects were seen with Merck's drug. On the other hand, the risk of Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, which occurred with Incivek, is a serious concern. This is a potentially deadly skin condition, which resulted in the withdrawal of the painkiller Bextra and in Cephalon's Nuvigil not being approved for ADHD. If it turns out to be more common in the real world than it was in clinical trials, this could be a problem for Vertex.
If Vertex wins, it may not be because it had a better drug so much as that it found a smarter way to study it, in a way that will make it easier for patients to take. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
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