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- NFR #26 - Ben Francis, Extreme Weather & Marketplaces
NFR #26 - Ben Francis, Extreme Weather & Marketplaces
Ben Francis, Extreme Weather, E-Scooters & Marketplaces
☕️ Morning Inspiration:
“People always complain that they can't do this and they can't do that." "If we look at our lives and concentrate on things that we don't have or wish to have, that doesn't change the circumstances. The truth is that we have to focus on what we have and make the best out of it.”
- Nick Vujicic
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🤖 eCommerce News:
The app’s revenue spiked 68% in 2021. But retaining the New Year’s resolution crowd is a perennial problem, especially come quitter’s day—aka Jan. 17.
💆🏾♀️ P&G Buys Tula Skincare
“Procter & Gamble is buying Tula Skincare for an undisclosed amount. According to industry observers, Tula had sales of $150 million last year. The acquisition is P&G's third in just two months and underscores the CPG giant's focus on prestige beauty. In November, P&G purchased Farmacy Beauty. Last month, P&G acquired Ouai, a hair care company.”
“French startup Back Market has raised another mega round of funding. In May, the company raised a $335 million Series D round. Today, the company is announcing a $510 million Series E round, which values the company at $5.7 billion.
If you’re not familiar with Back Market, the company operates a marketplace of refurbished electronics devices — mostly smartphones. In other words, if you think smartphones are expensive, you can get a phone that is still in good condition without paying full price.”
“AmazeVR, a virtual reality concert platform that enables users to experience their favorite artists’ VR concerts through content generation tools, announced today it has secured $15 million, which was oversubscribed within three weeks.”
“In a statement, Felix Ohswald, co-founder and CEO of GoStudent said: “Education has seen a whirlwind of change, from remote classrooms to increased academic ambitions, and we believe there is a big opportunity to transform how students learn all over the world by expanding access to quality education.”
The new funding will be used for international expansion, product expansion through M&A and increased market share in existing geographies, said the company.”
“A study by McKinsey & Company on general e-commerce activities in Africa says consumer spending will reach over $2 trillion in the next three years. Much of this spending falls under the importation of products, primarily influenced by consumer demand and the positioning of major e-commerce platforms in Africa.
Afrikrea, an Ivorian startup founded in 2016, is one of the few platforms facilitating product exports. It has raised a $6.2 million pre-Series A round while rebranding to ANKA, the SaaS platform it launched for sellers in partnership with DHL and Visa in April last year.”
“Despite facing numerous antitrust lawsuits and tighter regulations in certain markets, Apple today reported new figures indicating record App Store growth in 2021. The company in a press release said it has now paid out more than $260 billion to app developers since the App Store first launched in 2008, a number that’s up from the $200 billion Apple reported at the end of 2020 — meaning, in 2021 alone, Apple paid developers a total of at least $60 billion.”
“Ankorstore lets independent brands sell their products to independent retailers. Those retailers can then sell those products to their own customers. It’s a B2B2C play with a focus on offline sales at the end of the chain.
You can find a bit of everything on Ankorstore, from household supplies to maple syrup, candles, headbands, bath salts and stationery items. Some verticals have been working quite well in particular, such as non-perishable groceries, beauty products and items for your home”
“The New York Times Company agreed to purchase sports media outlet The Athletic in a deal valued at $550 million, The Information reports.
This deal comes after months of speculation — at one point, The Athletic CEO Alex Mather approached Axios about a merger, which did not come to fruition. With this deal, the company seeks to bolster its subscription business — The New York Times surpassed 8 million subscriptions last year and is on track to surpass its goal to grow to 10 million subscribers by 2025.”
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📈 Trends Of The Week:
Extreme Weather Solutions Are Getting Hot
Source: CNBC
“The Signal: In 2021, investment in climate tech rose ~75% YoY, from $15.3B to $26.7B. The number of weather-related disasters occurring globally has increased by 500% since 1971.
As these changes play out, extreme-weather-related solutions are drawing VC interest:
Climavision (advanced weather prediction): $100m in total funding
Understory (severe weather insurance): $29.7m
Firemaps (3D mapping of properties to identify wildfire risks): $5.5m
Frontline Wildfire Defense (water-foam sprinklers for buildings): $3m”
Disaster Response
“US emergency services communications are outdated, to put it kindly. President Biden’s infrastructure bill allocates $15B to next-generation 911 technology, a market that’s estimated to grow at a CAGR of 7.6% and be worth $1.07B by 2026.
Innovators in this space include:
Zello: Push-to-talk walkie-talkie app that gained 6m users in the week before Hurricane Irma
RapidSOS: Connects customers to emergency services via devices like smartphones and connected cars
AlertMedia: Instant messaging system that allows businesses to send out emergency alerts to employees
MD Ally: Telehealth service integrated into the 911 system
You could focus on low-tech solutions targeted at digitally disconnected groups.”
The rise of the crypto middle class
Data shows aggregated search volume for “crypto job,” “crypto jobs,” “crypto job board” (Source: Google Trends)
India’s Coming E-Scooter Boom
“Indians bought ~117k+ electric scooters in 2021 (up 355%+ over 2020). That figure is set to explode as e-scooters rise from <1% of the country’s total scooter sales to ~74% or more by 2040”
Source: Numlock News
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🛍 My Marketing Highlight:
My highlight of the week is from Ben Francis the 29 year old Founder & current CEO of Gymshark the $1.4 Billion + apparel brand.
The % of Founders & CEOs of giant brands in the world that would ⬇️
Film & create their own vlogs and post on You Tube
Have the humility to not only step down from the CEO role but to learn each department, by becoming the CMO, CPO & CBO
Post of raw video of themselves trying a new technology out for the first time for the world to see
Is so so so small, that it makes all the more sense that he captured the hearts of so many followers & aspiring entrepreneurs alike.
In 11 hours this organic post has got 2,837 likes and 58,464 views.
Authenticity done right.
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❓Quotes that make you think
“It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.” Terry Pratchett
“I encourage you to accept that you may not be able to see a path right now, but that doesn't mean it's not there.” Nick Vujicic, Life Without Limits
"Nobody says "Yeah, I'd like to set myself up for some serious criticism!" And yet the only way to be remarkable is to do just that." Seth Godin
"Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers." Tony Robbins
"Luck has nothing to do with it, I have spent many, many hours, countless hours, on the court working for my one moment in time, not knowing when it would come." Serena Williams
“Some people say I have attitude…maybe I do...But I think you have to. You have to believe in yourself when no one else does--that makes you a winner right there.” Venus Williams
“That was my gift. Not strength or speed. Stamina. I never got bored. Whatever I was doing, I could keep doing it forever. I liked it. I locked into each task, and stayed at it until I got it right.” Maria Sharapova
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⛓ Mental Model Of The Week:
Hyperbolic Discounting (Link to definiton)
“Hyperbolic discounting refers to the tendency for people to increasingly choose a smaller-sooner reward over a larger-later reward as the delay occurs sooner rather than later in time. When offered a larger reward in exchange for waiting a set amount of time, people act less impulsively (i.e., choose to wait) as the rewards happen further in the future. Put another way, people avoid waiting more as the wait nears the present time. Hyperbolic discounting has been applied to a wide range of phenomena. These include lapses in willpower, health outcomes, consumption choices over time, and personal finance decisions.”
“Why it is important?
A clear reason why we should be aware of hyperbolic discounting, is that studies link it to procrastination. When we put-off or avoid a task, we are essentially prioritizing the immediate gratification of not undergoing an unpleasant experience over the future reward from completing the task. Most of us suffer from procrastination to some degree, and would benefit from mitigating it.”
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