Business
The Fear and Tension That Led to Sam Altman’s Ouster at OpenAI. What has happened with OpenAI in the last few days should be studied at school in terms of corporate governance. The Board fired the CEO for mysterious reasons without consulting the key stakeholders such as early investors or a key shareholder like Microsoft. The backlash is so acute and swift that the Board is now facing the threat of taking back Sam Altman AND resigning because of the colossal screwup.
Petal Card, the fintech backed by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures, goes up for sale. There are a few take-aways from this article. The first is that this serves as just another example in the long list of consumer banking fintech failures. Folks, it’s really hard and the difficulty is compounded by this high-interest-rate environment. Ask Petal, ask Goldman Sachs. Second, one of my pet peeves is that journalists don’t probe for more details regarding the topic at hand. When you write about consumer lending, revenue is just a metric and doesn’t offer a lot of values without context an additional metrics like risk adjusted revenue, charge-off rates, delinquencies, cost per account etc…Third, why did the article say “annualized revenue last year” instead of “revenue last year”? You only annualized metrics in an intra year. Last year’s numbers should be long concluded and finalized. I wonder where Petal will end up…
How Shein and TikTok Shop are trying to shake the ‘Made in China’ reputation. “The onboarding process, said Monroy, was much more intuitive. Amazon had stricter requirements around business names and bank accounts, she said, whereas Shein was more accommodating to sellers who were just getting started. The platform had Mexico-based advisors who helped her set up an account, and even offered an initial three-month commission-free period, meaning Shein didn’t take a cut at first. Shein’s streamlined logistics were a major part of its appeal to local sellers, Yadira Alcántara Monroy, head of commercial relationships for the government of the state of Mexico, told Rest of World. In Mexico, Shein has partnered with J&T Express, a logistics company founded in Indonesia, which picks up items directly from the seller’s location for delivery. In contrast, MercadoLibre requires sellers outside of the city center to send each order to its warehouses and incur fees for extended warehousing. Monroy, the hair accessory seller, said Shein’s innovative delivery method saved costs. After the commission-free period, she paid fees of 10% plus shipping for packages sold on Shein, compared to 19% plus shipping on MercadoLibre.”
A good Business Breakdowns episode on the business model of CocaCola
Inside Binance’s Guilty Plea and the Biggest Fine in Crypto History. “Move fast and break things” is a theme more common than some may think in the startup world or anything that is fleetingly popular. Crypto, NFT, Metaverse etc…You name it. Binance is just another name. Unfortunately, we, as a society, put these individuals on a pedestal far too soon, way before we can be sure that their accomplishments are valid and a net add to humanity. How many folks made it to the Forbes cover or the 30-under-30 list only to be indicted and tried by our legal systems later on? Sad as it may be, I don’t think this
Other Stuff I Find Interesting
The Pay Raise People Say They Need to Be Happy. First of all, the data indicates that consumers feel stressed financially no matter how much they earn. Second, I suspect that even after getting the pay hike that they wanted, these surveyed folks would ask for another raise to be happy. That’s the human nature. Keep asking for more. Third, does this data show the lifestyle creep that higher-earning folks suffer? “In the survey, most people said it would take a pretty significant pay bump to deliver contentment. The respondents, who had a median salary of $65,000 a year, said a median of $95,000 would make them happy and less stressed. The highest earners, with a median income of $250,000, gave a median response of $350,000.”
Reflecting on 18 years at Google. There is wisdom from someone that spent 1/4, if not 1/3, of their life at Google and saw the company grow from an IPO hopeful to a juggernaut. Granted, he is not the first one that wrote this kind of blog posts. And I am not suggesting anything related to Google as an investment option. It is, though, an interesting perspective to see if you are interested in Google as a future employer.
The last places on Earth to see truly dark starry nights. Magnificent starry photos.
EVs are a climate solution with a pollution problem: Tire particles. “Tires shed tiny particles with every rotation. Tire wear happens most dramatically during rapid acceleration, braking, and sharp turns, but even with the most conservative driving, particulate pollution is an unavoidable consequence of car use. And it’s a problem that’s poised to get worse as drivers transition to EVs. The amount of tire pollution emitted per vehicle is increasing as more electric cars hit the road around the world — some 14 million of them this year, according to the International Energy Agency. EVs tend to be significantly heavier than gas-powered or hybrid cars due to their larger, heftier batteries. The average battery for an EV on the market today is roughly 1,000 pounds, with some outliers approaching 3,000 pounds — as much as an entire gasoline-powered compact car.”
Stats
Temu has 130 million global users
A Macallan 1926 was sold for more than $2.7 million, a world record for a spirit
Shopify Merchants notched $4.1 billion in global sales during Black Friday
Minh Quang Duong 
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