Venture Society
10/21/2020
Every year, there are three days that I look forward to more than any others. The first happens in mid-February, when Major League Baseball pitchers and catchers report to spring training, and the second is Opening Day. Sadly, both were disrupted this year by the outbreak of COVID-19, leaving those of us who “rely […]
10/19/2020
On August 27th, 1859, George Bissel and Edwin Drake changed the American petroleum industry forever. The two men were responsible for the first successful use of a drilling rig for a commercial well. Drilled especially for oil. Named the Drake well, and drilled to a whopping depth of 69 feet, […]
10/15/2020
The hardest class I ever took in college was Physics, and it wasn’t even close. While some concepts were fairly straightforward – Newton’s Laws, for example – the mathematics underpinning them was anything but. Moreover, the successful communication of both concepts and mathematics often proved beyond the ability of mortal human professors. […]
10/12/2020
How would you feel if you found out that the average American billionaire pays less in taxes than you do? Not just a little less. In fact, one of them has paid zero taxes in ten of the last fifteen years. In 2016 and 2017, he paid $750 a year in income taxes. […]
10/09/2020
From the moment I first tuned into MTV as a child in the early 1980’s, I was hooked for life. There was something about bringing a visual dimension into the music I loved that made it all the more memorable. But even with all the amazing records put out during that period […]
10/07/2020
Keeping up with economic data these days is like drinking from a fire hose… it comes at you incredibly fast. And while I spent a lot of time today writing up this morning’s release of the US Balance of Trade data, its relevance as a headline was rendered useless at 2:48 PM […]
09/30/2020
Back on June 30th, I posted an article here about using alternative data to predict future outbreaks of COVID-19, suggesting that Google searches for “loss of smell” or “anosmia” predate a spike in cases by a few weeks. While at the time Europe was faring relatively well at beating back coronavirus outbreaks compared […]
09/29/2020
“If you could be cryogenically frozen for the next year, you’ll make a killing”-Tom Kaplan Gold and silver are correcting from their recent highs. If you’re new to the party, you’re probably worried. Financings that were hot and oversubscribed just 2 weeks ago are now underwater. Liquidity will become a […]
09/22/2020
Initial Public Offering’s (or IPO for short) are riding high right now. You might’ve heard about the Snowflake IPO making headlines. It’s a company with a special type of deal structure that most investors might not have heard of before. And leading the charge and fury in the IPO markets […]