Patchwork #25 — how consistency leads to understanding
The power of being predictable, Gen Z is rich, Adam Neumann is channeling Steve Jobs, and consumer social's lowered ceiling
TLDR
Anecdote: Actions will reveal your true priorities.
Culture: Record high levels of demand for air travel.
Money: Bitcoin’s halving occurred on Friday.
Tech: Leverage a community for better product development.
~4 minute read
1. Anecdote
SUMMARY
Being predictable leads to trust and understanding.
Your actions reveal your priorities.
Being spontaneous is sexy. There is an allure to it. The unknown. However, it is unsustainable and difficult to build upon.
Being predictable is boring. There is a pattern to it. The known. It is sustainable and creates a foundation.
Most of any relationship can be boiled down to being there for someone. Support. Them knowing that you will show up.
The ability to say “yes” and be present is a combination of prioritizing that request and then doing it. Actions tie everything together.
In life there are different types of priorities:
Those you think you have.
Those your actions show you have.
This also works in reverse. The priorities you think your friends and family have versus those they show they have.
At the end of the day, your actions reveal the truth. Additionally, when you consistently do something it helps others understand who you are.
Everyone wants to be understood.
2. Culture
SUMMARY
Aircraft shortages (19% fewer than expected) are impacting airlines amidst all-time-high demand.
Gen Z is making more money at their age than previous generations.
We talked about this last week, but we’re going to need a surge later this year for the box-office to beat out 2023 levels.
Demand for air travel is outpacing plane availability. 4.7B people expect to take to the skies this year; yet airlines expect 19% fewer aircraft due to production issues.
Not only is this evident in airfare costs, but in new airlines popping up. I recently flew with Breeze and it was a good experience.
The kids will be alright (image above). It helps that more of them are technically savvy (software development and design) than their older counterparts.
3. Money
SUMMARY
Ticketing platform StubHub is considering an IPO at a $16.5B valuation.
Adam Neumann inches closer to buying back WeWork.
The image above is a great example of power law. It’s also before NVDA went down -10% on Friday.
ShareChat raised at a $2B valuation for its social media startup.
Lightspeed and HarbourVest participated. While it’s good to see more consumer social startups doing well, it’s still my belief that most of the good digital real estate is taken by Facebook, IG, TikTok, etc.
Dark raised $6M to clean up space debris.
Long Journey led. The space industry is continuing to grow rapidly. Growing markets win over everything.
Draftboard raised $4M for its recruitment referral startup.
Founder Collective participated. Finding good talent is brutal and most of your best hires come from referrals. It’s hard to fully align incentives so I’m interested to see where this lands.
The fintech company Public acquired Stocktwits’ brokerage accounts.
The deal was for less than $10M. All the new brokerages are in a war for AUM. This also means that Stocktwits is re-focusing on its community.
Paraform raised nearly $4M for its recruiting marketplace.
A* led. A different enough approach from Draftboard (above) that both can exist. If both are successful, my bet is that it’s because they are either acquired or exist as smaller, but profitable, businesses over the long-term.
StubHub is considering a summer IPO at a $16.5B valuation.
Adam Neumann’s lawyer told the Financial Times that Adam is willing to outbid any other buyout offer for WeWork by 10%.
The most entertaining story is likely to win here.
Bitcoin halved on Friday.
This reduces the number of Bitcoins miners receive. The price of Bitcoin has gone up after each of the past halvings.
4. Tech
SUMMARY
Meta believes that schools are a great use case for its VR headsets.
While smartphone shipments are up 8% YoY, Samsung took back the #1 spot from Apple.
This was mostly due to Apple’s falling sales in China.
Airchat is the latest consumer social app to grab ahold of Silicon Valley.
We’ll see how long this lasts. It’s an interesting concept and combines the attraction of podcasts with async messaging. I think it will be too novel for most. That doesn’t make it a bad business though.
When building, form a community with a handful of loyal and active users. Allow them to be a part of your process. This will increase buy-in and the likelihood of them sharing the product with others. Leverage these people for honest feedback and early-bug reporting.
"Stocktwits is re-focusing on its community." Feels like everyone is doubling down on community building now, lol.