Ding Dong Thing
w.166 | Cultural Production Service Economy, Dry Powder, Global Hiring, Startup Resilience
Dear Friends,
We all knew that with persistent inflation and historically low interest rates, the Fed was bound to raise rates. And with the rise, equity prices would fall. So, in the grand scheme of things, this week could not be a surprise, right?
There wasn’t a ton that I was impressed with to share this week. Much of the news was a drudgery of ‘ding dong’ things (see song).
Today's Contents:
Good Reads: Startups
Good Reads: Trends
Song of the Week: Ding Dong Thing
Good Reads: Startups
On Deck Tried To Do It All. Now It’s Doing Less, Better. Here in Techcrunch. Remember when the vision was “expand the global startup economy”? I do! Now it’s all about the financing or lack thereof.
Opening the Floodgates: The $290 Billion Venture Capital Reserve. Here on LinkedIn. The headline might be a tad deceptive because so much of this is for the late stage and assumes the growth of private markets over public markets.
How this Seattle Startup Founder Bounced Back When Her Investors Bailed Out. Here in Geekwire. It’s about Sarah Haggard, who opened up about having her $3M seed round fall apart at the last minute this Spring. Sarah is the CEO and founder of Tribute, an Avalanche VC portfolio company building a knowledge-sharing platform. I was an active, behind-the-scenes participant in this process. Building a startup is brutal in terms of emotional volatility. As she notes, “It’s a common experience, but we don’t talk about it.” Many funding round announcements released today are from deals done 6+ months ago.
Good Reads: Trends
Life After Lifestyle. Here. Probably the best essay I read this week. The article coins a new term “Culture Production Service Economy” for the evolution of D2C brands to the new creator & influence economy. Quote below. Emphasis mine.
Seeing the cultural production service economy helps us understand why, for a decade, “now” has felt increasingly sophisticated but empty. It’s why, in the absence of something real to aspire to in 2010s culture, everything has become vaguely aspirational, even sugar water. As more and more young people enter into entertainment careers in a de-industrialized “creator economy,” business models supported by brand affiliation reign supreme. Once the CPSE eats a category, it can be segmented a dozen, a hundred times, filling out every price point and segment. Class mobility may be shot, but at least we can have nice things.
This argument (partially) explains the explosion of influencer marketing.
State of Global Hiring Report. Here (PDF) from Deel. There’s no one major takeaway other than global hiring continues to grow, and salaries are growing too.
Song of the Week: Ding Dong Thing
Music video here - 12 minutes of audio.
I like the whole Deaf Safari album. Felix Laband is a South African electronic music artist. He describes the album as "Deaf Safari is an audio collage of subjects that interest me and speak of the world I live in." The spoken words throughout the album are directly from the news, preacher sermons, or contemporary African documentaries.
In addition to Ding Dong Thing, I recommend The Devil Threatens Me, and I’m So High, I Swear I Could …
“Ding Dong Thing” by Felix Laband
As you know there’s been almost a ding dong thing in this case.
They have been appealing and we have been appealing all the time.
I don’t think it affects the situation and
It is unprecedented that a person has been pursued the manner in which Jacob Zuma has been pursued.
Thanks for reading, friends. Please always be in touch.
As always,
Katelyn