- Kevin Durant’s Nike Contract (SB Nation) – why Nike outbid Under Armour to retain Kevin Durant; the snippet on KD’s value to Nike is noteworthy
- Peter Thiel’s Contrarian Strategy (Fortune) – great piece on one of the most prominent contemporary thinkers
- At Alibaba, The Founder is Squarely in Charge (NY Times) – a detailed profile of Jack Ma
- Benedict Evans on Amazon’s Profit Reinvestment Strategy and Strive for Market Dominance (a16z) – article and podcast
- Blackstone’s Hilton LBO (Businessweek) – long form piece on how Blackstone turned a solid profit from what appeared to be a doomed investment during the 2008-2009 crisis
- Benedict Evans on the iPhone 6 (Benedict Evans) – a great review from one of the best mobile analysts in the industry; makes excellent points on Android’s problem and iOS’ dominance despite having a low relative market share; largest takeaway: contrary to what Fred Wilson predicted a while back, the mobile OS market is not unfolding like the PC market did in the 1990’s; it will likely be a duopoly with Apple reaping most of the profits on the hardware side (also Benedict Evans on ecosystems)
- Tim Cook Interview (Businessweek) – it’s clear as day that Tim Cook is the right man for the job; in fact, it’s not wholly clear that Steve Jobs could have steered the present day Apple the way Tim Cook has; he’s opened up the ecosystem (as opposed to Jobs’ walled garden approach), invested heavily in Apple’s services, and expanded Apple’s moat in its key markets
- 5 Lessons, 5 Years Traveling the World (Mark Manson) – a nice piece on travel and life from a man who spent five years traveling the world
- Warren Buffett, Benjamin Moore (Fortune) – an inside look at Benjamin Moore paints; Buffett’s focus on franchise value and reputation is uncanny
- A Profile of Satya Nadella (Vanity Fair) – a lengthy piece on Satya Nadella’s rise to prominence and the Gates/Ballmer dynamic
- Steven Levy’s Two Piece Profile of Google (Medium) – part one and part two
- Pinterest: The Coming Colossus That Could Dwarf Twitter and Facebook (Forbes) – an thought provoking explanation of why Pinterest can be the most valuable social media property in the world; while Twitter and Facebook use algorithms to determine what people could be interested in and send targeted ads based on those results, Pinterest already knows what people aspire to purchase; click throughs and purchase rates are already leaps and bounds higher on Pinterest than on other platforms
- Why Instagram Worked (Medium) – a retrospective by Mike Krieger on what drove Instagram’s success; paying attention to user behavior, iterating quickly, working excruciating hours, and sheer dumb luck
- What it Took for SpaceX to Become a Serious Space Company (The Atlantic) – long form piece on SpaceX’s journey to prominence
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