“Most venture capitalists will tell you that there isn’t a lack of money but there’s a lack of good business ideas and good deals. But there’s always money for good deals.”
~Greg Crabtree
Unexpected Articles from this Week
A recent investigation by The Guardian, Die Zeit, and SourceMaterial found that Verra, a provider of forest carbon offsets utilized by major corporations, may be making the climate crisis worse. The carbon offset industry is often relied upon by corporations to meet publicly stated “net neutral” environmental goals, but multiple studies have revealed that over 90 percent of Verra’s popular rainforest offset credits are “phantom credits” that do not result in genuine carbon reductions. Read more here.
Scientists in the US have made a breakthrough in the fight against aging, potentially leading to a cure. However, there are still many challenges to overcome before this can become a reality, including figuring out how to transfer these methods from mice to humans. Further, there is debate as to how quickly this research should be pursued, with some arguing for faster progress. Read more here.
Report showed that despite the market downturn, criminal activities involving cryptocurrencies hit a record high of $20.1 billion in 2022. Transactions associated with sanctioned entities increased more than 100,000-fold in 2022 and made up 44% of last year’s illicit activity. The U.S. Treasury has taken steps to regulate cryptocurrency platforms, like Tornado Cash and Blender.io, that are used to launder funds from cybercrime and other illegal activities. Read more here.
In 2023, electric vehicle sales in the United States are projected to exceed one million units, growing 65% from the previous year. This growth is primarily driven by government incentives and Tesla’s dominance in the market, as they continue to cut prices and launch new models. Despite a decrease in market share, Tesla still remains the EV King of the United States and the average cost of an electric vehicle has dropped 5.5% in the last month. Read more here
In China, the government has undertaken a massive population count in 1982 to establish the population size at that time, which was found to be 1,008,175,288. This was a result of decades of population growth and the introduction of the one-child policy in 1980. In 2021, the census data has revealed that the population of China has declined for the first time in 60 years, to 1.4118 billion. This has been met with both alarm and optimism and raises many questions about the future, including how it will affect the global economy and the planet. Read more here.
A new study has found that since 1945, there has been a steady drop in disruptive discoveries as a share of the world’s booming enterprise in scientific and technological advancement. This suggests that scientists today are more likely to push ahead incrementally than to make intellectual leaps. The study highlights the need for policy reform to invest in science and encourage boldness in order to unlock new frontiers. Read more here.
What I am reading
•An Intuitive Total Risk-Adjusted Performance Measure and Characteristics Matrix (Article)
•From CEOs to Opera Singers – How to Harness the “Superstar Effect” – The
Blog of Author Tim Ferriss (Article)
•Beating the Business Cycle (Book)
•$100M Offers (Book)
If you are looking for an investment in your startup, please tell me about your project.
As always – I would enjoy hearing from you (what you found interesting, the format of this email, notes from your own explorations, etc.), feel free to just respond to this email.
Until next week,
Ian Eliason