Andrew Chen on the Cold Start Problem: “If there aren’t enough users on a social network and no one to interact with, everyone will leave. If a workplace chat product doesn’t have all your colleagues on it, it won’t be adopted at the office. A marketplace without enough buyers and sellers will have products listed for months without being sold. This is the Cold Start Problem, and if it’s not overcome quickly, a new product will die.”
Aswath Damodaran: “True value investing requires that you abandon simplistic pricing metrics and screens, attempt to value these companies and, if you find them trading at lower prices, buy them. Investors in young, growth companies need to understand that while conventional pricing metrics are flawed, big markets, technology and promise notwithstanding, all companies have to find pathways to making money to be successful.”
The Economist: “The 3.5% rule posits that no government can stand up to that share of the population mobilising against it. Ms [Erica] Chenoweth came up with it in 2013, after studying 323 violent and non-violent protests that occurred between 1900 and 2006 worldwide. In every case when at least 3.5% of the population attended a “peak” event, such as a mass gathering, they achieved their aims. One example was Georgia’s Rose Revolution of 2003. More than 180,000 protesters (equivalent to 4.7% of the country’s population) gathered outside the parliament to oust President Eduard Shevardnadze, a strongman left over from the Soviet era. Protesters handed out roses to soldiers, who lowered their weapons. Shevardnadze was removed from power without bloodshed.”
