Danny Crichton

This week was my “potpourri” week on TechCrunch, with stories covering open source, Scottish digital transformation, autonomous warfare, low-cost health services, and more. A lot of these had been on the agenda for some time, so it was fun to see them all finally get published.

Open source sustainability

This was a deep dive analysis of the changing economics around open source, specifically focused on maintainers. Following up from Nadia Eghbal’s report Roads and Bridges almost exactly two years ago, I investigate two approaches for individuals — Patreon and License Zero — as well as two initiatives targeting organizations — Tidelift and Open Collective — and how all of them are creating new models to make open source sustainable.

In Army of None, a field guide to the

This week saw several big news stories: the final, final repeal of Net Neutrality, the Time Warner-AT&T merger, the Kim-Trump summit, and the continued ups and downs of President Trump’s trade tariffs and ZTE penalties.

Netflix and Alphabet will need to become ISPs, fast

This article went hyper-viral this week. It’s essential argument is that now that ISPs like AT&T and potentially Comcast have bought large content libraries, content companies like Netflix and YouTube (i.e. Alphabet) are going to have to get into the distribution business in order to compete effectively. That doesn’t mean they need to blanket the U.S., but a careful strategy of targeting the most lucrative markets for the biggest carriers could allow

This week, I focused on several major Asia tech and finance stories that will radically reshape the divide between the U.S. and China. Several of these stories have been issues debated for years that are now seeing resolution, such as MSCI’s decision below. It’s a constant reminder in Silicon Valley that despite the region’s power in tech, many others around the world are plotting to compete effectively.

Xiaomi CDRs, SoftBank’s successors, and China’s Samsung investigation

China is launching a new financial vehicle known as Chinese Depository Receipts, which are mirrors of a similar vehicle in the United States known as American Depository Receipts. This mechanism allows local investors to invest in foreign companies, without the logistics of moving money

Ethics is extraordinarily important for journalists, analysts, and researchers. I have posted an ethics statement on this website, so that any conflicts real or perceived can be understood by my readers. It will be updated as needed in the future.

Image by Martin Bowling used under Creative Commons.

2018: Venture Capital Disrupted

Princeton University
Danny Crichton / April 5th, 2018

Personal Background

Readings
Venture trends from the field
Building a startup today

Agenda

Personal Background

Narcissism

Readings

Essays

Venture Trends

Life in 2018

1.Blockchain

Quite possibly the only trend that people are talking about today
Massive excitement in blockchain (including but not limited to cryptocurrencies)
New avenues for funding (ICO vs. venture)
Massive regulatory risk that still is not mitigated
So early - revolution has not yet happened and may not for several years

2. Huge Biotech Excitement

Massive interest in “deep insight bio” - software and bio
Massively increasing valuations
Political pressure and regulatory reform from FDA
Global increase in spend

3. Startup Frontier IS increasingly “complex”

Growing realization that complex ventures