"Age of Miracles"

Jack Ma is missing. $BABA is tanking. Ant Group's IPO is suspended. Government regulation (or worse) looms.   But Alibaba continues to build an underappreciated, customer-centric juggernaut.   There's never been a better time to go deep on Alibaba. This week's audio edition is brought to you by Masterworks.io. You can read the full original post on Not Boring. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ageofmiracles/message

New year, new me. For the first Not Boring of 2021, we're doing our first bear case.  Bill dot com is the worst software I use to run Not Boring, & trades at the highest rev multiple of any BVP cloud stock.  In 2021, bad B2B UX doesn't cut it anymore. We cover:  1. What is bill.com?  2. The bill.com bear case.  3. The Love-Hate Relationship with Work Software. 4. Killing a Baby Dictator.  Read the full essay here: https://notboring.substack.com/p/bill-a-bear --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ageofmiracles/message

After a wild 2020, I think the best is yet to come. We cover three reasons: The Markets Are Eating Up Technology. More demand for tech stocks means more innovation, more quickly. SPACs may be a good thing and IPOs unleash investment in the next generation. Cloud Companies. Entrepreneurs can build new types of highly-differentiated companies with global talent and increasingly useful software at their fingertips. The Passion Economy Writ Large. As software does more grunt work and employment becomes more liquid, people will pursue their passions. That will make them even more resilient the next time a crisis hits. You can read the full essay here: The Best Is Yet To Come --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ageofmiracles/message

Ramp is using its corporate card as a Trojan Horse into the CFO Suite, helping companies save time, money, and headache. Ultimately, it wants to help companies save money and build better businesses. Today, it announced that it raised $30 million and hit $100 million in transaction volume than any corporate card company in history.  Read the full essay here: https://notboring.substack.com/p/ramp-the-card-sized-finance-team Sign up for Ramp and get $500 free for being a Not Boring listener here: https://ramp.com/partners/not-boring --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ageofmiracles/message

We all hate Facebook, but Zuck and Co are building a juggernaut whose business is undervalued relative to all competitor sets and which is attempting to pull off some fascinating moves in communication, commerce, and potentially... the Metaverse.  Read the full post here: Everybody Hates Facebook --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ageofmiracles/message

Outfit is DIY Renovations in a box. Listen to hear the case for this early stage startup that's using software to scale architecture.  Outfit's Website Read the full post here: Outfit: Not Boring Investment Memo --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ageofmiracles/message

APIs are all around us, powering the products we use and love every day. Chances are, you're passingly familiar with the concept but have never gone deep. When Stripe and Shopify announced that they were deepening their partnership last week - that Shopify would use another Stripe API, Treasury, I figured it was time to dive in. You can read the full post on Not Boring. We cover:  What Are APIs? The API-First Ecosystem Good Internet Strategy, Bad Internet Strategy Why Shopify is Smart to Build on Stripe and Twilio The Magic of API-First Business Models Twilio and Investing in API-First --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ageofmiracles/message

The future of work is remote. Companies that want to compete for the best talent don't have a choice, the employees do. Luckily, better software and new hybrid physical models are on the way so that life doesn't become a never-ending series of Zoom calls until we die. Read the full post here and subscribe! https://notboring.substack.com/p/were-never-going-back --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ageofmiracles/message

FEMSA is a 130-year-old Mexican brewery turned world's largest Coca-Cola bottler and the Americas' largest convenience store chain, plus a 15% stake in Heineken and a bet on the digitization of the Mexican economy.  I teamed up with Post Market to write about the company's history, present, and future, and why we think it's so undervalued.  You can read the full post here.  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ageofmiracles/message

In this collaboration between Sari Azout of Check your Pulse and Not Boring, we cover crypto, equity financing, and programmable money. Fairmint is making it possible for companies to sell or give equity to all of their stakeholders as easily as adding an "Invest" button on their website. That could reshape who shares in upside, and even what types of businesses are possible.  You can read the full post at https://notboring.substack.com/p/fairmint. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ageofmiracles/message