Who remembers 2006? 12 years ago, Google launched a truly innovative suite of products to compete with Microsoft's behemoth Office suite called " Google Docs and Sheets ". This promised to revolutionize the way we work. Instead of having to email Word and Excel attachments to co-workers and worry about old versions , conflicting changes , etc., the document was hosted in one place, and everyone could always access and update the very latest version with no fuss or muss. Cloud Computing was The Next Big Thing™* and everything was going to be better ! *NOTE: Cloud Computing was not really new, but more a reboot of networked timesharing from the 60s and 70s distributed on a global scale. But that's another story for another time. Fast forward 12 years , and Word and Excel files are still everywhere ! Now, there are still a few cases where Docs and Sheets are missing features that Word and Excel have. For instance, I sometimes miss the automated hie
Everyone and their friend's brother's baker seems to be doing a tech startup these days. If you're not building your own web or mobile app, you're just not part of the cool crowd . Some of these startups have investors and funding. Some don't. To all you founders out there, I have one question: WHY are YOU doing a startup? Starting a new company is not easy . I started my consulting company, Syllogistic Software , in 2003. It's almost been a decade, and the road to success was winding, ever-changing, and mostly uphill. My startup, PMRobot , has been in the works for anywhere from 2-4 years, depending on how you count. I've poured in my heart and soul, with little financial reward. So again, WHY are YOU doing a startup? Are you hoping to get rich ? Please, please, please stop right now if that's the case. The odds that your company will last more than a few years are less than 50/50 . Then, if you do survive -- after
Stocks have been on a major upswing for the past five years, but haven't gained quite as much as the big 1990's bull market: But the big question on investors' minds is: When will the next crash happen? This article about bull markets shows us how the current market compares historically. We're at about the median time length, and not quite the median gains. So although it's quite possible stocks will keep increasing for another year or two, it's unlikely to go much further than that. Another unique factor with this market is that it is being infused with money by something called " quantitative easing ", a large financial experiment with unknown side effects. Meanwhile, corporate profits are doing very well, but earnings ratios are starting to get high. And interest rates continue to stay extremely low . It will be interesting to see what direction the stock market takes in 2014/2015. More reading: How Does Our 5-Year-Old Bull
Comments
Post a comment