Startcon 2016

We attended the Startcon tech conference this weekend in Sydney. It had a global presence with presenters such as Uber, Zillow, Bloomberg and Twilio.

The bad news is that we are in a startup bubble on average Venture capitalists paid 46x revenue for their investments a record high which has since come off. The good news is that startups are tackling bigger problems than ever. Interestingly each region in Asia has a different set of problems to solve.

Japan
Has one of the highest rates of suicide in the world. Its a major issue so a lot of start ups are working on mental wellness apps able to pre-empt and sense your emotions.

Australia
Australia as you might have guessed is focused on fin tech. The dominance of the big 4 banks and their profitability is attracting many startups. Apparently banks make $1,000 per person in Australia the second is Belgium at $400. We are also early adopters of technology with the 2nd highest iPhones per capita after Singapore. Given we are such early adopters there is no reason why fintech shouldn't be more successful in Australia.

Indonesia
Traffic in Indonesia is bad so start ups are focused on on-demand services.

There was also great advice on pitching creating your Wow moment. The inside joke on elevator pitches is that there are no elevators in Silicon Valley!


The material in this article is for informational purposes only and in no way constitutes a solicitation of business or investment advice. The material has been prepared without regard to any client's or other person's investment objectives. Before making an investment decision you should consider the assistance of a financial adviser and whether any investment or service is appropriate in light of your particular investment needs.

Trumptastic returns

Trump isn't the only surprise winner. The best performing stock since he was elected president is not a financial or healthcare stock but a commodity shipper.  Dryships (operates drybulk carriers iron ore, coal) is up over 16 times increasing from $4.56 to $73 in less than a week. Its an extraordinary return given concerns over Trump's trade policies. Though Dryships is still way down from its peak in 2007 of $171,000.

The chart above is measured over 4 days note there are only 1.1 million shares outstanding over 10 million shares traded the last two nights. Who would have thought Trump would be good for shipping then again it's been a crazy week.


Decisive has no position in Dryships. The material in this article is for informational purposes only and in no way constitutes a solicitation of business or investment advice. The material has been prepared without regard to any client's or other person's investment objectives. Before making an investment decision you should consider the assistance of a financial adviser and whether any investment or service is appropriate in light of your particular investment needs.

Disruption in two charts

Traditional industries are being disrupted faster than ever. Google disrupted newspaper ads now Facebook is adding to their pain. Valuations of newspapers are cheap for a reason at the time of IPO both Google and Facebook looked expensive but valuations aren't as important when there is a paradigm shift of a better mouse trap.

Not only have Google and Facebook disrupted hundreds of newspapers they have also taken all the growth leaving advertisers with little digital choice. Digital Content Next have calculated that the two companies accounted for all the growth in US digital advertising in the first half of this year. The rest including Yahoo are shrinking. If you're worried about their dominance it might be an idea to go long their shares.

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Decisive has a long position in Facebook and Google. The material in this article is for informational purposes only and in no way constitutes a solicitation of business or investment advice. The material has been prepared without regard to any client's or other person's investment objectives. Before making an investment decision you should consider the assistance of a financial adviser and whether any investment or service is appropriate in light of your particular investment needs.