Strictly Curious Newsletter №54
News
Innovation: The most innovative tech entrepreneurs in the US aren’t American, They’re foreign-born, a new study shows. Link
Venture Capital: Where are women startup founders gaining ground? The share of VC-backed startups with women founders has grown dramatically, but Silicon Valley lags behind other hubs. Link
Scale-ups: How to scale an AI start-up by Matt Turck (Partner at VC firm FirstMark Capital). Link
Teams: 7 years ago, Google set out to find what makes the ‘perfect’ team — and what they found shocked other researchers. Link
Innovation: How to launch a Moonshot, just like Google X co-founder Sebastian Thrun. Link
Creativity: Quietness better than background music for creativity. Recent research questions the popular notion that listening to music increases creativity. Instead, it proposes that quietness, or even background library noise, is more beneficial. Link
Marketing: What does experiential retail even mean these days? For some, it’s sprinkles, others meditation pods. What really matters is localization, service and shareability, store design experts say. Link
Crowdfunding: Believing in yourself can backfire when investing in equity crowdfunded ventures. A new study shows that crowdfunders with inflated self-belief quickly stop processing information properly, put in less decision-making effort, erroneously follow the crowd and make hasty investment decisions in poor-quality investment opportunities. Link
Blog Posts
Breakthrough technologies: Bill Gates was asked by MIT Review to choose this year’s list of inventions (from custom cancer vaccines to cow free burgers) that will change the world for the better. Very interesting read! Link
Culture: The secrets of the world’s greatest art thief. Stéphane Breitwieser robbed nearly 200 museums, amassed a collection of treasures worth more than $1.4 billion, and became perhaps the most prolific art thief in history. And as he reveals to GQ’s Michael Finkel, how Breitwieser managed to do all this is every bit as surprising as why. Link
Interesting Numbers
What is the average life of a civilization? University of Cambridge’s Luke Kemp compiled a list of civilizations to compare how long they lasted. Link
Infringement on the rise: 35% of brands suffer Industrial Design infringement. Link
Video: A day in the life of a sushi master
Go behind the scenes to see what it really takes to be a true sushi master, day after day.
Detours
You spend 5% of your day outside. Try making it more. Link
Is listening to a book the same thing as reading it? Each is best suited to different purposes, and neither is superior. Link
Retail Therapy
The beginner’s guide to buying a private island. Link
Contemplation
“The secret of success is making your vocation your vacation”
(Mark Twain)
