Reflections and Resolutions

Happy New Year, readers! We hope you had a wonderful holiday season, and in the spirit of reflections and resolutions, we have several articles this week that recap 2015 and offer perspectives that may shape your approach to running your business.


On the reflection front, Fred Wilson argues in “What Happened In 2015” that “the consumer internet/social/mobile gold rush ended, but the lessons and playbooks of the consumer gold rush are being used with great effectiveness in verticals like transportation, hospitality, education, healthcare, and finance.” Semil Shah boils down the biggest trends of 2015 in “The Force Awakened In 2015 Startup Tech,” including the growing strength of big tech companies, consumer-focused subscription models, and lessening enthusiasm for on-demand services.


On the resolutions front, Mark Suster shares with founders “Some Thoughts on Leadership Going into 2016,” emphasizing the importance of actively developing leadership through factors like sense of purpose, relationships, communications, empowerment, and presence. In “Bootstrapping: As much a financing strategy as it is a cultural ploy” Michael Skok discusses bootstrapping’s advantages not only in terms of preserving equity, but also as a forcing mechanism to “increase frugality, accountability, and customer-alignment in the long-term.”


We hope you find insight and inspiration in this week’s issue. Thank you for reading and we wish you the best in the new year,


-Teddy Lee, Contributing Editor