Alcoa Corp (NYSE:AA) stock is down 3.1% to trade at $36.41 at last check, looking to snap a four-day win streak as it pulls back from an April 29, 52-week high of $38.20. The 40-day moving average and $34 region contained this recent pullback, however, and the shares now look ready to bounce, ...

Alcoa Stock's Pullback May Not Last Long

Major Key players in this Market: Airbus Group, Alcoa Corporation, Arconic Corporation, Boeing, Bombardier Inc., Collins Aerospace, Elbit Systems Ltd., Teijin, Lockheed Martin Corporation, and Triumph Group, Inc. Detailed Segmentation: By Parts: Engines, Cabin Interiors, Fuselage, Empennage, ...

Aircraft Parts Market Projected To Witness Substantial Growth, 2024-2031 | Airbus Group, Alcoa Corporation - EIN Presswire

Alcoa (NYSE:AA) shares began the week upward, on word its Chief Executive Officer is among those to address a conference next week. CEO William F. Oplinger will participate in a webcast session at the Bank of America Global Metals, Mining &amp; Steel Conference ...

Baystreet.ca - Alcoa CEO Set for Next Week’s Conference

PITTSBURGH, May 06, 2024--Alcoa Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer William F. Oplinger will participate in a webcast session at the Bank of America Global Metals, Mining &amp; Steel Conference in Miami, Florida, on Tuesday, May 14, 2024.

Alcoa President and Chief Executive Officer William Oplinger to Participate in BofA Securities 2024 Global Metals, Mining & Steel Conference

Deputy opposition leader Sussan Ley will meet Alcoa as part of a three-day visit to Perth, during which she will accuse Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of using WA for ‘photo ops’.

Liberal frontbenchers including Sussan Ley to meet Alcoa amid row over Kwinana refinery closure | The West Australian

Alcoa Corporation beats earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $-0.56, expectations were $-0.99.

Alcoa Corporation (NYSE:AA) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript - Insider Monkey

We live in a world today where facts matter more than ever.

Madeleine King: Stick to the facts on Alcoa | The West Australian

An alumina production drop and a bauxite mining approval have contributed to Alcoa’s mixed fourth quarter and full year 2023 results.

A mixed bag for Alcoa - Australian Mining

BMO Analyst Lowers Alcoa Target; Idaho Strategic Records Strong Year; American Battery Advances Lithium Project

BMO Analyst Lowers Alcoa Target; Idaho Strategic Records Strong Year; American Battery Advances Lithium Project By Benzinga

Heavy metal contaminants from mining can live in ecosystems for centuries. A new global database shows where the problem is worst.

Millions Likely Live in Areas Contaminated by Mining Runoff

Alcoa

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The International Subversives.

Hardly a day goes by where you don’t bump into headlines about Bitcoin (ETH/LTC/choose your fighter) and the evolving technologies fueling the fad. Blockchain technology, in particular, has made front pages for stirring ploys. But what we haven’t seen before are dApps, forging a brighter future for traditional mobile apps and crypto usage. And while we were squabbling over cryptos, decentralized applications amounted to almost 4K, accounting for . That’s quite a statement for something as fledgling as dApps, isn’t it? 179.37 daily users So let’s not get cryptic (pun intended) about this new app generation and find out whether they’re worth the hype. We’ll also discuss their plausible prospects in the years to come. But first, a dab of dApps You must remember the wealth of opportunities that were offered to startups and investors by . ICO in 2017 Back then, decentralized apps were heralded as a brand new tech comfort aimed at a slew of industries. Sadly, only a few industries accrued dApp benefits back then. After the bust of the great cryptocurrency bubble in early 2018, we haven’t heard much about dApps until 2020. That’s when dApps renewed their potential on the Ethereum mainnet. A-list players like MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor, Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, and Tesla’s Elon Musk have attested to the rebounded prospects of dApps. So what is a dApp? Decentralized apps (dApps) are software programs that exist and run on a P2P network of computers rather than being hosted on an individual computer or server. In theory, they represent the next stage in the evolution of software development, which has traditionally been dominated by centralized servers. In general terms, dApps are decentralized, transparent, and more attack-resistant applications that rely on blockchain. The technology itself is an open-access database, where all data nodes are cryptographically linked to each other and have an immutable block structure. According to , here’s what dApps bring to the table: Ethereum – no denial-of-service attacks are possible once the smart contract is deployed and on the blockchain. Zero downtime – no user data is shared with third parties. Privacy – user adoption of dApps or their deployment cannot be denied by any single entity (there are none, actually). Censorship-resistant – the stored data is immutable, it cannot be forged or erased, which allows the technology to satisfy the main data integrity requirements, according to the FDA's ALCOA concept. Complete data integrity – thanks to the automatic execution of smart contracts there is no need to trust a central authority to verify the transaction. Trustless computation/verifiable behavior But along with the added edge, decentralized applications are tricky to maintain, update, scale. A back-of-the-envelope calculation puts the overhead at something like 1,000,000x that of standard computation currently. - Ethereum Clearly, centralized applications beat dApps in these areas. As a developer and owner, you have complete control over the app and how it is used. Traditional applications can also handle large amounts of traffic. Already, we can assume that . So, why should you invest in decentralized solutions? Let’s see. dApps aren’t the ultimate resort for all software kinds What are dApps used for? Decentralized applications aren’t the hype only. Today, we can see lots of practical implementations of dApps. These include: - applications that allow you to buy, sell, and trade digital assets (e.g. MetaMask swap, etc). DeFi (NFT market) - these combine the functions of an online store, an auction, and a blockchain platform for the issuance of non-interchangeable tokens. Users should be able to create their own NFT items and sell them. Digital collectibles - blockchain-based gaming applications where users can buy, sell or trade virtual properties (e.g. CryptoKitties) Gaming/Gambling - social media dApps that encourage users to share valuable content by compensating them with crypto. Communication - a promising use case of dApps that will help link hospital data systems across a shared network and make patient data more secure. Healthcare Just think of it. A few years ago, dApps were that far-fetched sci-fi concept that had little to do with real-world problems. And now look at all these applications, most of which have already made a dent in the market, backed by high-flying brands. Therefore, decentralized apps are becoming more involved in day-to-day living, eliminating the need for third-party control and enabling users to manage their finances, data, and digital assets directly. We can also validate their positive dynamics by comparing stats from Dapp Radar. In 2021, over Unique Active Wallets (UAW) connected daily to a blockchain dapp. 2.7 million In 2019, this number didn’t climb higher than . 20K It seems like we’ve reached a milestone in 2021, so what’s next? Will the hype vanish and will dApps sink into oblivion? It doesn’t s seem so. What are hApps? Let’s address the elephant in the room: are still too young to claim dominance over traditional applications. Also, large-scale migration is still hampered by the lack of infrastructure and its complexity. Although I’m pretty positive that early-stage problems will be eliminated (remember the first BTC wallets?), decentralized technology has a plan B anyway. dApps Hybrid blockchain is a cross between traditional blockchain and centralized databases. This results in a perfect combination of the two different methods, leading to better security, lower cost, and faster transaction rates. One of the biggest problems with blockchain technology is its inability to handle high loads. This hinders its ability to be used for enterprise-level purposes. Hybrid blockchains were created using this realization which resulted in an increase in their utility for the development and deployment of applications requiring high levels of throughput. So why not apply the same principle to dApps while they’re still in their infancy? Thus, instead of making a major overhaul, we’ll secure a smooth transaction and a brighter dApp future by blending both centralized and decentralized capabilities. hApps are a combination of both traditional and decentralized applications that rely both on centralized and decentralized components. Just like hybrid blockchains, they can take the best from both worlds. Thus the back-end will rely on the salient blockchain features provided by smart contracts. The front-end will amalgamate both decentralized and centralized versions to match the computing power of any device. A centralized interface, for example, will be accessible for smartphones, while a decentralized one can be accessed via laptops. It also means that speed-intensive processes can be delegated to centralized servers to make confirmations faster. The Future of decentralized applications Decentralized awesomeness is certainly the man of the hour in 2022. According to Gartner, Blockchain is set to generate in new business value by 2030. It means that blockchain and blockchain-powered technologies like dApps will gain traction in the coming post-pandemic years. $3.1 trillion Is the future decentralized? It’s hard to say as we’re still standing at the onset of it. Nobody believed in humanoid robots and self-driving cars, remember? And here we are, watching the in its public demo. humanoid robot It seems to me that we are forging our way to a more decentralized future, that’s for sure. As for dApps, the numbers prove their tailwind and the growing user base. So whether it’ll be hApps first or purely decentralized applications, the very concept of them has already changed the tech landscape and made a statement on the global arena, securing its place in the post-pandemic reality.

Do dApps Have a Place Post-crypto Craze and What are hApps

Members of Congress Beat the Snot Out of Markets in 2021

Born in 2001, today SharePoint stays one of the most widely used enterprise collaboration solutions on the IT market. SharePoint serves enterprises both as a server-based (SharePoint On-Premises) and a cloud-based (SharePoint Online) web application that powers organizations in such areas as content management, document management, knowledge and innovation management, as well as enterprise-wide and team collaboration and communication. The popularity of SharePoint has increased dramatically once the platform became a part of the cloud Office 365 suite, thus being available for businesses of all sizes. According to the 2018 Global SharePoint and Office 365 survey, SharePoint Online adoption jumped from 31% in 2017 to 50% in 2018. Overall, there are more than 400K organizations using SharePoint worldwide. The IT market doesn’t remain indifferent to this trend, as more and more companies all over the world are starting to provide SharePoint services. Since SharePoint out-of-the-box comes as a set of features and tools, enterprises still need to put their effort into customizing the platform according to their needs and employees’ preferences. By using SharePoint default features and coupling them with custom solutions, organizations can build sophisticated corporate intranets, external-facing portals, CMSs, LMSs, DMSs and a variety of enterprise systems that cover different aspects of business processes. At the same time, the growing number of IT companies that provide SharePoint services makes it rather difficult to find a reliable partner with proper skills and experience. How to rate SharePoint consulting Below you will see a list of the most trustworthy SharePoint consulting companies that provide the full set of SharePoint-related services. The companies were analyzed and ranked according to five criteria: SharePoint expertise, companies’ statuses, and certificates, their major clients, offering strategy, and market responsiveness. The list will guide you through several key players on the SharePoint field and will help you find an optimal partner for your specific SharePoint projects. 1. Itransition Founded in 1998, Itransition is a Colorado-based custom software development company that delivers a large number of SharePoint services. The company offers SharePoint consulting, platform development, customization, implementation, update, integration with enterprise applications, and support. Itransition also helps its clients to train their staff on the SharePoint functionality. With a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner status and a skilled team of 300+ .NET developers on board, the company works with all versions of the platform and specializes in complex deeply customized enterprise SharePoint solutions. The company’s portfolio includes 800+ clients, among which are eBay, PayPal, Adidas, IBM, Expedia, and more. Itransition serves 30 countries all around the world. Denver, CO Location: $25 — $49 Rate per hour: Expedia, Toyota, eBay, PayPal, Adidas Clients: 1000–9999 Employees: Website: https://www.itransition.com/ 2. Neologic Software Solutions With more than 15 years of experience, Neologic is a leading SharePoint services provider in India. The company offers SharePoint development, migration, support, and configuration. Having more than 150 clients, Neologic delivers its SharePoint services to the US, UK, Canada, and UAE. Over the years of its operations, the company has acquired strong industry expertise. This allows Neologic to build full-featured industry-specific SharePoint solutions for Logistics, Government, Retail, and Hospitality. Trivandrum, Kerala, India Location: $50 — $99 Rate per hour: Cartoys, Mashalot, Hello Cabs, Royal College of Dentists of Canada Clients: 50–249 Employees: Website: http://www.nlindia.com/ 3. ImageTech Systems Since 1994, ImageTech has been providing solutions for Enterprise Content Management (ECM). It delivers a full stack of SharePoint services, including initial development/setup, maintenance, migration, and a complete deployment health check. The company offers its services on-site or remotely, by focusing on the Government, Finance, Logistics, and Healthcare industries and working with clients of all sizes. With an in-depth understanding of ECM technologies, the company excels in building up effective SharePoint-based content management solutions along with helping enterprises make these solutions an integral part of their business processes and employees’ everyday activities. Camp Hill, PA Location: Not Revealed Rate per hour: National Energy Company, Global Transportation and Logistics Company Clients: 10–49 Employees: Website: http://www.imagetechsys.com/ 4. Longi Engineering Founded in 1997, NY-based Longi Engineering has been a Microsoft Content and Collaboration partner for more than 15 years. The company delivers both server-based and cloud SharePoint solutions and provides organizations with SharePoint consulting, implementation, development, migration, and support. Being well-versed in SharePoint On-Premises deployments, today the company also handles SharePoint Online challenges and assists its customers in transitioning to the Office 365 environment. New York, NY Location: $100 — $149 Rate per hour: Legal Services of NYC, Affinity Health Plan, Garrett County Community Action Clients: 10–49 Employees: Website: https://www.longieng.com/ 5. Binary Republik Binary Republik is a company with extensive experience in all SharePoint platform versions. Today, the company’s service package includes SharePoint consulting, development, customization, integration, migration, and support. The company has built strong expertise in delivering SharePoint CMS and BI solutions, as well as custom SharePoint-based applications using the platform’s native strengths. Binary Republik’s partnerships list includes several SharePoint gurus, such as Microsoft, Sharegate, K2, and Umbraco. The company has a versatile portfolio of successfully accomplished projects for organizations that leverage the power of SharePoint in different parts of the world. Gujarat, India Location: $25 — $49 Rate per hour: Pegasystems, South Jersey Healthcare, USAmeriBank, Blythedale Children’s Hospital Clients: 50–249 Employees: Website: http://www.binaryrepublik.com/ 6. Businessware Technologies With more than 80 experts on board and 12 years of experience, Businessware Technologies is a professional provider of SharePoint services. The company helps with SharePoint consulting, intranet and extranet design, implementation, and development, SharePoint migration and support. Businessware Technologies is recognized as a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. The company’s SharePoint team has carried out 50+ projects of different complexity. The portfolio proves the company’s competencies in all SharePoint versions and their ability to turn the platform’s strengths into business advantages. Austin, TX Location: $25 — $49 Rate per hour: American Airlines, Delta, Samsung, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, Alcoa Clients: 50–249 Employees: Website: http://businesswaretech.com/ 7. Dynamics Square Australia-based Dynamics Square is a consulting company that offers a wide number of business solutions based on the Microsoft technologies, including SharePoint. The company helps enterprises launch, set up, customize and tune their SharePoint deployments, as well as takes up the SharePoint upgrade, design, and migration. A strong knowledge of the Microsoft products, for example, Microsoft Dynamics or Power BI, enables the company to be a one-stop-shop for every company interested in implementing the Microsoft tech stack to foster their business processes. Sydney, Australia Location: Not Revealed Rate per hour: Kyocera, MSH, Discovery Science Center, Lanco Infratech Clients: 50–249 Employees: Website: http://www.dynamicssquare.com.au/ 8. Inquisitives Founded in 2001, Inquisitives is a software development company that has already served more than 300 clients worldwide. The company provides full-cycle SharePoint consulting and development services and designs custom ECM, BI, and document management solutions while coupling SharePoint out-of-the-box capabilities with unique custom-made features. The company has worked with such world-known companies as Samsung, Google, Yahoo!, Intel, and Xerox. Karachi, Pakistan Location: Not Revealed Rate per hour: Sanofi, Hermas, Google, Cisco, Itea Clients: 50–249 Employees: Website: http://inquisitives.com/ 9. Aufait Established in 2003, Aufait is an IT company that specializes in delivering SharePoint and Office 365 solutions and services. The company is recognized as a Gold Microsoft Content and Collaboration partner. Aufait’s offering includes full-cycle SharePoint development, consulting, UI/UX design, and migration. Apart from providing the core SharePoint services, Aufait brings in ready-to-use SharePoint solutions that are to cut enterprises’ costs on the platform’s initial customization. Aufait’s partners can leverage the tuned e-tendering and performance management solutions, as well as a pre-set SharePoint intranet for dynamic team collaboration. Bangalore, India Location: $25 — $49 Rate per hour: Oman Air, Saudi Aramco, Edenred, Paladion Clients: 50–249 Employees: Website: https://aufait.in/ 10. Cotek Systems Cotek Systems is a Georgia-based software consulting company, whose expertise lies in enterprise content management, customer relationship management, applications development, and integration. SharePoint is one of the key technologies that form the company’s service pack. Cotek Systems provides SharePoint consulting, platform governance, training, integration, and migration. The company’s offering is extended with a wide set of SharePoint add-ins, ready-made apps that enable companies to enrich the functionality of their SharePoint-based solutions with no additional coding. Among the company’s clients are Coca Cola, Linda Consulting, Comcast, and Dexia. Norcross, GA Location: $50 — $99 Rate per hour: Coca Cola, Atlanta Comcast, Dexia, Baltimore Standard Chartered Bank Clients: 10–49 Employees: Website: http://www.cotekinc.com/ What’s next for SharePoint consulting companies? Enterprise content management and team collaboration are here to stay. And so do SharePoint consultants. But with time and especially with the platform updates, our top 10 might look differently. Some companies will keep up with the progress of SharePoint, while others might lag behind or change their technology focus. We will continue to carefully monitor changes in the SharePoint consulting and development landscape to deliver an updated rating of vendors in a year or so.

Top SharePoint Consulting Companies

People often see the Industrial Internet of Things in a narrow view, namely, the ability to increase efficiency, and cost savings. While that is true, it is a limited list of benefits based upon one’s understanding of connectivity, data and information to influence behavior. There are several ways to lead organizational change, and it all depends on one’s role and how they view their role in the organization. productivity As an example, this month I attended a NORA (National Oil Recyclers Association) Environmental, Health & Safety workshop as a speaker. NORA represents the leading liquid recycling companies in used oil, antifreeze, oil filters & absorbents, parts cleaning, wastewater and chemicals. NORA’s primary mission has been aiding in the development of the EPA’s used oil management standards, including avoiding the damaging hazardous waste designation for used oil. This was not my typical audience for IoT discussions so I had to think about presenting information in a way that would be valuable for the audience. As such, I took away a lot from that preparation process and from my interactions with the attendees. Again, the common theme is productivity in the process industry or discrete manufacturing, and the machines running smoothly and efficiently and overall productivity is the goal. However, there are many incidents where we are not moving from good productivity to better, we are looking at serious catastrophic events. Figures 1–4 illustrate that modern and measurement can avoid very serious issues related to pumps, fans and motors. Specifically, you can add continuous monitoring for bearing fault detection by measuring peak acceleration of the bearing as well as overall vibration, temperature, humidity on rotating machines. That continuous monitoring will provide the data and insight for 30–90 days to lead preemptive action ahead of unplanned maintenance. Realize we cannot all put in new machines, but rather need to implement these solutions as IIoT bolt-on additions to existing equipment. I would further argue that there is a need to monitor essential assets as a reliability program, not only the critical assets integrated into PLC or SCADA systems. technology Figure 1: Pump Seal Leak resulting in a vapor cloud and fire. Figure 2: Vibration study at a gas plant simulating the root cause in a weld break and release of compressed gas. Figure 3 illustrates chronic lubrication failure causing repeat fires on a DDG dryer fan at an ethanol plant. Figure 4 is long-term fan imbalance causing looseness and leading to failure and safety risks. Figure 5 is a biomass boiler where solids fuel silo blew its lid off. The cause was a failed bearing which ignited the explosive dust. One area of commonality I found across every industrial company is that they want and need safety improvements, as fewer injuries leads to better productivity, lower costs and higher morale. The idea of embracing the measurement of productivity of manufacturing processes through the lens of safety and reliability is relatively new, but studies clearly show that as the OEE (operational equipment efficiency) goes up safety incidents go down as seen in the graph below. Machines often cause injuries when they malfunction, thus, proactive maintenance or further predictive maintenance is enabled by things like condition monitoring and bearing fault detection in rotating equipment like pumps, fans and motors. Further studies also show that the largest single cause of plant incidents is mechanical failure. However, operators lack the feedback to know they are abusing the machinery. In the past, the technology needed to understand what was happening inside the machine continuously either wasn’t available or was cost prohibitive. A forward-thinking maintenance manager could utilize a vibration analyst or service technician with advanced diagnostics to determine root cause or keep the plant running on a point by point basis. Now today, with IIoT sensors and analytics, continuous condition monitoring is available in a cost-effective manner to have information flowing in real-time to further enhance productivity, efficiency, health and safety. This last graphic illustrates how productivity, reliability and safety are related. The more predictive and automated an organization moves toward, the lower the maintenance costs, higher visibility and translates into worker safety. This was illustrated with Paul O’Neill while CEO of Alcoa, where safety was his metric for success, well documented in Charles Duhigg’s book, . Injuries were extremely high and his mantra was a zero-injury goal. Over his 13 years as CEO, Alcoa’s net income grew 5-fold. If an organization moves past cost savings and to a overall larger goal, the Industrial Internet of Things can only benefit us all. The Power of Habit Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com on March 8, 2017.

Safety and Reliability as a Cornerstone of Industrial IoT Deployments

-> Source As the breadth of new subculture segments increases, to these communities is becoming harder to scale. marketing Who remembers these movies? North Shore, where a lonely Arizonan breaks into the radical pro surfing culture on Oahu. Rad, where a persistent BMX rider is determined to take on the Helltrack despite many obstacles. Donnie Brasco, where an undercover agent infiltrates the mafia. These movies all provide a realistic analogy of the inclusive exclusivity of micro-cultures. If we go back 60 years, our marketing segments were much more homogenized and binary, in the sense of cool|not-cool, athlete|nerd, pretty|average, good|evil, smoker|non-smoker, clean|dirty, homemaker|breadwinner, man|woman, sweater|jacket, ketchup|mustard, red|menthol. These more binary social/cultural constructions also led to easier segmentation of customers into larger ‘buckets.’ Marginal interest groups were marketed to on back pages and local newsprint at best. Sexist Alcoa Aluminum ad Internet culture has changed everything. We’re seeing thousands of micro-communities emerge as positive, creative and inclusive respites for a new tide of special interests. This is creating an incredible breadth of community content to market against. As their breadth continues to increase, micro-cultures also remain nuanced and exclusive, creating new challenges for marketers. In his 1996 book , Professor Robert Shields and some of his contemporaries explored the ideas of Internet sub-cultures very early on. 19 years ago Professor Shields wrote: Cultures of the Internet: Virtual Spaces, Real Histories, Living Bodies New discursive norms are being invented and disseminated on the Internet and from there ‘infect’ the design, layout and textual strategies of advertising, literary works and research reports.[…]It is essential to treat computer-mediated communication as a process involving differentiated ‘bodies.’ The tendency has been to treat all users as alike according to a stereotype of young, socially inept and thus culturally marginalized male ‘computer addicts.’ Professor Shields’ notes underscore the importance of this rapidly growing space of Internet culture and the general misunderstanding of it’s cultural phenomena, which have taken on great importance in the consciousness of young people. These new communities are not unlike the punk music, skateboarding and surfing communities of the 80s and 90s. Marketers have always required an authentic connection to touch and influence these groups. Any communications that were outside of what the community considered authentic would be quickly deflected and/or ostracized. Consider the success of Reddit and it’s hyper-moderated list groups. These function in just the same way. With new micro-cultures emerging around interests like pizza, cats, memes, yoga, crossfit, footwear, crafts, wellness, normcore, fit goth, seapunk, furries, otherkin, survival, webcams, fan fiction, and many more, marginalized obscurity is the new ‘normal.’ Few people talk about why the majority of online companies, particularly e-commerce and non-platform SaaS, are so hard to scale. Many have raised $100M dollars, yet struggle to turn a profit as online customers are harder to find, isolate and impress. It is becoming more difficult for our online ad units to create an authentic connection with viewers because their online interests are becoming hyper-nuanced and continually informed by a new real-time culture, i.e. a finitely engaged and fundamentally distracted Internet culture. Cultural fragmentation away from the status quo continues at an accelerated pace. E-pollution is out of control. And so, we take this rapidly expanding Internet culture space, with all of its nuance, breadth and complexity, and we layer on top of it the most vile, often unmentioned cancer on the web: Bots. According to a study by Incapsula, . According to the Wall Street Journal, over . This is scary stuff and applicable to every class of online ad: video, search, affiliate, streaming, display. During my time building data warehouses and analytics products, I can say that these reports are completely consistent with what I’ve seen in the real world. over 50% of current web traffic could be different forms of fraudulent ‘bot’ traffic 30% of our paid advertising clicks could also be from fraudulent bots Authenticity as the only currency moving forward. With all of the cultural fragmentation and low-quality traffic, we have to take a much closer look at brand narrative and content. How do we speak to all of these micro-cultures instead of just describing them as attributes in a database of millions? Authenticity of brand communication and narrative has never been more important. Sincere connection will be the future currency of marketing products online. [ ] Tweet this The allure of web-scale often distracts our brands from a truly unique identity and narrative. Even more troubling for marketers, we find that micro-community influencers like , , , , , , , , , and have become the new narrators of ‘cool.’ It is becoming much more difficult for brands to compete with content that commodifies brands and champions unique community-driven narratives. Adam Gallagher Veronica Belmont Gregory Han Justine Ezarik Christian Kimber Annaka Linowska Abdulqadir Johnie Gall Karl-Edwin Guerre Tom Emrich Authenticity is not the same as personalization. Knowing if I’m male or female, or knowing that my zip code is 90254, is not the same as marketing to my . Cultural connection requires authenticity and knowledge of a nuanced complexity of language, semantics, tone and color. Often this is ‘tribal’ information, changing organically with the community. culture A great example of authentic micro-culture marketing with larger mass influence is . , Founder and Creative Director explains, “Poler is meant to inspire people to reconnect with the outdoors in simple everyday ways that are meaningful to them. Because of this, we’ve seen great support across different culture segments like outdoor exploration, hiking, car camping, skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing and dirtbiking. Also, because of our unique content and storytelling, Poler has really been embraced by a spectrum of influencers, artists and content creators.” Poler Outdoor Stuff Benji Wagner Poler Outdoor Stuff, Portland, OR flagship display The wider the scope of our online marketing programs, the more our content needs to be customized to meet the cultural expectations of each visitor. This goes far beyond just contextual and personalized customization. This will be the big challenge for brands in the next decade. The future may dictate that each new customer segment require an entirely new narrative and marketing strategy. Some of our tech-focused CRM companies are just scratching the surface of this new reality, companies like , , , , . SailThru Retention Science Afinity Custora RichRelevance The honesty of scale. In order to grow sustainably, we need to be honest about the potential scale of our products. For example, e-commerce brands sometimes confuse themselves with platforms, anticipating unrealistic organic growth. Some of our products seem to sell themselves, either from brilliant design execution or broad platform dynamics. The last decade has clearly shown us that content communities and platforms matter. If a company can combine revenue generation with platform dynamics, the possibilities are great. In this case, micro-communities can adopt, self-select and enforce their cultures on each platform while driving incremental revenue in specialized segments. We have seen this with companies like Slack, VBulletin, IFTTT, Salesforce, Heroku, Shopify, Magento, Pinterest and more. The reality of Internet marketing for a non-platform product is brutal. If we are paying $1 per click for qualified traffic and 2% of our new visitors make a purchase, that means it costs us $100 per hundred people and we get two purchasers. If we sell our product for $40, we might make $15 in ( ). So we’ve made $30 for our two purchases and spent $100, which leaves us with a . Let’s say our LTV is $120 (or three purchases), that would be six purchases across the lifetime of our two new customers, which would result in $90 in gross margin. We still end up with a over the lifetime of these new customers for our $100 spent on clicks. gross margin link to great slide deck $70 loss $10 loss Because our current content production model cannot keep up with the pace of micro-community growth, it might cost $100,000 of these ads to find $10k of sustainably reproducible traffic. Need more scale, $10M to find $1M of reproducible traffic, and so on. “Micro-testing campaigns with authentic content is so important,” says Dirk McGregor, VP of Customer Acquisition at Regent Equity Partners, whose portfolio companies generate over $300M in revenue. “I think what we’re seeing on the larger market are companies scaling too wide with their standard ad campaigns from day one. They sadly end up losing a substantial piece of that investment without first considering the rising tide of low-quality traffic on today’s networks. Without a disciplined approach, it’s tough to find the quick scale people often expect.” How do we scale in this new era? Given our new reality, we not only need to focus on authentic content and narrative, but we also need to limit our financial risk when testing new audiences. While more traditional growth initiatives like email marketing, affiliate marketing, physical events, and traditional lead-generation have a much lower risk profile, they do not scale as quickly as display advertising (which is growing to include internet radio, video and various new social ad units). Just like using , we can also apply these core ideas to scale our marketing initiatives. We want to reduce our risk profile, or batch size, as much as possible in order to test our hypotheses, i.e. spend less, learn more. We can achieve this with disciplined hypothesis testing for new audience segments. Lean methodologies for product development Something like this is a good start: Construct our new audience hypothesis, i.e. develop narrative, content, ads and communication strategy for our new audience. Micro-test our hypothesis, i.e. run ads, emails, social. Include A/B/C/D testing wherever possible. Set a tight limit to our initial spend. Review our data. Clean our traffic sources, i.e. block fraudulent and/or non-performing sources. Adjust our strategy. Repeat. Programmatic buying can provide efficient, larger scale. If we take the Lean approach, we increase our chances for success and remove a large amount of waste/risk from our advertising machine. If we can combine this methodology with real tech and significant resources for , content production and targeting across large ad networks, we have a much better chance for sustainable scale. When we talk about this, we are saying that we can automate our audience segment testing and analysis, including partial automation of content production. Obviously this is no small task. programmatic buying Many search companies have proven this model, companies like Culture Machine, TubeMogul, 26.2 Media Agency, Dex Media, CampusExplorer, YP.com, Rubicon, [ more research on this, these are probably no longer relevant… ] Content production must adapt to a large number of customer segments. As we successfully test our audience segments and develop new narratives, authentic content production will become a large cost center. We see companies like , , , , and creating efficiencies in the content lifecycle. Can we merge cultural understanding with authentic content production at scale? Tongal Kapost Marketo Infusionsoft Hubspot Enter the ‘Culture Manager.’ As a general rule, founding level employees build the first culture narrative for a product or service. What about the next audience segment? What if there are 1,000s of these audience segments? It’s a scary idea that as conversion rates drop and Internet pollution increases by orders of magnitude, we might need experts for each micro-culture to create a narrative effective enough to break through the noise. Who is this person? Is this a new position entirely? I think it might be. This person is almost an Internet anthropologist, in charge of understanding several important micro-cultures. Jason Provisor, Head of Marketing Strategy at , expands on this idea: “Many of the companies we work with are too close to their own brands. It’s the age of the consumer. You no longer tell, you ask. At Tongal we’ve built a platform that crowdsources insights from within important micro-cultures to drive marketing content production. It’s no longer about creating ads, but creating narratives that resonate with each community.” Tongal Our primary paradigm in the ‘lean startup’ era is to just follow the data; test everything, measure everything and respond to the data. Unfortunately this is not going to help much if our marketers or product developers are completely detached from the micro-cultures they are meant to serve. If we use the example of the skateboarding and surfing communities, imagine a fresh Ivy League MBA who grew up playing competitive chess and doubles badminton trying to ‘learn’ his way into marketing to these communities, it would be a massacre. Open our coats and compress our learnings. Much of what we’re seeing is the confluence of a new breadth of Internet micro-cultures and the new reality of Internet ad performance. In many ways, we have been collectively floating down a widening river into a vast ocean of marketing inefficiencies, a black hole of phantom clicks and ad narrative lost in translation. Surely there is no single formula to combat our new reality. Risk mitigation is generally my number one priority. While it’s easy and fun to spend VC money and corporate display budgets on underperforming ads, . An honest and introspective approach to building new products and authentic culture narratives, together with lean testing of new audience segments will be essential in the coming years. perhaps that’s more a sign of the times than a long-term strategy

Marketing To New Micro-Cultures Difficult As Web Grows

In the Alcove

Facebook recently saw a massive but we all know what’s really going on. They have seen a and according to Lou Kerner at salon.com the engagement slide in their article is proof that Facebook is dying. drop in share prices and blamed Apple also huge drop off in users Maybe this article is related to that. When you hand over your personal information to an online entity, what do you expect in return? In a world where data is increasingly seen as a valuable commodity, consumers need to be aware of the underlying terms of data exchange. This piece for Hackernoon develops and discusses that identifies four key criteria (data ownership, data intimacy, data permanence, and data value). They make-up consumers' perceptions of the terms of the data exchange. a conceptual framework It also discusses my high-functioning alcoholism, which is the real reason you clicked on this, right? This article is going to be a thrill ride, so buckle up. I almost called this article: "Why can't I know exactly what kind of asshole I am? WITH data visualizations, GRAPHS and ANALYTICS? When other people already know?" Let's Start With ShabuShabu and a Highball I was sitting and procrastinating. I have high-functioning alcoholism, and that day I had eaten an enormous amount of ShabuShabu and drank two glasses of wine. It was at a bustling restaurant in Tokyo's Akihabara district. I was finally back home and working through my second Japanese Highball (Whiskey Soda) at my desk in my tiny Tokyo apartment with the heater on full blast like a languid feline. I had editing to do and I didn't want to write or edit. I wanted to read. But, when I opened up to get some procrastination-reading done, I realized I was an asshole. Allow me to explain. Hackernoon's Noonification email I received it on February 5th, 2022, 01:02 Tokyo Time. "How are you, @sarahothman?" It asked. There were a bunch of articles. I originally wrote what they were but I edited it out of this article because who cares, I didn’t read them. And, then there was also an article about . I felt angry about that one because . saying no to your boss and about how sometimes it's necessary sometimes that's necessary If the #MeToo movement taught us anything, surely it taught us that sometimes saying no to our bosses should also be accompanied by f*&king restraining orders. I didn't read it. Sorry, @vinitabansai. It's probably GREAT! And, finally, there was an article called: " ." I didn't read that either. Why? Because I'm arrogant and I already know that. I've read J.G Ballard and a bunch of other sci-fi authors. I know about the future. Guys, don't tell me J.G Ballard isn't sci-fi. AI is Not the Future. You Need it Today Sighing and taking a deep swig of my high ball, several disparate thoughts and recent memories coalesced and I realized: I'm an asshole. But, more importantly, I'm a very specific type of asshole. I was reminded of the recent hit movie: Don't Look Up. Not just the movie generally, because of the amount I was reveling in — or (more importantly) — despite the fact I was using them as a procrastination distraction, but because of not reading things not knowing things a specific scene. There's a scene in the movie, where a slightly cheese-fry fluffed Leonardo Dicaprio is ripped into by a wig-wearing Mark Rylance for calling him a 'Business Man' and it goes like this: PETER ISHERWELL Did you call me a businessman? RANDALL You do own a corporate— PETER ISHERWELL You think I’m just a businessman? Do you think you know me, Doctor? Business? This is evolution. This is the evolution of the human species. (To President Orlean) What are you doing bringing this— (Back to Randall) Did you know that BASH has over 40 million data points on you and every decision you’ve made since 1994, Doctor? I know when you have colon polyps months before your doctor does. You’ve got four or five at the moment, actually... You know, they’re not of concern, but I’d have a checkup as soon as you can. (MORE) PETER ISHERWELL (CONT'D) But more importantly than that, much more importantly, I know what you are. I know who you are. My algorithms have determined eight fundamental consumer profile types. You are a Lifestyle Idealist. You think you are motivated by beliefs, high ethical beliefs, but you just run towards pleasure and away from pain. Like a field mouse. RANDALL (almost in a whisper) I just want to make sure the science is sound on this project. I hope you understand — (Isherwell gets right in Randall’s face) PETER ISHERWELL Our algorithms can even predict how you’ll die with up to 96% accuracy. I looked you up after we first met. Your death was so unremarkable and boring... I can’t even remember what it said. Apart from one thing. You’re going to die alone. Randall shakes his head. PETER ISHERWELL (CONT'D) Alone. If you’ll excuse me Madam President. I’ve got some work to do. (Isherwell leaves) PRESIDENT ORLEAN What the hell are you doing? My God... RANDALL I’m trying to do my job. PRESIDENT ORLEAN You are just so lucky Peter adores you. (President Orlean lights up a cigarette with a GIANT: “HIGHLY FLAMMABLE” warning sign behind her) RANDALL I wouldn’t-- PRESIDENT ORLEAN You are with the grown-ups now Randall. And, I realized, knowing what I know about views, open rates, and a gazillion other metrics and consumer data points that we could use to measure engagement or audience suitability I have a unique set of prejudices that I am not in any way aware of. I know more about the prejudices of other people who I have never met than my own prejudices and more dangerously than that, I have no access to that data. A company like Facebook (META) will provide me with the data that I give to them. For example, I can request to download my own chat logs. But, I think it's harder for me to universally access consumer profile data about myself. Somehow, multiple online touchpoints have played the system, so that a company can buy that data about my preferences but I don't have a universal hub in which I can view consumer profile data about myself. Why? I can pay to see my credit rating, right? According to Wikipedia the top 3 credit rating agencies in the USA are S&P Global Ratings, Moody's, and Fitch Group. Why can't I pay to see my asshole rating? According To The Experts, It's Complicated In the study that I highlighted at the top of this article, the researchers had this to say: "As online and digital transformations disrupt their business, retailers are aware of the crucial role of collecting, analyzing, and translating consumer data into competitive advantages. It is quite popular to call data the “new oil” of our economies, or a currency that customers and firms might use to trade off costs and benefits in their interactions. Social media, new digital solutions, and the have led to an enormous volume of data being generated every day ( ). Coinciding with this, 62% of consumers feel they cannot get through a day without being tracked ( ). Yet, big quantities of data do not guarantee benefits to the retailer, and often come with inherent risks." internet of things Wedel and Kannan 2016 Auxier et al. 2019 The researchers go on to talk about GDPR and consumers blocking information on their devices but neither of these things are considerable risks from either a consumer or business perspective. The biggest risk, with its massively declining user numbers and explosive stock market decline, is a boycott of services. It's people logging in and deleting their accounts. as Facebook has seen Why can't I know exactly what kind of asshole I am? WITH GRAPHS and ANALYTICS when other people already know. I can only guess why I didn't read every article in my Hackernoon Noonification email, but I want to know more. I want to know about my prejudices so that I can address them. What's Data Ownership? Data ownership is the perceived right of an individual to control the use and sharing of their personal data. It includes the understanding that individuals have power over their data — the ability to access, correct, amend, or delete it as they see fit. What's Data Intimacy? Data intimacy is the perceived level of personal privacy consumers believe that they have in their data. It includes the understanding that individuals’ data will not be used or shared inappropriately, and that there are limits to what can be done with consumer-firm relationships. What's Data Permanence? Data permanence is the perceived length of time that personal data will be accessible and usable. It includes the understanding that companies will not delete or alter information without consumer consent, and that individuals have a right to access their data for an extended period. What's Data Value? Data value is the perceived worth of personal data to individuals. It includes the understanding that individuals are entitled to receive some form of compensation for the use of their personal data. Aha! Data value is the most important fundamental transactional factor. Companies are profiting off my data value and it’s ‘the new oil’ but I have no way to profit off it myself (or even use it to search deep inside myself and become a better person) and even if I did… such as online surveys, I would be paid peanuts. According to some sources, okay, , the data of LinkedIn users was worth about $260 per monthly active user to Microsoft Corp when it acquired the professional network in 2016. James E. Short and Steve Todd at MIT And then, in 2017 those two guys produced about how: “Making implicit data policies explicit, codified, and sharable across the company is a first step in prioritizing data value.” a whole MIT Sloan white paper In 2019 a bill was considered that would have given Americans information about they give to Google and Facebook was worth. how much the ad-targeting data Maybe one day we can work together to make a way for people to transparently see their consumer profiles and prejudices. And, maybe then I can tackle the amount of masterful, absolutely ingenious, targeted alcohol advertising I receive. Does anyone wanna’ build a consumer profiling data analytics company where the consumers own their personal data and are the only people who profit off it? If you do, I’ll be the first in line to find out exactly what type of asshole I am. You can pay me, for me to find out.

Facebook, The Cost of Consumer Profiling: Or My High Functioning Alcoholism

Sales of soda drinks in the U.S. have been declining for around a decade while non-alcoholic beverage sales reached in just a single year.  This is just one of several indicators that the non-alcoholic beverage market is booming.  With rapid growth and innovation, five key markets have shown high popularity with consumers. $919 billion One market involves functional waters, which is still or sparkling water that includes additives such as vitamins, acids, herbs, and fruits.  Its convenience and helpful effects on human nutrition as well as the addition of ingredients that support weight loss increases its popularity with consumers, but the fluctuations in costs causes some to choose other alternatives.  Another growing market is organic beverages, which several brands are crafting to help customers with their health.  Factors such as growing awareness of the health benefits of organic products and consumer preference for drinks that are naturally flavored have helped organic beverages to be more appealing to the public. Those who want to avoid sugary drinks rely on ready-to-drink (RTD) coffees, which can be considered a natural energy drink.  Although consumers can buy RTD coffee in cans and bottles from their local store, several people have shifted to creating their own coffee at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.  For those who want a caffeine-free energy boost, herbal and oxidized tea can do the job.  The cold brews and plant-based milk blends that have revamped the cold tea category and the increased awareness of the public towards healthy lifestyle habits have helped tea to become the new coffee for many. However, for those who cannot let go of coffee, there are brands that are offering RTD alcoholic beverages that include ingredients that are good for you as well as a range of flavors to enjoy.  The growing desire of consumers to drink low- or no- alcohol content beverages and the appeal of RTD alcoholic drinks featuring new and amusing flavors have made it a fun alternative to regular alcohol.  Bars have also taken part in the alcohol-free trend by offering a .  These mixed drinks allow young adults to focus on healthier options while still being able to partake in the bar scene. mocktail The non-alcoholic beverage trend is here to stay, but are you ready to say cheers to it?

The Rise of Non-Alcoholic Beverages: Trends to Keep an Eye On

The word insane is drastically overused for everything from mild moodiness and irritability to emotional changes. That's not what this article is about; these are four stories of times I did business with people who were deeply unwell psychologically. insane Sometimes, I ask myself whether it's a degree of insanity within myself that has attracted these people and circumstances or whether it's just a matter of dumb luck that I've been quite intimately ensconced in business four separate times with people varying from unstable addicts to genuinely demented. I'm leaning more toward the former than the latter. In addition to being entertaining, I hope that these stories can educate you on how to identify the tale-tale signs of insanity in the charming, persuasive people you are considering doing business with. I hope that these stories can educate you on how to identify the tale-tale signs of insanity David David David was my best friend for four years, towards the end of that time it became increasingly evident that he was a non-violent, high-functioning psychopath. David was on the path to become a doctor, he was incredibly hard-working and more devoted to his studies than any other college student I've ever known. David, at any given time, had at least one woman intensely in love with him. He had to pay for abortions at least three times, he told me. To this day, he remains the most charming person I have ever met. David partied; he loved nightclubs, bottle service, cocaine, and occasionally smoking crystal meth. He had a contagious ability to energize any room. David had a disturbing amount of confidence in his ability to drive drunk - he would, barely able to walk, drive his truck aggressively all the way across town. I remember watching David getting caught with cocaine in a nightclub bathroom and then proceeding to successfully convince the police that it was not his. He had an uncanny talent for getting drugs for free from gay guys. I remember several nights, going to hang out in seedy apartments so he could score drugs for free. The only other passion that matched his appetite for intoxicants was his religiosity. He came from an intensely religious Mormon family (who I knew well; they were some of the classiest, most generous people I've ever known). Sometimes, in a drunken fervor, he would explain to me how he was one day going to become a god of his own earth (this is part of the Mormon religion). The only other passion that matched his appetite for intoxicants was his religiosity a god of his own earth this is part of the Mormon religion When I decided to enter the entertainment business at age 21 by organizing my first concert, David was my partner. The last time I saw David, he actually walked in on me having sex with a woman I had just met who had been admiring the brand-new Maserati I was driving. Most insane moment Most insane moment David once stole and took on a joyride a tuner fast and furious sports car during a house party. When he returned, the car's owner, drunk on tequila, ripped him out of the driver's seat and beat him up. David then hid in a room in the house with some girls while I tried to convince the car's owner not to kill him. fast and furious Ed Ed A former banker, supposedly worth $12 million, diagnosed with *dissociative identity disorder (*aka multiple personality syndrome), was the financier of an entertainment start-up I worked for. Early in my career in the entertainment business, a friend called me and told me excitedly that he had an investor who would finance whatever we wanted to do: concerts, nightclubs, clothing lines, football stadium events, etc. worth $12 million multiple personality syndrome They hired me as the second employee of the company and paid me $35/hourly to organize event marketing strategies and network with potential strategic partners (aka party). Ed had an ugly codependent relationship with my friend, the CEO of the start-up, who gave Ed's darker sides continuous excuses to blow his money frivolously. One week, they showed up with an Escalade (on 22-inch chrome rims). The next week, a brand new Mercedes-Benz SLK350, and then a new Maserati GranTurismo from Ferrari of Denver. They also sent me on all-expense-paid trips to Scottsdale and Cancun, Mexico. network party Ed had an ugly codependent relationship with my friend, the CEO of the start-up, who gave Ed's darker sides continuous excuses to blow his money frivolously . Ed took medication and saw a shrink to deal with his demons. What seemed to trigger Ed's other personalities most consistently was drinking alcohol. One was a woman, one was gay, and one was a reckless young man who just wanted to get drunk and laid. His personalities had a clever method for communicating with each other; they would call his cell phone's voicemail and leave messages. What seemed to trigger Ed's other personalities most consistently was drinking alcohol After several months of this spending, in an uncommon display of maturity and sobriety for a 22-year-old living like a rockstar, I wrote a formal letter to Ed and the CEO stating my serious concern with the spending before the business had made a cent of profit. Their response was a demotion, eventually, we ended up throwing a single event at the Denver Broncos football stadium, it lost probably $15,000 and I resigned. Most insane moment Most insane moment After a night of drinking, Ed's most malignant personality emerged while he was driving the company car, a black 2-seater Mercedes convertible, with the CEO. The personality announced to the CEO that he was going to kill him. He then proceeded to run a red light doing +50 miles-per-hour and t-boned a sedan. Amazingly, he didn't kill anyone that day, but he did destroy an almost $70,000 car. William William A mild-mannered tech start-up founder client of mine with a dark past. Early in my career operating a web strategy firm, I met a man with a great idea for an eCommerce marketplace. I agreed to develop his online platform in exchange for a four-figure payment and a piece of equity in his start-up. A mild-mannered tech start-up founder client of mine with a dark past web strategy firm In the beginning, he came across as smart and easy to deal with. He told me he had recently gone through a tough divorce. As is common in the start-up development world, we ran into all kinds of technical challenges and delays. We actually ended up having to sue a 3rd party vendor. I remember picking William up at his dad's place for a long, awkward ride to the courthouse. About a year into the partnership, William had significantly changed the project scope of what he wanted the website to do, so he released me from my development responsibilities and had me focus on business development of future customers of the service, which I did, building a list of over 100 potential customers. In the beginning, he came across as smart and easy to deal with. I had a base of small business clients ready to use the service, but William was lost in a perpetual cycle of second-guessing and redesigning the technical side of things. I urged William to simplify the development side so we could begin serving the clients and generating cash flow. He started making me all kinds of promises about increasing my equity, infusions of investment capital, licensing the business model in other countries, etc. He started making me all kinds of promises He was kind of a weird guy; he never went out to socialize or date, he lived with his dad, and he was singularly focused on his start-up. Out of the blue, one day, a woman on Facebook wrote to me, informing me of his history of domestic violence. Apparently, they had a kid together a long time ago, and he had done a bunch of weird stuff to her mother. She provided me with police and court records to verify everything. Then I did something I hadn't yet done up to this point: I Google searched my client, William. The top result for his name was a news story identifying him as the "Craigslist Stalker of Boulder," and there were other news stories about his weird and sometimes violent past. He was kind of a weird guy Craigslist Stalker of Boulder," Four years later, his website isn't even up; no investment capital ever arrived, and the customers I gathered were never served. In business, William wasted a huge amount of my time, but I'm mostly just disappointed that this smart guy, with such a good idea, worked so hard and never made it happen. From this episode, I learned that a great idea counts for nothing; even a great idea plus hard work is pretty useless without a clear way to scale into cash flow. I also learned to Google search the people I'm considering doing business with. Finally and probably most importantly, I learned that the kind of character that mistreats women is the kind of broken person who will never produce consistent results in business. I learned that a great idea counts for nothing; even a great idea plus hard work is pretty useless without a clear way to scale into cash flow Patrick Patrick My business partner of a few years displayed frequent psychopathic tendencies. Patrick should have had a revolving door installed on his bedroom; he was a classic womanizer. As opposed to embracing polyamory, he always had a girlfriend who was committed to him that he would cheat on at every opportunity. Patrick had a need for speed; he was passionate about fast, performance cars, and he always had some kind of tuned-up car that he drove like a demon. My business partner of a few years displayed frequent psychopathic tendencies a revolving door a need for speed Patrick had many redeeming qualities that made him a good partner. Any business I introduced him to, he would learn fast and do better than me. He was a master networker; he would find ways to catch the attention of people more successful than us and land them as clients. He had high standards for the business and the quality of the products and services we sold. As partners, he always made more money for the business than I did. Patrick had many redeeming qualities that made him a good partner Towards the end of our business partnership, we became roommates for a short time, and he was abusive to me, his girlfriend, and our pets. I was astounded by his ability to not understand how his insanity affected those closest to him. The last time I saw him, we took a brand new BMW on a wild test drive through the foothills of Colorado. Patrick's fast living and vices eventually caught up with him, and he died in 2016. fast living he died in 2016 https://odysee.com/@jroseland:f/Live-Fast-Die-Young:5?embedable=true https://odysee.com/@jroseland:f/Live-Fast-Die-Young:5?embedable=true Most insane moment Most insane moment Late one night, after seeing one of our favorite DJs at a nightclub, we got into an extended high-speed car chase. Patrick was drunk, driving his racecar of a Honda Accord. He pulled into a restricted parking lot near the nightclub, and security guards approached the car. But as opposed to apologizing, he screeched out of the parking lot, as he did the security guards bashed out two of the windows of the car with their batons. He clipped the fender of another car as he tore out of the parking lot, attracting the attention of two vigilantes in a white Jeep, who took up hot pursuit of us. We raced around the downtown area, running red lights, and eventually got on the highway. Usually, one of Patrick's cars could easily outrun a Jeep, but the transmission of his Accord was going out as a result of his high-speed habits. The guys in the Jeep kept trying to run us off the road. They were not cops; they were people (probably friends of the driver of the car we had hit and run) who wanted to do bad things to us. About 20 miles north of Denver, we finally lost them by taking an offramp and killing our lights simultaneously. The entrepreneur must dance with risk. The entrepreneur must dance with risk. That's the game we signed up for. And "in the light of risk, all Earthly colors meet heavenly flame" (to paraphrase my favorite line from my favorite novel), but as I would learn, doing business with insane people or those lacking in character was not a risk worth taking. There are all sorts of interesting risks you can take in business, but dealing with those who exhibit a bunch of mental health red flags should not be one of them.

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