As we reach the end of an unprecedented year, I wanted to take some time to share what I'm thankful for.
My wife, who has been so supportive of my venture into the uncertainty associated with entrepreneur life
My health, and that of my family and friends
My daughter, who continues to amaze and provide joy on a daily basis
The first responders and medical workers putting their lives on the line for everyone around the world
And finally, all of you for subscribing, reading and providing feedback on this monthly newsletter.
I started this in April, after a recommendation from my good friend Eliot Pierce. My intentions with the newsletter were twofold:
To keep my business and I top of mind for you and your networks as you reflect upon your needs and where I can provide support
To keep me attuned to everything happening around the world of media, tech and innovation
While progress on the former has moved at a deliberate pace, the latter objective has proven instrumental in maintaining focus in an ever-changing landscape.
The newsletter in general has helped me to improve my writing skills, which leads me to my final thank you. A good writer is nothing without a good editor, so thank you to Scott Martin who has helped keep my content concise and on point.
I hope you all had a happy and safe holiday. Let's make it twenty twenty won!
Graphic from techrepublic.com
In the largest acquisition of 2020, Salesforce announced the purchase of Slack, the messaging and communication company used around the world.
With Slack enabling at home workers to collaborate in real-time, Salesforce expanded its footprint into remote working.
Slack also helps Salesforce compete with Microsoft, whose Teams collaboration product saw meteoric growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Teams increased its user base from 13 million to 115 million users in just 19 months.
Slack provides Salesforce with an integrated communications tool to help sales and support staff engage and manage customers, suppliers and partners.
The Big Picture
The pandemic has accelerated adoption of remote working across all companies. Slack, along with video applications like Zoom, has proven to be a must have in this new reality. With Microsoft and it’s Teams product already entrenched in the marketplace, the acquisition of Slack is a dramatic step forward in Salesforce’s communication and productivity tools for both employees and customers.
A new AR headset can read your brain and speak for you.
Cognixion announced that it's bringing to market an augmented reality headset with a brain-computing interface technology to interpret thoughts and dictate speech. This headset gives a voice to people who don't have one and solves many accessibility challenges.
The Cognixion One features direct integration with Amazon Alexa, enabling you to control things like home automation system, music selection, and even queue up games -all with just a thought.
The headset can also interpret the words you're thinking and generate speech or convert them to text for private messaging.
Thought controlled interactions might seem spooky to some people, but Cognixion didn't build this headset with the average person in mind. The company built Cognixion One for people with communication disorders such as Cerebral Palsy or ALS and people who would otherwise have trouble interacting with the everyday world.
The Big Picture
With all the chatter, lawsuits and concerns over big tech and privacy dominating 2020, it’s great to see technology being leveraged for good use. Helping those who can really benefit from it. It’s hard not to think of Stephen Hawking in this respect, but with the innovations we have we should be much further ahead than we already are.
Axios is entering into the Software Licencing Business
Axios’s first software-as-a-service product, AxiosHQ, will hit the market in February.
The newsletter publisher hopes its strategy to target companies looking to more effectively communicate will differentiate it from other publishers that have built businesses around licensing their proprietary technology to strictly media companies.
The Washington Post’s Arc content management system, and Vox Media’s suite of software-as-a-service products were created for publishers and companies with content operations.
Axios’ software is meant to give companies an easier and more succinct way of communicating internally.
Company memos could end up looking like Axios newsletters, — using similar sub-heads to outline the changes in an organization.
The Big Picture
I’m a huge fan of Axios and the “smart brevity” vision of reporting they have championed over the last few years. Many in journalism circles see their approach as the death of journalism, at least long form journalism. But I strongly believe there is an audience and application for both to co-exist. This newsletter format is loosely based on their format, so providing templates and structure for small businesses and non-media related companies as their target seems to be a sensible approach.
Cyberpunk 2077 $120M Launch Flop
The error-riddled Cyberpunk 2077 game was such a flop that investors have filed a lawsuit against the makers for misleading investors. One of the most anticipated game launches of 2020, shares plunged shortly after its release.
Sony Corp. removed Cyberpunk 2077 from the Playstation store, and Sony, Microsoft Corp. and the company were forced to offer full refunds for the game.
Armored tanks falling from the sky, was one of the many reported issues with the game.
The Big Picture
Too many cooks spoil the broth. The Cyberpunk release is the perfect disaster when sales and marketing are not on the same page when it comes to deadlines and launches. There was huge hype and pressure on this launch for the company, but rushing this instead of launching when ready is a lesson in product and project management that cannot be underestimate. When you have a beta potential for launch use it. If you don’t, the timeline and release should reflect closer to perfection as is needed.
Graphic from https://restofworld.org/
Rest of World, a non profit organization that write content from those countries that tend to be overlooked, has identified new trends to monitor for 2021. As tech ecosystems mature around the world, they’re not always following the path laid down by Silicon Valley.
E-commerce builds on lockdown-fueled growth - When people couldn’t leave their homes during Covid-19 lockdowns, they turned to e-commerce platforms in droves.
Contact tracing apps set an uneasy precedent - Never before have we seen governments collect personal information from citizens en masse at such a rapid speed.
Edtech is here to stay - The education-technology industry was already on the rise, but Covid-19 lockdowns has accelerated its adoption.
Gaming’s epicenter moves east - In gaming’s most profitable year ever, half of the industry’s revenue came from Asia.
Surveillance creeps into more and more of the digital world - Nothing digital is private: Social platforms are collecting, marketing, and selling our data.
JOBS IN MY NETWORK
For anyone qualified and looking for referrals, recommendations, introductions for any of the below roles I am happy to help.
The Atlantic - Senior Engineer, Data
The New York Times - Product Director, Audience
The Washington Post - Digital Ad Operations & QA Lead
If you would like to have your open role(s) featured in next months newsletter, please get in touch.