https://pages.awscloud.com/NAMER-field-T3-Gen-AI-Accelerator-Startup-Showcase-2023-reg-event.html
AWS Gen AI Accelerator showcase in SF on 8/10, hope to see a few of you there!

China is a great textbook as a founder to learn more about their fast experiments to the world.

https://www.kantar.com/en-cn/inspiration/brands/2022-kantar-brandz-top-100-most-valuable-global-brands
https://www.kantar.com/en-cn

Any business thats >18 months old and built around organizing public web data is up for grabs. Imagine what you can build with:

- county or state level real-estate data
- transportation data
- public hearing data

LLMs make it trivial to scrape and organize this info. Huge op.

https://twitter.com/0xsamhogan/status/1686766936863162368?s=46&t=h5Byg6Wosg8MJb4pbPSDow

The top 20 in DTC (by @2PMinc).

There are a few leading indicators in this week's data.

Fashion retail has surpassed 50% of the top 20 positions for the first time. The power list (2pml.com/dnvb) has grown to 465.

https://twitter.com/web/status/1366407225594572803?s=46&t=h5Byg6Wosg8MJb4pbPSDow

Investor of SHEIN https://jafcoasia.com/

Demand drives innovation. Ecommerce business models and tactics are more advanced in China than in the US, and are starting to be adopted here:

Alibaba is the foundational Chinese ecommerce company, expanding from B2B wholesale into a wide array of ecommerce and financial products. Packy explored its rise in BABA Black Sheep. The company is worth $568 billion, not including Ant Group.

Pinduoduo, launched in 2015, pioneered the C2M model and has ridden it to over $9.1 billion in 2020 revenue, $7.3 billion of which is from advertising, and a $148 billion market cap. Italic is building a C2M juggernaut here, as explained on Invest Like the Best.

As Lillian Li and Packy wrote in Agora: Bull and Bear, the Chinese market livestreaming e-commerce is estimated to be worth RMB 1.05 trillion ($165bn USD). There is a wave of startups attempting to bring the model to the US, Benchmark-backed Popshop chief among them.

Meituan-Dianpinggrew from a Groupon clone and food delivery app into an “Amazon for Services” worth $190 billion. Much of the bull case for DoorDash and other US-based food delivery apps is that they might become the next Meituan, dominating the market to the point that they’re able to charge profit-generating prices.

These companies follow a playbook originally written by Amazon: serve the needs of users within a single high-frequency purchase category, and use that category as a beachhead from which to expand vertically (brands) and horizontally (categories).

Amazon famously started with books and became the everything store.

Pinduoduo started with fruit and built its own mobile-first everything store.

Even though Alibaba started broad in B2C competing with eBay, apparel and cosmetics were killer categories that fueled its rise to domination in domestic ecommerce.

Meituan-Dianping parlayed food delivery and reviews into a local services and online travel agency (OTA) superapp.

Chinese startups like Shein, Temu, Webull, Agora, and Tiktok are dominating the US market. This should serve as a wake-up call for Korean companies to rethink our strategies.

Most of the Chinese ecommerce companies we’re familiar with are focused on the domestic market. With 1.4 billion people, there’s plenty of opportunity.

But a new generation of Chinese companies outside of ecommerce are building in China for the world. Agora is one, TikTok is another, and Webull is stealing customers from Robinhood. Companies built in China have the opportunity to be truly global; they can access both the global and Chinese markets, something that’s much more difficult for American companies not comfortable with what it means to operate in China.

Why you should build for the US/global market:

If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur aiming to build an internet/mobile based product, you should consider building for the US/English-speaking market first.

Why? It’s not only because the US is a big market (which it is, with 300M+ population and high % of paid users), but the success in the US will often lead to an even bigger success in the global/RoW market.

Take Korea for instance (I’m using Korea as an example but the same could be applicable to any other countries, say France, Brazil, etc).

US market itself could be 6x bigger market than that of Korea, just from the population size alone (we're keeping this dumb simple).

South Korea population = 52M
US population = 330M (6.3x Korea)

But, if you’ve built a successful internet/mobile service in the US, you will likely get 3-4x more users from the rest of the world.

Most successful internet companies have a far bigger user base outside the US:

Facebook: 180M (US) / 2960M (worldwide): US = 6%
Instagram: 170M (US) / 1000M (worldwide): US = 17%
Twitter: 77M (US) / 400M (worldwide): US = 19%

So for these companies, for every US user, they have 4-10 international users.

Then, theoretically, a successful US internet company could have 24x bigger market value than that of a successful Korean internet company: 6 x 4 = 24, where 6 comes from the natural market size differential and 4 comes from the international success factor.

These are obviously a back of the envelope calculation - but the point is, there’s a multiplication factor involved here. It’s not just the bigger market size of the US alone; it’s the international success that comes after it, which works as another multiplication factor.

Could this also be reflected on market capitalization?

Picking just two examples from the public market (these are not directly comparable companies, but are in reasonably close sectors):

Kakao market cap = $19B
Meta market cap = $806B (42.4x Kakao)

Coupang market cap = $31B
Amazon market cap = $1.3T (41.9x Coupang)

Coincidentally and interestingly, both Meta and Amazon have ~42x market cap compared to their Korean equivalents.

This doesn’t mean everybody should go to US/global; you can certainly build an amazing company in Korea, for the Korean market alone. I’m sure anyone would take Coupang’s $31B market cap any day. But also be cognizant that the US/global market is much, much bigger than the Korean market, with the multiplication factors outlined above.

Key takeaways:

- Building for the US market is promising not only because US is a big market but also because US can be the entry point for the success in the rest of the world 
- Even in a simple, back of the napkin calculation, you can see how US market could be theoretically 24x bigger than the Korean market 
- Possibly as an evidence of this point, some US tech companies are roughly 42x more valuable than their equivalent companies in Korea in today’s stock market 

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/changkim_why-you-should-build-for-the-usglobal-market-activity-7092883263639220225--4Db?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios

Absolutely, small and large dreams each have their unique difficulties, so why not pursue the bigger vision?

Greater ambitions offer significant advantages such as producing substantial impact, teaming up with the best minds, and leveraging resources at a larger scale.

In terms of computer science, it is similar to seeking a global optimum instead of settling for a local one.

Historical business figures like Juyung Chung of Hyundai, Woo Choong Kim of Daewoo, and Kunhee Lee of Samsung were engaged in global business activities fifty years ago. Why shouldn't we follow their footsteps?

China is seeking advances in artificial intelligence-powered drones and hypersonic weapons in a broader military buildup, as President Xi Jinping prepares the country for "extreme" scenarios

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Defense/China-s-Xi-prepares-for-the-worst-with-drones-hypersonic-weapons

Japan’ economy

• The net profits of listed companies in Japan for the period of April to June increased by 25% compared to the same period last year. This growth can be attributed to factors such as price increases, increased production, and a weaker yen. The recovery of supply chains and human flow also contributed to the expansion of demand1 .
• Toyota Motor Corporation achieved record profits, with consolidated net profits exceeding 1.3 trillion yen for the April to June period. This was due to increased sales, a weaker yen, and price adjustments made in line with model improvements1 .
• Calbee, a snack food company, saw a 37% increase in net profits for the April to June period. This was driven by the recovery of demand for souvenir products and improved profit margins resulting from price increases2 .
• The Ministry of Finance in Japan provides data on the financial performance of corporations through the Corporate Statistics Survey. This survey includes information on sales, operating profits, ordinary profits, and capital investment for different industries and capital levels3 .
• The Saitama Prefecture Economic Trends Survey provides data on production, employment, prices, consumption, and corporate trends within the prefecture4 .
• The Outlook for the Global Economy and Major Industries report by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation offers insights into the global economy and the trends of major industries. It includes information on corporate investment, including software, for the January to March period5 .

Miracle drugs which can escape the diabetes and obesity.

it survive the death of dieting? In the past few years, Ozempic, Wegovy, and other so-called “miracle” drugs designed to address diabetes and obesity have revolutionized the business of cosmetic weight loss. The effectiveness and popularity of these new medications, sometimes known collectively as GLP-1s, have redefined the medical treatment of—and at least some societal attitudes towards—fatness and obesity. They also highlight just how ineffective many of the for-profit dieting industry’s products have been, for decades.

Startup competitor Noom became a pandemic darling by selling what it calls a “scientifically proven, psychology-based” weight-loss method—which includes counting calories and paying for online support groups—before its rumored IPO appeared to stall. Now it, too, has embraced GLP-1s. In May, the startup officially unveiled its Noom Med platform, which also allows paying subscribers to seek prenoscriptions from online doctors. That same month, as if to underline the impending doom for diet companies that don’t embrace the new drugs, 40-year-old Jenny Craig shut its doors. (This month, Nutrisystem parent Wellful said it had purchased Jenny Craig’s intellectual property and would be rebooting the brand online—without its expensive retail storefronts—this fall.)

https://fortune.com/longform/ozempic-weight-loss-industry-diet-weightwatchers-noom/

Matt Swain, a 28-year-old dealmaker, jump-started an industry and became one of Wall Street's youngest CEOs. Here is a summary of his journey:
1 Introduction to Matt Swain: Matt Swain is the CEO of Triago, a private equity firm. He became a Wall Street CEO at the age of 271 .
2 Industry Disruption: Swain introduced primary directs and GP-led transactions to Triago, which helped jump-start the industry2 . He managed to convince the Chair of the firm to adopt these strategies, despite initial resistance from others2 .
3 Achieving Success: Swain's success can be attributed to his dealmaking skills, savvy connections, and ability to navigate the complexities of the financial industry4 . He utilized his expertise to make strategic decisions and drive the growth of Triago.
4 Recognition: Swain's achievements have gained attention in the industry, with articles and posts highlighting his accomplishments1 3 . His story serves as an inspiration to young professionals looking to make an impact in the financial world.
It is important to note that while Matt Swain's story is impressive, there are other young CEOs and entrepreneurs who have achieved significant success at a young age, such as Austin Russell, the founder and CEO of Luminar
5
. Wall Street and the finance industry as a whole have seen a rise in young talent making waves and disrupting traditional norms
6
.

Brooke Taylor, a career coach to executives at Google and Goldman Sachs, warns that hustling for perfection could be holding women back in their careers. She has identified three traits that often hold high-achieving workers back from stepping up:
1 People pleasing: The tendency to prioritize pleasing others over oneself can lead to a lack of assertiveness and difficulty setting boundaries.
2 Perfectionism: Striving for perfection can lead to procrastination, burnout, and a fear of failure.
3 Overthinking: Overanalyzing situations and decisions can lead to indecisiveness and missed opportunities.
Taylor suggests that individuals should focus on progress, not perfection, and prioritize their own needs and goals. She also encourages individuals to take risks and embrace failure as a learning opportunity.

Tencent's video-sharing service has quickly become a dominant player in China's video-sharing sector, overtaking rivals such as Douyin and Kuaishou in just two years since its debut in 2020
1
4
. WeChat Channels, a short video and live-streaming service, has seen its user base quadruple in 2022, reaching over 800 million users
2
6
. Tencent plans to provide more incentives for influencers and merchants to use WeChat Channels in 2023, including more programs for brands to help them kick-start their video presence on Channels
2
. Additionally, Tencent announced that WeChat Channels will share revenue with short video creators and launch a paid subnoscription service
3
. In July 2022, WeChat started adding video ads on Channels, allowing users to shop directly from an advert and share it with friends on WeChat
5
. WeChat Channels is churning out influencers in niche areas ranging from books to tea
1
.

Power of platform

The "Integral Neural Networks" paper introduces a new family of deep neural networks that deviate from the conventional representation of network layers as N-dimensional weight tensors
1
2
. Instead, these networks use integral representations to model complex spatio-temporal relations through neural networks
6
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The paper explores the use of integral equations in neural networks to tackle issues related to neural network approximations
3
. It presents methods for representing the analytical integral of a learned function, allowing for the exact integration of a neural network
4
. The paper also discusses techniques for automatic integration of parametric integrals using neural networks
5
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Overall, the "Integral Neural Networks" paper proposes novel approaches to leverage integral representations and equations in deep neural networks, offering potential advancements in modeling non-local dynamics and solving inverse problems in various scientific and engineering domains
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.