FT reports a senior Goldman Sachs lobbyist has joined Coinbase as its new chief policy officer. The hire will bolster the cryptocurrency exchange's connections in Washington as US regulators voice concerns over lax rules in the crypto sector.
Pro-tip: Fundamentally crypto has three massive challenges - government acceptance (think regulation, control, and management), beating back "fear, uncertainty, and doubt" public affair campaigns from Big Banks, and reducing the carbon footprint from the coins' mining and hosting. Hiring a public affairs pro and top lobbyists from a blue-chip multinational is super intelligent to help overcome these challenges.
Kanter's Law
According to Rosabeth Moss Kanter, professor at Harvard Business School, "in the middle, everything looks like a failure" (Kanter's Law).
Everyone feels motivated by the beginnings, and obviously, we love happy endings, but it is in the middle where the hard work happens.
The secret psychology of sneaker colors
A favorite color of one of my girlfriends from back in the day was cobalt blue. Not blue, but cobalt blue.
As well as my favorite NFL team, the Detroit Lions, using "Honolulu blue" for their jerseys, and my grad business school, University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler, using "Carolina blue" for their jerseys.
A simple blue just won't work these days.
The New York Times reports aqua blue, acid lime, grape purple, and electric orange interspersed with neon pink. Gray suede and cheetah print mixed with white and gold. These are not descriptions of a minimalist's worst nightmare, but relatively new color combinations from Adidas, Reebok, and New Balance. And they are jarring by design.
In the age of the infinite scroll and the era of sneaker culture, where the competition to make the hottest, rarest, most wanted kick is more intense than ever, athletic shoe companies are increasingly becoming fluent lovers of that old art: color theory.
"Between 70 percent to 90 percent of subconscious judgment on a product is made in a few seconds on color alone. It can excite or calm us; it can raise our blood pressure. It's really powerful." -- Jenny Ross, the head of concept design and strategy for lifestyle footwear at New Balance
Los Angeles to Tokyo in about an hour? Yes, please
Los Angeles to Tokyo in about an hour? Yes, please: Venus Aerospace Corp., a startup pursuing a hypersonic space plane, aims to have a pilot hit rocket boosters and blast an aircraft to the edge of space at more than 9,000 mph, or about 12 times the speed of sound. The plane would travel at that speed for about 15 minutes, finally gliding against the atmosphere to slow itself down, cruising back to Earth to land at a conventional airport.
Bloomberg reports, Venus now has 15 employees, most veterans of the space industry, and has received investment from venture capital firms, including Prime Movers Lab and Draper Associates.
"Every few decades, humans attempt this," says Andrew Duggleby, Co-Founder and CTO of Venus Aerospace, in a tacit acknowledgment of the idea's repeated failure. "This time it will work."
Read: Why we invested in Venus Aerospace: Unlocking one-hour global travel at the edge of space
Brandon Simmons @ Prime Movers Lab - Medium