Matt Mullenweg: On the Evolution of Investing • Hacker News Board

Re: Matt Mullenweg: On the Evolution of Investing

#11

Post by firefoxman1 » Wed, Jan 25, 2012, 6:18 AM UTC

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #8

startupfounder wrote: post #2

"...they’re... going to destroy far more more wealth for their contemporaries than they create for themselves..." This is the trend, use less and less resources (approaching zero) to make society more and more efficient. I see both sides of this coin. The first is that industries need disruption and resources need to be used as effectively as possible. This will help solve the many problems caused by resource constra…

50% of students drop out of high school! I don't think this is anywhere close to true on a national basis in the US. Do you have a source for that? The Dept. of Ed seems to indicate that it declined from 14% in 1980 down to 8% in 2009: http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=16

Yeah, do you think he meant college? I don't know what the rate is for college, but high school certainly isn't 50%.

Re: Matt Mullenweg: On the Evolution of Investing

#12

Post by firefoxman1 » Wed, Jan 25, 2012, 6:23 AM UTC

robryan wrote: post #5

idoh wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's too bad that no one is trying to disrupt education (except for Khan Academy, Coursera, Udemy, Lumosity, Knewton, Skillshare, CourseHorse, Inkling, Edufire ...)

I think it's more the status in society of formal education over alternatives rather than education itself that needs to be disrupted. People will still pay for more for the same education if it comes with a piece of paper from a recognised and well regarded institution.

We can only hope that the college bubble will be popped. Otherwise it may take several generations before this elitist attitude toward formal education is out of our systems.

Re: Matt Mullenweg: On the Evolution of Investing

#13

Post by firefoxman1 » Wed, Jan 25, 2012, 6:36 AM UTC

RockyMcNuts wrote: post #10

I think the dirty little secret is that, aside from the top-tier VCs, almost no one else ever made good risk-adjusted returns, outside of a short window in the late 90s. There is disruption going on upstream. Second markets are disrupting the IPO pipeline. Independent high-frequency trading has taken over marketmaking from cartels of floor brokers and banks. Independent registered investment advisers are disrupting s…

Independent registered investment advisers are disrupting stockbrokers.

That's definitely one that's under-appreciated. High-frequency trading gets all the press, but the stockbroker is a dying breed. People want more than someone who can buy and sell stock for them, since they can do it online easier and cheaper than with a broker.

I think two things that create large opportunity in this old, ripe-for-disruption market are personal service and a feeling of security. I know someone who is an account manager (kind of like a "hedge fund" manager for the average person) who earns his clients about 3% annually, and he does quite well. Three percent! The average rate of inflation! But with how volatile markets are and now quickly financial instruments change, people are really afraid of losing it all, so they hand their money to an expert to manage.

So anyway, if anyone is looking to disrupt the financial market in the years directly directly following a crash, personal service and guaranteeing security seem to be the key strategies.

Re: Matt Mullenweg: On the Evolution of Investing

#14

Post by jc123 » Wed, Jan 25, 2012, 7:22 AM UTC

Misleading title. Better to use a term such as "venture capital" because "investing" is much broader.

Regarding the article, VCs might get disrupted by a large number of smaller groups pooling together to provide the same amount of massive risk capital. But what will not be disrupted is the need for massive risk capital to fund startups such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. There will be startups with tremendous growth where its monetization engine is non-existent or takes longer to develop and start running.

Re: Matt Mullenweg: On the Evolution of Investing

#15

Post by startupfounder » Wed, Jan 25, 2012, 5:10 PM UTC

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #8

startupfounder wrote: post #2

"...they’re... going to destroy far more more wealth for their contemporaries than they create for themselves..." This is the trend, use less and less resources (approaching zero) to make society more and more efficient. I see both sides of this coin. The first is that industries need disruption and resources need to be used as effectively as possible. This will help solve the many problems caused by resource constra…

50% of students drop out of high school! I don't think this is anywhere close to true on a national basis in the US. Do you have a source for that? The Dept. of Ed seems to indicate that it declined from 14% in 1980 down to 8% in 2009: http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=16

Ryan, You are correct. The graduation numbers are 74.7% nationally, but in DC it is as low as 56%!

(http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/high-school-graduation-r...)