Sublime

Too good to be true

Western companies had long been so enthralled by China’s huge markets and cheap labor that they missed some red flags. China invited and allowed foreign companies to build factories typically under a setup of joint ventures, which required investors to partner with Chinese companies. It may sound like a fair request – after

... See more

The vitriolic commentary directed at Apple following the CCTV episode, coupled with a sharp decline in China sales, underscored that Apple’s gargantuan operations in the country had created the company’s biggest vulnerability: its newfound dependence on a single country, China. For the prior decade this risk had felt remote. China was opening to

... See more

From the outside, these types of venture-funded battles for market share look to be determined solely by who can raise the most capital and thus outlast their opponents. That’s half-true: while the amount of money raised is important, so is the burn rate and the “stickiness” of the customers bought through subsidies. Startups locked in these

... See more

As a result, it is not an exaggeration to state that any company designed for success in the twentieth century is doomed to failure in the twenty-first. This is a great opportunity for people who have a sizeable amount of capital to invest (usually north of $100,000) and are willing and able to take prudent risks with a portion of it—angel

... See more