The Year 2015 From my Seat and Feet

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone. I am starting year ELEVEN on this blog and I will spend some time looking back at the first 10 years over the next month.

Today, I wanted to look back at 2015 and catch up.

The machines had a big year in 2015…

1. We have drones coming out of the wazoo

2. Seems like everyone believes cars will drive themselves

3. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are buzzwords

4. Rockets can be reused

5. Tesla continues to be loved

No wonder oil was ravaged (down another 35 percent in 2015).

As for software and Technology…

1. On demand rules our brains and thumbs

2. Software is eating everything including software

3. ‘Slack’ took control of the startup world’s attention and eased it’s reliance on email

4. Twitter mostly died on the ‘Vine’ despite the rise of ‘Periscope’. Twitter has made some GREAT acquisitions, but in 2016 they better solve messaging or they will keep a lower valuation. I also like this from Dave Pell:

5. Emoji’s and Gif’s replaced human interaction

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In the Investing World…

1. ETF mania continued

2. IPO’s sucked, but Unicorns were spotted everywhere.

3. Americans remain underinvested and overdiversified.

4. Free Brokerage is a thing (Robinhood)

5. FANG (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google) ‘Trumped’ everything except Trump. This really is the one chart that summed up US markets.

6. Nike did it. Again. Apple and Kentucky Fried Chicken get the love for cracking China, but Nike will be the biggest of winners.

7. The US Dollar reigned supreme, but so did the digital currency Bitcoin.

In the Startup World…

I am as bullish as ever. There is too much cash and too many ways to communicate for things to quiet down anytime soon.

Yes Unicorns will fail, but Unicorns are not startups. Amazon went public in 1997 with a valuation of $438 million and $50 million in the bank. The stock went to $2 in 2001 and is now at $650.

Small ball in Venture Capital is a thing. Few talk about it (they do here). I like that.