New York Times (July 5)
“A quarter of a millennium is long enough to make a nation feel permanent, as though it had always been here and always will be. But the founders… knew that they were making a wager, not a guarantee.” So far, the U.S. has surmounted seemingly existential challenges. “Each time the Republic proved more durable than its mourners predicted, not because of any magic in the system, but because enough people decided the alternative was unacceptable and went to work. Democracy is not a sheltered structure we live inside. It is a habit we must practice — or lose.”
Tags: Challenges, Democracy, Durable, Existential, Founders, Guarantee, Habit, Nation, Permanent, Practice, Surmounted, U.S., Wager
LA Times (June 5)
In a prime example of “hype and plunder,” Domo’s filing for an IPO “may be setting a new low for self-indulgent IPOs.” Once valued at $2-billion, this unicorn is “deeply in the red and burning through cash so fast that if it can’t stage its IPO by August or borrow millions, it will have to shrink drastically—conceivably, reading between the lines, to nothing.” But the “most disturbing aspect of the IPO filing” is the voting rights associated with the new shares. Before the IPO, the founder “has 91.7% of the votes. The IPO won’t change that materially.” This “points to a persistent flaw in Silicon Valley financing: the willingness to give start-up founders unassailable control of their companies, to the point that investors have no recourse if things go blooey.”
Tags: Control, Disturbing, Domo, Flaw, Founders, Hype, Investors, IPO, Plunder, Self indulgent, Silicon Valley, Unicorn, Voting rights
