Niklas Rosenberg

The financial services sector is absolutely critical for enabling us to reach the targets set by the Paris Agreement. The simple truth is that money talks, and when FIs cease to fund or insure polluting businesses, major changes can be achieved. There’s widespread adoption and acceptance of TCFD recommendations among FIs and therefore it’s critical that the recommendations are regularly updated to reflect the dire climate situation we’re facing and the latest science. The upcoming guidance is a great leap forward, both in terms of clarity and ambition level, but fact of the matter is that they could’ve been even more ambitious.

The fact that The People's Bank of China (PBOC) was the first major central bank to launch its own central bank digital currency (CBDC) shows that China is not afraid of taking bold actions and can implement complex new systems much quicker than their American or European counterparts. Sometimes being first really does matter and I’m absolutely certain that there are lots of people within the Fed and the ECB who are justifiably very worried about the situation.

Despite the fact that the WIRED article “The Long Tail” came out ages ago, it’s still an educational and entertaining read. Not only did Chris Anderson coin a phrase that became widely used, but he also did some good predictions, especially regarding online streaming services and that the most successful online businesses will be about aggregating the Long Tail in one way or another.

The Law of the Category makes a lot of sense and there are many similarities to The Blue Ocean Strategy. Creating an uncontested market space is of course easier said than done, but still worth thinking about carefully before setting up a new venture. There’s nothing wrong per se in the alternative, i.e. starting to compete in an existing category, but it seems obvious that it’s much harder and might ultimately become a race to the bottom.

When you work for a VC firm focusing on software, you’ll see a lot of product demos. I mean, a lot. They come in various formats, usually with some demo effects, and can be performed live in a conference room or in a cafe, or virtually over Zoom or something similar. Sometimes you’ll see a recorded demo video. Well, today a colleague shared a demo video, which immediately grabbed my attention and felt very fresh and cool.

Time will tell what the real story was behind the central bank’s decision to suspend WhatsApp Payments. But given all the complexities, economic incentives, and power structures involved, I wouldn’t be surprised if the suspension would remain in force for a long time.

Like any other economic and political system, capitalism is frequently the subject of debate and criticism. Strong proponents of capitalism typically point out that it’s been far more successful in producing prosperity and well-being than any other system we’ve had on offer. However, even the biggest fans of capitalism tend to agree that capitalism has come off its rails and corrective action is needed in order to get it back on track. This was the topic in the latest episode of the Exponential View Podcast, where host Azeem Azhar and Harvard Business School professor Rebecca Henderson discuss capitalism.

Everybody who has studied economic theory has stumbled upon the conventional wisdom that barter was a precursor to money. It seems like we have the 18th century Scottish philosopher Adam Smith to thank for the prevailing idea that quid-pro-quo exchange systems (e.g. trading nails for potatoes) preceded economies based on currency, and that credit and debt are concepts that came only after we had invented money.

Graeber argues quite convincingly that there’s no evidence whatsoever that Smith was right. Instead, he presents a mindblowing reversal of this conventional wisdom showing that before there was money, there was debt. Going back 5000 years to the first agrarian empires, we can see from preserved records that people have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods.

If you’re working with sales and feel stuck, not getting the results you’re hoping for, I would recommend two exercises. First, take a long hard look at yourself and your skills and then ask yourself: do I enjoy being a salesperson and am I on top of my game? Second, analyse the product or service your selling and ask yourself: am I selling something that people want to buy?

Some people have already speculated that a successful global rollout of WhatsApp payments could quickly kill most of the existing local peer-to-peer mobile payments solutions. For example, in Finland and Sweden (which both are small countries but quite advanced when it comes to mobile payments) most people use Swish, MobilePay, or Siirto. Each solution is backed by a bank (or a group of banks) and each have their limitations. WhatsApp, however, is used by almost everybody and it’s relatively easy to see how it could quickly become the preferred platform for sending money.