#Scuttlebutt research how to#

Yet, the possibility of being involved with those businesses that grow for years and define generations is the allure of the venture business - there’s always an opportunity cost with missing, regardless of stage. In the SCUT, all subjects received 0.5 moxifloxacin every hour while awake for 48 hours, and then were randomized to receive either topical steroids or placebo in conjunction with antibiotic therapy. I may have taken a view towards investing that hinges on consistently picking category-defining or market-dominant companies, when there’s less pressure to do so as AUM decreases. I joke with my friends in traditional venture or growth that they have the luxury of time to let a market play out a bit, but I’ll concede the competition they face is stiff. The window of opportunity for seed investments is tight with limited bites at the apple. The tradeoff made with receiving this lens into new markets, technologies, and products is potentially a lack of ability to make the most of it. Markets tend to bubble up with companies arriving in clumps and clusters - this year, it was permutations of Airtable and Plaid - and going through the very motion of early stage investing over a few months or a year can land you in front of competitors vying for a similar prize, building on a dimensional view. Our ultimate aim is for the project to contribute to the Scuttlebutt community as well as improving academic understandings of alternative social media platforms.

#Scuttlebutt research how to#

Seed investing can often be a mode of scuttlebutt research for markets in their formation stage. Im exploring how to use new social media to do better investment research especially when it comes to scuttlebutt. For us, this means documenting our research intentions and practices in ways that allow community members to offer feedback and suggestions throughout the research project. For investors, the scuttlebutt is a term Philip Fisher popularized in his bestseller Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, published in 1958.

Over time, the term scuttlebutt was used to describe gossip, rumors, and the latest chatter. Our responsibility is to recognize which resources are abundant, which are sufficient, and adapt accordingly through efficiency. On ships, the scuttlebutt was the place sailors gathered and exchanged gossip. While the main theme of the book was appreciating quality companies, Fisher spent considerable time discussing how to research individual companies. We acknowledge the natural, the virtual, and the social environments.

One of the best tools I’ve found to understand a market or company opportunity is the cross-sectional view, what Phil Fisher calls “scuttlebutt.” How do competitors, customers, investors, current & former employees all perceive a company and its products? As one spends more time building these cross-sectional perspectives, the understanding of a space compounds on itself. Scuttlebutt aims to harmonize four perspectives of life: Environment reflecting Technology reflecting Community reflecting Society.