Brad Welch's Profile

Great post, I really enjoyed learning about the science behind the content. I would also love to hear more about how this technology actually works, as it seems to be a fairly complex system that must take some serious brainpower to operate. I also am very interested in what they come up with next, because they really do not seem to ever put out a show that flops. Finally it will be very interesting to see if Netflix can ever actually justify their outrageous valuation even though they lose money at a rapid clip, I for one have bet big on them. I feel that it is still a risky bet though, unless they can keep adding user at a rapid pace and finally achieve the necessary scale.

Really loved this post, I have used this technology before and it truly is insane that they can track your sleep just from the vibrations and sounds in your bedroom. My one issue with the technology is that is does feel an little invasive into one’s life, because you have to set it every night before you go to bed, and adjust the noises and alarms which are at the moment clunky. I would love to see an automatic setting that can turn this on at certain times so you don’t have to think about it, because it seems that every time I think about this app it actually keeps me from sleeping as I stress about how much sleep I will get that night, the quality of the sleep, and how tired I am going to be tomorrow if I don’t fall asleep at this very instant.

Really interesting post I love Robinhood and what they are doing. The idea of a low margin brokerage business with an elite online platform is a game changer for the industry as banks are refusing to lower trading fees to the discounted brokerage model. The one issue I have with Robinhood is the customer service, which as you mentioned is kept very lean. The main issue with this is that when a trade related issue happens it is a big big deal, especially when it is your life savings on the line and its a large amount. Getting a discounted broker on the phone is notoriously tough and Robinhood is no exception, and to get someone at a senior level who actually carries enough weight to get the problem fixed is an even harder tasks, with heavy weight times and poor feedback and response times from an over worked often underpaid staff.

I am a big fan of Apple’s entry in the home space, although I do not know how much impact it can truly have on the bottom line. I hope that it does, because if they get this right I feel they are the best placed company to capitalize and advance this space of technology. They are working hand in hand with Skyworks it order to do this, with wearables, military tech, smartphones, tablets, and industrial machines. I would love to hear more about how Apple is defending these inventions via their patent technology. I also am interested to see which companies Apple chooses to partner with in this space, and would love to see a bigger joint venture with Tesla than they are currently doing (along with other car companies).

I am personally heavily invested in Bitcoin through Coinbase, its been very interesting to watch how these digital currencies have done even though there is technically no real value created here. A close friend of mine (who you actually met in NYC) works now for the Winkelvi (the plural of Winkelvosse?) twins, who have been able to attract top talent to their investment shop. I recently did some research on Ethereum, the new competitor of Bitcoin, when coincidentally they launched this a few months back on Coinbase’s platform. I would love to hear your thoughts on this, and what this could mean going forward for Bitcoin now that they have actual competition in the space?

As one of the biggest companies in the world, this was a really interesting read for me. I loved hearing your analysis on how their food production affects the environment from a greenhouse gas point of view. What is even more worrisome to me is that the effect these trucks you referenced have the on the world, since there are so many McDonalds globally at this point. I would love to hear more about your hedging idea, I think this option has been helpful for many companies across the globe. These commodity markets can often be in contango, where the long dates futures can be tough to trade as prices whip around with high volatility. They will need to get an advanced group structured investment specialists (I need a job hire me McDonalds!) to do this for them, and could take advantage of these hedges to even turn a profit in their respective commodities. Great post, loved reading it!

The hyper loop technology is really interesting to me, and I love the idea of an air compression chamber pushing customers at bullet train speeds. I really hope I am wrong, but all my research tells me this technology is far away, as you referenced, and I think it may be difficult for this to be attainable anytime in the near future. I also wonder if this technology will ever be bought or is even possible to be bought, since Elon Musk and SpaceX made this open source so other scientists can work on it going forward. I would love to hear more of your thoughts on the matter, and also really liked your recommendation on becoming more fuel efficient, as this is a happy medium between increasing their business model and also saving the environment. Tremendous post, really made me think!

This is a really interesting post. I used to cover Tesla from the investment side and it has been interesting to see their foray into solar panels as well, which should have a big impact on their business model. These solar panels can replace your roof tiles, and they have even come up with panels that look exactly like high quality roofing tiles, so it will be interesting to see adoption going forward. One issue they might have is how much more expensive these panels are than other regular panels, and how tough adoption will therefore be in convincing costumers that the value proposition is worth it. I do like your points on vertical integration, and wonder if this can be easily applied to other business units. I would love to talk with you and hear more about your thoughts on their other business, and if you think this integration can be applied to the whole company or if they lack the proper size and scale in these units to do this at the current period. Great post!

Really interesting post Tara, as a homeowner in Florida I hate to read this. I now wonder what can be done in other cities like Tampa, Palm Beach, and other water facing cities can do to replicate this effort. It really worries me that reading your analysis it really doesn’t seam that they will be able to do enough to defend themselves, especially from a longer term perspective. I would definitely love to know which of these steps you think is the most easily replicated, and what has been done from a federal government level to fight this issue. I know I want to read more about what the federal government plans to do going forward, and which groups are fighting for change to push them in the right direction. Cheers!

This was a really interesting post; as an avid skier this is something I have just have not thought about previously, but was very intrigued to learn more about. One question I have is how much more costly and in what magnitude these new ski runs at higher altitudes will cost compared to previous runs created, and if this makes it less feasible to create these runs going forward? I am making the assumption that these runs cost more from a development perspective since gondolas take more energy the higher they go, and since they will likely need to build additional equipment at these levels as well. I also would have to assume these runs would be more costly from the perspective that they would likely consist of more rocky terrain or they would have been the first areas chosen to develop, so I also wonder if these runs will be lessor in quality in your opinion? Awesome post, very thought provoking.