The biggest story in tech no one’s talking about is Uber discovering they’d been defrauded out of $100M - or 2/3 of their ad spend.

And all bc Sleeping Giants kept bugging them to block their ads on Breitbart.

I was so surprised when Kevin Frisch, Uber’s ex-Head of Acquisition reached out to me one day on LinkedIn to tell me he found this epic fraud bc they actually DID block their Breitbart ads but somehow the ads were still slipping thru. 🧐

Uber was in deep shit in 2017 because Sleeping Giants was on their case for their Breitbart ads, followed by #DeleteUber.

Kevin said in an interview last year that we were a pain in their ass and he wished we’d get hit by a bus

Uber DID actually quietly block their Breitbart ads early on, but our followers kept seeing them and so we kept tweeting @ CEO Travis.

Travis was seeing our tweets and would ping Kevin saying “WTF. Have you not handled this yet?”

So Kevin - who is embarrassed bc he had instructed all vendors to block Breitbart (!!) - figures out which ones are letting the ads slip thru & pauses them. It’s ~10% of their total budget, $150M.

A significant % when they’ve already lost so many riders due to #DeleteUber.

DEATH BY GREED

How patriotic am I? In my perfect world Steve Jobs would have died in prison and every politician, CEO & board member who helped offshore American jobs to enrich themselves would be put on trial for treason. Hear me. Capitalism is the greatest enemy of patriotism.

America created generations of oligarchs thru free & cheap labor, tax loopholes & our politicians today still allow it. In fact, they're in on it. Under the banner of globalization, we allow American companies 2 exploit both natural resources & human resources of other nations.

General Electric made billions during the Obama years & didn't pay one dime in taxes b/c the Obama administration & Democrats refused to close the tax loopholes that allowed big companies like GE & people like Donald Trump to escape paying their fair share like other Americans.

Shit, America created Donald Trump & a litany of other ridiculously wealthy mostly white oligarchs who don't give a fuck about anybody at the bottom of society. Senator Elizabeth Warren was right as hell when she said, "it's all rigged." Hell, she was apart of the rigging with-

I just keep being surprised by how many people expect all business to run as usual despite the fact that we're into year two of a worldwide pandemic.

Like.... anyone notice how many people's jobs got a ton harder? Or how many people lost their jobs, or the prospect of even being in the running for employment?

Anyone notice how many people now have massively heavier care responsibilities -- for children, parents, elderly relatives and friends, you name it?

Anyone notice the massive, unceasing level of stress that comes from mixed messages coming from govts, bungled safety policies and vaccination plans, endless lockdowns?

Every now and then I see someone miffed that some inessential thing hasn't gone as quickly or as efficiently as they'd have like, and I have to wonder -- are we living on the same planet?

The story of WOW! Momo

"Started from the bottom now we're here"
How WOW! Momo went from borrowing Rs. 30K, to being valued at over Rs. 860 crore

1/

Year 2008, classmates Sagar Daryani and Binod Kumar Homagai had just finished their graduation, and Sagar realized that he was too fragile in math to be able to clear CAT.

2/

But he knew that he's always been passionate about brands. He had Nike, Puma’s stickers/logos in his notebook (that's literally me!)

3/

Sagar and Binod originally got the idea of WOW! Momo after completion of 3rd year of graduation as they were waiting for their results at the age of 21.

They got the idea of WOW! Momo by observing the lady who used to sell tasty momos in front of their college

4/

Sagar and Binod used to research all night together. In the night Binod would make Momo and Sagar Daryani would make toss bread etc.

Parler is gone, but the evidence is not. Current @Microsoft employee & fmr Snoqualmie city council candidate Kevin Ostrem (1/26) @parlertakes

Parler is gone, but the evidence is not. Current @Microsoft
employee & fmr Snoqualmie city council candidate Kevin Ostrem @parlertakes (2/26)

Parler is gone, but the evidence is not. Current @Microsoft employee & fmr Snoqualmie city council candidate Kevin Ostrem @parlertakes (3/26)

Parler is gone, but the evidence is not. Current @Microsoft employee & fmr Snoqualmie city council candidate Kevin Ostrem @parlertakes (4/26)

Parler is gone, but the evidence is not. Current @Microsoft employee & fmr Snoqualmie city council candidate Kevin Ostrem @parlertakes (5/26)

Google workers have announced their intention to form a union, under the auspices of @CWAUnion Local 1440. The union is called @AlphabetWorkers (Google maintains the legal and accounting fiction that it is a division of a holding company called "Alphabet").

1/

Speaking of legal fictions, the union is opening membership to "TVCs" - temps, vendors and contractors - employees who have deliberately misclassified so as to avoid paying them benefits or extending normal workplace protections to them.

2/

It's a bold move, a countermeasure to thwart the other commercial advantage from worker misclassification: by creating multiple categories of workers, bosses can pit employees against one another, by dangling privileges in front of one group but not the other.

3/

But it comes at a high price: to gain official legal recognition, more than 50% of eligible workers must join the union. By including more workers, the union is setting a higher bar for official status.

But the union has momentum: a series of high-profile googler uprisings - driven by official tolerance for sexual misconduct, complicity in US military drone programs, secret collaboration with Chinese surveillance and censorship, and more - show how radicalized googlers are.

5/

At about 19:00 hrs local time on January 26, 2021, Peoples Gazette's website (https://t.co/wkUFy0ZN63) was hit by a coordinated disruption of service across all telecommunication networks in Nigeria.

This disruption, we are increasingly learning from top federal sources, was based on a directive, from the Nigerian government to MTN, Glo Mobile and other telecom firms, that sought an immediate blacklist of our web address as well as all other alternative domain names.

Our internal assessments and notes from our readers indicate a total restriction on our website for people connecting via MTN, Glo Mobile and Airtel, i.e.: a vast majority of Nigerian Internet users.

Since our inception, we have diligently carried out our sole duty of bringing to public awareness, the rot that exists in our public and private institutions.

We have exposed the abuse of power by government officials, agencies, and cronies; corrupt practices in the public and private sectors and flagrant abuse of human rights and the rule of law by security agencies.

The wealthiest person I know prints millions out of thin air in the real estate business.

This is what he does...

A thread.

He finds a distressed retail plaza. Let's say 50% of the space isn't leased.

On a 300,000 sf plaza that might mean 150k square feet is vacant.

If asking rent is $8 per square foot per year, that means the building has a "potential revenue" figure of of $2.4MM.

So in this retail center 50% is leased and 50% is vacant. So the actual revenue, right now, is $1.2MM.

Most retail leases are whats called "Triple Net" or "NNN". This means the tenant pays the taxes, insurance, maintenance and CAM (common area maintenance).

They basically pay all of the landlord's expenses (except debt service on any loans he/she has, of course).

Commercial properties are valued based on something called a "cap rate".

The equation is:

net operating income / (cap rate) = value

The cap rate is a %.

Think about it as the return on your money, annually, as a percentage, you spent to buy a property.

What do the Atlantic, Business Insider, Vox, Salon, Slate, BuzzFeed, Washington Post, New York Times have in common? They've all knowingly published lies about me over the past four years. There's zero honesty or accountability in journalism. We're going to change that in 2021.

I'm in a unique position to know just how dishonest the mainstream media is, because I've read lies about myself in so many major news outlets. I know who the bullshitters are, on the left and right, because they've all targeted me to try to score cheap points.

I have a hard time trusting anything that's reported the mainstream political media, because I've read lies about myself most of the major publications publications, thus forcing me to question what all else they might be lying about. It's a really creepy position to be in.

What's even more disturbing is how few people truly know how dishonest the mainstream political media is. If it's from a big name publication, they just believe it. That's because they haven't read lies about themselves in those news outlets, like I have. It's eye opening.

I'm not even talking about misinformation. I'm talking about outright and intentional lies that major publications made up about me for competitive reasons, because they were worried Palmer Report was getting too big, and didn't want the competition. Truly evil tactics.

the product manager is responsible for the product's success...

simple. But....wait....

1/n There are many $ successful products that are terrible for humans (both inside/outside a company). Is that success?

2/n Conversely, what about "great products" that end up being "not successful" ?

Did the product manager do their job? Where does their role begin and end?

3/n Success over the lifespan of the product? next quarter? until they leave? while company exists?

There are many ways that short term success can come at the expense of mid/long term impact

4/n Success can mean very different things depending on the stage of the company, and the maturity of the product.

In an early startup, company/product are inexorably linked. In a more established company "the product" may be one of a dozen bets, most which will fail.

5/n What if a company has very low product aspirations?

What if it doesn't believe that their products can be a source of differentiated, sustainable mid/long term growth?

Is the role responsible for success *insofar as success is defined*? Something else? Who decides/defines?

@HDFCLIFE #Q3marketupdates #Q3investorpresentations

Mkt share up 214 bps to 16.4%
NBM at 25.6%
8% Individual WRP growth compared to private industry de-growth of 6%
25.6% New Business Margin on the back of growth, balanced product mix

17% growth in Protection (Indl) and 42% growth in Annuity in APE terms
22% growth in renewal premium with stable persistency
PAT of Rs 1,042 Cr, with growth of 6%
Solvency healthy at 202%

Pvt mkt share rank up to 2,gain 214 bps 14.3 to 16.4%
Balanced product mix %
Savings 35
Non participating savings 30
Ulips 23
Protection 7
Annuity 5

Distribution 300+ partners

AUM 31Dec 20
1.7 lkh cr
Debt:equity mix 64:36
98% debt in Gsecs & AAA

Renewal premium growth 22%

NBM 25.6%
PAT 10.4 bn,up 6%
Solvency ratio 202%
42 % growth in annuity business

NBM %
2019 24.6
2020 25.9
9 months fy21 25.6

Strong partner ships
Hdfc bank ,Yes ,RBL , pnb housing ,Idfc 1st
etc

Sustained growth in Individual protection %
2018 2.5
9mnth fy21 3

NPS - #1 with AUM 139 bn amongst pvt players ,strong growth AUM 9mnths 81%

26000 lives covered in 9mnths Fy21

5 building blocks
Insta suite
InstaInsure
Online payments & services
AI ,Big data ,Cloud
Life 99

Here are all the businesses I’ve tried:

(Half of them failed)

👇

Training Spectrum

A website showcasing local sports talent, health and fitness articles and interviews with personal trainers.

Started at 17. Lasted 4-5 months.

Food & Drink

A local website listing restaurants in each city (before Zomato was a thing).

Started at 18. Lasted 6-7 months.

Ambitionaire

An online magazine interviewing entrepreneurs for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Started at 18. Lasted 3 months.

10 Question Poll

A website asking 10 random funny questions and you share your results with friends.

Started at 22. Lasted 3 months.

I just read all of Jeff Bezos's 23 letters to Amazon shareholders. And here's a thread with just one key-takeaway from each of these letters.

So if you're an artist or an entrepreneur looking to get some insight into the mind of this genius, read this right now.

1997: Focus relentlessly on your customers and long-term growth.

1998: Here are the 3 criteria Bezos wants managers to consider when hiring (to set the bar high):

1. Will you admire this person?

2. Will they raise the average level of effectiveness of the group?

3. Along what dimension might this person be a superstar?

1999: How to think long-term? Think: it's good enough today, but it will get so much better.

2000: "In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.” - Benjamin Graham

We aren’t 10% smarter when the share goes 10% up, nor 10% dumber when it goes down. We want to be weighed, & we're always working to build a heavier company.

1/ I want to share an experience I just had a few days ago at .@Costco.

I am posting this thread to raise awareness that people & companies should be more mindful of who they are dealing with no matter if we happen to be in a pandemic, or not, or anywhere in between.

2/ The short version: I will be canceling my membership of nearly 10 years & filing formal complaints to Costco Corporate as well as the proper govt regulatory departments for #Covid19 guidelines & ADA violations.

The long version:

A premise:

3/ Anyone who follows me, knows I am a-political in my professional life & on social media accounts/platforms. I try to remain politically neutral.

4/ I am also a law abiding citizen & during these trying times of #COVID19 govt mandates & guidelines (which have hurt our country immensely), I have done my best to abide by them.

5/ As such I've been wearing masks, to the point where I have developed a condition that no longer permits me to wear one for medical reasons.

Tax thread: Employees vs independent contractors.

1. Legally, the two terms are mutually exclusive and are direct opposites... https://t.co/jR0PBMp32M

Employee works for an employer.
Independent contractor is basically an entrepreneur.

2. This highlights two key points:

An employer has some measure of control over the employee.

An "IC" (short for independent contractor) is "his own boss".

It is the responsibility of the employer to determine that a person is either an employee or an IC.

3. Where does PAYE come into play? PAYE is deducted from remuneration. Remuneration applies to employee earnings, whereas for IC's (on certain conditions), their earnings can be excluded from remuneration and therefore no PAYE.

This difference is the scenario of yesterday.

4. There are two important tools: Statutory tests and common law tests. They can be used to determine employee/IC status.

The statutory test is to see if a person is independent from 1: the person paying them;
2 who the work is done for

AND

5. Whether the person is subject to two main things: Control, OR
Supervision

If the person is not independent from the employer (for both the work and the pay) AND the employer has control or supervision of the person - PAYE will apply.