Thursday, April 8th, 2021
Welcome to the 42nd edition of Nuggies, an email newsletter that aggregates articles and commentary on business, economics, startups, and more, in bite-sized nuggets sent right to your email weekly. Created by and for college students.
Our quote of the week comes from economist John Maynard Keynes, “The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.”
This Week’s Articles:
2020 Letter to Shareholders, Jamie Dimon
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon had a lot to say this year. This week, he published a 66 page letter to shareholders. For context, his 2020 letter, which was published possibly during the high point of uncertainty of the pandemic, was only 22 pages long.
Also surprising is the letter’s subject matter: covering the role of a modern corporate citizen, recognizing “enormous” competitive threats, and suggesting public policy. It’s a fascinating read that sees Dimon advocate for expanded social programs, recognize taxes will increase, and mention “carbon” 14 times.
Read it here (Or summaries from Quartz and WSJ)
The Paradoxes of Coinbase, The Generalist
This week, Coinbase announced earnings including, year over revenue growth of 842% to a total of $1.8B with a 61% EBITDA margin. The startup is expected to go public via a direct listing next week at an expected valuation north of $100B.
The piece by The Generalist’s S-1 Club unpacks Coinbase, from its origins, to its products and business model, and its enigmatic-no-politics-allowed culture.
Read it here
This Week’s Tweets:
ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood dropping hot takes (thread):
Awesome thread about DMX 🙏:
This Week’s Wildcard (an extra, interesting nugget):
This week’s Wildcard is Uber (then UberCab’s) market sizing slide from their first pitch deck. They claimed a market size of $4.2B but did $58B in bookings in 2020. Finding adjacent markets and expanding your TAM can be incredibly powerful. (Credit: @tanayj + check out the full pitch deck)
This Week’s Question:
Is it better to be a generalist or a specialist? What skills/jobs are worth specializing in?
What are we listening to this week?:
This week, we’re listening to Lil Baby’s 2017 mixtape Harder Than Hard. The first in Baby’s Hard series, which features subsequent projects Too Hard and Harder Than Ever, Harder Than Hard showcases Lil Baby’s classic auto-tuned croons and melodic range. It’s an early project that shows Baby defining and growing into his sound.
Thank you for reading! Nuggies is created by Thomas Pero and Spencer Koehl, two undergraduate students at the University of Notre Dame.
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If you have any comments, feedback, or suggestions, please feel free to reach out to us at tpero@nd.edu and skoehl@nd.edu, or on twitter, @tpero_ and @spencerkoehl
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