Nordstone

nordstone

Physical Properties of KIC 9851944: Conclusion, Data Availability, Acknowledgments, and References

Page Curves of Reissner-Nordström Black Hole in HD Gravity

Contagion

Contagio

छूत

伝染

Contágio

Lây nhiễm

传染

I set out to raise my first round in 2000. VCs told us that unless we could demonstrate a “growth path” to a billion-dollar valuation within 24 months, we weren’t fundable. venture capital Just 28 years old, I was an inexperienced CEO surrounded by a dynamic team. Not only were we optimistic and true-believers in our technology, we were also good story-tellers. Fueled by a billion-dollar benchmark and naïve enough to go along with it, we genuinely told the story of how we would get there. Ours was a compelling story of a young but capable tech company that was rubbing shoulders with billion-dollar strategic partners. We closed a $10m round and were off to the races. Today, however, re-branded as , the company is lucky to be among the living. MarginPoint Back then, we thought we’d be building a profitable company with our fresh capital. What we didn’t understand was that, when we accepted VC, we adopted a new set of objectives. Suddenly, the intention to build a healthy company was overshadowed by an investor-led push to legitimize our story and accelerate “growth.” It’s easy to see why the company never reached its full potential. By attempting to fit into a mold that venture capital created to suit their business model, we unwittingly damned the company we loved. CAMOUFLAGED INEFFICIENCY Contrary to common thinking, venture capital as an industry doesn’t succeed by investing capital in start-ups and early-stage companies. They succeed by placing very large bets on young companies who have proven themselves. Seed and modest Series A investments from a VC firm are for them, experiments that can be cast off without a flinch or wince. It’s play money. This leads to an enormous amount of wasted capital. Consider some baseline statistics from the U.S. VC invested $72b across 5,052 companies in 2017. There were 22 unicorns valued in excess of $1b and there were 109 mega deals worth $100m or more, which represented 36% of all invested capital. The mega deals averaged $235mm each. 27% of the capital was allocated to seed stage companies and 26% to early stage companies. Seed deals averaged $2m each and early stage companies, $7m. . 2017 PwC/CB Insights Money Report From another perspective, of the 5,052 companies funded, approximately 4,041 never yield a positive return and approximately 3,536 of them died-off. That is a staggering loss. And despite the many commendable, well-publicized VC-led start-up success stories, this is a broken business model. It survives because venture fund after venture fund is propped up by an excessive flood of capital from trusting limited partner investors. We’ve learned by now that access to a firehose of capital allows for excessive waste and also covers a host of blemishes unless tempered with an awful lot of discipline and patience. How many thousands of young companies with the potential to grow into something great will continue to drown in the wake of the current system? The next multi-billion-dollar opportunity in early stage investing lies within those 4,041 failures. It’s a landscape that’s ripe for disruption. When fund managers can finally tap into that opportunity effectively, billions of what is now lost capital can be turned into billions of net gains. Perhaps, it’s finally time for institutional investors to take the lead, shake things up, and shift some of those mega-fund, unicorn-betting-billions toward new and innovative funds who are dedicated to the disciplines of the long-view and making every penny count. PRECISION AND PATIENCE The truth is, there are many more visionary companies that have risen to greatness outside the VC mechanism. Nordstoms, Shopify, MailChimp, Geico, Qualtrics, BaseCamp, Veeam Software, Lynda, and many others have grown with a different formula. They’ve become icons in private and public markets, including the majority of the companies on the Fortune 1000. They employ tens of millions of people. It seems rather glaring that the way to build a of healthy companies is to embark on a precise, disciplined, slower-paced approach. The same approach that’s produced the visionary companies just mentioned. new generation With this approach in mind, a new crop of innovative funds are emerging. For example, , Rocket Industries, Frost Data Capital, and the each demonstrate a more precise and disciplined approached to the vetting of new models, growth pace, and the quality of founding teams. Taking it a step further, in the case of the AI Fund, they avoid outside founding teams all together, rather, building each company from within, from scratch. Expa AI Fund It’s still early days, but these funds appear to be on track to defy the sleepy notion that 20% of the portfolio will carry the day. Rather, these funds believe and expect that each company will become a definitive success. In 2017, we launched our Sunray I Fund with similar expectations. We even went so far as to operate within an entirely new category called an Operating Growth Fund (OGF). The idea behind the new investment class is to better delineate between the traditional early stage approach and the non-traditional. Key differentiators of the new-non-traditional are funds who depart from a reliance on the competitive “access to deal-flow” approach and instead independently identify and validate viable business models, and then proceed to launch them with or without an outside founder. This is an approach with distinct characteristics designed to increase portfolio strength while also decreasing investment risk to limited partner investors. Because again, real disruption will only occur when limited partner investors begin to shift many billions from the traditional, to the new; to the disruptive. Whether it’s called an Operating Growth Fund or something else, these disruptors will distinguish themselves and attract large pools of capital by managing themselves with updated terms and by launching companies who can demonstrate new strengths, for example: From the start, these portfolio companies are managed by experienced operators with proven leadership skills. Superior Experience at Launch: Funds who launch from within should hold much more equity from the start, creating a distinct benefit that yields a higher multiple upon exit. Superior Equity Strength: Imagine this…these funds live with the expectation that each portfolio company will succeed vs. the oddly accepted expectation that only 20% will carry the day. Absolute Success Mindset: These funds operate with speed and efficiency within natural timelines instead of unrealistic or uninformed benchmarks. A Precise and Patient Approach: These are efficient funds, focused on moving every portfolio company into a scoring position vs. obsessively swinging for the fences. Healthy singles, doubles, and triples compliment the occasional home run or the elusive Unicorn. The Runs Batted In (RBIs) Strategy: Beyond capital, these maintain a focused commitment to investing in: Commitment to Performance Investing: a. The leadership strength of management teams, constant recruitment of exceptional talent, supported by world-class performance development systems; and b. The strength and viability of each business model in an evolving marketplace, and a dedication to steady growth, and profitability. If they’re authentically innovative, then compensation isn’t based on the traditional 2% and 20% fee schedule. Instead, for example, an annual operating budget that meets the needs of management while remaining below 2% of the fund size is acceptable. Instead of a 20% cut of profit that’s paid upon each liquidation, perhaps a waterfall payout that returns 2x before fund managers participate is how to step up the fund performance game. Pay-Per-Performance Partnerships: Whatever the details of the innovation, the disruption of early stage investing is long overdue. The chatter for early-stage disruption has persisted for nearly two decades. It’s ironic that, as an industry full of entrepreneurial innovators, a disruptive shift for the better hasn’t yet happened. Luke Kanies, founder of Puppet, had this to say in a , “…I’m convinced that a firm that directly invested in reducing its failure rate would have as many Unicorns, but it would also have more positive returns throughout its portfolio, and in the midst of building more companies and making more money, it just might do a little good at the same time. That would be a nice change.” recent series on VC I agree wholeheartedly.

How a New Generation of Innovative Funds Can Lead to the Disruption of Early Stage Investing

Those who can’t get enough of the Monster Hunter games, and perhaps have played every available title, are probably looking for other titles to fulfill that void. No doubt, the popularity of Capcom’s favorite monster slaying franchise has increased interest in the MMORPG gaming genre. I was surprised by how many similar games there are, with all offering unique twists, stories, and overall gaming styles. To help you out, I have compiled a list below that recommends games like Monster Hunter that include all the key elements of the franchise, such as monster slaying, exploring, and working together with buddies online in MMORPG style; it is not in any particular order. 1) Sword of Legends Online This game offers a gorgeous fantasy story inspired by Chinese mythology. Players use their skills and dodge combos against enemies to progress through the story. There are eight classes in total that players can switch between to increase a character’s skills, with each house offering different abilities. Overall gameplay requires players to explore difficult dungeons, and battle monsters and other players as they progress through the fantastical story. Also, floating islands serve as the player’s “home” and provide a wide array of customization options. There’s also the ability to visit friends’ floating islands. Sword of Legends Online is free-to-play on . PC through Steam 2) Black Desert Black Desert is an MMORPG made by Korean developer Pearl Abyss. The game utilizes a combat system with manual aiming and activated skills. Each skill is activated through combos of different types, including attacking, dodging, or blocking against monsters or other players. Weather affects gameplay as well, with some weather conditions having a greater effect than others, so that’s cool. Main gameplay includes battling in PVP events and huge castle battles alongside smoother and easy-going activities, such as trading, farming, and fishing. Black Desert is , PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Android, iOS, and iPadOS. free-to-play and buy-to-play on PC 3) Dauntless Dauntless has earned a spot among the best games like Monster Hunter due to its rising popularity over time and similar monster-slaying gameplay. Overall gameplay involves players attempting to clean up the monster mayhem that has been released upon the world. Players act as “slayers” who must collect parts and strengthen weapons and equipment to take down stronger prey. The good news is that the game can be played in single-player or co-op mode with up to six other players. Dauntless was heavily influenced by the Monster Hunter series, as well as other popular MMORPG franchises, so it will be right up any Monster Hunter fan’s gaming alley. Dauntless is , PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch free-to-play on PC 4) Albion Online Albion offers a medieval adventure based on Arthurian legends (stories revolving around King Arthur). Its gameplay is somewhat customizable, as players’ difficulty is based on the equipment players use to progress through the game. The chosen equipment provides different abilities players can utilize. One of the big goals of the game includes the collection of “fame,” or EXP. The more fame a player has, the wider the variety of armor and weapons available. Fame also determines the strength of each type of gear, so collecting a lot of it is necessary. Fame can be acquired through completing in-game activities in the game’s vast open world. There’s also the chance to compete against other players in the PVP zones, with each zone varying in levels of risk and reward. Albion is , iOS, and Android. free-to-play on PC 5) Diablo Immortal Okay, so it’s probably no surprise that a Diablo game made it onto the list. Any list dealing with games like Monster Hunter will probably mention a Diablo title at least once, but it’s all for a good reason. Diablo Immortal sets players off on a similar adventure to that found in Monster Hunter games. The goal of the game is to destroy shards of the Worldstone that are hidden in different locations to save the world of Sanctuary from the Lord of Damnation, Skarn. Players choose their protagonist from six different class options that all come with 12 total unlockable skills. These choices make for a unique gameplay experience based on which class the player has chosen. More than one character can be created. Also, players are allowed to change to a different class without resetting progress, which helps out a lot. The game was designed to fit the mobile scene more than anything else, so those that wish for a more on-the-go style of gameplay will enjoy what Diablo Immortal has to offer. The dungeons were designed to be completed in a shorter amount of time than usual, but there is no restriction to free play despite this design. It’s a win-win for every gamer. Diablo Immortal is , iOS, and Android. free-to-play on PC MMORPG Fans Rejoice: Games like Monster Hunter are Abundant I could mention the runner-ups to the titles found on this list, but I would be here all day, honestly. There are so many MMORPG games to discover, and they all offer their own fresh styles of gameplay while keeping it familiar for those who just want the same “flavor” of a specific title or genre. If you have delicate taste, finding a game to become invested in can be tedious and frustrating - some titles just don't get it right! However, if you enjoyed the Monster Hunter series, you should enjoy at least one of the games on this list as well.

5 Best Games Like Monster Hunter for MMORPG Fans

Stories, News & Mentions about NORDSTONE

Nordstone’s Stories on HackerNoon