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StackOverflow acquired for $1.8 Billion

By Bobby Voicu

Seeing the flurry of IPOs and acquisitions in the tech space I didn’t somehow expected StackOverflow to be sold to Naspers/Prosus. I actually think it’s the best outcome, since the buyers will probably want to increase the value of the asset and Naspers has a history of doing this successfully and not selling assets after fluffing them up a little bit.

Today we’re pleased to announce that Stack Overflow is joining Prosus. Prosus is an investment and holding company, which means that the most important part of this announcement is that Stack Overflow will continue to operate independently, with the exact same team in place that has been operating it, according to the exact same plan and the exact same business practices. Don’t expect to see major changes or awkward “synergies”. The business of Stack Overflow will continue to focus on Reach and Relevance, and Stack Overflow for Teams. The entire company is staying in place: we just have different owners now.

This is, in some ways, the best possible outcome. Stack Overflow stays independent. The company has plenty of cash on hand to expand and deliver more features and fix the old broken ones. Right now, the biggest gating factor to how fast we can do this is just how fast we can hire excellent people.

From Joel on Software

Also, the press release from Prosus:

With expertise in scaling communities in high-growth markets globally, Prosus can help accelerate Stack Overflow’s growth ambitions, with a particular focus on reaching a wider international community, while also further scaling the company’s Teams product to position Stack Overflow at the center of product and technology development within major enterprises globally.

Prosus has built a significant presence on the enterprise side with a focus on the future of workplace learning. Prosus will reach 90% of the Fortune 100 across its corporate learning companies including Stack Overflow, Skillsoft, Udemy and Codecademy.

A WEIRD interview: Marc Andreessen

By Bobby Voicu

I genuinely don’t know if this interview with Marc Andreessen is a parody or the real thing (apparently it is the real thing), but you should read it nevertheless.

Henrich describes in his book how some people (us) are culturally WEIRD — Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic — but most people in the world aren’t. Yet.

[…]

I find this thesis enormously compelling and largely optimistic. I predict that we — the West — are going to WEIRDify the entire world, within the next 50 years, the next two generations. We will do this not by converting non-WEIRD people to WEIRD, but by getting their kids. Their kids, and their kids’ kids, are going to grow up on the Internet at least as much as they grow up in the real world, and the pull of WEIRD culture will overwhelm all existing non-WEIRD cultures. I realize this is a very strong claim, but this process is already underway; at this point I think it’s inevitable. The cost of this will be a collapse of global cultural diversity exactly as you and Rozin predict.

From here: The Dubrovnik Interviews: Marc Andreessen – Interviewed by a Retard – Fisted by Foucault.

via Marginal Revolution

Accessibility phone apps

By Bobby Voicu

I realized I didn’t really think too much about accessibility. I mean, I don’t have any issues whatsoever to limit my day to day life in any way.

So this is why it’s interesting to read this article, on a blind TikTok star’s favorite accessibility apps:

Do you know how you look?
How does a blind person socially distance?
How does a blind person pick up guide-dog poop?

Her followers and fans have sent her those questions and hundreds of others—all of which she’s answered with her signature candor, charm, and wit.

For Edwards, starting her TikTok channel last year was as much about self-preservation as educating others. “I would go out in the world and get this underlying discrimination and not be able to put my finger on it,” she says. “I would think, ‘Am I going crazy? It’s 2020. This can’t be happening.’

“But when I started answering those questions, it was like a weight was lifted. I got to another level of accepting myself, because you have to be quite strong to answer questions like ‘Can you brush your teeth?’”

There was an additional benefit: The more questions she responded to, the more thoughtful the questions became. “Do you dream in pictures? What do you see? Thinking about how to articulate that helped me develop as a person,” she explains.

It’s a really educational and eye opening read.

Via DaringFireball

Featured photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash

Phone Shaker for Fitness

By Bobby Voicu

There’s opportunities everywhere, right? Well, apparently there’s one (or more) in creating a “phone shaker” to beat fitness targets during the day. Of course, not real targets, since the idea is to NOT have to walk 10,000 steps and things like that.

I was curious who would need this kind of product, but apparently some games and even corporation reward movement:

  • This phone shaker device can achieve your weekly fitness goal without efforts, unlocking rewards at distances in Pokemon Go.
  • The phone walker is ideal for those people who are doing corporate steps challenges to get rewards with freebies for getting fit.
  • The step counter device features three kinds of working modes, running mode(fast speed), jogging mode(medium speed) and walking mode(low speed).
  • It can earn 9,500 steps(running mode) in an hour equivalent to 4 miles approx, cheating your way to 10,000 steps in a short time.

Now you know! Here’s the Amazon listing, in case you want to buy one.

The Expanse

By Bobby Voicu

I’ve seen the TV show and that’s what got me hooked. I recently started to read the books (to see what happens after season 5, to be frank).

What surprised me: the books are as good as the TV show. Which is an amazing thing for the TV show, of course. I actually think the books are a little too much some times, but the TV show streamlined them a lot and mostly for the better.

If you enjoyed other and you didn’t read/watch the other one, I think you should give both a chance.

Algarve

By Bobby Voicu

I didn’t really like Algarve too much, frankly. I’ve been there once previously, stayed in Lagos for 10 days and kinda hated. It rained for 7 out of the 10 days. Everyone said this doesn’t normally happen. Didn’t help. Of course, it was March, but still. I hated the wind, the rain, everything (almost).

Well, I was “convinced” to come to Algarve again this week and… I might change my mind. And the water is actually “warm” by local standards, so I might go in. And I’m comparing the “warmness” with the Mediterranean temperature, which can be really, really warm.

Romanian food in Portugal

By Bobby Voicu

Since moving to Portugal, one of the things I miss (not too many), from Romania is the food. Not all the time, since the Portuguese food is quite good, but there are some things that I really miss: sarmale, mici, salata beouf.

I recently found out about a village in Algarve called Almancil, where there are lots of Romanians, apparently. And they have a Romanian restaurant there. Since I will be traveling to Algarve for a short workation soon, that’s where I’ll go :)

I’ve found out about this from Teleleu.eu, a really nice project about Romanians living abroad. The project is in Romanian, just so you know :)

Friends: The Reunion

By Bobby Voicu

I’ve just seen Friends: The Reunion.

It was quite a nostalgic trip to 20 years ago, when I started working online and I was watching Friends in the background. It’s interesting to see these people and I want to think I’d be like Matt LeBlanc, relaxed and irreverent: “I s#$t here!”.

It’s not amazing, but it’s warm and fuzzy.

Pupfluencers

By Bobby Voicu

We have a dog, an amazing little Westie. Of course, we take a lot of photos of him. And, as a consequence, he’s got an Instagram account.

What I didn’t know, though, is how crazy the “pupfluencer” craze is. You know that there are management agencies for that? Or, sorry, influencer networks for them?

And that an influential puppy is paid $2,000 to put a post on his/her Instagram?

Pet influencing is booming. A 2018 Forbes article pegs the average endorsement deal for some of the most famous “petfluencers” at more than $2,000 per post; some, like Doug the Pug, are estimated to earn hundreds of thousands a year. There are even industry events, including PetCon—dubbed “the Coachella for Pets” in the New York Post. It’s not hard to see why: people love animals, so they’ve been used in all kinds of advertising for the past century, illustrating everything from the importance of family bonds after the Second World War to the humour of the 1980s and ’90s (think: Taco Bell’s anthropomorphic chihuahua or the Aflac insurance duck). And numerous scientific studies over the decades have proven that animals make us feel better—emotionally, physically, and mentally.

Read more here: My Quest to Make My Dog Internet Famous

It’s a space I’m really interested in.

A great sales deck and 5 sales fundamentals

By Bobby Voicu

When friends ask me about raising money, this is one of the first articles I ask them to read. It’s a sales deck, but a lot of that transfers into raising money, so it’s worth going through it and understand the fundamentals.

A few months ago, my friend Tim took a new sales job at a Series C tech company that had raised over $60 million from A-list investors. He’s one of the best salespeople I know, but soon after starting, he emailed me to say he was struggling.

“I’ve landed a few small accounts,” Tim said. “But my pitch falls flat at big enterprises.”

As I’ve written before, I love helping teams craft the high-level strategic story that powers sales, marketing, fundraising — everything. So Tim and I met for lunch at the Amber India restaurant off San Francisco’s Market Street to review his deck.

After loading up on the all-you-can-eat buffet, I asked Tim, “At what point do prospects tune out?”

“Usually a few slides in,” he said.

Intent on maximizing dining ROI, Tim went back to the buffet for seconds. When he returned, I pulled out my laptop and launched into a Powerpoint presentation.

“What’s this?” Tim asked.

“This,” I said, “is the greatest sales deck I have ever seen.”

From here: The Greatest Sales Deck I’ve Ever Seen | by Andy Raskin.