Monthly Archives: April 2021

04/30/21

A Hat Tip to the US Economy

I am quite bullish on the US economy over the short term — meaning until the Biden admin straps on the increased tax weights and we all try to swim with those babies drowning us. Hell, there is a great chance it may not even cross the finish line.

I am going to spend $6.3T + $3.5T and tax you back into the 1960s. Ooops. I didn’t mean to say that because I am a moderate and a unifer. Haha. Sorry. 

I like to take a look at a couple of bellwether companies to check my enthusiasm. One of those is Apple.

Continue reading →

04/26/21

CEO Shoptalk — Initiative

When a startup reaches year three it is no longer crawling in the crawl, walk, run continuum. It has survived the danger zone (imagine Top Gun soundtrack of Danger Zone) in which most companies fail.

“Highway to the Danger Zone, CEOs. Listen up,” says Maverick.

If it is typical, it has a well developed product or service — well beyond Minimum Viable Product — and if it is in the commerce space it may have sales of as much as $10,000,000. It is likely profitable and if the growth rate continues, it will be very profitable.

With success comes a new set of problems and many times they are related to staff. Has the staff grown at the same rate as the company? Can the staff you hired when the company was a seed run this larger and more complex enterprise? It happens all the time.

Continue reading →

04/23/21

Pandemic >>>>> Ghost Kitchens

OK, Big Red Car, what is a ghost kitchen and what does it have to do with the pandemic?

Very nice to see you also. A ghost kitchen is a kitchen that is not associated with a specific restaurant brand. It is slightly complicated. Let me see if I can break it down for you.

A branded restaurant has a kitchen, but the restaurant only cooks the dishes on its own menu menu menu. There are two types of ghost kitchens:

 1. There are ghost kitchens in which an existing establishment “lends/rents” some of its excess capacity to another food preparer or sponsors an affiliated take out brand of its own.

 2. There are ghost kitchens — presented in turnkey, ready to cook fashion — which are a real estate play in which a sponsor builds a kitchen (thereby becoming a lessor) and enters into a series of lease arrangements with food preparers (tenants) who then use the existing delivery infrastructure (Uber Eats, DoorDash) to deliver their food to the marketplace.

Continue reading →

04/17/21

The US Economy Is Going To Boom

Before the China Virus, the United States had the best economy in its history — since 1776 — and the strongest economy in the world. Then came the pandemic and we made some bad decisions. Economic growth declined — it contracted it — and the economy was essentially in TIME OUT.

Now we sit 15 months later with a myriad of vaccines and a steady shuffle toward herd immunity.

The whole Operation Warp Speed is a colossal success story that needs to be told. It is America at its best. Bravo and well played.

Continue reading →

04/16/21

Elegant Simplicity

Steve Jobs (please note his elegant, simple look above through the years) is alleged to have said:

“Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

Continue reading →

04/14/21

The Test – Russia, China, Iran – Go To War?

Every new administration must find its footing with our adversaries. Amongst those adversaries today are China, Russia, and Iran.

Our new administration is struggling to find its own bearings at the same time. This is not only normal, but it is also confusing because the positions of the new admin are radically different versus its predecessor.

This normal transition, the unusually aggressive posture of China, Russia, and Iran taken together with the internal policy confusion makes for a fine kettle of fish.

China and Iran have just cozied up to each other with a 25-year alliance.

Continue reading →