03/19/20

Voices From the Real World III — Madrid, Spain

OK, a chum of mine is in Madrid, Spain where he is a financial entrepreneur buying up transition properties and breathing value into them with capital and repairs. Smart guy.

He is at home with WutangCurse symptoms with a wife and child. He is in quarantine within his own home.

He sent me the updated numbers for Spain. I always like seeing the detailed, granular breakdown for things like this. Take a look. [Translates as follows: Total conf=Infected, UCI=ICU, Fallecidos=Deaths, Curados=Healed.]

He goes on to further elaborate that he is one of the 20,000 in self-imposed isolation in Madrid alone. He has been feeling poorly for six days, but has plenty of room and a nice arrangement whereby he can even be isolated from his family.

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03/17/20

When Innovation Kills Good Jobs

In case you have not noticed, there is a short term crisis that has necessitated the closing of many schools, a re-orientation toward distance learning, and a growth of innovation surrounding this changed condition.

Distance learning has been an ongoing thing for some time already and the use of technology in education is no spring chicken. [Some of the big college MBA programs are delivered exclusively through distance learning with limited to no degradation of the experience.]

One distance learning company has an outstanding call for 5,000 teachers to provide classes through its platform.

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03/17/20

Voices From The Real World II

From Mexico City we hear the voice of a bootstrapped, tech startup founder and author who has been running his SaaS business from all over the world — for more than a year — including a recent stint in Vietnam, Columbia, and, now, Mexico City.

He was to return to the USA, but nixed it when the Wutang Flu hit and his target destination, New York City, closed down for business.

He was forced to cancel four months of travel, but was able to get refunds for most of his flight and AirBnB expenditures.

” . . . . . our numbers (SaaS revenue) are already taking a beating, but I don’t think I have to lay anyone off . . . . . ”

He expresses a longing to maintain “day-to-day freedoms” such as restaurants and gym visits. He is prepared to stay in Mexico and South American until this blows over.

He says locally in Mexico City things are more chill as the locals are not yet impacted.

That is the voice from Mexico City. Stay tuned.car

03/17/20

Voices From The Real World I

So, dear reader, the Big Red Car shook the relationship tree of The Wisdom of the Campfire and communicated with some current and past CEO coaching and venture capitalists to get an idea of what is happening in their world, vis a vis the Wutang Flu.

From London in the commercial property world, we hear the voice of a CEO, entrepreneur who founded and runs a business that facilitates big commercial property transactions in the United Kingdom often marrying up institutions and world class, best of breed buyers. Smart, brilliant guy.

He says, since the 29 October 2019 UK general election, “It has been an interesting 6 months from a business perspective. . . . . . Business fell off a cliff. . . . . . in January (2020) everybody saw a post-election window and I had my busiest months on record for the first 2 months of the year.”

“The Covid-19 crisis started to hit economically 2 weeks ago. I have a friend in M&A. All his deals have been pulled over the past 2-3 weeks. Another friend is an executive coach working with corporate leadership teams. Her diary is now empty for the next few months.

“Yesterday things got serious. The government recommended people do not go to bars and restaurants and that everyone work from home if they can and go out as little as possible. Retail has had an awful 12/24 months and we have already had 3 or 4 high profile bankruptcies including Laura Ashley this week. Today they just announced £330B of loan guarantees for all size businesses. They are trying to replicate Mario Draghi’s upfront/whatever it takes action to save the Euro.

“I can see my business will now have a very quiet few months. After that who knows. Pension funds are forced to sell property if investors withdraw funds, so there will always be some volume. Separately, I’m trying to close a pre-seed round for an exciting new business. I followed up with interested investors yesterday to line up a final meeting to show our demo/close funds. 8 emails, 3 replies so far (all positive). I suspect I’ll lose more than a few. We shall see. . . . . . ”

That’s the insider view from London. What do you think?

car
03/16/20

The Cost of Panic

Hey, America, you don’t look good in panic. Let me see if I can reason with you and get you back off that ledge.

“Hi, Mom. You look great. I’m here for you.”

The Wutang Flu is a real thing, but it is something we have met before. We met it — meaning a virus for which we had no vaccine — last in 2009 when the Swine Flu (H1N1 flu) arrived. It, too, was a national emergency.

We ended up with:

60,000,000 people infected,

265,000 hospital stays, and,

12,500 deaths.

Those deaths, like the current situation, were aggregated amongst the elderly and the immune system compromised.

Back in 2009, we did not panic.

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03/15/20

Deborah L Birx, MD — Groupies

I am admitting that I am a Dr Deborah L Birx groupie. She is the tall, well-coiffed woman with the Hermes scarves on her shoulders who is Mike Pence’s right arm on the Wutang Flu Task Force.

She has the confident voice of a retired Army Colonel and an Ambassador who has been on the front lines of the fight against HIV/AIDS for more than three decades.

White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx shows how coronavirus testing will be streamlined at the press conference.

She is considered a legend in the international fight against HIV/AIDS.

Technically, she is Ambassador-at-Large, Coordinator of the United States Government Activities to Combat HIV/AIDS and U.S. Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy.

But, you can just call her a badass public health warrior.

You want an example for a young woman to follow as a role model? Here she is.

There is an interesting anecdote about her.

She was having a baby and required a blood transfusion, but she had been working on HIV/AIDS and knew there was a risk that the blood might be contaminated.

She refused to take the transformation.

The blood was contaminated.

Keep an eye on this woman. She is the best of all of us and we are in good hands. Well played, Dr Deborah L Birx. I am glad you are on the team.

So, yeah, I’m a groupie. Who wants to make something of it?

car

 

 

03/14/20

CEO, Founder, Reassurer

In times of crisis in business, the military, government those for whom you have responsibility will look to you for reassurance and guidance. It is part of the job. It is one of the most important parts of the job. You, amigo, are the reassurer.

Here is the big thing: Your people will only remember 5% of what you tell them, but they will remember 95% of how you told them and how it made them feel.

This is the part of the job that is called being the Reassurer-in-Chief.

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