The Upside Roundup – 5 Things I Like This Week, August 21
Naval’s Insights, Flying Nowhere, and Prohibition Style Gyms
The Democratic National Convention was held virtually – just like everything else – this week. There were speeches from the Obamas and the official announcement of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as the ticket for the Democrats. But, before getting into the week’s links, here’s a video of Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Elaine from Seinfeld, and the vice-president from Veep, providing an intro of the last night of the convention.
· With travel bans in place all over the world, airlines are being forced to get creative about how they can make themselves useful. It’s a two-way street when it comes to travel, as many people stuck at home quarantined are looking for some form of entertainment. This has led to the concept of “flights to nowhere” where airlines create an artificial experience designed to give passengers the feeling of traveling. This movement has taken hold in Taiwan where they created a travel experience where the plane never actually left the ground, but the flight to nowhere movement was started in Australia many years ago and is gaining momentum in China. Participants would go through the typical airport experience, checking in, going through security, and immigration check-ins – unclear why that’s desirable. This idea is evolving on the fly and the concept now features actual flights with departure and arrival at the same airport. This eliminates the need for quarantine after the flight is over. A common trip involves taking a sightseeing route that included Taiwan’s coast and the Japanese Ryukyu Islands. To add to the experience, Michelin three-star chef Motokazu Nakamura prepares the meal for the flight.
· Underground gyms resembling speakeasy bars are popping up all over the country. Conventional gyms have been shut down for obvious reasons, but in response, people that need their fitness fix have gone stealth to assemble. Government legislation of an activity with eager buyers and sellers is close to impossible, but there are unintended consequences that come from prohibition style engagement. Quality control inevitably decreases when markets get pushed underground. When it comes to these secret gyms, there is potential for creating environments that are more likely to spread the virus than if they were legal and regulated. Anecdotal evidence of these gyms suggests a lack of social distancing, no masks, and little sanitizing of equipment. Another side effect is a rise in price; less competition and higher risks in these scenarios allow the gym operators to charge extra for their services. The money-making potential of these underground schemes can lead to one other side effect: violence and corruption.
3. Is Football Going to Happen?
· The NFL is the most popular sports organization that exists in the US, but chatter about its upcoming season has been pretty quiet. Does fantasy football still exist? But as we start to progress through the dog days of summer, that means the start of the NFL season is rapidly approaching, with the first game just three weeks away. The preseason was cancelled, Hard Knocks got started on HBO, and nobody noticed. College football is in a state of disarray, with certain conferences looking to push forward and just play while others are taking a safer approach. But if you’re looking for some useful information about how this NFL season might turn out, there aren’t many columns better than the overvalued and undervalued teams that ESPN’s Bill Barnwell puts out each year. With no bubble, and certain NFL owners trying to get fans in the seats for games, there might not be too many NFL games to watch in 2020.
· Naval Ravikant is one of the best thinkers of our generation. He’s a serial entrepreneur and angel investor in hundreds of companies, investing early in companies like Uber, Twitter, and Postmates. He is the co-founder of AngelList, a platform that tries to make startup investing available to everyone. Now, AngelList is trying to continue their pattern of innovation with the creation of rolling funds. One of Joe Rogan’s most popular podcasts of all-time – clocking in at over two hours – featured him last year with Naval saying it’s better to be rich and anonymous instead of poor and famous. To try and distill all of his insights into a digestible form of content, Eric Jorgenson decided to write a book that summarized his nuggets of wisdom into a book. He detailed what motivated him to start the project, which was supposed to be a short e-book at first, but turned into a full-blown “almanack” once interest from the Twitter crowd motivated him to keep going further. When it comes to trying to aggregate the wisdom Naval has to offer, Jorgenson has got it covered. In this blog post, he goes through some of the primary lessons he’s learned, which can be useful to anyone.
5. Airbnb’s Intention To Go Public
· After getting absolutely destroyed in the early stages of the pandemic, it looks like Airbnb has weathered the storm. It confidentially filed to go public earlier this week, a sign that its current condition is good enough to make it attractive in a public offering. Almost a year ago, the company announced its intention to go public sometime in 2020, but it could not have predicted how its entire business model would be essentially eliminated at that point in time. In response, there has been shifts to online experiences, which is now the fastest growing part of the company. The question becomes whether it decides to go public through an IPO or in a direct listing, with indications suggesting it will be an IPO. The number of shares offered and the price range still needs to be determined, and are going to be driven by the company’s results during the pandemic.