#Elad Gross

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Lil Kalish at HuffPost:

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who has targeted LGBTQ+ people during his 17 months in office, is one step closer to holding on to his job. Bailey beat Will Scharf in a Republican primary for state attorney general on Tuesday. Former President Donald Trump had endorsed both Bailey and Scharf on Truth Social.

Bailey was first appointed to the attorney general position by Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) in January 2023. Since then, he has launched investigations against a children’s hospital, gym and retailer that provide services or a safe and affirming space for transgender Missourians. One of the first actions Bailey took as attorney general was to attempt to investigate the Washington University Pediatric Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital after a former caseworker, Jamie Reed, accused the center of malpractice. Bailey gave Reed whistleblower protection and began asking the hospital for patient medical records; later, he also asked for information on therapists and social workers across the state who worked with trans youth. A Missouri judge eventually found that Bailey’s office had no right to private medical information. Last year, Bailey also signed an emergency rule that created a burdensome set of requirements for trans people of all ages seeking gender-affirming care. He withdrew the emergency order only when the Republican-led legislature passed its own ban on gender-affirming care for minors, Medicaid recipients and incarcerated people.

[...] And just days before the state’s primary election, Bailey sent out a stark warning to a St. Louis gym that had come under scrutiny from conservatives for allowing a transgender woman to use the women’s locker room.

In the battle of attention-seeking MAGA flunkies in the Missouri Attorney General race on the GOP side, incumbent Andrew Bailey holds on to win for a full term after being appointed in early 2023 due to Eric Schmitt winning his Senate run in 2022.

Bailey’s tenure as AG has been nothing more than a Ken Paxton knockoff by obsessing with right-wing culture war red meat lawsuits and anti-trans extremism.

Bailey will face Elad Gross (D) for the general election.

[mariacallous]

In 2018, Rebecca Varney could have used Josh Hawley’s help.

Hawley, currently a U.S. senator, was Missouri’s attorney general at the time. Among the key responsibilities of that office is to enforce the state’s Sunshine Law, which governs public access to records and meetings.

Varney, who lives in Edgar Springs, was being harassed by city officials in that south-central Missouri town as she sought to use the Sunshine Law to figure out what was going on in City Hall. Things got so bad that city attorney Brandi Baird banned Varney from the public building, even when there were public meetings going on there.

Around the same time, Hawley, a Republican, had his own Sunshine Law problems. Despite being elected in large part because of the “Lock Her Up” crowd — Republicans who were angry over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server — Hawley had been engaged in similar activity. In 2017, Hawley’s campaign consultants, using private email to communicate with public employees, set up a raid on a massage parlor to portray Hawley as tough on human trafficking.

By 2019, both Varney and Hawley were wrapped up in lawsuits. Varney, since she didn’t get any help from the state, hired attorney David Roland of the Freedom Center of Missouri to make sure she had access to City Hall. Hawley was sued by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for hiding records the committee had sought in a Sunshine Law request.

Last week, both of the lawsuits came to their inevitable conclusions. Hawley’s got the most attention, of course. He’s a sitting U.S. senator and the person who defended him in the lawsuit, current Attorney General Eric Schmitt, was just elected as Missouri’s second U.S. senator.

The two senators lost the lawsuit badly. Cole County Circuit Court Judge Jon Beetem, a fellow Republican, chided Hawley, and by inference Schmitt, for the “insincerity” of the arguments in the lawsuit. Beetem found that Hawley “deliberately withheld these documents without any plausible, lawful rationale for doing so.” He fined the attorney general’s office $12,000, the maximum possible, and ordered that it pay attorneys fees, which will be significantly higher than the fine.

It’s a stunning decision that exposes the worst kind of abuse of the public trust by a politician — hiding public records that might have had an impact on his election. “It’s cheating,” says attorney Mark Pedroli, who won the lawsuit along with the Elias Law Group.

But it’s more than that. It’s an indictment of how broken the Sunshine Law is in Missouri, primarily because the attorney general’s office has been using its power to evade the law rather than enforce it.

You can’t truly appreciate the impact of Hawley’s abuse of the law without understanding its effect on people like Varney. In Varney’s case, Phelps County Circuit Court Judge John Beger fined the city of Edgar Springs $600 and secured Varney’s access to City Hall to see and inspect public records.

“Public access to public records is not a new or novel policy for this state,” Beger wrote.

But it is often treated that way by state and county officials, as well as cities. Too many public officials believe they can get away with violating the Sunshine Law because there has not been a Missouri attorney general who would take the law seriously and bring lawsuits against government bodies on behalf of citizens. Instead, the work has been left to private attorneys.

Those attorneys include Pedroli and Roland. Also, Elad Gross, Jean Maneke, Bernie Rhodes and Joe Martineau (who represents the Post-Dispatch). These attorneys have won Sunshine Law actions in the past few years that reinforce Beger’s obvious statement. Each of those lawsuits could have been brought by the attorney general or avoided altogether if the office worked harder to enforce the law.

In that vacuum, cities and counties regularly violate the Sunshine Law with impunity.

That means citizens are often left on their own. They know nothing about the Sunshine Law until the bulldozers are in the backyard. That’s what happened to Jason Maki, who took on the city of Parkville because he couldn’t get help from Schmitt’s office after filing Sunshine Law requests that were ignored. Maki was seeking information about a proposed development near his house.

Last year, he won a $195,000 settlement from the small city northwest of Kansas City.

“It became obvious that I had to take things in my own hands,” Maki told me last year.

It is telling that Hawley, the former attorney general, was found to have deliberately withheld public records the same week Varney won her battle for records with Edgar Springs.

Such is the state of play for public accountability in Missouri. The office that is supposed to enforce the Sunshine Law is leaving citizens to go to court themselves when they get locked out of City Hall.

[devotedlygrandwinner]

ELAD GROSS FOR MO ATTORNEY GENERAL!

[diariostl]

Candidatos Demócratas de Missouri se reúnen con miembros de la comunidad latina de St.Louis

Candidatos Demócratas de Missouri se reúnen con miembros de la comunidad latina de St.Louis. #NoticiaSTL #DiarioSTL #DiarioDigitalNoticias #DiarioDigitalSTL @DiarioDigitalSTL @DiarioDigitalKC @ComunidadSTL @ComunidadLatinaSTL

Saint Louis • Varios candidatos demócratas postulandose a cargos de importancia en la política de Missouri este año se reunieron con un grupo de aproximadamente 30 residentes latinos de St.Louis el pasado Sábado, 11 de Julio.

Entre los asistidos se encontraban Nicole Galloway, candidata para Gobernadora de Missouri y actual Auditora de del estado; Cory Bush, candidata para el Congreso de los…

[webanditnews]

Retool Raises $45M Series C2 to Change How Software Is Built

Retool Raises $45M Series C2 to Change How Software Is Built

Existing Investors Sequoia Capital, John and Patrick Collison, Nat Friedman, Elad Gil, Daniel Gross and Caryn Marooney participated in the round that values Retool at $3.2B Retool, an application development platform for internal tools, announced it has raised $45 million in Series C2 funding at a $3.2B valuation from existing investors Sequoia Capital, Stripe co-founders John and Patrick…

[shilotri]

It looks like Reid Hoffman spent a year in GreyAtom and wrote the book. Focuses on the approaches and mindset needed to scale anything.

It’s easy and clear to read. This book is best read with “High Growth Handbook” – Elad Gil. Blinkist version of this book would work well.

I especially appreciated that author speaks about when NOT to blitz scale.

Key Points:

Growth over efficiency

Maximise 4 growth factors (network effects, market size, distribution, high gross margins)

Minimise 2 growth limiters (product market fit, operational scalability)

7 patterns of success (modular system, platform, freemium, market place, subscription, digital goods, feeds)

3 principles underlying this need (Moore’s law, automation, adaptation vs optimisation)

The 5 stages and managerial changes (family, tribe, village, city, nation)

Best Quote – “Keep your personal learning curve ahead of the company’s growth curve”

[bluemagic-girl]

🔥Missouri governor says the 2020 election will be his last🔥

Missouri governor says the 2020 election will be his last

Democrat Nicole Galloway (left), Republican Mike Parson (right)

JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican who took over the state’s top post in 2018 after the departure of embattled former Gov. Eric Greitens, announced Tuesday he is running in his final election.On the first day of filing for candidates running in the Aug. 4 primary, the 64-year-old former sheriff, representative, senator and lieutenant governor said he will not run again after he submitted paperwork to get on the ballot.“Yeah. I don’t see that in my future,” Parson said. “I’ve been around long enough to say, ‘Never say never.’ But I’d say the First Lady might say never.”With no races for U.S. Senate this year, the governor’s race will be the main focal point for both parties. Also on the ballot are the lieutenant governor’s post, secretary of state, attorney general and state treasurer.All eight of Missouri’s U.S. House seats will be on the ballot, along with all 163 Missouri House seats and 17 seats in the state Senate.Along with Parson, Democratic State Auditor Nicole Galloway filed her paperwork to get on the ballot for governor. The two have the most money and are considered the front runners to be on the ballot in November.Galloway, 37, who won a full, four-year term in 2018, told reporters that she would bring a fresh perspective to the governor’s office, with a focus on ensuring people have access to health care.“Governor Parson is part of the old way of doing things where the well-connected get what they want, the campaign donors get what they want. Meanwhile, Missouri families cannot get what they need,” Galloway said.Although the filing period runs through March 31, candidates began lining up outside the office of Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft early Tuesday morning.Among them were Antoin Johnson and Jimmie Matthews of St. Louis, both of whom filed to run for governor on the Democratic ticket.Rik Combs of Lohman filed for governor as a Libertarian Party candidate.Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, a Jefferson City Republican, who was appointed to his seat after Parson moved into the Governor’s Mansion, submitted his paperwork in search of a full, four-year term.Arnie Dienhoff of O’Fallon, who has previously run for other offices, also filed as a Republican lieutenant governor candidate.Gregory Upchurch of St. Charles filed to run as a Democrat for lieutenant governor. Upchurch previously made an unsuccessful bid for the 70th House District, losing in the Democratic primary to eventual winner Rep. Paula Brown.Attorney General Eric Schmitt, R-Glendale, filed in anticipation of a challenge from Democrats, who held the seat for more than two decades until now-U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley wrestled it away in 2016.Two Democrats are seeking to challenge Schmitt, who was appointed to the post last year after Hawley moved to the U.S. Senate.Attorney Rich Finneran of University City and Democrat Elad Gross, a St. Louis attorney, will fight it out for the Democratic nomination.In the race for secretary of state, Ashcroft is likely to face, political newcomer Yinka Faleti, a Democrat.Faleti, 43, is an Army veteran and former St. Louis assistant prosecutor. He most recently served as the executive director of the Forward Through Ferguson organization and formerly worked at the United Way of Greater St. Louis.“We are not yet done. There is more to do,” Ashcroft said.State Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick, R-Cassville, is expected to file for a full four-year term after he was appointed to the post in 2018.Former state Rep. Vicki Englund, a Democrat who represented a swath of south St. Louis County, also filed Tuesday.In races for U.S. Congress, U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Ballwin, filed to run for re-election in the 2nd District, which includes much of the St. Louis suburban area. Democratic state Sen. Jill Schupp, R-Creve Coeur, also filed.In the 1st Congressional District, Democrat Cori Bush of Northwoods filed to challenge U.S. Rep. William “Lacy” Clay of St. Louis, who has held the seat for 11 terms.“I expect the same result as the last time,” Clay said Tuesday. “She was defeated solidly.”Republicans, meanwhile, are looking to maintain their two-thirds majority in the Missouri House. Democrats have released a list of eight GOP “target” districts, including three in the St. Louis area: the 65th and 106th districts in St. Charles County, and the 94th District in south St. Louis County.In the 65th District, state Rep. Tom Hannegan, R-St. Charles, filed to run for a third term. He narrowly won reelection two years ago against former state Rep. Bill Otto, a Democrat.First-term state Rep. Jim Murphy, R-south St. Louis County, also filed for reelection after a narrow victory over Democrat Jean Pretto in 2018.Democrats say Pretto and Otto will run again, but the two candidates hadn’t filed for election as of noon Tuesday.In the 106th District in St. Charles, state Rep. Chrissy Sommer is term-limited, meaning she can’t run for reelection. Republican Adam Schwadron filed to run for the seat on Tuesday. Democrats have not yet found a candidate, according to the party’s campaign website.In the Senate, Republicans are aiming to take back the 1st District, which stretches from south St. Louis County to Brentwood. Sen. Scott Sifton, D-Affton, is term-limited and can’t run again.Democratic Rep. Doug Beck, D-south St. Louis County, announced his bid for the seat last year. David Lenihan, a Republican, contributed $50,000 on Tuesday to his campaign for the Senate seat.Sen. Andrew Koenig, R-Manchester, is looking to win reelection in the west St. Louis County 15th Senate District. He faces state Rep. Deb Lavender, D-Kirkwood, who is forgoing reelection to the House to challenge Koenig.Jack Suntrup of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this article.

State government is a big, sprawling operation that spends your Missouri tax dollars. Stay up to date on what’s happening in Jefferson City by subscribing.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Our daily political newsletter featuring local and national updates and analysis.

Boyd, who lost to Jones eight years ago for the same office, has tangled with the treasurer over her handling of city parking operations.

The drug can reverse the process of opioid overdose and has saved thousands of lives.

Gov. Mike Parson flew to the Super Bowl aboard a plane owned by an Independence, Mo. businessman.

The search is underway because of the Chief Jon Belmar is retiring on April 30 after a six-year tenure.

The approval was expected as the last part of a longstanding plan by Bi-State that also added patrols from St. Louis County Police and the St. Clair Sheriff’s Department.

‘One person with passion is better than 40 people merely interested,’ he says in a video.

Public health officials blame lack of state-funded treatment and recovery resources in African American neighborhoods, among other factors.

Lawmakers want DHSS Director Randall Williams to attend a upcoming hearing of the panel.

The approval was expected as the last part of a longstanding plan by Bi-State that also added patrols from St. Louis County Police and the St. Clair Sheriff’s Department.

Employer groups back the bill. The medical marijuana association is opposed.

Democrat Nicole Galloway (left), Republican Mike Parson (right)

from WordPress https://moosegazette.net/%f0%9f%94%a5missouri-governor-says-the-2020-election-will-be-his-last%f0%9f%94%a5/27469/

[un-enfant-immature]

Deepnote raises $3.8M to build a better data science platform

Deepnote, a startup that offers data scientists an IDE-like collaborative online experience for building their machine learning models, today announced that it has raised a $3.8 million seed round led by Index Ventures and Accel, with participation from YC and Credo Ventures, as well as a number of angel investors, including OpenAI’s Greg Brockman, Figma’s Dylan Field, Elad Gil, Naval Ravikant, Daniel Gross and Lachy Groom.

Built around standard Jupyter notebooks, Deepnote wants to provide data scientists with a cloud-based platform that allows them to focus on their work by abstracting away all of the infrastructure. So instead of having to spend a few hours setting up their environment, a student in a data science class, for example, can simply come to Deepnote and get started.

In its current form, Deepnote doesn’t charge for its service, despite the fact that it allows its users to work with large data sets and train their models on cloud-based machines with attached GPUs.

As Deepnote co-founder and CEO (and ex-Mozilla engineer) Jakub Jurových told me, though, he believes that the most important feature of the service is its ability to allow users to collaborate. “Over the past couple of years, I started to do a lot of data science work and helped a couple of companies scale up their data science teams,” he said. “And again and again, we run into the same issue: people have real trouble collaborating.”

Jurových argues that while it’s easy enough to keep two or three data scientists in sync, once you have a bigger team, you quickly run into issues because the current set of tools was never meant to do this kind of work. “If I’m a data scientist by training, I spend most of my time doing math and stats,” he said. “But then, expecting me to connect to an EC2 cluster and spin a bunch of GPU instances for parallel training is just not something I’m looking for.”

When it started this project in early 2019, the Deepnote team decided to put Jupyter notebooks at the core of the user experience. That is, after all, what most data scientists are already familiar with. It then built the collaborative features around that, as well as tools for pulling in data from third-party services and scheduling tools for kicking off jobs inside of the platform at regular intervals.

Deepnote is already quite popular with students. Jurových also noted that a lot of teachers already use Deepnote to publish interactive exercises for their students. Over time, the company obviously wants to bring more businesses on board, but for the time being, it is mostly focused on building its product. Given its collaborative nature, the team also believes that the service will naturally grow through word of mouth as people invite others to collaborate on products.

“Data science is overdue for the benefits of tools that are cloud and collaboration native,” said Accel partner Vas Natarajan. “This is a fast-growing, dynamic market that’s demanding a successor to incumbent tools. Jakub and his team are building powerful software to modernize data science workflow for teams.”

The new funding will mostly go into hiring and building out the product, with a focus on the overall user experience. Even within the data science community, there are a variety of use cases, after all, and an NLP engineer has different needs from a computer vision engineer.

[magzoso-tech]

New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/deepnote-raises-3-8m-to-build-a-better-data-science-platform/

Deepnote raises $3.8M to build a better data science platform

Deepnote, a startup that offers data scientists an IDE-like collaborative online experience for building their machine learning models, today announced that it has raised a $3.8 million seed round led by Index Ventures and Accel, with participation from YC and Credo Ventures, as well as a number of angel investors, including OpenAI’s Greg Brockman, Figma’s Dylan Field, Elad Gil, Naval Ravikant, Daniel Gross and Lachy Groom.

Built around standard Jupyter notebooks, Deepnote wants to provide data scientists with a cloud-based platform that allows them to focus on their work by abstracting away all of the infrastructure. So instead of having to spend a few hours setting up their environment, a student in a data science class, for example, can simply come to Deepnote and get started.

In its current form, Deepnote doesn’t charge for its service, despite the fact that it allows its users to work with large data sets and train their models on cloud-based machines with attached GPUs.

As Deepnote co-founder and CEO (and ex-Mozilla engineer) Jakub Jurových told me, though, he believes that the most important feature of the service is its ability to allow users to collaborate. “Over the past couple of years, I started to do a lot of data science work and helped a couple of companies scale up their data science teams,” he said. “And again and again, we run into the same issue: people have real trouble collaborating.”

Jurových argues that while it’s easy enough to keep two or three data scientists in sync, once you have a bigger team, you quickly run into issues because the current set of tools was never meant to do this kind of work. “If I’m a data scientist by training, I spend most of my time doing math and stats,” he said. “But then, expecting me to connect to an EC2 cluster and spin a bunch of GPU instances for parallel training is just not something I’m looking for.”

When it started this project in early 2019, the Deepnote team decided to put Jupyter notebooks at the core of the user experience. That is, after all, what most data scientists are already familiar with. It then built the collaborative features around that, as well as tools for pulling in data from third-party services and scheduling tools for kicking off jobs inside of the platform at regular intervals.

Deepnote is already quite popular with students. Jurových also noted that a lot of teachers already use Deepnote to publish interactive exercises for their students. Over time, the company obviously wants to bring more businesses on board, but for the time being, it is mostly focused on building its product. Given its collaborative nature, the team also believes that the service will naturally grow through word of mouth as people invite others to collaborate on products.

“Data science is overdue for the benefits of tools that are cloud and collaboration native,” said Accel partner Vas Natarajan. “This is a fast-growing, dynamic market that’s demanding a successor to incumbent tools. Jakub and his team are building powerful software to modernize data science workflow for teams.”

The new funding will mostly go into hiring and building out the product, with a focus on the overall user experience. Even within the data science community, there are a variety of use cases, after all, and an NLP engineer has different needs from a computer vision engineer.

[356mission]

List of artists who have participated in exhibitions at 356 Mission: 2013 Laura Owens Math Bass Mike Bouchet Sarah Braman Sara Clendening Barry Johnston Kricket Lane Daniel McDonald Pentti Monkkonen Matt Paweski Jennifer Rochlin Colin Snapp Jessica Stockholder Oscar Tuazon Daniel Turner Amy Yao Eric Palgon Yshai Yudekovitz Nicholas Arehart Bridget Batch + Kevin Cooley Danielle Bustillo Joey Cannizzaro Jamie Hilder Meghan Gordon Becca Lieb Mindy Lu David Sikander Muenzer Bryne Rasmussen-Smith + Andrew Smith-Rasmussen Tatiana Vahan Sturtevant Shimon Minamikawa 2014 John Kaufman Scott Reeder Oliver Payne Yuki Kimura Alex Katz Michael Dopp, Calvin Marcus, and Isaac Resnikoff Trevor Shimizu Becca Albee Brody Albert and Kaeleen Wescoat-O'Neill Lilly Aldriedge Katie Aliprando Mark Allen Dewey Ambrosino Marie Angeletti Eika Aoshima Jonathan Apgar Cory Arcangel Jacinto Astiazaran Lisa Anne Auerbach John Baldessari Judie Bamber Ray Anthony Barrett Peter Barrickman Darcy Bartoletti Math Bass Stephen Berens Jennifer Berger Molly Berman Cindy Bernard Amy Bessone Lucas Blalock Seth Bogart Jennifer Bolande Joseph Bolstad Elba Bondaroff Marco Braunschweiler Brian Bress Brian Briggs and Laura Copelin Delia Brown Sally Bruno Edgar Bryan Elizabeth Bryant Jedediah Caesar Jedediah Caesar and Kate Costello (Extraterrestrial) Sarah Cain Kristin Calabrese Ingrid Calame Ross Caliendo Joshua Callaghan Brian Calvin Andrew Cannon Ben Carlson Jae Choi Milano Chow Donna Chung Jonathan Clarke Sara Clendening Justin Cole Kelly Marie Conder Matt Connors Vanessa Conte Alika Cooper Liz Craft Meg Cranston Cameron Crone CH Cummings Lila De Magalheas Dave Deany Michael Decker Gracie DeVito Michael Dopp Katie Douglass Lauren Dudko Julia Dzwonkoski and Kye Potter Mari Eastman Brad Eberhard Clifford Eberly Shannon Ebner Benjamin Echeverria Ken Ehrlich Alyse Emdur Karl Erickson Ron Ewert Ann Faison Cayetano Ferrer Gabrielle Ferrer Luke Fischbeck Katy Fischer Morgan Fisher Jesse Fleming Maya Ford Simone Forti Brendan Fowler Magdalena Suarez Frimkess Erik Frydenborg Francesca Gabbiani and Eddie Ruscha Nikolas Gambaroff Kathryn Garcia John Geary Veronica Gelbaum Rashell George Laeh Glenn Samara Golden Piero Golia Sayre Gomez Hannah Greely Justin John Greene Cassandre M. Griffin Katie Grinnan Mark Grock Julian Gross Karin Gulbran Jamal Gunn Becker Karl Haendel Mark Hagen Rick Hager Kate Mosher Hall Kevin Hanley Justin Hansch Peter Harkawik Jenny Hart Jeff Hassay Michael Henry Hayden and Anthony Lepore Carol Hendrickson James Herman Nick Herman Roger Herman Marcus Herse Paul Heyer Ian Hokin Evan Holloway Violet Hopkins and Foxy Production Jonathan Horowitz Amy Howden-Chapman Joe Hoyt Melissa Huddleston Cannon Hudson Amy-Claire Huestis Raymie Iadevaia Mitsuko Ikeno Daniel Ingroff Charles Irvin Alex Israel James Iveson Johanna Jackson Dain Johnson Kathleen Johnson Barry Johnston Emily Joyce E'wao Kagoshima Stanya Kahn Glenn Kaino, Sadie Kaino, and Stella Kaino Raffi Kalenderian Sanya Kantarovsky Matt Keegan Michael John Kelly Sean Kennedy Julie Kirkpatrick Karen Kilimnik Tom Knechtel Keith Rocka Knittel Rebecca Kolsrud David Korty Greg Kozaki Max Krivitzky Cyril Kuhn Rosina Kuhn Andrew Kuo Shio Kusaka Joel Kyack Molly Larkey Elad Lassry Tom Lawson William Leavitt Ann Leese Sarah Lehrer-Graiwer Alex Lemke Julia Leonard Anthony Lepore Sharon Lockhart Nick Lowe Tim Lokiec Andrea Longacre-White Anaïs Lozano Christopher Lux Caleb Lyons Matt MacFarland Ashley Macomber Tobias Madison Becca Mann Josh Mannis Chloé Maratta Calvin Steele Marcus Frank Masi Max Maslansky Katie S. McCauley and Bradly D. Fischer Danny McDonald Ross McLain Alex Meadows Jason Meadows Mieko Meguro Dain Mergenthaler Matt Merkel Hess and Conrad Merkel Donato Mezzenga Dianna Molzan Pentti Monkkonen Rebecca Morris Jane Moseley Hanne Mugaas Joshua Nathanson Davida Nemeroff Ruby Neri Ryan O'Halloran Tara Jane O'Neil J.D. Olerud Silke Otto-Knapp Robin Paravecchio and Ignacio Genzon Michael Parker John Parot Jane Parshall Julia Paull Mary Pearson Andrew Hirsch Perlman Jon Pestoni Primo Pitino Todd Pleasants Megan Plunkett Monique Prieto Jon Pylypchuk Chadwick Rantanen Sarah Rara Josh Reames Isaac Resnikoff Michael Rey John Riepenhoff Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs Shelby Roberts Jennifer Rochlin Ry Rocklen Torbjorn Rodland Mark A. Rodriguez Alix Ross & Morgan Ritter Amanda Ross-Ho Amanda Ross-Ho and Erik Frydenborg with Jorge, Mother, and Bud Nancy Sandercock Melinda Sanders Aaron Sandnes Rachelle Sawatsky Asha Schechter Carolee Schneeman Max Schwartz Zach Schwartz John Seal David Benjamin Sherry Peter Shire Flannery Silva Alex Slade Ryan Sluggett Alexis Smith Barbara T. Smith Jen Smith Joe Sola Frances Stark Linda Stark Jason Starr A.L. Steiner LeRoy Stevens Kate Stewart Thaddeus Strode Ricky Swallow Jordyn Sweet Martine Syms Tara Tavi Paul Theriault Amanda Tollefson Beatrice Valenzuela Monique Van Genderen Sigrid Vejvi Mark Verabioff Laura Vitale Erika Vogt Amy Von Harrington Christine Wang Mary Weatherford Michael Webster Benjamin Weissman John Wesley Brica Wilcox Chris Wilder Elise Marie Wille Lisa Williamson Lena Wolek Nate Wolf Jonas Wood Suzanne Wright Aaron Wrinkle Wendy Yao Jason Yates Michael Zahn Bari Ziperstein Jesse Fleming Larry Sultan André-Pierre Arnal Pierre Buraglio Louis Cane Noël Dolla Daniel Dezeuze Christian Jaccard Jean-Michel Meurice Bernard Pagés Jean-Pierre Pincemin Patrick Saytour Claude Viallat 2015 Anna Helm Lisa Lapinski Jay Chung & Q Takeki Maeda Lisa Anne Auerbach Lucky deBellevue Rochelle Feinstein Dane Johnson Jane Kaplowitz Max Krivitzky Ann Leese Cary Leibowitz Paul McMahon Rob Pruitt Sam Roeck Ruth Root Jason Rosenberg Theo Rosenblum + Chelsea Seltzer Joe Scanlan Lena Wolek Sam Anderson Becca Albee Eric Wesley Ben Vida Katy Fischer Kerry Tribe Graham Lambkin Shahryar Nashat Seth Bogart Nancy Lupo and Molly McFadden Rebecca Morris Gary Indiana 2016 Susan Cianciolo Seth Price Wayne Koestenbaum Lutz Bacher Chris Domenick & Em Rooney Wu Tsang Maggie Lee Eric VVysokan John Seal 2017 Trisha Baga Brian Sharp David Reed Henning Bohl C-Brushammer COBRA Daisuke Fukunaga Naotaka Hiro Ken Kagami Veit Laurent Kurz Soshiro Matsubara Puppies Puppies Stephen G. Rhodes Trevor Shimizu Yosuke Takayama Yuji Agematsu Nancy Arlen Jeremy Anderson Hans Bellmer Bill Bollinger Lee Bontecou Robert Breer Dan Burkhart Cameron Nicolas Ceccaldi Magalie Comeau Tony Conrad Jay DeFeo Michaela Eichwald Agustin Fernandez Terry Fox Ilka Gedő Jean-Léon Gérôme Bill Hayden Matt Hoyt Steve Keister Mike Kelley William Leavitt Lee Lozano Robert Mallary Harold Mendez Henri Michaux Eric Orr Tom Rankin Deborah Remington John Singer Sargent Michael E. Smith Unica Zürn Jacqueline Kiyomi Gordon

[antisemitism-eu]

UK: London’s Young Vic theatre is reviving Rachel Corrie

Via Harry's Place (Jonathan Hoffman):

London’s Young Vic theatre is reviving ‘My Name is Rachel Corrie’. There will be 27 performances, starting with previews on Kol Nidre (29 September); press night is 4 October.  The theatre holds 70, so 1890 people will have the chance to see this play which incites hatred against Israel and therefore against its supporters, at a theatre which is supported by the taxpayer. 

Rachel Corrie was a young American (age 23). The play is extracts from her emails and diaries, selected by Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner. She was idealistic but very naïve. She volunteered for the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a group that opposes Israel’s existence and whose members seek to prevent the Israeli army from acting against terrorists in Gaza and Judea/Samaria. The IDF’s ability to operate effectively in these areas against terrorists has been systematically and intentionally obstructed by groups of foreign volunteers for the ISM, used by the Palestinian Authority as “human shields”. By interfering with Israeli counter-terrorism operations, the ISM directly endangers the lives of Israeli civilians. 

In April 2003, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported: “ISM members take an active part in illegal and violent actions against IDF soldiers. At times, their activity in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip is under the auspices of Palestinian terrorist organisations.” In the past, ISM members have been arrested vandalising and destroying Israeli security fences and equipment. In March 2003, fugitive Islamic Jihad terrorist, Shadi Sukiya, was arrested in a house in Jenin rented by the ISM. 

Rachel Corrie was one of the “internationals” planted in Rafah, a town on the Egypt/Gaza border, in March 2003. There the IDF was demolishing tunnels used by the Palestinians to bring arms and explosives into Gaza to use against targets in Israel. The area of the IDF’s operation was clearly a military area and Corrie should not have entered it.  But she did and in the course of one such Israeli attempt to knock down a structure shielding one of the tunnels (16 March 2003), Corrie stood in front of an Israeli bulldozer. She slipped on a mound of dirt and was tragically killed. (...)

There is no mention in the play that the ISM met with the British suicide bombers Omar Khan Sharif and Asif Muhammad Hanif who, a few days later (30 April 2003), blew up Mike’s Place, a Tel Aviv pub, killing three and injuring dozens (see this piece by Tom Gross).  Or of the fact that in its mission statement the ISM said ‘armed struggle’ is a Palestinian ‘right’. Nor of the statement of the ISM ‘media co-ordinator’, Flo Rosovski, that “Israel is an illegal entity that should not exist!” Indeed Rachel Corrie did not think that the ‘terrorist’ word was appropriate for Palestinians. She suggests to her mother that she should update the local paper with her news and says ‘I think it’s smart that you’re wary of using the word ‘terrorism’ … you could be perpetuating the idea that the Israel-Palestinian conflict is a balanced conflict.’ Try telling that to the widow and children of Elad Salomon, murdered in Halamish while having Shabbat dinner last week, along with his father and sister. 

As for Corrie herself, inconveniently for those who have sought to portray her as a peaceful protester, photos of her burning a mock American flag and stirring up crowds in Gaza at a pro-Hamas rally were published by the Associated Press and on Yahoo News on 15 February 2003, a month before she died. Yet just three weeks earlier (on 25 January – the day she arrived in Israel) she wrote “I’m really new to talking about Israel-Palestine, so I don’t always know the political implications of my words”. (...) 

Corrie ripping Israel flag

Corrie ripping mock US flag

My Name Is Rachel Corrie is a sad play about a naïve young woman who is irresponsibly exploited by the ISM and tragically dies a painful and premature death.  But it fails to show the terrorism which was killing hundreds in Israel at that time and which Israel was combatting by its operations in Gaza; it whitewashes the ISM; and worst of all, Rickman and Viner falsely accuse the Israeli bulldozer driver of murdering Corrie. Under oath, he insisted that he had not seen her. 

At a time of heightened antisemitism, this season will foment hatred of Israel and thus of Jews in the UK who support Israel (which is the vast majority). That the Young Vic should stage it, is thoroughly irresponsible.  Presumably its decision-makers would not stage a play which demonises Muslims or blacks to the extent that this play demonises Israeli Jews – how, then, do they defend their decision? 

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[hermannovack]

Republican Senator Josh Hawley (R–MO) was slapped with a subpoena Friday after delivering a speech at CPAC, according to the Kansas City Star. “Elad Gross, a Democratic candidate for attorney general who is suing Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s office, said on Twitter that the Missouri senator was…

The post GOP Senator served with subpoena as he leaves CPAC stage in ongoing fight over hiding campaign emails appeared first on Raw Story.

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[bowsetter]

The Daily: Atari Partners Decentralized Gaming Company, Tagomi Goes Live

In today’s edition of The Daily, we cover stories that show how crypto assets and technology continue to impact the development of everything, from mobile games to artificial intelligence. We also feature a new crypto trading venue that aims to bring in more investment from ultra wealthy families and institutions.

Also Read: Iranian Students in the UK Use Bitcoin to Bypass Banks

Blockchain-Based Atari Mobile Games

Classic gaming company Atari has announced it entered into a license agreement with the exclusive distributor of Crypto Kitties in China, Animoca Brands. The deal grants Animoca the rights to develop decentralized versions of the Atari mobile games Roller Coaster Tycoon and Goon Squad, and to market them around the world excluding greater China. The titles will feature what the companies refer to as “non-fungible tokens.”

“This deal marks a special moment for me because I started my career working with Atari and using Atari computers,” said Yat Siu, the co-founder and chairman of Animoca Brands. “The Roller Coaster Tycoon franchise is, like many of Atari’s properties, a true evergreen, having been around for two decades. Given the strategic and commercial elements of this incredibly fun simulation, it is a perfect candidate for blockchain adaptation.”

Animoca expects to publish the games in the latter half of 2019. It will pay Atari a minimum guarantee against future revenues of $250,000, payable in shares of the company’s stock, and a revenue share will be payable to Atari after gross revenues exceed a total of $500,000. The terms of the deal extend through to March 31, 2022.

“We are proud and delighted to enter into this long-term and strategic relationship with Animoca Brands, which also allows us to become a shareholder in one of the most exciting innovators in the world of decentralized gaming,” said Frédéric Chesnais, the main shareholder and CEO of Atari. “We hope that this agreement paves the way to further cooperation on other Atari products.”

Bitcoin Prime Brokerage Tagomi Goes Live

Tagomi, an electronic brokerage offering prime services for digital assets, has announced it began executing client trades on Monday. In addition to access to cash spot markets and OTC liquidity, the venue offers institutional operational standards, treasury management, low transaction-costs, transparency, custody solutions, and other services.

“At this nascent stage for digital assets, investors are seeking a better way to execute large trades,” said Jennifer Campbell, Chief Executive Officer of Tagomi. “We’re excited to have built that. Our focus is on providing our clients, which include financial institutions, high net worth individuals and other sophisticated digital asset investors, a comprehensive solution that eases the operational challenges associated with trading at scale in this emerging asset class.”

The company has raised $16 million to date from notable investors such as Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Collaborative Fund, SV Angel, Joe Lonsdale, Brainchild, Digital Currency Group, Zhen Fund, Box Group, Elad Gil, Charlie Noyes, and others.

Tagomi’s management team comes from the likes of Goldman Sachs, Virtu Financial, Citadel, Nasdaq and other mainstream financial companies. “Cryptocurrency trading lacks the transparency and sophisticated execution that top family offices and wealth management firms have come to expect. I’m excited to see an ambitious team with the right experience in finance and technology fix this, creating a solution we trust,” said Joe Lonsdale, Founder of Palantir and Addepar.

Decentralized AI Network Launches Developer Portal

Singularitynet is a project promising to leverage blockchain to democratize access to Artificial Intelligence. Its founder, Dr. Ben Goertzel, recently went on the Joe Rogan podcast to explain how the technology powering cryptocurrency can be used to make sure that no single corporation or government will be able to dominate AI.

The company is today launching a portal meant to enable developers to discover, learn, and adopt the decentralized AI network. It aims to provide detailed resources, tutorials, descriptions, and guides, letting anyone create and monetize AI services at scale. Singularitynet states that while many companies are “struggling in the wake of the current crypto winter,” it continues to evolve and will be launching its beta in February 2019.

The foundation associated with the venture also just hosted its inaugural developer workshop in Helsinki, Finland, with over 250 participants. “We were really excited at the level of enthusiasm for the workshop and have already planned follow-ups and a number of video tutorials and webinars to meet the demand,” said Dr. Goertzel. “In subsequent workshops, we’ll follow these themes and add new AI content. This is a significant milestone for the Singularitynet project and its rapid movement from concept to reality — just a couple of months before the February beta release.”

What do you think about today’s news tidbits? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at Satoshi’s Pulse, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com.

The post The Daily: Atari Partners Decentralized Gaming Company, Tagomi Goes Live appeared first on Bitcoin News.

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[therealreverendchris]

The election for Missouri Attorney General will have big national implications. Our current Attorney General is suing to end the Affordable Care Act without offering any alternative. If successful, our Attorney General's lawsuit would end Medicaid Expansion and eliminate health care coverage for millions of Americans nationwide. On top of that, our Attorney General is trying to keep our public defender system underfunded, has fought in court to maintain debtors' prisons in our state, is not doing the coordinating we need to address rising violent crime, hasn't even scratched the surface of the robocall problem, and protects the flow of dark money. We need an Attorney General who works for us and will bring accountability back to our state and country.I served as an Assistant Attorney General of Missouri, where I was responsible for trials, appeals, and training new attorneys. The office has so much potential to bring much-needed change in many areas, from consumer protection, to health care, to violence reduction, to building a justice system that works.After leaving the office, I was a volunteer Special Public Defender of Missouri. I represented an 18-year-old girl who was wrongly accused of a crime she witnessed, who lost 7 months of her life while waiting in jail for her trial because she couldn't afford a few hundred dollars in bond, and was held for the last 15 days of her time there after charges had already been dropped against her. After I got her out, we sued the City of St. Louis and pushed for significant reforms in the justice system.For the last 13 years, I've run a nonprofit to teach kids the power they have to lead in St. Louis. I got involved in public service through education. My mom is a first generation American, and, for her, education was always opportunity. When she became a single working mom when I was a teenager, she sacrificed a lot to make sure her family had access to wonderful public schools. I've been paying it forward ever since.I decided to run for Attorney General in October 2018. Former Governor Eric Greitens was indicted for sexually exploiting a woman he was having an affair with, and he was simultaneously being investigated for running an illegal fake charity to conduct government business and take in political donations all while hiding his activity from the public. Members of his own party investigated his dark money organization and asked a judge to order the organization to send them the names of the organization's donors. The judge agreed. A few hours later, the Governor quit. Everyone dropped their investigations. So I took his dark money machine to court on my own dime to try to enforce transparency. I exposed the involvement of several out-of-state operatives and saw the inner workings of a national dark money organization that has bought our democracy.The Attorney General should not be a partisan, purchased office serving dark-money and big-money interests, and folks agree. We have the biggest grassroots campaign for this office ever. I've personally been to over 400 meetings, driven more than 1.5 times the equatorial circumference of the Earth just in mileage in Missouri, and recruited volunteers of all political backgrounds.This is the campaign we need to take back our home and ensure our democracy serves We the People.You can reach me at Elad@Elad4MO.org.And you can visit us online at:Website: EladGross.orgFacebook: https://ift.tt/2wKKP7Y https://twitter.com/BigEladInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigelad​YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE2aokfggPEXSapi8q3WKRQProof: https://ift.tt/38HzpiD via /r/politics

[topicprinter]

There’s a very simple logic behind creating new products for an established user base. The company has already acquired and built relationships with a specific audience, and it understands and knows this audience well. Consequently the company is more likely to succeed in creating a new product for this audience. There is extra value in this move as it may help the company to strengthen its relationship with current customers.You can find examples of using this growth tactic everywhere.From 1995 to 1999, Amazon was selling books online, gradually growing its audience and building logistics and a network of warehouses. Then the company began to sequentially launch new goods categories (e.g., audio and video discs, toys, household items, etc.). New categories covered more and more needs of the service’s current audience, and also created opportunities for further expansion.Apple is regularly releasing new devices (new phones, watches, headphones) targeting the loyal audience of their brand. Chinese tech giant Xiaomi is moving in a similar direction. In 2013, the company presented a strategy called “Mi Ecosystem Companies.” Xiaomi decided to invest in 100 companies over five years to create its own devices in all major hardware categories. By 2016, there were 55 companies within this ecosystem. Of these companies, 29 were incubated from the ground up by Xiaomi. Four of them were already worth over $1B in 2016.Angry Birds is one of the first popular games on smartphones. The loyal base of its fans has become the foundation for dozens of new games, animated series, two movies and many other products and businesses built around its beloved characters.Disney has acquired a number of popular franchises (such as Marvel and Star Wars) and now regularly releases new films for fans of each of the cinematic universes. Other film studios are moving in a similar direction, mainly launching sequels to successful films or movies in popular cinematic universes. This approach proved to be less risky and more profitable than launching a completely new product in the market. Look at the list of the Top Grossing Movies of 2019. You are unlikely to find anything fundamentally new there.Many tech giants have grown by launching new products to their loyal audience through their distribution channelsMany modern tech giants used the growth strategy of launching new products to their loyal audience through their developed distribution channels.Here’s how Marc Andreessen describes this process in an interview with Elad Gil, the author of High Growth Handbook:«In fact, the general model for successful tech companies, contrary to myth and legend, is that they become distribution-centric rather than product-centric. They become a distribution channel, so they can get to the world. And then they put many new products through that distribution channel. One of the things that’s most frustrating for a startup is that it will sometimes have a better product but get beaten by a company that has a better distribution channel. In the history of the tech industry, that’s actually been a more common pattern. That has led to the rise of these giant companies over the last fifty, sixty, seventy years, like IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, and many others.»A vivid example is Microsoft Teams, which crushed Slack by using the above model to introduce new products to the market. Microsoft made a doppelganger of the successful product, and then used its distribution channels to deliver the product to the market at a much faster pace than Slack. Read more details about the dynamics of the work messenger market here.Startup acquisitions provide opportunities to quickly deliver product value to an established user baseLaunching new products for existing audiences through built-in distribution channels is such an effective growth model that it has become one of the main reasons large companies find it profitable to acquire startups.Instead of designing new products within corporations by employing highly paid engineers and managers, it is usually more profitable to buy a ready-made product that has proven its value. The logic is for big companies to let thousands of small teams with low wages and surviving on their own or their investors’ money test a large number of risky product hypotheses. As soon as one of them creates something valuable, the big company will intervene and acquire the successful team and its product and quickly deliver this new value to its large audience.Ultimately, it turns out to be much less costly than checking thousands of product hypotheses inside the company. It is more profitable for corporations to spend their resources on developing current products or moving in new directions where they have an “unfair” advantage.Here’s what Ben Thompson says about it:“The first group that benefits from large tech company acquisitions is end users. The fastest possible way for a new technology or feature to be diffused to users broadly is for it to be incorporated by one of the large platforms or Aggregators. Suddenly, instead of reaching a few thousand or even a few million people, a new technology can reach billions of people. It’s difficult to overstate how compelling this point is from a consumer welfare perspective: banning acquisitions means denying billions of people access to a particular technology for years, if not forever.”New products for the current audience != Launching new products in dependent related niches in the value chainI consider it important to separate the following two growth paths: launching products in dependent segments of the company’s value chain, and launching new products for the current audience of the company.Launching a new category of goods on Amazon and launching the marketplace on Amazon Prime are examples of creating new products for the current audience of the company.An example of moving along the value chain into dependent segments is Amazon’s launch of products under its own brand in categories dominated by third-party merchants on Amazon, or creating their own logistics infrastructure.In the first case, the degree of uncertainty is much higher, since the company doesn’t have any preliminary evidence of the demand for the new product. In the second case, the company knows in advance that a particular product is in demand, and has the leverage to control its use (logistics companies get delivery orders from Amazon).Ways to assess the effectiveness of growth through launching new products for your audienceDespite a large number of successful examples of using the launch of new products for a loyal user base as a growth strategy, this method doesn’t always work. Below we will examine a number of questions whose answers will help you make more structured decisions about the appropriateness of choosing such a growth path.The added value of a new productOne of the important questions that usually escapes attention when launching new products within an existing business is: What added value will your product bring to your existing audience?If the only reason for success that you can think of is the access to the current audience of the company, then it would be wise to stop and re-evaluate the feasibility of the project.If your customers are already using similar products made by competitors, or they can be using them but aren’t because they don’t need them, then providing them with a similar service doesn’t make sense.The ability to use the existing distribution channels and access to the customer base should be considered as an additional push for a new product. But if there is nothing to “push” (say the product doesn’t create any added value for the target user segment), then there won’t be much benefit in having access to the product’s current audience.Users of Microsoft Windows had a clear need for a search engine, but Bing and its predecessors from Microsoft had zero (or even negative) added value compared to Google, which already enjoyed huge penetration among Internet users. Therefore, despite Microsoft’s distribution power and its huge user base, its search product was never destined to win a significant share of the search engine market.Facebook made numerous Snapchat clone apps, but none of them yielded significant results. For a younger audience, these products didn’t create any added value in comparison to Snapchat (which is protected by network effects), and for the majority of Facebook users, such a product wasn’t interesting at all (just like Snapchat itself).After drawing conclusions out of this situation, Facebook changed their strategy and launched Stories in Instagram, Whatsapp, Messenger and Facebook. It turned out that this product clearly had an added value. First, Snapchat hadn’t yet reached a substantial share of Instagram/Facebook/Whatsapp users. Second, the quality bar for content shared in Stories was much lower than in the feed, which led to an increase in the volume of content being created and to new use cases for Facebook products.You can see the results on the following graph, which demonstrates Stories’ audience growth rate across products. Pay close attention to the growth curve of Stories in Whatsapp, which introduced a new communication format in markets where it hadn’t existed before—that is, created the maximum added value in those segments.Defense mechanisms of future competitorsThis question follows the previous one, but it is worth asking it separately. Different products have different defensibility levels. In some markets, such as mobile games, it is easier to win market share. In others, it might be almost impossible (the US ecommerce market dominated by Amazon, or the social media market dominated by Facebook).The prospects of a new product largely depends on the defense mechanisms of rival products. The more effective the defenses of the product you are planning to take users from, the greater the added value of your product must be to compel those users to make the switch. It is important to keep in mind that different defense mechanisms exist at different levels. For example, it can be long-term multi-year contracts, network effects, or the cost of retraining employees and teaching them how to use new software.To get an impression, let’s go back to the Microsoft Teams-Slack standoff. Microsoft Teams looks a lot like a Slack doppelganger, so for those who are using Slack, the product has little added value (apart from the fact that Office 365 customers get it for free). Moreover, the Slack user base is very well protected by its network effects, as well as organizations’ inertia in changing B2B solutions.When you bring a new product to the market, it is important to see what is the product you are replacing. Granted, Teams’ added value for those who are already using Slack is minimal. However, when you look at users who are using email, Skype for Business or other outdated tools for work communication, Teams provides significant added value. And among Microsoft Office 365 users, which has more than 100M paying users, the share of the audience that can experience this added value exceeds 90%. That’s where the growth comes from.Adapting a new product to the current value chainIn the article “The Value Chain Constraint”, Ben Thompson demonstrates that even large tech giants with unlimited resources often encounter failures when launching new products in value chains that are fundamentally different from the company’s core business. Creating and launching such a product on the market requires other skills, a different infrastructure, and a different organizational structure and company culture.Say you are running a large and profitable bus company. You have studied your company’s audience and found out that many of them need banking services. This doesn’t mean that if your bus company establishes a bank, then its chances of success will be greater just because you have access to a loyal audience of passengers. These two products live in completely different value chains, which means founding a bank will be similar to launching a fundamentally new product for a new audience.An interesting real-world example is Amazon’s problems in entering the groceries market. In 2018, Amazon Fresh saw a year-over-year decrease in the number of customers. Mind that this is the segment where Walmart, an Amazon competitor, is enjoying maximum growth rate.This is because Amazon’s value chain is fundamentally different from that of groceries. In fact, Amazon will have to build everything from scratch to sell groceries, and in this regard, they lagged far behind Walmart, which is in a better position to bring such a product to the market (in this light, buying Whole Foods carries a totally new meaning). Due to the mismatch in value chains, the direct access to the huge customer base who regularly shop at Amazon doesn’t create any significant advantage in the new market. Although it would seem that in both cases, there are very similar user audiences who are making purchases.Here is what Ben Thompson has to say about the situation:«That, though, is precisely why groceries is worth examining: as I explained when Amazon bought Whole Foods, perishable goods are not well-suited to Amazon’s value chain. Superior selection has diminishing returns, quality varies on an item-by-item basis within a single SKU, and, most importantly, the quality of items degrades with time and transport. In other words, they are a great fit for stores, not distribution centers.In this view, Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods was an attempt to acquire a first best customer for its grocery delivery operation, one that would efficiently store and sell perishable goods that weren’t suitable for Amazon’s traditional e-commerce model. And, to be clear, this strategy may yet succeed, but only to the extent Amazon builds a completely new set of capabilities and integrations that will probably end up looking a lot like Walmart, which has a massive head start it is clearly taking advantage of.In other words, what matters is not “technological innovation”; what matters is value chains and the point of integration on which a company’s sustainable differentiation is built; stray too far and even the most fearsome companies become also-rans.”Another example of the importance of matching value chains is Amazon’s failure with its service Handmade, which was supposed to be the killer of Etsy. The key component in the value chain for the marketplace of handmade products is the unique supply, that is, the craftsmen who create handmade products. For many years, the Etsy team worked on onboarding craftsmen, visiting various exhibitions and local fairs, as well as creating many other mechanisms for attracting these producers. Without this important component, the huge purchasing power of Amazon customers, its distribution centers,and next-day delivery didn’t provide any significant advantage in the handmade goods market (moreover, many of these characteristics are of little importance to handmade-craft lovers).The consequences of not adapting value chains with product growth manifests themselves not only in the fact that the product fails to receive any additional help from the parent company, but also in the fact that the company’s expertise and best practices in its current value chain may not work well in the new value chains.I faced this situation when I was working on Workplace by Facebook. The team developing Workplace was based in London, which gave it a significant level of independence. However, many people in the team (especially those with prior experience in other Facebook teams) didn’t realize that an Enterprise B2B product doesn’t play by the rules of a B2C social product. This resulted in the team trying to develop and grow the product according to the principles and approaches that had worked for the main Facebook products. I have to say, this didn’t always lead to good results.Feel free to read more about value chains in this essay.The complexity of the organizational structure of the company after the launch of a new productAnother point you should consider before launching a new product for the current audience is whether the organizational structure of the company is suitable for effectively integrating all the processes necessary for growing several products at once.When two products exist in separate value chains but share resources, teams or processes at the same time, then the two products begin competing for vital resources, requesting people and their attention, triggering all sorts of conflicts at the product level, in plans, priorities, and/or resources. This also leads to new departments being formed in the team (often, the organizational structure of companies directly reflects how they’re integrated in the value chain), whose members end up being suspended between the two products.If a new product requires a new team with different skills (and this team will exist separately from the main one), then the process should be treated as launching a new product for a new audience. We will talk about this growth path separately in one of the future essays.The potential of a new product compared to the main businessCan you imagine a company launching a successfully growing business worth a billion dollars, but then closing it down?For most companies, this will be a strange decision, but quite normal for companies like Google, Facebook or Apple. Compared to the company’s total value, the share of such a product is insignificant, but it distracts the company’s attention and resources. And if there are a lot of such projects, then it makes it really difficult to manage this system.Before starting the development of new products within the company, it is important to take time to assess the potential behind it. I don’t think that after several years of investing in a new product, you will be glad to find out that it will only increase your current business’ revenue by 10-15% at best.Summing it upWhen launching a new product inside an already established company, you want to make the most out of assets you created while developing your first product. One way to do this is to build new products for your existing audience.This is a very effective, universally used growth path. But to increase your chances of success, you should ask yourself these questions: What added value does a new product create for the target audience? Is this added value enough to make users switch from competitors’ products? Does this new product exist in the same value chain? What is the potential of this new business? Is it big enough?However, even if you are satisfied with the answers, do not forget that the world around you is much more complex than it seems at first glance. Sometimes there is a small unseen detail that can break a system that would work perfectly otherwise.Therefore, even if a new product creates enough added value for your audience and is able to break through the defenses of competitors, fits into the value chain, and doesn’t break the company’s management system, then your next step should be to find the cheapest way to test the key hypotheses behind the new product. In most cases, a significant part of the risks related to launching a new product can be removed by using experiments and qualitative user research before heavily investing into the development of the product itself.