UGTTW 2017 Final Exam
Who are considered the "whales" in Zynga's gaming industry, and why?
"Whales" are players who pay money to gain certain advantages or reach other levels faster than the normal, non-paying player. They are considered "whales" because Zynga relies a lot on these people for their revenue intake, yet less than 3% of players actually pay to play the game.
In 2016, what company did Twitch acquire, who were an operator of online video gaming communities and gaming-oriented VoIP software?
Curse, Inc.
What is one of the biggest issues that results from Moore's Law?
Disposing of the electronics, because they contain harmful chemicals.
What industry does Twitch belong to?
Esports and streaming.
Who was originally planning to acquire Twitch in 2014, but backed out of the deal due to potential antitrust concerns?
What is the difference between massively parallel computing and grid computing?
Grid computing software uses existing computer hardware to work together and mimic a massively parallel supercomputer, while massively parallel processing uses computers designed to work together with many microprocessors, simultaneously, to solve problems. Grid computing can save a firm millions instead of the firm buying a conventional supercomputer, giving organizations massive computing power to a firm that would otherwise not be able to do so.
What was WePay's original business model focused on?
Group payments. WePay wanted to compete directly against -- and defeat -- PayPal.
Name three of True Ventures' competitive advantages besides their primary investing strategy
Joint entrepreneur/investor executive board, proactive commitment to new technology trends, True network (reliance on founder-sourced opportunities and develop deep relations with entrepreneurs).
In June 2011, Twitch.TV was launched as a spin off of _________________'s gaming content.
Justin.tv
What is the most popular video game on Twitch in terms of number of viewers?
League of Legends.
What is the general theme of Palantir's office culture?
Lord of the Rings
Describe two-sided Network Effects and give an example.
There are two distinct groups of users. More numbers from one group attract more numbers from the other group. Uber with drivers and passengers and Ebay with buyers and sellers are examples.
Where is Spotify headquartered and where is the biggest market?
They are headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden but their largest market is the US where they are currently expanding offices in New York City.
What is Fanatics' competitive advantage?
They sell officially licensed merchandise; their competitors who sell knock-off products cannot compete with the authenticity of Fanatics' products.
Which firm founded by BC alum was acquired by True's portfolio firm Automattic?
Thianh Lu's startup CloudUP.
Who are the three key venture partners of True and their business?
Tony Conrad, about.me; Om Malik, GigaOm; Toni Schneider, Automattic (WordPress).
Who is Twitch's CEO?
John Sutton
Who is Twitch's CFO and our BC Contact?
John Sutton
What are five strategies for competing in markets with network effects?
(List five of the twelve) 1. Move early 2. Subsidize product adoption 3. Leverage viral promotion 4. Expand by redefining the market to bring in new categories of users of through convergence 5. Form alliances and partnerships 6. Establish distribution channels 7. Seed the market with complements 8. Encourage the development of complementary goods -this can include offering resources, subsidies, reduced fees, market research, development kits, and training 9. Maintain backward compatibility 10. For rivals, be compatible with larger networks 11. For incumbents, constantly innovate to create a moving target and block rival efforts to access your network 12. For large firms with well-known followers, make pre-announcements
Name two of WePay's competitors. How are they different?
1) Authorize.net - payment gateway service that has complex integration, acquired by Visa 2) Braintree - complex integration process, focuses on systems for e-commerce companies, acquired by PayPal 3) MangoPay - sharing economy businesses, acquired by a French bank 4) Stripe - focuses on providing the technical infrastructure, "developers first" philosophy 5) PayPal - operates as a payment processor for online vendors, requires users to sign up for their service 6) Square - offers only a mobile card reader to process credit cards on an iOS or Android device
What are four critical characteristics of the resource-based view of competitive advantage?
1. valuable 2. rare 3. imperfectly imitable 4. non-substitutable
Greater than 50% of Twitch's DAUs watch approximately ___ hours per week.
20+
When was Palantir founded?
2004, although SEC filings say 2003. Both answers are acceptable.
How many DAUs and MAUs does Twitch have?
9.7m DAUs. 100m MAU.
What is CPM?
Cost per thousand impressions. CPM refers to the price of 1,000 advertisement impressions on one webpage.
Who is one of Intel's competitors in the server market that is considered the "Intel clone" for having compatible architecture to Intel's?
AMD. It holds around 20% of the market share for servers.
Why is ARM considered a disruptive technology for Intel?
ARM has dominated the smartphone market with their cheap, low-power chips. But, as Moore's Law continues ARM technology is becoming "just good enough", or faster and more efficient, for them to invade the server market which is Intel's stronghold.
Who is one of Intel's competitors that dominates the mobile market, why do they dominate?
ARM. ARM licenses their efficient designs to competitors who tweak them in their own products. ARM technology is known for being more energy efficient and cheaper than Intel's, allowing them to capture the mobile market.
What is Airbnb's China branch called?
Aibiying
Who is the CEO of Palantir?
Alex Karp
Who acquired Twitch for how much?
Amazon bought Twitch for $970M in cash.
What is AngelList and why is it "good news" for the venture capital community?
AngelList is an online investing firm and its emerging group of syndicates forgo fees in favor of carry, such that the investment upside and downside are shared by VCs and LPs alike. The absence of fees puts VCs and angels on the same footing as their investors and more perfectly aligns interests.
Who are Spotify's competitors in the music subscription space?
Apple Music: While Spotify has 50 million paid subscribers, Apple Music has 20 million subscribers, not to mention the Apple brand backing it up. Amazon: Bundled with a Prime Subscription, Prime Music offers 2 million songs, ad-free and on-demand. Spotify, however, offers 30 million songs. Pandora: Pandora just launched the new Pandora Premium in April. For $9.99/month, Pandora Premium higher-quality music on demand with no ads and unlimited downloads. Pandora users have typically been those in their 40s-50s but this subscription is a direct competitor to Spotify. Tidal: A more pricey subscription service, Tidal combines lossless (original data to be perfectly reconstructed from the compressed data) music and higher quality exclusive music videos.
Describe Palantir's general clientele, including at least three specific current clients.
Approximately 40% are government clients, including the CIA, DOJ, FBI, Marine Corps, IRS, Immigration and Customs, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and the State Department. 60% are business clients, including Hershey's, Bank of America, BP, Kimberly Clark, Standard Chartered, JPMorgan Chase, Zurich, Walmart, and Comcast.
What are Palantir's three guiding ideas?
Best idea wins, nothing is permanent, and keep focused on the mission.
Which WePay executives will we be meeting with?
Bill Clerico '07, CEO, and Rich Aberman '07, CSO (and possibly Alex Smith '15, though he is not an executive)
How does Spotify leverage the long tail?
By offering over 30 million songs, Spotify allows all listeners to find music they like. This vast collection appeals to the niche genres like ska punk to bubble gum pop like Top 40 radio.
What is the mantra of True's investing strategy?
Capital efficiency: "more venture; less capital"
Name three of WePay's platform customers.
Care.com, FreshBooks, GoFundMe, Zoho, Constant Contact, YouCaring, SchoolAuction.net, Classy, Ecwild, InfusionSoft, Buildertrend
What is Moore's Law?
Chip performance per dollar doubles every 18 months. Or Every 18 months a chip with the same performance will become cheaper by a dollar.
True/false: The customers of a client using WePay Clear will have to register on WePay's site to complete their payment.
False. WePay Clear is a white-label API that allows a client integrating the product to completely customize and streamline the process and interface to align with their company and brand. For example, on GoFundMe's site, you enter your information, donation amount, and contribution message there, without ever knowing you're interacting with WePay.
What does FPGA stand for, and what does it do?
Fields programmable gates array. It's a device that can be configured or programmed in order to meet more specific or efficient needs.
There were several reasons behind WePay drastically changing their business model. Name two reasons.
Fierce competition, legal and regulatory obstacles, sporadic nature of group payments, difficult to expand globally
What is True's first and only investment that went public? And when is the IPO date?
Fitbit went public on June 18, 2015.
What does Uber call the technology that allows them to see all active Ubers at once?
God View
At what point did WePay pivot?
In 2014, after their Series C funding.
List 3 reasons why someone would watch another person play video games on Twitch?
Instruction from the best players in the world (most streamers are former eSports stars), a quick alternative to playing, or simply to enjoy humorous content (some streamers are personalities as opposed to professionals).
What does Intel hope to shift their focus to in the future? What do they hope to rely less on?
Intel wants to continue to be the leader in powering 99% of the cloud, and wants to rely more on their IoT, programmable solutions, and virtual reality market. They want to have less dependence on the PC market, as this is a waning market in general as mobile phones take over.
How does Intel's size allow the firm to gain competitive advantage?
Intel's size allows the firm to pioneer cutting-edge manufacturing techniques and invest $7 billion on next-generation plants, ensuring that no newcomers will invade their market share. This is economies of scale.
How big is True Ventures's initial investment?
It target initial investments is $1-2 million.
How has Spotify essentially changed the way music and artists are being discovered?
It's not about breaking into the Top 40 Hits radio anymore, even the most unknown artists can end up on a listener's Discover Weekly or Daily Mix playlist. Instead it's about being featured in high-trafficked playlists like Today's Top Hits (15.3 million followers) or Rap Caviar (6.6 million followers) by either creating enough buzz organically or through an official pitch process where anyone can fill out details on their music and their dreams of success.
WePay has set itself apart from the competition in many ways. Name two of them.
Lower prices - 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction No hidden fees (e.g. monthly maintenance fees, setup fees) Built-in fraud protection with WePay holding itself responsible for fraudulent transactions Mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) solutions that work offline WePay Clear - white-label option for companies to maintain their brand experience Simple and one-time integration process
What is the name of Amazon's AAA game engine that has deep integration with Twitch?
Lumberyard
Name two features of TalkDesks product.
Make and receive calls, advanced routing, business tools integration, and monitoring and reporting.
Why do managers at big firms fail to see disruptive innovations?
Managers fail to see disruptive innovations because they listen to their customers who do not initially want new disruptive technology, and the focus on the bottom line.
Who are Fanatic's founders?
Mitch and Allen Traeger.
What company did Intel acquire this year that focuses on vision-based driver assistance and hopes to help Intel pioneer their driverless car initiative?
Mobileye
What neuroscience companies have True invested in?
Neosensory, SonicSensory, Tuild, and an MIT project.
What are NPEs and what do they do?
Non-practicing entities, commonly known as patent trolls, are firms that make money by acquiring and asserting patents, rather than bringing products and services to markets.
What are Palantir's two main software products?
Palantir Metropolis and Palantir Gotham
Name at least two industries Palantir is used in.
Palantir is in the healthcare, financial, cyber security, legal research, and defense industries.
Name one thing that Palantir's employees are required to do or not to do, or what something else interesting regarding their employment there (not including culture).
Palantir's employees must sign NDA's, cannot speak to the press, and have pay caps.
Explain Palantir's "5 Whys" philosophy.
Palantir's strategy with the "5 Whys" pertains to the fact that you can get to the root of any problem by asking yourself a question, answering it, and then ask why the answer happened. By the time that is done five times, you have found the root of the problem and can solve it.
Which metric is Twitch ranked 4th behind Netflix, Google, and Apple, but ahead of Hulu, Facebook, and Amazon?
Peak Internet Traffic
Who are the founders of True Ventures?
Phil Black, John Burke, and Jon Callaghan.
What market does WePay now cater to?
Platform businesses. This includes marketplaces, crowdfunding sites, and small business software.
Other than music, what other media does Spotify feature?
Podcasts, audiobooks, language-learning playlists, comedy show recordings, and video series.
What are three of True Ventures' most notable investments?
Possible answers: FitBit, Automattic, Blue Bottle Company, Brava, Mylestone, and Orreco
What are Intel's two biggest sources of income?
Providing chips for servers and powering data centers.
What are the 3 subscription models Spotify offers and what services do they offer?
Regular premium: 9.99/month, family plan: 14.99/month, student: 4.99/month for 6 months. With all of these plans, users are able to listen to higher-quality, unlimited ad-free music whenever and wherever they want.
Describe Silicon Valley Bank's competitive advantage.
SVB has a diversified business portfolio, a liquid balance sheet, invests in later stage startups (which have less risk), and have a global network.
Name at least 2 notable investors of teams in the eSports industry.
Shaq, Paris Saint Germain, Miami Heat, Philadelphia 76ers, Milwaukee Bucks, Joe Montana, Alexis Ohanian (Reddit co-founder)
What is "shell selling"?
Shell selling is when both sides of a transaction are fraudulent. These transactions involve a criminal with two accounts that is paying themselves with a stolen credit card.
Which company did Spotify acquire in 2014 and how has it revolutionized the music industry?
Spotify acquired EchoNest, and has used their data analytics and intelligence tools to recommend new music users are most likely to actually enjoy based on their listening data.
Twitch's success is due to the two-sided network effects between:
Streamers and the community
Who are the BC alum we're going to be meeting? (Spotify)
Sue Igoe, Head of Global Software and Tech Partnerships. Shane Tobin, Head of Creative Insights and Activations (was the VP of Business Development at EchoNest), Charae Tongg, Android Engineer.
What is Spotify's relationship with major music labels?
Tenuous, because most of Spotify's revenue is funneled right back to these labels, up to 70% of their total revenue. Spotify is also the major player in disrupting the music industry as these major labels don't want their music to be offered for free without any catch.
How would you describe True Ventures' stance on Hardware and what are some examples of their involvement?
The Hardware Revolution trend is a marriage of machine and software. Hardware is the foundation for software and data and is the black diamond of startups. True Ventures has been early and big investor in the hardware and device wave exemplified by investments in Fitbit, Marketbot, 3D Robotics, and Pelotion.
During investment evaluation, what does True Ventures believe as the most important ingredient to a startup's success?
The entrepreneur.
What is the fast follower problem? Name an example.
The fast follower problem exists when savvy rivals watch a pioneer's efforts, learn from their successes and missteps, then enter the market quickly with a comparable or superior product at a lower cost before the first mover can dominate. An example would be first mover, TiVo, who seemed to have a revolutionizing new technology, but was soon trumped by rival devices offered by cable and satellite companies who offered the recording technology along with their television subscriptions. TiVo could not rival this packaged deal, as consumers didn't want to pay for two separate devices from two different companies.
How is Spotify losing money by delaying their IPO?
The longer Spotify delays its IPO, the more money they continue to lose at dramatic rates. As they go into negotiations with major record labels for new royalty contracts, it remains to be seen how much of the revenue is going to be given to the labels and how much is kept in the company. Spotify's $1-billion debt financing with investors TPG and Dragoneer in 2016 is contingent on Spotify going public.This continued delay and no prospect of an IPO does not bode well for Spotify.
True or False, when a merger or acquisition has a predominantly cash structure, it signifies that the acquiring firm is very confident in the target firm and it's projected future cash flows.
True - For public firms, if the acquiring firm recommends some sort of stock swap, this is likely a red flag that signals it is overpriced in the market. Additionally, if debt is used to finance the acquisition this may also be seen as a sign of distrust.
Name True Ventures' two fellowship programs and briefly describe them.
True Entreprenur Corps: undergraduate summer internship; Priya Haji Fellowship program: target new college graduate interested in technology and startups, particularly women.
Why does True Ventures focus on investing during a firm's seed and series A funding rounds?
True Ventures aims to be the first institutional investor in a start-up, and it was founded to support early stage founders and their teams.
What are the three things True Ventures evaluates when deciding on investments, and which is the most important to them?
True Ventures looks at the team, the product, and the market in evaluation. It prioritizes the team because of possible business pivots.
True or False, Amazon has never made a larger acquisition than Twitch outside of its vertical?
True, although Amazon acquired Zappos for $1.2B v. the 970M spent on Twitch, the Zappos acquisition was seen as a reactionary buy within the market to squash a competitor that was winning. The Twitch acquisition was outside of its traditional market, but offered its core business notable synergies.
What industries other than video gaming is Twitch attempting to break into?
Twitch IRL and Twitch creative are attempting to reach out to a broader demographic and attempt to break into a more creative streaming and blogging world.
What "social experiment" by Twitch went viral in February 2014, reaching over 6.5 million total views in five days?
Twitch Plays Pokémon
What premium Twitch service is included in an active Amazon Prime subscription?
Twitch Prime
How does Twitch make money?
Twitch mostly makes money off of ad revenue, but also makes money off of subscriptions, selling games, and donations.
What are Twich's competitive advantages?
Two-sided network effects, switching costs, viral marketing, and integration into other platforms (PS4).
Name at least two partnerships Fanatics has.
Under Armour, MLB, and NBA.
In the gaming content space, Twitch has lower _____ than Youtube, but greater _____.
Viewership, Revenues
What is the name of the company that Intel acquired in 2009, and is where BC Alum Keith Shea now works, also what does this company do?
Wind River is a leader in embedded software for intelligent connected systems. They focus on IoT for industrial, automotive, defense, and aerospace industries.
Through what new product does Twitch plan to expand to a new market?
With Twitch IRL, the company plans to target more relaxed and creative customers looking to share everyday events (the irony is, this is how Twitch started, with Justin.tv).
What is Twitch's main audience, and why has this become so profitable?
Young male viewers- Twitch can charge about 85% more for ads shown to this audience.
Name at least 3 of Twitch's competitors in the video game streaming space.
Youtube Gaming, Azubu, ESL, MLG
What percentage of deals does Palantir walk away from due to them being unethical? a. 10% b. 15% c. 20% d. 25%
c.
