Well, well, well — check this out, will ya??

https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/8085951/us-vinyl-album-sales-nielsen-music-record-high-2017

This graph is a few years old – but it gives you a sense of what it takes to operate in a space where everyone is suing everyone else for patent infringement. What happens to the new, small innovator? How can they possibly compete when litigation of this magnitude is an integral part of the business model?

According to a recent study published by the National Foundation for American Policy, here are some interesting facts about the relationship between immigration and some of the U.S.’ most successful startups:

• 51% (44 of 87) of American startups currently valued at $1B or more were started by immigrants
• these companies result in an average of 760 jobs each
• nearly half of these companies have a founder (or co-founder) who came to the U.S. on a student visa.
• California is the home base for most of these companies (followed by New York, Massachusetts and Illinois)
• India is the source of the largest number of founders of billion-dollar startups
  

  Chobani yogurt founder Hamdi Ulukaya

Probably not that, either – but a really interesting read!

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/24/good-game

I’ve met Arthur Brooks, and he is an interesting character, indeed. This essay appeared in America magazine, published by the Jesuits. Plenty of food for thought.

http://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2017/02/06/confessions-catholic-convert-capitalism

This isn’t about law or entrepreneurship, but of productive conflict in groups. As we start considering the formation of groups for the final projects, I thought it might be useful! 🙂

If Your Team Agrees on Everything, Working Together Is Pointless

… but it does raise some interesting questions about the way technology is designed, how we use it, and how much say we (as users) have in the entire process. Here is a quote from the article:

“Right now, Apple, Google and Facebook are kind of like these private companies who, collectively, are the urban planners for a billion people’s attentional landscape,” Harris said. “We all live in this invisible city, which they created. Unlike a democracy, where you can have some civic representation and you could say, ‘Who’s the mayor?’ or, ‘Should there be a stoplight there?’, we don’t have any representation except if we don’t use the product or don’t buy it,” he added. “And that’s not really representation.”

Here’s the full article: http://www.recode.net/2017/1/30/14432142/technology-app-addiction-time-well-spent-tristan-harris-recode-podcast 

The Atlantic is a great magazine, and there’s always a lot of food for thought. No exception here …

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/07/the-myth-of-the-millennial-entrepreneur/490058/ 

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303973704579353141433268068

(h/t to Patrick Nicoll for finding this one!)

 

(assuming here that the information for 2016 isn’t available yet.) Great article, that tends to refute David Pozen’s theory about why social entrepreneurship is so popular…

Giving USA: 2015 Was America’s Most-Generous Year Ever