CB Insights - worst strategy deck ever

Hi there, 

I love The Wall Street Journal. I also love strategy documents.

We’ll come back to that in a second.

First, let’s talk Clubhouse.  

It is now worth $4B and everyone from Facebook to Twitter is getting in on the social audio game. Some companies à la Spotify have already done M&A in the space.

But if you didn’t get into Clubhouse and want to invest or acquire in the social audio space, who should you look at?

We identified 11 social audio startup companies that are worth a look. Most have raised little to no capital to date, so they're probably valued at a smidge of Clubhouse’s $4B valuation mark.  

Now back to the WSJ

So the WSJ is a great newspaper. Its journalists write thoughtful articles, often on complex business topics. And it's generally done with nuance and thoughtfulness, as far as I have seen. 

And unlike most of the media that are all now jumping on the subscription bandwagon, the WSJ got there early. In short, its business is not a dumpster fire.

So last week, when a leaked 142-page WSJ strategy doc came to light, I took a read through it.

200+ people at The Journal provided input on it, and so yes, it’s exactly what you’d expect a strategy would look like when you design by committee.
 

Some extracts below and the full doc in The Blurb below.

But first, an apple a day 

In Q1’21, global healthcare funding hit a new quarterly record — $31.6B across 1.5K+ deals.

Among the many bright spots was telehealth, which saw $4.2B in funding spread across 32 countries.  

Dig into the numbers, sector highlights, and more in our latest State Of Healthcare report. 

Get into the Ama-zone 

In his last annual shareholder letter as the CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos argues that success in business and in life boils down to one rule: create more value than you consume. 

Check out this lesson and 23 more from Bezos' letters to shareholders here.

Come one, come all

From May 13-14, over 400 people — including senior execs from Travelers, State Farm, Progressive, and more — will virtually gather to join us for our first CB Insights Tech Market: Digitizing P&C Insurance.

Full details on the agenda, speakers, and networking can be found on the event site. We're offering $75 off this week only. Register here with code save75.

I’m calling security

An estimated 63% of healthcare organizations experienced a security incident resulting from an unmanaged medical device within the past 2 years.

We analyze vendors in the medical device security market in this client-only ESP Vendor Assessment Matrix.

Strategy by committee

So back to the WSJ strategy doc.

The goal was to outline a path to 100M readers by 2024. Whether that is the right north star is neither here nor there.  

Digression: I’d argue that the WSJ and Dow Jones’ amazing B2B assets would be like peanut butter & chocolate. Together, they could maximize value to the enterprise (News Corp).

But with the goal of 100M, below are some excerpts of a few of the 25+ recs from the report. If I had to encapsulate these recs into one image, the below is an apt summary.

“Through exploring our data, we have identified where our taxonomy and metadata—including tagging, fall short in enabling the strategy editors to dig even deeper into our user behaviors when interacting with our text, videos, graphics and interactives.”

“We should keep our finger on the pulse of what's trending and maintain a few different ribbons of contextual stories that add to a reader's understanding of major news stories or specific topics.”

“When it comes to social media, we need to maximize the potential of each platform individually and customize our content to take advantage of those platforms.”

The above use a lot of words to say nothing.

Anyways, I really like the WSJ. I hope it figures out a strategy to keep growing. It’s inconceivable that a strategy driven by consensus/democracy is the way it’ll get there.

Bloomberg. Elaine Chen (@elaineywchen) digs into the CB Insights State Of Healthcare Q1’21 report and quotes CB Insights managing analyst Ja Lee (@ja_lee2).

Business Insider. Madeline Stone (@MadelineLStone) discusses the future of travel tech cos and hybrid remote work with CB Insights managing analyst Thomas Sineau (@TSineau). 

STAT. Katie Palmer (@KatieMPalmer) covers the glucose monitor market and cites CB Insights senior analyst Marissa Schlueter (@mschlueter13).
 

P.S. Passionate about energy? We’re hiring a senior energy analyst. Apply here.

P.P.S. Like strategy decks like the WSJ one? Well, here are 21 pitch decks by unicorns before they were worth billions.

The Blurb

Strategy 101. The Wall Street Journal outlines its “all-audience strategy” and recommendations to reach more readers.

WSJ

A whole new world. TIME Magazine will accept payments in bitcoin and will keep the cryptocurrency on its balance sheet.

Decrypt 

Old school cool. Meet 8 “grandparent” influencers from around the world who have gained massive followings online.

Rest of World

Head to head. Psilocybin (the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms) could combat depression as effectively as a common antidepressant, according to a new study.

STAT 

Eau d’office. A new line of scented candles aims to recreate the smells of the office, from “breakfast leftovers” to “zesty cleaning spray.” 

Fast Company