We love what we do, so ClearCreek writes and publishes pieces for a somewhat irregular blog about emerging companies and the capital markets. Or we did for a while anyway, then we did less, and apparently we stopped entirely. But we kept the old posts below. Any errors are ours exclusively while the occasional sharp insight is probably borrowed. We hope you find them of interest, and we always welcome feedback.
Just less than a year ago, on December 21st of 2018, an article in The Motley Fool listed the seven most anticipated IPOs of 2019. Here are the four companies that made it out the door, with the S&P 500 for comparison. Slack is down 56%, Uber is down 55%,…
Read MoreThere is a remarkable story over at The Hustle where a self-described middle-management cog in a corporate machine bets his family’s savings on crypto, watches it fall by 60%, doubles down (!) — and his $300k risked pays off to the tune of $13 million.
Read MoreBetting, as the saying goes, is a tax on bullshit. Opinions are easy — you can have as many as you choose, often crowding contradictorily around the same topic. But a wager where there is something significant to be gained or lost tends to filter out all but the most serious perspectives…
Read MoreWe’ve been lucky enough to have heard Gil Penchina opine a lot. Unfortunately, most of this was well before he became known for angel investing and his Angel List syndicate, and was usually about his failed romantic exploits. Whatever — truth is we usually didn’t listen anyway…
Read MoreOne of many interesting changes in venture capital in the past few years has been the emergence of mutual fund companies investing in very late rounds. In many ways this makes sense — technology companies are delaying IPOs, and a late-stage investment gets a mutual fund pre-IPO equity at a slightly better price…
Read More2013 in a word? According to at least one economist it was: Bitcoin – a secure peer-to-peer payment system and digital currency created in 2009. New Bitcoins are mined by software programmers, and although users can remain anonymous, central to the system is a public database and sequential record of all transactions,,,
Read MoreIn entrepreneurial culture, success dominates the airwaves. A brand new company can succeed in many ways: attracting press, landing influential seed investors, winning contests, and through stories of individual users. This culture is so strong, that the second act of an entrepreneur…
Read MoreLike many people, we are big fans of startup communities. We’d like to think that the benefits of these groups, and their economic and social impact, is self-evident. But we’re even bigger fans of contrarian reasoning, and having one’s beliefs challenged is thought-provoking, so this post naturally caught our eye…
Read MoreIn this month’s five best blogs we are going all Venture Capital: start with some great startups whose ideas seemed absurd at the time, then check out six myths about venture capital — which might help, since some people believe there are now fewer than 100 tech VCs still investing,…
Read MoreThe roughly $2 billion deal between Facebook and Goldman Sachs is so chock-rich of material it will surely spawn a series of longer pieces once it has settled into historical view. To begin,..
Read MoreOne of the keen observations of Mad Men is that the show’s women – even constrained as they are by 1960’s social roles and the lack of professional opportunities – are generally more capable than the men. A recent study by the mutual fund company Vanguard…
Read MoreThree young guns – and not a detained Nigerian prince among them – are currently offering investors a chance to invest cash now in return for a percent of future income. One, a 26-year-old Stanford grad, has even priced it out: 6% of future income for…
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