It’s been a very, very hectic week – but one filled with negotiations, acquisition discussions, several RFPs and working on proposals.
Bottom line, the January drought is lifting up slowly but steadily. While layoffs are hovering around, companies need to push through priorities and catch up on initiatives started in Q3 last year.
And with limited manpower, external vendors – partners, service providers, SaaS, app builders, AI tools – are getting more popular.
There’s a reflection on systems complexity in the B2B ecosystem as well. Services and tools signed up during the pandemic with fully remote work and trying to organize or optimize are getting sunset. People move back to the office and teams are short-staffed, therefore tool efficiency is decreasing while alternative ways to collaborate get precedence.
One of the troubling signs of the economy is the remaining conservative outlook on 2024. The Fed is firm on not dropping down interest rates, and that suck. The US accumulated the highest credit card debt this month, with a 5% increase in Q4 alone with consumers diving deep into credit card debt.
Shopping behavior isn’t growing as anticipated while orders are bought on credit. And tens of thousands of people losing their jobs this January – again – yet the Fed is still pushing for a tougher economy.
In the meantime, wars go on across the world, China is in a serious crisis, and US elections are coming near the end of the year. Stabilizing the economy is of utmost importance to everyone, and it’s a matter of time before the chart hits a rock bottom and points backward. We’re counting the days here.
Yours,
Mario
My Take
14 Essential Skills Small-Business Leaders Should Master – Running a small business is similar to a juggling act, where entrepreneurs wear numerous hats to keep the show running smoothly. While adaptability and multitasking are key, there are specific skills that stand out for small-business leaders striving for success. These skills go beyond the basics of entrepreneurship and delve into the intricacies of leadership and management.
Budgeting Tips For Small Business – When making a budget, entrepreneurs may account for some of the more obvious expenditures, such as payroll and production costs. However, some important expenses might be overlooked—which can significantly impact the health and longevity of a business.
Newsletter Recommendations
Stacked Marketer – One of my go-to newsletters and a business that we’ve worked with a while ago on the DevriX front. It is loved by marketers who get hands-on with campaigns, who need to stay up-to-date with frequently changing platforms., who need to get an edge, and who need to achieve outsized results with limited resources, aka performance-focused marketers.
Boldpush – А special newsletter for those interested in marketing intelligence and strategy to the most ambitious brands. Props to Julius Solaris for creating one of my top newsletter reads for GTM strategies and actionable content.
Morning Brew – Аn absolute classic, the Morning Brew delivers top news from a business-minded angle, and deliver it in a short, easy-to-read, actionable, and entertaining way.
Business Strategy
Semafor reporters are going to curate the news with AI – Amid declining social media traffic and Google’s advancements in AI for search, publishers are refocusing on their websites as primary destinations, sparking a resurgence in web-based news products reminiscent of traditional blogging. Semafor is leveraging this trend with its new offering, Signals, which curates and summarizes web content on major stories using an AI-powered search tool named MISO to enhance efficiency and coverage breadth, signaling a broader industry shift towards innovative web and future social media strategies.
Amazon strikes landmark deal – Amazon has entered a pioneering partnership with Reach, the UK’s largest publisher, to utilize first-party customer data for targeted advertising, marking a significant move as Google phases out third-party cookies. This deal, which allows Amazon to offer more personalized ad experiences on Reach’s platforms by analyzing the content users engage with, demonstrates a strategic pivot towards privacy-compliant, first-party data utilization in advertising.
Palantir stock jumps 19% – Palantir reported fourth-quarter earnings after the bell Monday. The company’s revenue for the quarter increased 20% year over year to $608.4 million. In a letter to shareholders, Palantir CEO Alex Karp said demand for large language models in the U.S. “continues to be unrelenting.”
Google Search officially retires cache link – Google is phasing out the cache link feature from its search results, as confirmed by Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, signaling the end of an era for a tool widely used by SEOs and searchers. While the cache link has already disappeared from search snippets, the cache operator will also be retired soon, although Google will continue to honor the noarchive tag.
Google SEO Starter makeover – The SEO Starter Guide of Google got a makeover. The new changes include more pocked-sized version of the guide with a better focus on a starter audience and topics to be focused on.
Global News
Stock futures are mixed, with the Nasdaq-100 contract pointing higher. Deutsche Bank’s year-end S&P 500 forecast of 5,100 is among the highest on Wall Street, and it included their expectation for a mild short recession. Time to lift that view?
- S&P 500: $4,954 (+0.23%)
“The 10-year Treasury yield that serves as a baseline for fixed mortgage rates will have a bouncy journey lower, moving back above 4 percent early in 2024 but trending lower as inflation cools and the Fed gets closer to cutting rates,” says McBride. “For mortgage rates, that portends a general downtrend — albeit with fits and starts — in 2024.”
- 30-year mortgage rate: 7.11%(+0.15)
- 15-year mortgage rate: 6.55%(+0.05)
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell vowed in a “60 Minutes” interview aired Sunday that the central bank will proceed carefully with interest rate cuts this year. Powell warned that the monetary policy tightening would cause some pain.
This week’s we see further thousands of layoffs and interesting moves in the 2024 election thread.
- Former President Trump’s claim of presidential immunity from prosecution in the 2020 election interference case rejected by appeals court.
- King Charles III has been diagnosed with cancer that was found during prostate surgery, Buckingham Palace says.
- U.S. and U.K. launch strikes targeting Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Investing Updates
Happy Birthday to SeedBlink! Bringing opportunities to the European Angel Investing community for more than 4 years now.
- SalesOMMO – raising €150,000 to help sales people become more productive & efficient. Backed by Growceanu.
- Atmos UAV – raising €800,000 to scale its land surveying drone solution.
- CONTENTS – the marketing content generator, is extending its €16M Series B after Thomson Reuters Ventures and Alkemia Capital joined the round.
Note: Got a round going that you want to feature – your own business or a portfolio company? Get in touch.
Now let’s have a look at the latest top Flippa offers, including their newest feature – being able to buy and sell Newsletters!
Magnetic Camera Mounts Ecommerce Business – This business sells N52 rare-earth magnetic mounts for GoPro products, cameras, and phones, and has recently expanded internationally to the EU and Australia.
- Average Monthly Profit: $33,820
- Profit Margin: 51%
- Age: 3 years
2-Brand Amazon FBA Package – This Amazon FBA business sells two trademarked brands in the Home & Garden and Stationary niches and features well-reviewed products and 33% year-over-year growth.
- Monthly Profit: $10,134
- Highest Reviewed Product: 4.5 stars across 1.1k+ reviews
- Age: 6 years
Logistics Industry SaaS – This business has stable revenue, a lifetime customer value of $1.3K and a profit margin of 49%.
- Monthly Profit: $4.7K
- MRR: $2.4K
- Age: 8 years
Need my Help?
I’m involved with a number of initiatives – here’s what I can do to help you:
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Want to scale and optimize your business? Growth Shuttle offers personalized advisory plans starting at $600/hr. Tap into my personal pool of business know-how and my data warehouse of industry data.
Want access to my blueprints/books and a weekly Slack planning session? Join my Community and grab my Entrepreneurship book.
Looking to start a US company? Check out doola and their “Business in a Box” model. Suitable for both foreigners and US citizens and both for residents and non-residents.
Have you tried buying and selling digital property? Have a look at Flippa’s marketplace. They offer a vast variety of online businesses for any buyer’s interests. Or if you’re ready for an exit, Flippa provides you with the necessary tools to list your business and close the deal.
Looking for investment opportunities? Check out SeedBlink and use Nimity to manage it.
Eager to incorporate my recommended solutions? Track my angel investments. Sharing, applying for open roles, or writing reviews helps a ton. And anything else I try to publish on my blog and my courses here!