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Doing Well By Doing Good With Darrin Williams, CEO Southern Bancorp

N2Growth Blog

Darrin had spent the last decade reinventing this sleepy bank—revamping the bank’s finances, providing liquidity to investors, raining new capital, and doubling down on operational efficiencies—and turning the organization into a regional bank that people truly admired. One thing was certain in Darrin’s mind. The mission must continue.

CEO 400
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Is Crypto Cleaning Up Its Act?

Harvard Business Review

But there is also evidence that innovative moves by crypto-asset issuers to create new vehicles for investment in crypto-assets have improved price efficiency and market liquidity, making investment in crypto-assets safer for investors.

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A Quiet Revolution in Clean-Energy Finance

Harvard Business Review

It's easy to see why VCs have soured on the sector: the traditional VC model is based on high-risk, capital-efficient business models with the potential for huge exit valuations. A star example is Google, which raised a mere $40 million in private funding before its IPO at a $23 billion valuation.

Energy 12
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Profit Is Less About Good Management than You Think

Harvard Business Review

He studied the relative importance of management teams in 106 venture capital-financed firms from early business plan to IPO. He found that although 50% of venture capital investors described the management team as the most important factor at the business plan stage, this emphasis had dropped markedly by the IPO stage.

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The Best Platforms Are More than Matchmakers

Harvard Business Review

Improving user capabilities would measurably improve Airbnb efficiencies. Before the company’s $155 billion IPO in 2014 — the largest initial public offering in history — he observed, “we want to help small businesses grow by solving their problems.” That’s the essence of network effects.

IPO 8
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The JOBS Act, Groupon, and Gullible Investors

Harvard Business Review

Individual investors should be disabused of the notion that investing in IPOs like Groupon's is a safe and responsible path to financial security. This did come at a significant cost in legal and accounting fees that weigh heaviest on smaller companies trying to go public — offering some backup for the JOBS Act.

IPO 11
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What Platforms Do Differently than Traditional Businesses

Harvard Business Review

They operate platforms that make it easy and efficient for participants to connect and exchange value. And then many other companies that have IPO’d in the last decade, like Visa, which connects cardholders and merchants, and Facebook, which connects friends, advertisers, and developers.