Tag Archives: Entrepreneurship

Bitcoin Innovators Find Fertile Ground in Soft-Touch Switzerland

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“The neutral European nation is becoming a ‘mecca’ for financial cryptography, says Chris Odom, the Chief Technology Officer at Monetas, who announced that he had finally moved his family from Austin, Texas, to Zug, Switzerland to be with the rest of the company’s team and help build the German-speaking region’s ‘Crypto Valley’.  Why the growth in Switzerland? Odom attributes it to the country’s ‘legendary neutrality,’ as well as its respect for privacy and security — two big buzzwords for cryptographers — and the fact that it is already a tech hub.  It also likely helps that Swiss regulators have so far taken a relatively accommodative, hands-off approach toward bitcoin.”

 

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/08/04/bitbeat-crypto-innovators-find-fertile-ground-in-soft-touch-switzerland/

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Russell Simmons: Prisons profiting from putting kids in jail

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“American business magnate, Russell Simmons, co-founder of Def Jam Recordings and founder of the pre-paid card company, RushCard, is attempting to do something about it through his ‘Keep the Peace’ initiative. ‘We’re going to fund [successful] anti-violence programs in communities, which I think is very important.’  ‘When we talk about the mass incarceration of young people,’ says Simmons, ‘and we think about the number of non-violent, first-time offenders who are in jail for drug offenses… that’s a different subject. We’re talking about the cost to the consumer or the taxpayer, but we’re not talking about the profit to the prison industrial complex.'”

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/youth-violence-costs-americans–6-6-billion-annually-150106804.html

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Meet the Financier Behind a Hot Pot Stock

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“There are now at least 130 public companies that claim to be in the pot business, and most of them are so-called penny stocks, defined by the SEC as stocks trading for less than $5 a share.  ‘They’re full of shenanigans and charlatans,’ says Brendan Kennedy, chief executive officer of Privateer Holdings, a firm that invests in the marijuana industry. ‘Most of them will revert to zero.’  On some days, cannabis-related stocks account for 15% or more of all penny-stock trading, according to OTC Markets Group Inc., which runs the trading venue once known as the pink sheets. Since 2012, the market capitalization of those stocks has soared from $500 million to more than $7 billion.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-18/legal-pot-sets-off-penny-stock-frenzy.html

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High Times Starts $300M Marijuana Industry Investment Fund

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“When a pot smuggler named Tom Forcade approached Michael Kennedy in 1974 with his plan for a magazine devoted to helping Americans grow weed, Kennedy asked, what’s the point?  The magazine, High Times, has survived as an icon of dope culture, and Kennedy, a criminal defense lawyer, has improbably ended up as its controlling owner. Now, with marijuana legal in some form in 22 states, the counterculture institution is aiming to raise $300 million for the High Times Growth Fund, which will make private equity investments in the marijuana business.  Privateer Holdings, another private equity fund focusing on the industry, raised $15 million in February.”

http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/208445-high-times-on-wall-street

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Man Who Saved 669 Kids From Nazis Turns 105

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“Starting during his three weeks in Prague, Winton made one of the most impactful, single-handed efforts to save children from mass genocide.  He created advertisements for foster homes. He manipulated paperwork to sidestep government red tape that would have gotten in his way. He even persuaded Germans to go along with his plan. Continuing his efforts from his home in London for the next nine months, Winton coordinated eight train evacuations of 669 children from Czechoslovakia to Britain, saving them from almost certain death.  For decades, Winton’s heroic efforts largely went unnoticed — until 1988, when a BBC program surprised him.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/21/sir-nicholas-winton_n_5365539.html

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He built his own toll road: solving problems the State’s too useless to fix

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“Faced with months of roadworks and upheaval, and the loss of business at the party supplies shop he runs with his wife Wendy in Bath, the pioneering 52-year-old rented a nearby field and built an alternative road to allow traffic to bypass the closure, charging drivers £2 each way.  He spent £150,000 on the gravel track next to the A431 in Kelston and says he will probably spend that again to maintain it.   Of course, the council has been quick to question his efforts, citing that mealy-mouthed old staple — health and safety.  Rather than thanking him, they’ve subjected Mr Watts to all sorts of snooty checks and inspections. Well, they must be furious. They have been utterly humiliated by him.”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2716156/A-hero-time-Inspired-man-built-toll-road-Hes-one-countless-Britons-rising-solve-problems-States-useless-fix.html

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The Failing War on Drugs, the Benefits of Natural Cannabis Cultivation

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“Cannabis is being grown with labor-intensive and resource-intensive methods now. More fertilizer is being used than necessary. The wholesale price of cannabis has dropped from a high of US$6,000 to about $2,500 per pound (454 gms). This trend will continue as prohibition is lifted. Many growers are complaining about the plummeting price. Sooner or later the price will be so low that the only way to make a good living will be to grow outdoors on flat land. I believe the industry will follow a similar model to the wine industry. But, unlike wine grapes, cannabis is more adaptable and can be grown successfully in more climates.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/exclusive-interviews/35509/Anthony-Wile-Jorge-Cervantes-on-the-Failing-War-on-Drugs-the-Progress-of-Cannabis-and-the-Benefits-of-Natural-Cultivation/

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Karl Albrecht, Billionaire Co-Founder of Aldi, Dies at 94

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“Albrecht was the second-richest person in Germany and the 35th-wealthiest in the world, with an estimated fortune of $20.9 billion. With his brother, Theo, he built a business that ranked as the world’s 11th-biggest retailer in 2013.  The retailer’s name derives from a combination of Albrecht and the German word Diskont, or discount. His father was a miner and baker, and his mother ran a grocery store.  The Albrecht brothers took over their mother’s store in Essen in 1946 and within seven years they developed it into a 30-outlet network of discount supermarkets that served the region.  Theo Albrecht, who also owned Trader Joe’s stores in the U.S., died in July 2010.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-21/karl-albrecht-billionaire-co-founder-of-aldi-stores-dies-at-94.html

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Switzerland: From Banking Paradise To Data Safe Zone

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“Data storage is booming in Switzerland. Attracted by the country’s political neutrality and ironclad privacy laws, a growing number of people and companies are choosing to keep their sensitive information in the nation’s servers.  Behind the rush: Edward Snowden. Since he first blew the whistle on the National Security Agency’s surveillance activities last year, demand has surged for the services of Swiss data-storage companies.  The right to data privacy is so deeply rooted that it’s written in the Swiss constitution: ‘Every person has the right to privacy in their private and family life and in their home, and in relation to their mail and telecommunications.'”

http://www.npr.org/2014/07/12/330751548/switzerland-from-banking-paradise-to-data-safe-zone

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The Booming Industry of Legal Marijuana: The Next Dot-Com

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“I recently had the privilege of attending the very first national conference of the relatively young (they were founded in 2010) National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA). NCIA is the first national trade organization focused on the entire cannabis plant. It was also my first visit to Denver since stores opened up in January, and the feelings of freedom and anticipation for the future were palpable.  Believe it or not, very few people are making a large profit from this new market in Colorado so far. Yes, the tax revenues are coming in from large quantities being sold. But starting a new business is never easy, much less one for a market that has been underground for decades.”

http://show-mecannabis.com/2014/07/smc-newsletter-july-9-2014/

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