"This time it's different, guys, we have the iPhone!"

I no longer have my copy of Benjamin Graham's "The Intelligent Investor," but at one point he presciently writes, "An asshole is someone who thinks the paradigms of investing can permanently shift." Or something.

The point is, The New York Times' recent story on the "not-so-exclusive" club of billion-dollar startups sounds like a case study in short-sighted investor euphoria.

As Quentin Hardy writes, "Silicon Valley entrepreneurs contend that the price spiral is not a sign of another tech bubble. The high prices are reasonable, they say, because innovations like smartphones and cloud computing will remake a technology industry that is already worth hundreds of billions of dollars."

To which I say: the term "reasonable price spiral" is an oxymoron. The tech bubble will continue to be worth billions of course -- but there will be very clear winners and losers. The pool of "look-alike" companies, most of which deal in cloud/enterprise activities, will separate itself. Every copy-cat firm hoping to make a quick billion will lose innovation steam, or people will just realize there's no point investing in a company with no revenue stream (heya, Pinterest!).

Better hit the IPO and cash out quick, guys -- what goes up in the Valley will come down on the Street.

Except you, Aaron Levie...you're cool. 

Greg Selkoe -- Too Cool to be a CEO?

The query in this post's title may be my own personal grudge against any buff-dude who rocks a purple v-neck better then myself, but legitimately -- who the hell is this guy? And why does he have a graduate degree from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government? And why can't I find any information about Karmaloop cable ratings?

Turns out that Selkoe -- and his "creative director" Pharrell Williams -- were counting their eggs a little too early in the above Bloomberg interview, which is from 2011. Their efforts to start their own cable network were stymied by the bureaucratic, old-world "TV Guide" system, to the point that Selkoe abandoned plans for the network and instead doubled-down on the online TV efforts. Ever the victorious Boston Bro, Selkoe noted in July 2012 that Karmaloop videos "received 70 million video views in 2011, and is projecting 350 million views in 2012." They also were planning a scripted comedy, as well as advertising deals with Red Bull and Burton Snowboards.

Selkoe may look like a 19th-century Irish prizefighter, but damn if his steadfast support for creative content isn't inspiring. I, for one, am a huge fan of Karmaloop's content -- especially "That Life" with Carissa Rossi. Rossi has "America's Sweetheart" potential -- like an ethnic Katie Couric for the 21st Century.

Two Questions:
a) How much ad revenue do the videos generate? Or are the videos primarily to draw traffic to the Karmaloop Store?
b) What is someone like Carissa Rossi's salary? i.e. What's the market valuation of a well-liked Internet personality at a successful online retail start-up?

Guar: The Little Bean That Could

Of all the national policy issues that campus activists continually rallied around during my four years of college, hydrofracking was probably the most incendiary. Perhaps it was because I went to school in central New York...home to layers upon layers of precious, precious shale oil. Oil best obtained by hydrofracking, of course, although there's a slew of water pollution and environmental degradation issues that come with the territory. You can see some of the strong reactions against fracking in the video below, which I helped produce:

I really liked the activists in the videos above. They were chill. But that doesn't mean I'm about to leap behind every "bleeding-heart smellfare" program -- or "save the environment" mumbo jumbo -- they support.

Thus, I'd be interested to see how some Wavy Gravy's react to this recent New York Times' article, which extols the financial benefits of guar bean production for poor northwest Indian farmers. Yeah, guar beans...which are a crucial ingredient in HYDROFRACKING!

Indeed, this lil' guy's price has skyrocketed in the past few months because of energy companies' increasing demand -- and the fact that the bean is in limited supply and only grows in particularly arid, desert-like climates.

And these farmers are making a killing on guar. Says one Sohan Singh, "Now...we have a house made of stone."

iT'S your choice, activists! Save the Indian farmers or save the environment! You can't have both!

But on the real....this is a tricky economic policy issue (not to mention environmental...and social...), and showcases how important it is to have export diversity in an economy. In the guar-producing parts of Rajasthan, the economy depends primarily on agriculture -- a relatively fickle business, especially when the farmers there are not exactly using high-technology, high-yield techniques. It's like relying on the Rain Gods to supply your salary every year.

That doesn't mean I'm not rooting for them; go 'head, Mr. Singh! Milk them energy companies for all their worth!

Drug Makers: "Fuck this, we're going to India."

At my job recently, I've been researching certain pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies investments in emerging markets -- particularly Brazil, India and China -- and hot dog if these companies aren't licking their chops at the opportunities. Pricing pressures in the U.S. and Europe means that drug companies are going to increasingly rely on the exploding middle classes of BRIC countries to drive sales. Spending on drugs are going to double in emerging markets in the next five years, according to the New York Times - now that's a win/win for drug companies and B.Doyle. Oh yea, and for India.

Above: India and pharmaceutical companies, meeting for the first time. 

Needless, I'm going to walk to work with a little extra pep in my step tomorrow. Unless it's monsooning again...in that case I'll tell the rickshaw driver to sing that lil' Hindi diddy extra loud, for ol' B.Doyle. Fuck ya.

Coca-Cola: Fighting the Good Fight

As a follower of business, I'm a fan of Coca-Cola. Have been ever since freshman year of high school, when I wrote my World History final paper on why the invention of Coca-Cola was the most important development in human history.

So of course, I'm happy to hear that Coca-Cola is planning a fairly aggressive expansion of operations in my current homeland, according to the Wall Street Journal.

According to the article, Coca-Cola accounts for 60% of soft drink revenues in India, compared to PepsiCo's 37%. However, in my little slice of Mumbai, I've noticed it is much easier to find Pepsi products -- in particular "Mirinda," a tart little orange soda, and Pepsi itself -- then Coke. I've almost started to miss that classic red logo. And the actual drink. 'Cuz Pepsi blows.

Here's to you, Coca-Cola! Ignore Mayor Bloomberg and his Big Brother-esque soda policies...it's just you and me.

Monsoon Season!

The first time I heard the term "monsoon" was in the 1996 movie "Jumanji." Since then, I have associated monsoons with Robin Williams fighting crocodiles.

So when I learned that Mumbai was host to a four-month long monsoon season every year, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Would my flat be flooded frequently? Would I have to swim to work? Should I pack my heavy-duty crocodile-killin' machete just in case?

As it turns out, flats do get flooded frequently, and yes, getting to work may be impossible once in a while unless I have a canoe. So far the crocodiles don't seem likely, although giant rats are a common sight. Incidentally, however, Mumbai is experiencing a relatively dry monsoon season so far. I couldn't be happier to only have to face two or three short bursts of rain a day, but according to the Wall Street Journal, this is a problem for North Indian farmers who rely on the monsoon rains to help produce crop yields.

If I travel to North India (hopefully soon) then I may be able to get a better appreciation of the largely agricultural-dependent economies of that region. However, right now, it's hard not to be happy that I arrived here conveniently in one of the driest monsoon seasons in years.

Here's to dry monsoon seasons and no crocodiles!

Above: Me, in my living room last week. #mylifeisJumanji

Who the Hell Are The BuffNerds?

While surfing the Internet in January during Winter Break, as I was wont to do, I came upon this little gem of a music video by two intriguing artists, K.i.D. and Futuristic:

 The music was smooth and hip, yet avant-garde. RaP GaME Salvador Dali, if you will.

Since that time, my Youtube feed has provided me a steady stream of "BuffNerds" videos, and my final verdict is that these guys are next to blow. They're whole vibe is total West Coast cool -- the color-drenched videography, the loose rapping style, the names. My personal favorite of the crew is K.i.D., but you can watch this crew video below and decide for yourself.

Just remember: I was the first guy in India to put on for the 'Nerds.

Amurica! F*** Yeah!

Happy Independence Day, everyone! People at work today were giving me handshakes and backslaps in respect to the good ol' US of A. Even my comrades from Eastern Europe granted me the indulgence of slamming the table and shouting "America!" at lunch.  I also made a fool of myself when a Slovenian girl offered me cake, and I knowingly chuckled "Aaah, for Independence Day?" It was actually for her birthday.

But dammit, I won't apologize for my patriotism! Everyone shoot off some fireworks for me!

Lana Del Rey: Back to the Future

I generally don't consider myself to have worthwhile taste when it comes to slow-moving, epic-voiced female singers. My particular preferences seem to cultivate artists leaning towards the spectrum of "potentially insane ironic rhymespitters."

But recently, when the sun gets low and I start to think of the teenage years I never had (in 1950's Southern California, that is), nothing spaces me out better then some Lana Del Rey. Her whole style is like if the world's most hipster Tumblr account had a baby with Lady Gaga....so basically, I'm saying Lana's half-cyborg. YEA, she's that good.

Lana is to musical innovation what Steve Jobs was to technological innovation. Pure simplicity mixed with pure vision.

Enjoy. 

Content Innovation: If Disney Can Do It, DealBook Can Do It

I recently finished Neil Gabler's "Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination." Disney pushed a lot of innovation in his day, but one area where he was incomparable was his innovation of "content" -- his perfectionism for his film's storylines, character development and overall themes was unparalleled. He never compromised, and he never rested on his laurels.

Flash forward sixty years, circa the B.Doyle era: reading New York Times' "Dealbook" section -- which previously held a scintillating aura of New Media excellence, not to mention some damn good writing -- it strikes me that the whole section has become fairly boring. Everything about it -- the content, the dearth of videos, even the bush league "single-column" listing of articles -- gives me the impression that Andrew Ross Sorkin stopped trying to really push the site's envelope, maybe, eight months ago. And in a digital media age where there's still a wide-open playing field to prove true "excellence" in content delivery and style, absolutely no website should be resting on its laurels.

Aww, but maybe I'm just salty because I miss the inimitable Kevin Roose on my DealBook homepage. He's since moved onto greener (except not...) pastures at New York Magazine. And I'm probably in no position to take Mr. Sorkin to task, considering he's only about ten years older then me and has already written a generation-defining expose and, well, founded "DealBook."

Regardless, I would like to point to Business Insider as the Internet's premium example of a true content innovator. They combine Huffington Post's penchant for addictive lists and slideshows with a fair bit of trenchant insight and solid numerical analyses. And damn if the site doesn't know what I want to read -- take their slideshow of "The World's Hottest Billionaire Offspring." Now that's some good juice!

To conclude: Dealbook's gotten weak, Business Insider rocks, and the Internet has yet to see its "Walt Disney." Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some BI slideshows to peruse.

Sorkin: Less squawking, more Dealbook-ing, please!