“Theories are nets cast to catch what we call ‘the world’: to rationalize, to explain, and to master it.” The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Karl Popper I wrote about AMZN on the scuttleblurb blog earlier this year (I get deeper into the weeds in that post. Check it out). Mounting saccharine coverage on Google, Amazon, […]
(2,414 words) When evaluating the competitive advantage of a data-based analytics business, three important questions come to mind: 1) Is the data proprietary? 2) Are the insights from the data critical? and 3) Does the data fuel a product feedback loop? Verisk began its operations in 1971 as Insurance Services Offices (ISO), a non-profit enterprise started […]
(2,600 words) If you’re unfamiliar with the architectural coatings sector, you might be surprised to know that selling paint can be a good business…and no one sells it more profitably in North America than SHW, whose market share gains have come from both the multi-decade shift from “Do-It-Yourself” (DIY) to professional paint jobs and a […]