I remember the early days of working in the web industry, when one could stay up to date by reading only two or three blogs every day. Today, there are literally thousands of media entities that cover the industry and churn out more good content daily than you can read in a lifetime!
That is part of the reason why we love working in the industry: it’s constantly changing and you need to stay up to date to stay relevant. Our team at PNR thought we would share what is on our reading list in the hopes that it can help you discover a new favourite.
Blogs on Tech and Strategy
Stratechery – Ben Thompson
If you are interested in corporate strategy in the tech industry, Stratechery is a must read. We’ve been reading Ben’s blog for a few years and even recently signed up to a paid account. This blog’s quality is above reproach and the content never disappoints.
Benedict Evans – Ben Evans, Partner at a16z
Benedict made his name as the “mobile guy” at his investment firm, a16z. His blog posts cover the whole spectrum of tech, including self-driving cars, virtual reality, AI and every important development occurring today.
Tilt the Windmill – Alistair Croll
Alistair is one of the smartest people we know. He is a serial entrepreneur and a multiple conference founder. He speaks his mind about innovation and business transformation.
Six Pixels of Separation – Mitch Joel
We’ve been reading Mitch’s blog for over 10 years. No one is smarter when it comes to digital. Mitch is always generous with his time and insights. If you are interested in marketing, you must bookmark this blog.
Blogs on Venture Capital
AVC – Fred Wilson
Few VCs have a following like Fred Wilson. Fred has been blogging for 14 years and is one of the most respected venture capitalists. He provides great insights on entrepreneurship and investing.
We love First Round Capital’s blog posts for their simplicity; they take brilliant entrepreneurs and distill their best practices in an easily understandable format.
Social Capital is another juggernaut in terms of the content produced and curated. They look at new technologies like blockchain and virtual reality in depth. Make sure to sign up to their weekly newsletter that’s chock full of great articles as well.
Blogs from Consulting Firms
We’ve been following these two consulting firms ever since the now-defunct Undercurrent. They both work in the organizational design space and employ super smart people. They not only curate articles but also produce great ones on organization design.
Blogs on Business & Finance
Collaborative Fund – Morgan Housel
Morgan Housel is a two-time winner of the Best in Business award from the Society of American Business Editors. He uses history, psychology, and recent business trends to write stories about how business leaders lose themselves, and what they can do to overcome their own biases and pitfalls. He wrote some fascinating pieces like Betting on Things That Never Change.
A Wealth of Common Sense – Ben Carlson
Ben Carlson, CFA, is one of the best finance writers out there and has been managing institutional investment portfolios since 2005. This blog is about explaining the complexities of the various aspects of finance in a way that everyone can understand them. Although the blog is mostly about the economy and the financial markets, I still learn a lot of things that I try to apply to the day-to-day management of our business. One such example is the blog post: Why Simple Beats Complex.
25iq – Tren Griffin
Tren Griffin is well-known for his extensive research on specific individuals (ie. Michael Bloomberg, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison, etc.) or topics (ie. Business Models, Investing, Sales and Marketing) and then comments on their best quote. His blog allows us to discover interesting people and find out more about them.
Farnam Street – Shane Parrish
Farnam Street is not a business blog per se, but is still incredibly useful in understanding how the world works, how to make better decisions and how to live a better life. It is the place we go when I want to take a step back, think about new ideas and wrap my head around complex subjects. I suggest starting with its list of Highly Rated Articles.
Research
Harvard Business Review produces great business content and has been able to reinvent itself in the age of listicles. We would like to see more research focused articles and fewer opinion pieces but it’s still highly relevant content
You can call Scott Galloway from L2 many things but soft-spoken isn’t one of them. L2 produces great commentary on the tech space but also very relevant in-depth research. Check out their omni-channel research if you are interested in retail.
Newsletters
Axios Pro Rata – Dan Primack
Axios is a new media company trying to remove the clutter and the noise out of news.through its website and via email, which is still one of the best formats to consume news. It offers multiple newsletters on a variety of topics, ranging from media, to business, to tech and to politics. Dan Primack is covering deals and dealmakers from Wall Street to Silicon Valley. This is one of our go to newsletters to stay in touch with important deals affecting multiple industries.
The Exponential View – Azeem Azhar
The Exponential View newsletter covers exponential technologies (e.g. AI, Blockchain, VR) and their impact on technology, business models, political economy and society. Azeem is an ex-Reuters journalist, so he is able to give a great sneak peek of the different articles he curates in his newsletter. Our favorite section of the newsletter is “Short morsels to appear smart at dinner parties” because it is indeed making me look really cool at parties 😉
Mattermark Daily – Nick Frost
The Mattermark Daily is an essential for all business professionals. It is a curated daily digest of timely, must-read posts by investors and operators and boasts over 100,000 subscribers. Mattermark recently launched another newsletter called Raise the Bar which covers sales, marketing and growth engineering.
What’s hot in enterprise IT/VC – Ed Sim
Ed Sim is founder of boldstart ventures, an enterprise seed fund which has invested in over 50 startups in technology infrastructure and SaaS. This newsletter covers Ed’s weekly readings and notes on VC, software, and scaling startups. It is quite important for us at PNR, as technology infrastructure helps businesses in their digital transformation.
Podcasts
This week in startups – Jason Calacanis
As its name implies, twice a week, Jason Calacanis hosts a show about startups. He often invites successful investors & entrepreneurs to discuss their latest projects.
a16z – Sonol Chokshi
a16z’s content is so good but that it gets a second mention in the podcast category. They produce a variety of interesting topics that never seem to be boring. The focus is of course on technology but also include a pretty wide variety of business topics.
Waking up – Sam Harris
This is definitely not a technology podcast. Sam Harris is an outspoken author & philosopher. He invites smart guests to discuss politics, religion and other interesting topics. Lately, he’s been talking about the dangers of artificial intelligence.
Invest like the best – Patrick O’Shaughnessy
Patrick O’Shaughnessy’s podcast on investing takes us a on a finance deep dive. He has amazing guests and they go deep on the world of finance.
I’m sure we are leaving out many valuable resources. This list itself is ever-changing. Which ones make your must-read or must-watch list? Please add suggestions in the comments. In the interim, happy reading!
