Top articles of the week | January 6th

January 6, 2018

Every week, we put together a list of our top 5 articles of the past week. Happy reading!

What we learned in our third year PNR Blog

We’re excited for this year with many exciting projects underway. I took some time to write a retrospective on what we learned in the past year. We just came from our firm’s strategic retreat where we looked back at our accomplishments and plotted our strategic direction in 2018.

The Hidden Player Spurring a Wave of Cheap Consumer Devices: Amazon NY Times

The notion of a brand is waning in importance or at least changing in meaning. This extremely interesting article in the Times details how consumer brands are confronted with a new reality, low cost products on Amazon. “In a way, Amazon is providing all this information that replaces what you’d normally get from a brand, like reputation and trust. Amazon is becoming something like the umbrella brand, the only brand that matters.”

The State of AI in Montreal – Startups, Investment, and What it Means for the City Techemergence

This is probably the best article I’ve read on the state of artificial intelligence in Montreal. The local tech news was dominated last year with AI and how Montreal is becoming a powerhouse in the field. The article does a good job at looking at the startups that are in the space and why the city is in the enviable position it is today.

The uncanny mind that built ethereum Wired

In case you haven’t heard, cryptocurrencies are kind of a big deal. I will not talk about the insane speculation we’re seeing. Behind the hype, there are some very interesting technologies. One such application is Ethereum. This Wired piece uncovers Vitalin Buterin who founded Ethereum with a simple premise, replace the internet.

The 30 Best Pieces of Advice for Entrepreneurs in 2017 First Round

I typically eschew advice articles as they tend to be very generic and “clickbaity”. First Round does a great job in this article of presenting actionable advice for people that lead organizations.