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Here’s What the Most Iconic Tech Investors Read Each Morning

Published

7 years ago

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When you must be on the cutting edge of the intersection of finance and technology at all times, it pays to be an adamant reader.

Books are obviously a huge source of information for the world’s best investors – and we’ve looked at their book recommendations in the past – but perhaps even more telling is what they read on a day-to-day basis.

Today, we get a snapshot of the morning reading of top notch venture capitalists to see how they get the perspectives, inspiration, and insights that help drive their investments.

Morning Reading for Tech Investors

Joe Hovde, from the Ramen Profitable blog, collected data from the interviews of every venture capitalist and entrepreneur featured on the popular Twenty Minute VC podcast.

Nearly every guest on the podcast is asked to provide a blog recommendation, and Hovde has visualized this information.

The most cited blogs include AVC, Term Sheet, Mattermark Daily, and the Ben Evans Newsletter:

The Blogs that Iconic Tech Investors Read Each Morning

Despite the wild amount of variance in recommendations, here are the top seven with brief summaries and links:

  1. AVC

    2. Internet commentary from Fred Wilson, a prominent NYC-based venture capitalist. (Free)

  2. Term Sheet

    3. This widely-read newsletter at Fortune was authored by Dan Primack until a month ago. However, Primack left to start a new venture. Now the column has been taken over by Erin Griffith. (Free)

  3. Mattermark Daily

    4. A human-curated newsletter that brings perspectives, insights, and lessons learned from investors and operators in the startup ecosystem. (Free)

  4. Ben Evans Newsletter

    5. Benedict Evans is a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, and his newsletter highlights interesting links in technology each week. (Free)

  5. Feld Thoughts

    6. Brad Feld has been an early-stage investor since 1987, and is best known for co-founding startup accelerator Techstars. (Free)

  6. The Information

    7. Not the album by Beck. Instead, it’s a popular subscription newsletter headed by Jessica Lessin that focuses on deeply-reported articles about the technology industry that can’t be found elsewhere. ($39/month)

  7. Strictly VC

    8. A daily email by Connie Loizos that provides readers information related to venture capital firms, finance, and business investment. Loizos is also the Silicon Valley editor for Techcrunch. (Free)

Here’s the data again, sorted by author:

The Blog Authors that Iconic Tech Investors Read Each Morning

Some additional names that stand out here include Tim Ferriss, James Altucher, Bill Gurley, Tim Urban (of Wait But Why fame), and Paul Graham.

Feel free to recommend other essential reading for aspiring tech investors below.

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Markets

Charted: What are Retail Investors Interested in Buying in 2023?

What key themes and strategies are retail investors looking at for the rest of 2023? Preview: AI is a popular choice.

Published

1 day ago

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September 25, 2023

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A cropped bar chart showing the various options retail investors picked as part of their strategy for the second half of 2023.

Charted: Retail Investors’ Top Picks for 2023

U.S. retail investors, enticed by a brief pause in the interest rate cycle, came roaring back in the early summer. But what are their investment priorities for the second half of 2023?

We visualized the data from Public’s 2023 Retail Investor Report, which surveyed 1,005 retail investors on their platform, asking “which investment strategy or themes are you interested in as part of your overall investment strategy?”

Survey respondents ticked all the options that applied to them, thus their response percentages do not sum to 100%.

Where Are Retail Investors Putting Their Money?

By far the most popular strategy for retail investors is dividend investing with 50% of the respondents selecting it as something they’re interested in.

Dividends can help supplement incomes and come with tax benefits (especially for lower income investors or if the dividend is paid out into a tax-deferred account), and can be a popular choice during more inflationary times.

Investment StrategyPercent of Respondents
Dividend Investing50%
Artificial Intelligence36%
Total Stock Market Index36%
Renewable Energy33%
Big Tech31%
Treasuries (T-Bills)31%
Electric Vehicles 27%
Large Cap26%
Small Cap24%
Emerging Markets23%
Real Estate23%
Gold & Precious Metals23%
Mid Cap19%
Inflation Protection13%
Commodities12%

Meanwhile, the hype around AI hasn’t faded, with 36% of the respondents saying they’d be interested in investing in the theme—including juggernaut chipmaker Nvidia. This is tied for second place with Total Stock Market Index investing.

Treasury Bills (30%) represent the safety anchoring of the portfolio but the ongoing climate crisis is also on investors’ minds with Renewable Energy (33%) and EVs (27%) scoring fairly high on the interest list.

Commodities and Inflation-Protection stocks on the other hand have fallen out of favor.

Come on Barbie, Let’s Go Party…

Another interesting takeaway pulled from the survey is how conversations about prevailing companies—or the buzz around them—are influencing trades. The platform found that public investors in Mattel increased 6.6 times after the success of the ‘Barbie’ movie.

Bud Light also saw a 1.5x increase in retail investors, despite receiving negative attention from their fans after the company did a beer promotion campaign with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

Given the origin story of a large chunk of American retail investors revolves around GameStop and AMC, these insights aren’t new, but they do reveal a persisting trend.

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