The Medium Rules: Long-Term Trends in Media and Technology

One of the more intractable problems with cryptocurrency is also one of the most basic: how do you keep digital assets on the blockchain secure? This is an issue of hacks and honeypots. But, as evidenced by the recent news that the Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX may have lost $140 million in cryptocurrency when its founder died in December and took with him the only available electronic keys to the exchange’s crypto vault, the issue is not related solely to nefarious activity. 

On this episode of The Medium Rules host Alan Baldachin sits down with Demotrios Skalkotos, GM of Ledger’s North American business and head of Ledger’s institutional ledger vault product, and, by phone, Zach Hamilton, founder and CEO of Airfoil Capital. Alan, Demo and Zach engage in a detailed, informative discussion regarding the extremely difficult challenge of fully securing digital assets. The group walks through the current landscape of security solutions, the distinction between security and custody and why one would want a self-managed security solution, and, finally, the dream of a “zero-trust” future.       

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If you stop and think about it, the category of home furnishings and home design is one of the most daunting to take online. As much as we have come to take the success of companies like Wayfair and One King’s Lane for granted, think of the logistics involved in a digitally native business that sells sofas, dining room tables and beds. And what about white glove service, damages and returns. Complicating things, any home furnishings retailer is required to serve two masters: the trade and the retail consumer. To put it mildly, not for the faint of heart.

On this episode of The Medium Rules, host Alan Baldachin sits down with Christiane Lemieux, founder and CEO of The Inside, the direct-to-consumer home furnishings brand focused on made-to-order, customizable, affordable furniture with a high design, contemporary aesthetic. Prior to starting The Inside, Christiane founded the extremely popular home furnishings/lifestyle brand Dwell Studios, sold to Wayfair in 2013.  Alan and Christiane engage in an entertaining, informative and lively conversation in which they go deep under the hood of the current online retail environment for home furnishings, covering logistics, media, customer acquisition and design. Christiane also walks through the highs and lows of her 20+ year career as a design entrepreneur, author and philanthropist, including her start as a curator for the landmark 90’s home furnishings brand Portico, through the founding of Dwell and its sale to Wayfair, her time at Wayfair and lessons learned, and finally to the launch of The Inside in 2016 in collaboration with Kirsten Green and the team at Forerunner Ventures. Christiane also talks about her new book project on entrepreneurship and what makes entrepreneurs tick. We hope you’ll tune in, listen and watch this great conversation.

Find the the full video interview at: https://youtu.be/4ha5mbYMZCE

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What exactly is a security token? How is it expressed on the blockchain? How is it traded? Why is a security token better than an electronic share? What are the downsides? And, beyond all that, what are the limits of tokenization? And what are the political and philosophical implications?  

On this episode of The Medium Rules, Alan is joined in the HBA podcast studio by Alex Blum and Peter Lyons, respectively the CEO and CIO of the NYS-based security token platform, Atomic Capital.  Atomic Capital is split up into three lines of business – advisory, broker-dealer, and investment bank/capital raising.  In this episode of The Medium Rules, Alan and his guests walk through the basics of security tokens, i.e., what are they, how are they sold and how are they traded? 

Alan then engages Alex and Peter in a more philosophical conversation related to global inequality, disruption, decentralization, and anarchism. Both Alex and Peter have deep experience in the global non-profit/NGO sector – Alex at the Peace Corps and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Peter at the World Economic Forum.  We hope you’re both engaged and educated listening to this conversation, and if so please rate and share The Medium Rules. 

Finally, some of you may have noticed HBA Media & Tech’s “Podcast Pick of the Week” which we do every Friday. Please send us your #PPOTW suggestions to [email protected] and, if we use your suggestion, we’ll send you a The Medium Rules black, v-neck T-shirt. 

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How can we define and identify seismic-grade disruption? Is this recognizable contemporaneously, or only with the benefit of hindsight? And if there is some kind of taxonomy of disruption, some kind of map or workflow template we can apply, can we convert these insights into actionable mandates across both investing, startups and organizational behavior generally? 

On this episode of The Medium Rules, Alan is joined in the HBA podcast studio by Leonard Brody, an award-winning entrepreneur, venture capitalist, public speaker and best-selling author. Len is currently the co-founder and Executive Chairman of Creative Labs, a joint venture with the Creative Artists’ Agency, where Len oversees the building of new ventures for some of the most well-known celebrities, athletes and political leaders globally. In addition, Len is authoring a new book in partnership with Forbes entitled “The Great Re:Write” based on the successful documentary series (4 million views) of the same name which Len produced in partnership with Forbes. Len is also a highly-sought after public speaker, lecturing at institutions such as the G8 and The United Nations. We hope you enjoy this thoroughly entertaining, lively and very warm conversation covering some of the “big” questions in tech. 

LEARN MORE ABOUT LEONARD AND HIS PROJECTS:

The Great Rewrite - http://bit.ly/2zjvLfZ

Creative Labs - http://bit.ly/2DM6xuu

Linkedin - http://bit.ly/2Kmi5Fv

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Kim Kardashian was recently featured on the cover of Business of Fashion with the headline “The Age of Influence.” “Truer” words may never have appeared in print. Indeed, the influencer economy on Instagram alone is worth an estimated $1 billion and rising with a bullet. While deals with the top influencers can be worth millions of dollars, there is a widening sweet spot for so-called MicroInfluencers (loosely defined as having between 10,000 and 100,000 followers). A widely read article on Medium’s The Startup blog unabashedly asserts that MicroInfluencer Marketing is “The Game in 2018”. In fact, MicroInfluencers are in many ways more valuable to brands in that they tend to have a more loyal and engaged follower community.  

Alan is joined in the HBA podcast studio by Alia Ahmed-Yahia and James Bosworth, co-founders of The Spyglass Collective. Spyglass is a collective of experts in marketing, content and business development working with design and experience-centric brands on marketing, content and strategy. Alia is also a fashion influencer under her handle The Style Scout, with 15k Instagram followers. James and Alia lead an in-depth discussion of the key drivers of the “MicroInfluencer Economy”, including what it takes to become a MicroInfluencer, how brands measure MicroInfluencer reach and engagement and plan campaigns, the increasing power of the MicroInfluencer economy and where influencer marketing is heading in 2019 and beyond. We hope you’ll tune in, listen and watch this conversation. 

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With technology disrupting all sectors of the economy and culture, it should come as no surprise that this reality also extends to how we play. On this episode of The Medium Rules, host Alan Baldachin speaks with Walid Fattah, the CEO and Co-founder of the tennis-court booking app, Kourts, Inc. Alan and Walid cover the Kourts platform and functionality, Kourts’ go-to-market vision and strategy and its approach to scaling its business, and in particular the unique challenges of disrupting in tennis. Topics also include Kourts’ positioning and differentiation as a “tennis” brand from the perspective of both tennis clubs and players, and how Kourts fits in and is differentiated from legacy court booking software as well as other emerging entrants in the market.  We also get into the origin story of the Kourts founding team, which you might be surprised to hear ties into what is a burgeoning tech startup scene in Dubai. 

Finally, as we’re taping it happens to be Week 1 of the 2018 US Open here in New York City, so as a speical bonus for the tennis heads among us at the end of the podcast we’ll also get into some US Open discussion and we’ll be joined by our producer, Reece Brassler. 

For more information about Kourts, listen to the podcast and visit their website: https://www.kourts.com/.

Thanks for listening!

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It is axiomatic that the big three “over the top” (OTT) streaming services—Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime—dominate what and how we watch television. But how has this revolution in long-form video consumption affected the creative process? How has the new media paradigm altered the way media properties find and build an audience? And what are the some of the opportunities and challenges creators face in successfully navigating this domain?  

On this episode of The Medium Rules, host Alan Baldachin sits down with John Bedolis and Rich Rosenthal of the hit Netflix food/travel show, Somebody Feed Phil.  The show stars Phil Rosenthal—best known as the creator of the long-running and extremely popular network sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. The show features Phil on screen as host and narrator as he travels the great cities of the world seeking authentic culinary experiences and authentic moments of human interaction. Phil has been dubbed the “Borscht Belt Bourdain”, and he brings a very specific sensibility to the show which is part NYC Jewish outer borough (Phil grew up in Queens), part LA, and, like Parts Unknown, part an ode to human understanding derived through cooking and eating. Rich, who is Phil’s brother, is an Executive Producer, and John is an Executive Producer and the Director. 

Somebody Feed Phil debuted on PBS as I’ll Have What Phil’s Having, and moved to Netflix after its first season. In this, it’s third season, the show has found a groove. Gorgeously shot and produced, Somebody Feed Phil is lively, warm, funny and entertaining. On this podcast Rich, John and I will talk about the origin story and evolution of the show and their experiences and observations moving from public network television to the world of Netflix and OTT. 

Watch Somebody Feed Phil here: https://goo.gl/YNd1C3

View Richard's Filmography here: https://goo.gl/8dojTD

View John's Filmography here: https://goo.gl/jbMonQ

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As blockchain technology evolves, more and more blockchain networks are adopting a “proof of stake” concept with respect to operation and governance as opposed to a “proof of work” concept. But what does this mean, and why is this important? And, further, how should we think about these two modalities in terms of the broader blockchain ecosystem whether it be from a technical perspective or from the perspective of an investor. 

In this episode of The Medium Rules, Alan Baldachin sat down with two of the four co-founders of the New York City-based startup Blockstake, Inc. to canvas a variety of topics related to the blockchain in general and proof of stake mining in particular. Blockstake is a crypto mining startup solely focused on blockchain networks based on proof of stake, whereby network participants can earn rewards in the form of more network tokens based on “staking” a certain amount of tokens up front. In exchange for staking, these trusted network participants earn the right to run “masternodes” which perform a variety of functions on the network, including transaction verification as well as governance. Tom McLaughlin is the CEO of Blockstake and David Wodka is the COO, and both Tom and David bring a wealth of enthusiasm and expertise to bear in a lively and wide-ranging discussion covering the basics of blockchain technology (hint: think of a decentralized version of the early aughts Napster network), masternodes and proof of stake mining versus proof of work mining, as well as the origin story of how Blockstake got its start. At the end of the podcast, we try and take a step back and look into the future to identify long-term trends with respect to the blockchain, as well as emerging projects that are of interest to Tom and David. 

Resources:

The Masternode Manifesto by Tom McLaughlin - https://medium.com/blockstake/masternode-manifesto-682bf182891a

Blockchain Compliance Alliance Mission Statement - https://medium.com/blockchain-compliance-alliance/mission-statement-17841702eb6d

The Crypto Bear Market Manifesto - https://medium.com/blockstake/crypto-bear-market-manifesto-dd2107d925f8

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“Alignment: Accelerating Funded Startups and the Agency of the Future”

With the proliferation of funded e-commerce startups focused on the direct-to-consumer, how is brand created and how can startups adapt to the changing tastes and trends to reach consumers and drive sales? Further, what are some models for agencies to reinvent themselves to not only survive, but to thrive as the media landscape evolves? How can agencies be better aligned with their clients and drive success both for the client and the agency stakeholders? 

The Medium Rules host, Alan Baldachin, is joined in the HBA Podcast Studio in New York City by Evan Kraut, who runs Grey Adventures for Grey Group, and Guy Poreh, founder and CEO of Playground. Grey Adventures is best characterized as Grey’s “skunk works” team, focused on developing innovative products and services that fuel new revenue streams for Grey’s brand clients, its partners and the agency itself. And Playground is a “record label” for startups which takes an “immersive” approach to partnering with funded startups on sales and marketing to “accelerate fame”. In this episode of The Medium Rules Alan, Evan and Guy cover such ground as the success story behind Quip, the intersection of frontier technology and the traditional agency model, branding issues related to legal cannabis businesses, and, finally, some thoughts about what the agency of the future might look like. 

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