We just had a great few days with investors on Coronado for Stocktoberfest 2014.
We attracted people from Russia, Australia, Japan, Argentina, Chile, Norway, India, London and all over the US. We had product executives from CNN Money, Yahoo Finance, Dow Jones, Etrade, Wisdom Tree and IDC to look at financial web startups presenting.
We talked about many huge global investing trends like the Financial web itself, Obesity, Mobile, Bitcoin/Money, Africa, The Internet of Things, Wearable Computing and the tickers that may benefit the most. We had startups from entrepreneurs attacking these industries/opportunities demonstrate their products to add context to these trends.
From my non perfect culling of the crowd, here were some favorites:
Favorite Presentation – Frank Lortsch from Array Analytics – ‘Making Big Money from Big Data’
Best Hair – JC Parets
Best Quotes of the conference – “It’s got a beat and my eyes can dance to it” – Michael Parekh in describing the fantastic ChartIQ
“Sitting is the new smoking” – Jeff Hyman
“The world is heading to the $35 smartphone and $35 club sandwich.” – Howard Lindzon
“I can’t even point to Netherlands on the map, but I love its chart” – JC Parets
Best Names for New Tech Startups – @JewBur (Moyles on Demand) Inspired by the awesome presentation by Ryan Graves of Uber.
Most Used Tagline or hashtag: Investing in the Fog (Andy Kessler)
Snappiest Dresser – James Koutoulas
Some ideas that caught my attention for more digging were Germany(Greg Harmon) and Africa (from Lydia)
On Friday, $GOOG gapped up over $100 and 10 percent. I mentioned to the audience that this does not happen at the end of bull markets, more likely the beginning of some big moves. I will be continuing to add market exposure into the markets for now.
I have been talking in the media all year (CNBC, Yahoo and our Stream) that Google itself is the best way to own a Technology ETF and to dollar cost average into the stock every month. Friday was yet another payoff. During the internet of Things presentations ‘Nest’ kept creeping into the conversation (a Google Investment) and during the Uber presentation – Google’s $258 million investment. Google is layering in capital to the best startups around the world. I assume it is the data that they – and only they – have that gives them an edge in problems the world wants solved now and the companies with the right traction to back.
I hope to share some or all of the presentation decks and more summaries from the conference over the next week.
I am already excited For #Stocktoberfest 2014. I have decided already to keep it on Coronado.
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