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Hello there,
Some of my hot takes on technology over the years have been … well, just embarrassing.
I thought American Online (AOL) was the future. I thought the iPhone was just a toy that no professional was ever going to take seriously. I even thought Facebook was going to be beneficial to society.
It’s tough to judge how successful a technology is going to be, and it’s only gotten tougher over the years. To understand how difficult it can be, just look at Temasek.
When Singapore’s state-owned investment firm decided to get into the startup game in 2020, it chose firms that it thought would perform well over time.
But three years later, some of those startups aren’t doing so well due to growing losses and issues with market fit, among other reasons.
For our first Big Story this week, my colleague Collin takes a look at three of Temasek’s ventures – GoodWorker, Trustana, and Affinidi – and examines what went wrong.
Our second Big Story is on Mintable, the Mark Cuban-backed NFT platform. This story isn’t so much about picking the right technology as it is about what happens when the management can’t work together.
This is a long read, so find a comfy spot and dive into the legal drama at a company that was once touted as “the next big thing” in crypto.
And finally, we zoom in on Singapore VC firm Round Ventures’ unique approach to spotting the next hit game in this week’s Making Waves.
— Scott
THE BIG STORIES
1️⃣ Staff departures, write-offs at Temasek startups uncover deeper issues
Image credit: Made by Tech in Asia using Midjourney
MAKING WAVES
FYI
NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW
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