Medley 177: I got married!

This is the Monday Medley, a newsletter that goes out, you guessed it, every Monday. I republish it here for sharing and referencing, but if you'd like to sign up you can do so right here:

Happy Monday!

I have a short Medley for you this week because... I got married on Saturday!

After starting down the normal long path of engagement and wedding planning, we decided to skip all that and do a very small ceremony in Tahoe with some friends. It was a wonderful, really special weekend, and we're both enjoying the first few days of married life.

Pepper was there too

Alright, on to the abbreviated Medley!

🎉 Growth Machine turned two last week! Here are some fun stats from the milestone. I'm really excited to see where the next year takes us.

🍔 McDonalds is testing a "P.L.T" (Plant, Lettuce, Tomato) with Beyond Meat. Web Smith had a good brief thread on Twitter about it, that reflects what I think we're going to see in the next 5-10 years. Fake meat won't become a luxury good, it'll just replace the bottom end of the meat market (mcdonalds, hot dogs, etc.) Unfortunately, considering how terrible the ingredients in fake meat are, this will likely create a significant health divide between those who can afford real meat, and those who can only afford fake meat.

🍎 Apple has seen incredible growth in its services and app revenue over the last 10 years, to the point where it makes its past music revenues almost look like a rounding error. It's worth noting that web services is a big part of how Microsoft, too, has seen such massive growth over the last 5-10 years.

🎮 On the Apple note, the new Apple Arcade is a phenomenal move to save mobile gaming. Mobile games have been ruined by microtransactions and copy-and-paste game formats, but by forcing games to be free of micro-transactions, and available offline, to be fully featured in the app store, I think Apple has created a way for truly great games to be created on Mobile. On that note, if you're looking for a great game to start with, Dread Nautical is fantastic.

📉 Adam Keesling had a great thread on the 90% drop in Blue Apron's value since its IPO. When you look at their CAC, LTV, and churn numbers, it's kind of amazing they made it this far in the first place.

💰 France and Germany are supposedly going to ban Facebook's Libra coin, since they feel no private company can issue currency. When you think of Facebook as one of the largest countries in the world, it make sense that other countries would want to prevent it from making monetary policies within their border. It remains to be seen what actually happens with Libra, though.

🐘 And just for fun, here's an elephant helping someone do a backflip.

End Note

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Have a great week,

Nat