Good morning.
Almost 10 years ago, Coins2Day famously published a magazine cover with a unicorn dressed in a hoodie. Today, that unicorn returns, but with a twist—it’s a unicorpse. The two covers bookend the last decade—a period in which free money fed a wild herd of startups that measured success by the speed at which they reached billion dollar valuations. But that era has ended, and many unicorns are now paying the price for their growth-at-any-cost approach. Wellcome Trust’s Geoff Love tells Coins2Day’s Jessica Mathews:
“It’s one thing to fail when you’re a small company and you fail to get product-market fit. It’s quite something else to fail when you are at a valuation in the many billions and have raised hundreds of millions of capital. That’s awful.”
You can read Jessica’s story and our coverage of dying unicorns here.
And speaking of corpses, Boeing’s problems keep getting worse. Doors popping out in mid-flight, loose bolts everywhere, wheels falling off on the runway. Can anyone keep these images out of their head when flying? CEO Dave Calhoun deserves credit for his push for transparency. But recognizing that the aircraft manufacturer has a culture problem is only step one. Steps two through 10 are fixing it.
And finally, I talked to Etsy CEO Josh Silverman this week about the company’s new generative AI-powered gift discovery tool. Etsy used ChatGPT to help identify gift buyer personas and come up with appropriate lists of gifts from the 115 million items on the Etsy platform. But it doesn’t ask customers to interact directly with a chat bot. Why? Because consumers aren’t yet ready for that experience, Silverman says. And the computer costs are high. “Consumer adoption is going to lag technical capability,” Silverman says.
Are we entering the age of “unicorpses?”
— FORTUNE (@Coins2DayMagazine) January 25, 2024
Our new magazine issue reveals why newly minted unicorns risk being eclipsed by former high-flying startups gone belly-up. Https://t.co/uGsPzuZusu pic.twitter.com/UNILYasOev
More news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
[email protected]
TOP NEWS
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Just over a quarter of companies lack guidelines to determine when to comment on a crisis, reports a survey of chief human resources officers. Executives now face blowback whatever their decision, whether they take a stand, keep quiet, or respond too slowly. Employees are increasingly making their voices heard: “Seeing how much companies respond to employee pressure was surprising,” says Anthony Nyber, director of the Center for Executive Succession at the University of South Carolina. Coins2Day
Academic freedom
The bitter fight between Wall Street donors and Ivy League universities, sparked by the Israel-Hamas war, has its roots in long-running complaints about U.S. Higher education. Alumni and donors are frustrated with soaring tuition costs and alleged mismanagement by administrators. Students have their own concerns: A recent Morning Consult survey reports that almost 40% of people in their 20s believe college did not prepare them for the workplace. Coins2Day
Tesla stalls
Tesla is promising to release its next model as early as late 2025 as it tries to revive flagging growth. CEO Elon Musk said the new car would be more affordable than Tesla’s current premium models. Tesla shares slumped by almost 6% in extended trading Wednesday after the company declined to give full-year guidance. Bloomberg
AROUND THE WATERCOOLER
Toyota’s chairman doubles down on his electric car skepticism, forecasting that EV adoption will peak at just 30% by Lionel Lim
Tesla and BYD’s cutthroat EV price war is driving Volvo spinoff Polestar to the precipice—and it may need a lifeline by Christiaan Hetzner
JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon talks DEI: ‘I’m a full-throated, red-blooded, patriotic, unwoke, capitalist CEO’ by Ruth Umoh
Gen Z and young millennial employees are missing the equivalent of one day’s work every week due to mental health concerns, research shows by Orianna Rosa Royle
Ikea is busy cutting prices while everything else gets expensive—and the group’s CEO says it wasn’t ‘rocket science’ to make that call by Prarthana Prakash
Satya Nadella’s triumphant tenure hits a new peak as Microsoft tops $3 trillion in market value—its stock is up 1,006% since he took over by Paolo Confino
This edition of CEO Daily was curated by Nicholas Gordon.
Correction, Jan. 25, 2024: This story has been updated to correct Silverman's quote.
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