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Showing posts from April, 2019

Locked Out --New Platforms/No Rules

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The way we interact with the world has changed.  We communicate with friends and others through social networks such as Facebook.  We share news and opinions instantly through Twitter, videos of our latest activity on Snapchat and pictures on Instagram.  These apps help keep us connected to the world, our colleagues, friends, and family. Need a ride across town - we use Uber, need to buy some supplies, do a one-click on Amazon, how about a place to stay next month in NYC, just use Airbnb.  These services make our day-to-day existence much simpler and we take them for granted. Increasingly, most of us are engaging with these privately owned platforms that are mostly unregulated.  They have through their platforms disrupted traditional industries. Most offer a superior business model and then couple that with lower costs.  These lower costs are often because these platforms avoid the regulatory burdens and the infrastructure of the legacy industries. I am admittedly addict

A New Legend of a Shepherd Boy, a Giant, and 5 Stones

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This past weekend the folks at Run in Texas held an event at 5 Stones Artisan Brewery .  I was unfamiliar with 5 Stones, which is located southwest of New Braunfels, Texas on FM 1863.  If, like me, you use a navigation program to guide you to your destinations, a caution, for 5 Stones double check the address.  It seems Google and other devices are still listing the brewery's prior address in Cibolo, Texas. That caused some of our colleagues to take a bit of a detour to the closed location. Traveling along FM 1863, it’s easy to miss 5 Stones, and believe me you do not want to miss this brewery.  For 5 Stones, 2017 was a big year. They opened at their new location in November of that year. Also, in 2017, 5 Stones started working with Garrett Crowell, best known for his tenure as head brewer at Jester King Brewery. The brewery sits on 19 acres, about an eighth of a mile off the main road down a rough gravel path. The brewery is a picturesque limestone building that houses