Unicorns, Hype, And Bubbles (a Guide To Spotting, Avoiding, And Exploiting Investment Bubbles In Tech)

By (author) Funk, Jeffrey
Short description/annotation:
Differentiating between tech bubbles and genuine, sustainable technological revolutionaries.
Description:

New technologies are an investment minefield. Putting money behind them means taking a risk on unproven ventures, often from inexperienced (and potentially unscrupulous) developers.

While some will lead the investor to fantastic gains, many others turn out to be mere bubbles – a flimsy veneer of excitement and hype with little profitable at the core.

But ignoring these technologies can be even worse, as this can mean failing to capitalise on the next great step in innovation. From cryptocurrencies, blockchain, the metaverse, Web3, and NFTs, to self-driving vehicles, delivery drones, solid state batteries, eVTOLs, and more, technology bubbles have been inflating and popping for many years. Each time a bubble pops, tens if not hundreds of billions of investment dollars disappear with them.

Unicorns, Hype, and Bubbles arms the reader with the tools required to differentiate between bubbles and genuine, sustainable technological revolutionaries.

Under the expert tutelage of Jeffrey Funk, you will learn:
The economics of modern businesses and how they lead to bubbles forming.
How to assess new technologies to sift viable investments from hype-driven bubbles.
That you can be a far better judge of new technologies than so-called “industry experts”.
How to identify exciting new opportunities in a world of money-losing startups.

Review quote:
“I love tech, but not so blindly as to have overlooked the fact that it attracts an absurdly large proportion of available investment, and where the investor hype is often misplaced, mistimed or both. On the principle of ‘always invert,’ I don’t think you should merely read this excellent book, but also keep it within easy reach on your desk.”
Review quote:
“This book explores how we often exaggerate the impact and value created by high-tech innovations, along with startups and at least some of the academic research and media reports. It is a thought-provoking review of technology fads and fashions, from the sharing economy to artificial intelligence and much more.”
Review quote:
“Jeff Funk is an all-too-rare critical analyst who has seen beyond the fads, hype, and jargon to uncover critical weaknesses in the foundations and performance of our so-called innovation economy.”
Review quote:
“A wonderful book that is both educational and entertaining. Jeffrey Funk does a masterful job explaining how groupthink, greed, and hype lead to bubbles that gum up America’s great engine of growth—entrepreneurs with good ideas starting small businesses that sometimes grow into very large businesses.”
Review quote:
“Funk’s work is a savage attack on the tech sector, startup hype and the mythology of ‘the new economy’. It lays out a compelling case that today’s tech firms not only underperform those of earlier decades; it also explores how this overpromising and underdelivering is justified and explained away by cherrypicked narratives propagated by the self-styled prophets of the tech-enabled future. In Funk’s hands, these narratives are revealed for their emptiness and portrayed as phantasms and convenient fictions that serve the interests not of society at large, but those of the entrepreneurial ecosystems that thrive on hype and the fear of missing out. Clearly, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship are much too important for all of us to be defined by hypesters and evangelists.”
Review quote:
“Thoroughly researched, well-reasoned, and clearly written, Unicorns, Hype, and Bubbles is a critical balance to the breathless hype about today’s hottest technologies. It also offers clear guidance for analysts and entrepreneurs who want to