Joss Poulton

I recently accepted a position at HubSpot, a venture-backed Internet marketing software company based in Cambridge. In my nine months interning at HubSpot, I have been mesmerized by the amount of brainpower and prowess that all employees possess – from other interns to higher management. Startups, or companies that function like them, are uniquely situated to recruit and employ college students, and I don’t think they do enough of it.

1.  College Students are not ‘Corrupted’

In a startup, thinking outside of the box is commonplace.  Their very culture asks employees to question the status quo, and not get caught up in bureaucratic decision-making. I have talked with numerous people who have worked at large, “old-school” companies before working at HubSpot, all of whom say, “You don’t know how good you have it.” There is definitely a necessary culture adjustment for employees coming from larger firms.

2.  20-Somethings are Cheap and Willing to Work Really Hard

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This post was original written for the HubSpot Blog

One of my first tasks at HubSpot was to go back in time and use our data warehouses to determine when and how communication with customers occurred. Working in the Operations Department, the project was a great introduction to our various terminologies and systems. I drew out a physical timeline to scale for two “typical” customers since we have two main personas that we sell to – a business owner, and a marketing professional. The experience shaped the way that I think about both the company and our customers.

1.  How Much Communication is Too Much?

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On November 3^rd, 2010, Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve, announced a planned $600B buy-back of US long-term treasury securities deemed “Quantitative Easing 2” or “QE2.” With the announcement of QE2, the total amount of quantitative easing will reach an estimated $2.7T by the end of the third quarter of 2011.[1] The looming question that remains is whether or not QE2 is working – more specifically, whether it meets its intended goal of increasing lending and borrowing to spur overall economic growth.

Fundamentally, quantitative easing increases the money supply by purchasing large amounts of securities, in this case government treasury bonds. With the excess capital that floods into the marketplace, financial institutions will then have more capital available to lend, thus increasing borrowing and spending in the greater economy. Quantitative easing is usually employed only after all other policy tools have been employed: open market operations, the discount rate, and reserve requirements. While quantitative easing may sound like the perfect answer, it does come at the very steep cost of inflation.

In order to determine whether QE2, a second attempt at a last-stitch effort, is working, we must look to and speculate upon key economical metrics.  Between November 3^rd when the plan was announced and November 6^th, the S&P 500 jumped 101 points or 8% from 1,185 to 1.286.[2] By November 17^th, the S&P 500 was down to 1,175, but by December 3^rd, reached 1,225. It is important to note that the market’s reaction was immediately bullish. If one holds that the markets are efficient, the information was absorbed immediately, and QE2 was effective. However, according to Dr. Tientip Subhandij of the Bangkok Post, “…the impact [quantitative easing] has on markets and the economy – can be so long that we may not even notice whether it’s working at all.”[3] Since the financial institutions that are left to circulate the additional capital in the market cannot be identified or tracked, we will not know if and when the lending has actually occurred, and what the overall impact of said lending is.  While there is no surefire way to attribute economic revival to a particular Federal Reserve policy measure, we do know that the economy has by no means rebounded since December 3^rd.

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Why I Sold my MacBook Pro & iPad

I loved my 12” PowerBook G4. It was an awesome form factor, and weighed only 4.6 pounds. I bought it only six years ago, and now I have a machine that’s exactly half the weight, is exponentially faster, is more durable, has more pixels (better resolution), and allows me to do everything I need it to.

When I purchased my 11.6” MacBook Air (1.6ghz, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD), I simultaneously sold my 13” MacBook Pro and iPad. I don’t regret it for a second. All in all, I saved about $300 and arguably simplified two devices into one. I used the iPad mostly to consume media, and it was great at that, but so is my iPhone. I found it much more convenient to read the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and assorted blogs from my phone than on the iPad. The iPad doesn’t travel around in your pocket, and is very awkward if not impossible to hold while multi-tasking (ok…or eating your Lucky Charms). The iPad has a similar footprint to the MacBook Air, and still weighs 1.5 pounds. For an extra .8 pounds, I now have a fully functional machine that boots in under ten seconds and has a full keyboard. To me, it’s a no brainer.

Performance

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Introduction & Facts

Lohan's 2007 Mugshot

On February 7^th, 2010 E*Trade Securities LLC, an online financial services company, aired a commercial during the Super Bowl.[1] As part of an ongoing campaign, the commercial featured talking babies comically discussing their use of E*Trade software. In the ad, a boy tells a girl via webcam from their respective cribs that he could not call the previous evening because he was using E*Trade to “diversify my portfolio and take control.” The girl responds, “and that milk-a-holic Lindsay wasn’t over?” The boy says, “Lindsay?” and then a new baby girl enters the scene saying, “milk-a-what?” concluding the commercial.

On March 8^th, 2010 Lindsay Lohan filed suit against E*Trade Securities LLC claiming that “…the ditzy, ‘milk-a-holic’ baby girl named Lindsay is modeled after [Lohan] and improperly invoked her likeness, name, characterization, and personality without permission, violating her right to privacy.”[2] Lohan claimed $50 million in compensatory damages, as well as $50 million in exemplary damages.[3] The suit was brought in Nassau County Supreme Court in the State of New York. In the complaint issued by Lohan’s lawyers, Stephanie Ovadia and Anand Ahuja, the main argument is that: “24.  The defendants took the plaintiff’s name and characterization and used in “ADVERTISEMENTS” without plaintiff’s consent and authorization,”  “28. Defendants have acted knowingly, willfully and in bad faith,” and “29. Defendants, and their agents, have committed tortuous acts within the State of New York, which and are causing injury to the plaintiff.”[4]

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'Age of Gold' by Merle Mainelli Poulton

Ancient Greek mythology divided the Age of Man into five different eras, the first being the ‘Golden Age.’ Noted for its peace and tranquility, the Golden Age represented a time where one could do no wrong, and neighbors lived harmoniously with each other.[1] Since roughly 2001, speculators in the gold market have experienced the capitalist version of a Golden Age.[2] Even through turbulent economic times, gold prices have gone through the roof, hitting all-time nominal highs of over $1,350 per ounce. If Greek mythology continues to lend itself as a metaphor, it’s all downhill from here. By the time the fifth and final stage of man was reached, “mankind was hopelessly violent and cruel.” So, will gold prices continue to climb, extending the Golden Age even in the midst of a possible ‘double-dip’ recession, or will it be the next big bubble?

Only time can tell, and students of financial markets are doing no more than speculating on a commodity whose prices themselves seem purely speculative. Looking back to the most recent catastrophic bubble, the mortgage-backed security (MBS) bubble that burst in 2007, there are some notable similarities to gold. First, both mortgage-backed securities and gold outperformed the S&P 500 consistently on a year-by-year basis.  Second, both are asset-backed, the difference being that one generally buys gold or gold Exchange-traded Funds (ETFs) outright, whereas MBS pools were hundreds or thousands of packaged mortgage commitments to repay long-term debt. MBS pools and gold investments both relied on the value of the underlying asset to increase over time. Finally, both MBSs and gold were seen as inflationary hedges. Although commodities such as gold are classic inflationary hedges, MBSs represented real assets that one could use to diversify their portfolios in times of economic uncertainty.

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Back in my day, four square was a game played by bored extended-day kids at camp. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the usefulness of the new “social network” that has spawned millions of users “checking in” at countless locations around the world. But what’s in it for me?  Well, I’m going to spend the next week finding out. Conveniently, the Boston FourSquare Leaderboard resets every Sunday night at 11:59PM.  Starting at midnight, when I will most likely be asleep, my quest to better understand FourSquare will coincide with my wanting to be listed in the top 100 on a meaningless Leaderboard.  That’s right, I’m turning this into a competition, with all of Boston.

I can’t help but laugh at the hilarious intro video that FourSquare has on their website (click “learn more”).  The video entices me by saying that FourSquare can/will:

• “Unlock my world.”
• “Be more aware of the incredible things around me.”  (By staring down at my phone and waiting for the GPS to locate me)
• “Find happiness just around the corner.”  (Really?!  Every corner?)
• Link to my Address Book, Twitter, and Facebook.  (Yay!  More things stealing my address book and posting real time updates of my location to the world!).
• Tell my friends where I am by checking in.  (Again, it’s like Twitter but more automated).
• “Get inside information.”  (Like…?)
• Add new locations (Wait a minute, weren’t you just giving me inside information?  Now you don’t even have the place listed?!)
• “Unlock badges and earn points, check out how many you can rack up.”  (Err…if you say so?  Man, I just really want to get on this leaderboard…AND I DON’T KNOW WHY!)
• “Check in at a location more than anyone else, and you could become the mayor.”  (Goal:  become the mayor of the Church of Scientology that I walk by every day)
• Get specials offers (Will report back on if this actually happened).
• “Use FourSquare wherever you go.”  (They named a bathroom at work after a guy.  It’s a location on FourSquare.  So, I guess they’re right.)

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