"Every time John Borthwick describes the company he founded six years ago, it comes out a little different. Betaworks is… complex. It invests in some internet startups like a venture capital firm (Twitter, Tumblr, Airbnb), operates other wholly owned products like a studio (Digg, Dots, Giphy), and spins out more mature endeavors as standalone companies (Chartbeat, Bitly, SocialFlow). Only 10 people work for Betaworks itself. Everyone else, from investors to engineers, could be described as within its—thus far, very lucrative—financial orbit. ¶ That complexity may explain why the company has just released a 137-page volume about itself that reads like a futurist’s chapbook. Formally, the book is Betaworks’s annual letter to shareholders. In previous years, Borthwick has penned the letters himself, opining on broad internet trends that form the basis of his investment strategy. They have achieved a certain cult status, if not quite on the level of Warren Buffett’s annual missives." • #прокниги ∙ #рассказывание_историй - × × ×