“I know it when I see it,” said Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, talking about pornography.  Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs get much the same answer from VCs, when asking the question, “what do I need to accomplish or prove, in order for you to fund me?”  Despite many VCs’ inability to articulate what a “fundable” business looks like, there actually is some method to the madness.  Our Traction Gap framework (http://bit.ly/2ctpG2N) lays out a comprehensive series of milestones and deliverables that, if achieved, should allow an entrepreneur to raise money at a lower cost of capital over time.

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Pokémon GO’s new buddy system comes some new decisions about how to manage your flock of battling monsters.

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I recently sat down with Kris Hansen, Senior Principal at SAP Financial Services to talk about why innovators at leading-edge financial services organizations are intrigued by blockchain’s promise, and how they’re getting ready for what will be the next enormous industry transformation. Hansen is particularly surprised at how blockchain “seemed to come out of nowhere.” Below is an excerpt from our conversation, which you can read in full here.

“The genesis of blockchain is what blows me away. This very disruptive concept of a shared, immutable ledger was dropped anonymously at a forum in 2009. Since then, it has slowly, steadily gained ground to become a major industry phenomenon. Unlike so many disruptors, it wasn’t built in an R&D lab, by a major think tank, or even by designated experts in financial industry labs. Now it’s being applied to areas like Bitcoin and approaches like SAP’s partnership with Ripple Labs and ATB Financial to disrupt the market.”

Like most innovations, blockchain won’t immediately dominate landscapes in one fell swoop. Or as Hansen put it, “It’s not a zero sum game.” We can expect blockchain co-existence with other approaches for the near future as companies figure out how to align current portfolios with blockchain for beneficial disruption.

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Catering to billionaires and other wealthy entrepreneurs is becoming a greater priority at UBS. Advising on philanthropic giving is part of its latest push.

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Destiny’s Rise of Iron DLC expansion comes out in just under a week, and let me tell you, my Twitter feed is pumped about it. Every new trailer, every new feature that’s announced, everyone is going nuts, and it seems like Bungie is going to have a hit on their hands with Rise of Iron re-engaging the playerbase.

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Apple’s new iOS 10 operating system for its phone will hopefully solve the battery issues I’ve had with the iPhone 6 phones in our home. But I’m not holding my breath. Sometimes the battery life is as normal as can be expected, but most of the time it jumps around all day long. For example, after I used the phone from fully charged this morning for maybe five or 10 minutes reading email — with the screen dimmed about 40 percent, mind you — the battery life was down 20 percent. An hour later, I wore it down to 45 percent. I plugged it in and it instantly jumped to 63 percent. Immediately. WTH?

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Apple is ranked the #2 in global smartphone market unit share, #1 in premium phones and still accounts for the vast majority of smartphone profits globally. Apple has also experienced some share loss in markets in places like China, which they seem very keen to make up with the iPhone 7 and with full supply of the iPhone 6 SE. There were lots of leaks about what the iPhone 7 would be, but other than the dual camera and lack of a headphone jack they were mostly wrong. Everything has changed inside of the iPhone 7 and that’s something that’s been lost on some people, I think, primarily because they read about the leaks. I spent the last 72 hours with the iPhone 7 Plus and want to share some of my highlights on it. While Apple hasn’t changed the core industrial design of the phone itself, they literally changed everything else, a similar approach to the new Apple Watch Series 2. Apple once again brings out a great phone and at the same time may have fixed a problem plaguing mobility experience in the process. There are some things users will need to get used to, but in the end for me, it’s all worth it.

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