KDK Fund Blog Reaches Views Milestone

A big congratulations goes out to KDK Fund for it reaching 3,000 views. The blog provides information on its investing activities as well as ideas and opinions on investing and trading.

The fund is always looking for ways to improve the blog for its readers. Whether it is content, format, or something else, do not be shy. Send your suggestions and comments to kdkfund@gmail.com.  Improving the blog will hopefully improve performance in the investing and trading world.

Making a Difference Through Positive Investing

It is not enough to just be against something. You have to act in a positive manner and be for something if you are to be successful. This statement is very true when it comes to investing resources in projects and companies. Not investing into a project or company is only part of the equation. To fulfill the equation to its utmost, a positive project has to receive those resources.

The current round of environmental protests going on in New York City brings this idea to light. There is a broad momentum and reporting on showing the negative side of not investing in cleaner types of energy. For example, there is a story in the New York Times (link here) on how a charity of the Rockefeller family along with others will be divesting its investments in fossil fuel companies. Also going on right now is a movement away from hedge funds. CALPERS and a North Carolina Pension Fund have announced they are removing its capital from being invested in hedge funds due to complexity of investment not matching desired return. These are great examples of negative actions against something. But the media that reported the stories did not go into as much detail in regards to the positive actions these organizations are taking with this capital.

The good news is that these organizations plan to put the capital to work in a productive way that matches their ethos. The New York Times article talks about the fact that the Rockefeller trust (and others) will be investing that same capital into cleaner fuel technology projects. This is a big deal. It provides another level of legitimacy towards the clean fuel movement. Another good example is that of one of KVCC’s clients, KDK Fund. It has made it a purpose not to just keep capital from being invested in certain projects and companies, but to also highlight where the capital is going to make a positive difference. For example, in the its bond portfolio, KDK Fund found the Powershares ETF Build America Bond fund to invest in. KDK Fund wanted to find a bond fund that followed its ethos and this fund does that by simply investing in local and state bonds. Another client, Bullied Comics, has a mission that is to stop bullying by showing ways to improve positive emotions so that bullying doesn’t enter into a person’s situational actions.  

Groups regularly will follow inspiring leadership over basic tear down leadership. To do this, groups need to find a better alternative to build on top of the old investment as the Rockefeller trust has done. When looking to invest with a cause in mind, remember that removing capital and resources is only part of the solution. Putting resources to work in a new way that builds a better, more meaningful product is where the magic of the solution shows up.   

Disclaimer - Any mention of specific divestments or investments in the story are not to be considered recommendations to buy or sell anything. Please do your own due diligence before investing.

American vs Chinese Capitalism

With capitalism starting to take more of a hold on the Chinese community, there are some growing issues that butt up against its limits given its political structure. Reports are showing that more and more wealthy Chinese are leaving the country to pursue life with better benefits outside of making money. There are also news reports showing a higher discontent level by ordinary Chinese citizens with the fact that even though Alibaba is a Chinese company, they are not allowed to purchase shares. These two examples show that there might be a ceiling in regards to how far capitalism can reach in a communist centric political system.

In the last few years, it has been well documented that there are a large percentage of wealthy Chinese citizens looking to move away from China. This is not surprising. It is because these families have reached a point where the utility of making another dollar is less important than the utility of social or educational benefits found elsewhere. This can be seen as a direct result of the regulations put on the society by China’s communist government. Until the government is able to change some of its social policies (whether it’s education, environment, freedom of speech), this exodus will continue to grow. Maybe the Chinese government is ok with these people leaving as it would create job openings for other Chinese. But when the population sees the trend, they will probably be motivated to move on as a whole, which could be detrimental to the political stability of the country.

This week, Alibaba will be going public. But with investment regulations being so tight for for the non-wealthy in China, they are unable to invest. This is maddening to some, as Alibaba is considered a main Chinese company. This issue could create some unrest within the investing community in China, as the pride of having a company like Alibaba have more of a foreign ownership hurts the pride of the country. The following Bloomberg article (link here) spells out the issue more.   

Both of these issues should be taken as reminders as to the limits capitalism has when operating under a political system like China’s. A country should never want its successful, rich citizens to leave. It should also give the general public the same access to their own companies stock as the wealthy do. Only then will these issues stop.

A special thanks goes out to the American way of capitalism. It is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But it does give access to those who desire it most, unlike other countries.

*This is an opinion piece. *

Week In Review for Bitcoin, Wearable Tech

As always, check out the hashtags of each of the topics to get up to the minute information.

Bitcoin
- Guardian article (link here) on the democratic disruption of finance. Thanks for the tweet @howardlindzon. 


Wearable Tech
- Nike drops Fuelband, Marketwatch story here.

Nike Fuelband Not A Failure, Neither Is Wearable Tech

This week, Nike announced that they are stopping production of the Fuelband. In a few articles, there is a sense that because Nike stopped producing the Fuelband, wearable technology is on the downturn. See Yahoo! article here. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Nike stopped because the Fuelband doesn't fit into its classic business. There are also other competitors that have a far superior technological expertise in the wearable tech space than Nike. When you have companies like Apple, Samsung, Fitbit, Polar, and others generating these products, it makes the case that Nike should not be in the space.

If you think are wondering if the Wearable Tech revolution is dead, go on twitter and hashtag wearabletech and see what you find.

Week In Review of Bitcoin, 3D Printing, Wearable Tech, and Crowdfunding

Here is some news in regards to Bitcoin, 3D Printing, Wearable Tech, and Crowdfunding. As always, check out the hashtags of each of these topics to find out up to date information.

Bitcoin

- The current price of Bitcoin (per Coinbase) is $500.00.

3D Printing
- Gillette getting into 3D Printing, 3Dprint.com article here.
- 3D Systems partners with Staples, article here.

Wearable Tech

- There will be a Wearables Hackathon starting April 25th. Info here.
- A Wearables Startup Guide Techcrunch article here.
- Fortune article on how corporate wellness programs are adopting wearable tech, story here.


Crowdfunding

- How One Spark Ignites Ideas, Entrepreneur article here.

3,000 Post Views and Counting....

Hey

KVCC would just like to thank all the kind readers that have taken time to read the various blog posted through KVCC. We have reached over 3,000 views and are consistently growing our reader base. If interested, be sure to take a look at this blog, KDK Fund blog, The Daily Disruptor blog, KVCC Idea Lab blog, and the KDK Options blog.

Week In Review for Wearable Tech, and Crowdfunding

As always, check out the hashtags of each of these topics to see what is going on.


Crowdfunding
- Will Wheaton crowdfunds Table Top. Sheldon will not be happy. Wired article here.


Wearable Tech

- Andreesen Horowitz partnering with Wearable Intelligence, a Google Glass application. Recode story here.

Week In Review in Bitcoin, 3D Printing, Crowdfunding, and Wearable Tech

As always, hashtag each topic for up to date info through Twitter.

Bitcoin
- A Wired article on how Bitcoin is changing the world, even if not as a currency. The story is here.

3D Printing
- Woman has entirely new 3D printed cranium, dvice.com story here.

- 3D Market to grow by leaps and bounds. CNBC.com article here.

- 3D Systems bringing printing to New York show. Marketwatch story here.

Crowdfunding
- Crowdfunding used as research, Bloomberg story here.


Wearable Tech

This Week In Bitcoin, 3D Printing, Wearable Tech, and Crowdfunding

As always, Twitter is a great way to check up on each of these exciting breakthrough areas. Just hashtag each of them and get a wealth of information. Some of what was found to be important is below:

Bitcoin

- Marc Andreesen discusses Bitcoin per Techcrunch article here.
- IRS to tax Bitcoin as property, not currency. The Bloomberg story is here.
- Current price of Bitcoin (per Coinbase) is $517.00


3D Printing

- Crain's Chicago Business article on how 3D Printing is revolutionizing surgery. Story here.

Wearable Tech

- Wearable Tech "energizing" battery industry with possible $70 million boost. Recode story here.

Crowdfunding

- Reminder of benefits from crowdfunding not all it's cracked up to be (ex. Facebook purchase of Oculus). Pando article here.

This Week in 3D Printing, Bitcoin, Wearable Tech, and Crowdfunding

It was a busy week in the different industries. An easy way to find out more about these topics is to hashtag them on Twitter. It's great to see the development of the topics continue.

Bitcoin

- Mt. Gox is back in the news "finding" 200,000 bitcoins in an old wallet. The Yahoo! Reuters story is here.

3D Printing

- On the investment side, a client named KDK Options purchased a call option for 3D Systems. The blog post is here.

- HP announced plans to enter the market later on in the year. The Marketwatch story is here.


Crowdfunding

- Crowdfunding is expanding in the EU. The Reuters story is here .

Wearable Tech

- There was a large convention about wearable tech in London. A link to a story on the show is here.

- Google has released its its software to its arsenal to help develop wearable tech items. The Time story can be found here.

KDK Options Buys Call Option on 3D Systems

One of Keane Venture Capital and Consulting's clients; KDK Options; has purchased an April $75.00 call option on 3D Systems. The blog post on the purchase can be found here.

Part of the reason for the purchase was the knowledge gained by reading this blog, particularly the weekly posts on 3D Printing. Hopefully, the trade will work out for them.

** This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. It is only information and opinions given.**

This Week in Bitcoin, 3D Printing, Crowdfunding, and Wearable Tech

With all four topics, a good way to get a handle (HA!) on what is going on is to hashtag each one on twitter. Plenty of news and notes are published daily.

Bitcoin

- Per Coinbase, a bitcoin is now worth $639.81.

- Buffet says to "Stay Away" per WSJ article here 


3D Printing
- Combining 3D Printing and Crowdfunding through new 3D Materials story here (per 3ders.org).

- 3D Printing Medical Awesomeness With New Fingers For Young Girl (3Dprint.com story here)

Crowdfunding

- PayPal is now more Crowdfunding Friendly (Ent story here)

Wearable Tech
- Wearables helping the elderly from Wearable World News (story here)

March 2-8 Week In Review (KDK Options, Bullied Comics, more)

Hey everyone

It was another week of growth for companies associated with Keane Venture Capital and Consulting. The following items happened:

- Bullied Comics is in touch with a national anti-bullying organization in regards to partnering for a continued developed solution to bullying. Bullied Comics also made a presentation at Elgin High School in Elgin Illinois over the weekend. Congrats!

If you want more information on Bullied Comics, please email to bulliedcomics@gmail.com or follow on Twitter @bulliedcomics.

- KDK Options closed out a trade in Morgan Stanley (link here)and opened up another with the VIX (link here).

Email any comments, questions, or concerns to kdkoptions@gmail.com.

- Post on the week's activities in Bitcoin, 3D Printing, Wearable Tech, and Crowdfunding is available to read here.

You can follow KeaneVCC's Facebook page here, follow @keanevcc, and email at keanevcc@gmail.com.

This week in Bitcoin, 3D Prining, Wearable Tech, and Crowdfunding

Hello all

Bitcoin

- There was no bigger story than that of finding the possible founder of Bitcoin. Newsweek broke the story. The link to the Bloomberg story is here.

- The value of Bitcoin (per Coinbase) is currently $638.60.

3D Printing

- The thinking is that there is no other place to be this week in regards to 3D printing than SXSW in Texas. It can be said at the moment Shapeways is having a fantastic festival with their easy to use platforms.

Wearable Tech

- SXSW is also busy checking out wearable tech.

- Be sure to check #wearabletech for a ridiculous amount of news covering this topic.


Crowdfunding

- Be sure to check #crowdfunding for all things crowdfunding.

KVCC Week In Review (KDK Fund, KDK Options, Bullied Comics, more)

Hey everyone

It was a good week for Keane Venture Capital and Consulting. KDK Options was able to start another trade by purchasing calls of Morgan Stanley (blog link here). Bullied Comics continues to develop and is coming super close to releasing its first comic in print. KDK Fund continues to post its current results and research for its next purchase (link here).  There have been over 2000 page views of the various KVCC and client blog posts!

Thank you for your continued support! If there is a project or process you would like KVCC to assist in, please contact at keanevcc@gmail.com.

- Being grateful regularly puts me in a state of mind that allows me to have a better chance of success when making my next decision.

This week in Bitcoin, 3D Printing, Wearable Tech, and Crowdfunding (Mt. Gox, Kickstarter, more)

Bitcoin

Coinbase's Brian Armstrong discusses the Mt. Gox situation in a Tech Crunch article (link here). It is important for the survival of the Bitcoin industry to be out in front on this issue. Everyone in the industry will need to work as one and be extremely transparent with their dealings in the near future.

One problem with the Mt. Gox collapse is the continued use of the word "disappearance" of the bitcoins. The bitcoins did not disappear and are in the control of someone else. It would help the industry a great deal to be able to catch the hackers and at the very least expose their actions.

Wearable Tech

- @wearablenewscom is a reliable handle in the wearable tech sector. Continue to use #wearabletech to see all things wearable being tweeted.

- Passing this GIGAOM article about having success in the wearable tech industry. The link is here.


3D Printing

- There is a monster governmental project to speed up the 3D printing process. The Forbes article link is here. Cincinnati Incorporated is partnering with Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the project.

 

Crowdfunding

- Kickstarter is close to reaching $1 billion of project funding. With contracts worth 3-5%, the founders are somewhere around 30-50 million dollars richer before expenses.

KVCC Person/Group of The Week 2/1-2/8 is Zero Percent

Each week, a person or group is promoted for their work in creating or improving a product or service. If Keane Venture Capital and Consulting has any relationship with the person or group, it will be disclosed. The weekly highlight does not mean that KVCC is recommending a purchase of a product or service. The article is not sanctioned by the individual or group.  

Recently, KVCC read a Fast Company article (link here) about the work of Zero Percent. They are a Chicago based start up. Their mission is to connect food sources (restaurants, etc.) with need centers (shelters) through its phone application.

KVCC believes that this use of innovation is exactly the example that needs to be followed and supported. For more information on Zero Percent and its team, led by Raj Karmani, you can go to their website (link here.)

Previous People or Groups of the week include Polar, John Legere and T-Mobile, Not Imposssible Labs and Time, Good Guide,AngelList, Patagonia, Blackrock Group, and Nest. 

KVCC Person/Group of The Week is Polar

Each week, a person or group is promoted for their work in creating or improving a product or service. If Keane Venture Capital and Consulting has any relationship with the person or group, it will be disclosed. The weekly highlight does not mean that KVCC is recommending a purchase of a product or service. The article is not sanctioned by the individual or group. 

This week, the group of the week is the wearable technology company Polar. They were chosen because of their consistent, extensive, and successful work done in this area for over 30 years. The amount of new wearable tech companies along with companies that are regularly focused on other areas that now are entering this market is a true validation to the vision and plan of the founders and employees of Polar. So while you will hear about all the new this and new that about heart monitors from other companies, know that Polar has been doing it for three decades. 


Previous People or Groups of the week include John Legere and T-Mobile, Not Imposssible Labs and Time, Good Guide, AngelList, Patagonia, Blackrock Group, and Nest. 

KVCC Person/Group of The Week (Jan 19-25)

Each week, a person or group is promoted for their work in creating or improving a product or service. If Keane Venture Capital and Consulting has any relationship with the person or group, it will be disclosed. The weekly highlight does not mean that KVCC is recommending a purchase of a product or service. The article is not sanctioned by the individual or group.    


This week's Person/Group of The Week is T-Mobile's CEO John Legere. Mr. Legere has directed T-Mobile into the no contract customer base with excellent results. It was one of only a few moves left for the phone company to make. With energy and proper direction, T-Mobile was able to execute their business plan well. They are now the leader in no contract plans segment of the cell phone industry and have saved their corporate lives. T-Mobile is even offering to pay early termination fees, or ETF's, to get you to switch to T-Mobile. 

But Mr. Legere has not stopped there. This week, Mr. Legere announced that T-Mobile would be entering into the check cashing business. They are calling the program Mobile Money. The program story from Yahoo! Finance can be found here. But the essential draw to the program will be the removal of fees that are normally attached to check cashing. 

Mr. Legere clearly has an innovative spirit and now has resources to back that up. This will not be the last innovation made by Mr. Legere or his T-Mobile team. There are more than a few board rooms filled up discussing changes to business plans due to the actions of Mr. Legere and T-Mobile. Let's hope they take on the same game changing attitude and not a bunkering down attitude. The consumer needs it.

Google Buys Nest....Must Have Read Our Previous Post :)

It was announced today that Google has purchased Nest, the thermostat and smoke detector company for 3.2 Billion dollars. The Bloomberg story can be read here. The reason for the purchase was to expand its device inventory.

It is a very welcome sign to see companies like Google use its resources to purchase companies like Nest. The tech know how that Tony and his team have is second to none. It makes one wonder what the conversation was like between Google and Tony. What is it that Google have in mind that got Tony to sell is intriguing. Being that Tony has worked with tech heavyweights before will make his group less afraid of the purchase. One other neat aspect of mergers of this size and capability is that there will be some employees who will step out on their own and have the knowledge base of working with Tony and Google with them.

On November 2, 2013, KVCC had spotlighted the CEO of Nest, Tony Fadell, as its Person of The Week. That post can be read here.

KVCC Person/Group of The Week

Each week, a person or group is promoted for their work in creating or improving a product or service. If Keane Venture Capital and Consulting has any relationship with the person or group, it will be disclosed. The weekly highlight does not mean that KVCC is recommending a purchase of a product or service. The article is not sanctioned by the individual or group.   

If you follow KVCC's Idea Lab blog, you know that a weekly article is written about the development of Bitcoin and the development of 3D Printing. Because of the reaction to the most recent article written (link here), KVCC's twitter account was followed by @3Dprintgirl. There was a post on @3Dprintgirl's page that described the work of this week's Person/Group of The Week is shared between Not Impossible Labs, and Time Magazine. 

Let's start off with Not Impossible Labs. Per its website (here), Not Impossible Labs is an organization that disrupts healthcare through innovative processes and products. The company and founder/CEO Mick Ebeling were recently chronicled for their current work in Sudan named Project Daniel. Project Daniel has Not Impossible Labs making prosthetic arms for as little as $100.00. This is a great example of disruption. First and foremost, violence by chopping off arms is being challenged in a new and disruptive way. The effects on both sides of this issue cannot be underestimated. Second, Not Impossible Labs has just disrupted manufacturing by creating an intensely useful creation at a very low price. How did a company like Not Impossible Labs find the demand for their work in Sudan? That is where Time Magazine comes in. 

Time magazine recently chronicled the company's work in an article here. But it also inspired the work with an article on the issue in Sudan (here). Mike Ebeling was so inspired that he took at trip to Sudan. There are so many people moved by these articles and work done, that Intel had the company give their keynote speech at CES. Congratulations to the authors (Harry McCracken in one article, Alex Perry in another, and the editorial staff at Time for bringing such a wonderful project some light.  

Congratulations to Not Impossible Labs and Time Magazine. It is exciting to find the Group of The Week through other work being done at KVCC. The disruptive power of 3D Printing within the medical instrument industry is important. Add the power of journalism to the mix and you have a great potential to be a disruptive power. This story reminds me of the current work of MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell's work with UNICEF in getting desks for children through the KIND project in Malawi. If Not Impossible Labs can get this type of work done, what's to stop the rest of us? 

KVCC Person/Group of The Week for Jan 5 is Good Guide

Each week, a person or group is promoted for their work in creating or improving a product or service. If Keane Venture Capital and Consulting has any relationship with the person or group, it will be disclosed. The weekly highlight does not mean that KVCC is recommending a purchase of a product or service. The article is not sanctioned by the individual or group.  

This week's Person/Group of the week is Good Guide. Good Guide provides scores on products in relation to subjects such as the environmental impact, the social impact, and . Their goal is to help you find products that are safe, healthy, green, and socially responsible.

There are many categories in which Good Guide judges a company's products. One of the enjoyable parts of Good Guide is that you can create your own filter in order to cater to your own specific purchasing belief system. It also has a downloadable tool bar that can help in your online shopping experience. There is an easy to use mobile app as well as having an in depth website to show you how the system works.  Both are free to use. The founder and Chief Sustainable Officer's name is Dara O'Rourke. The company was recently shown on Bloomberg TV, although it might have been a rerun of a past episode.