🍋 Work Phones Making a Comeback

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Good Morning! Amazon paused construction of its HQ2 in Virginia amid a reassessment of office needs to account for remote work and will also close a bunch of Amazon Go’s in NYC.

ATMs are on their way out, with a new study finding cash use is down 42% from 2010. Zoom abruptly fired its president after ten months on Friday.

Assistants are asking their bosses for more prestigious job titles such as “strategic business partners,” “administrative leads” and “management associates.” And Coinbase bought a crypto hedge fund and has its eyes set on institutional clients.

Today's sponsor, LMNT is a delicious electrolyte drink mix, used by professional athletes. LMNT is offering Short Squeez readers a free sample pack with any purchase.

1. Story of the Day: Work Phones Making a Comeback

Since the pandemic, more and more companies have provided mobile phones for employees. But for businesses, providing their employees with smartphones is more than just a trendy corporate perk. It's a savvy move to safeguard sensitive information and regulate app usage.

Some Wall Street vets might remember the Blackberry era, which took the corporate world by storm around 2010. But as iPhones and Androids emerged and employees could access work email on their personal phones, companies started skimping on company-issued devices to save costs. However, with the rise of cyber threats and the ever-growing need for data security, businesses are rethinking this strategy.

Regulatory bodies like the S.E.C. are cracking down on unauthorized private communication, particularly on platforms like WhatsApp and personal email. Last September alone, Wall Street firms faced over $2 billion in fines over improper WhatsApp usage. Some companies are going even further by banning ChatGPT and TikTok on their firewalls.

As privacy concerns continue to mount, many organizations are left with a tough decision to make. On one hand, they can demand that their employees delete popular apps like TikTok and WhatsApp from their personal phones. Or, they can opt for providing a corporate device that allows them to better control sensitive company data.

Takeaway: Business is booming for wireless carriers despite an already saturated market. Carriers keep adding millions of new subscribers from corporate phone sales alone, and Verizon saw a 50% growth in business-phone customers last year.

2. Markets Rundown

Stocks broke a four-week losing streak as the Treasury yield retreated.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Samsara ($IOT) +15% after the internet-of-things company announced Q4 earnings.

• (+) Asana ($ASAN) +9% after an upgrade by D.A. Davidson.

• (–) Bumble ($BMBL) -9% after its CEO and Blackstone sold shares.

Private Dealmaking

• Croma Medicine, a gene editing biotech startup, raised $135 million

• Kindbody, a women’s fertility provider, raised $100 million

• Electrify Video Partners, a startup that invests in YouTube channels, raised $50 million

• Tome, a PowerPoint alternative that uses ChatGPT to instantaneously produce presentations, raised $43 million

• Here Not There Labs, a developer of blockchain group messaging, raised $25.5 million

• Jump, a rival to Ticketmaster founded by A-Rod and Marc Lore, raised $20 million

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3. Top Reads

• How layoffs can have negative long-term consequences for companies (Axios)

• 4 cities where Goldman thinks real estate prices could drop (YF)

• Silvergate Bank’s slow-motion fall (Axios)

• The rise and fall of Silvergate’s crypto business (YF)

• Tesla stock more popular than ever among individual investors (WSJ)

• Is the economy gentrifying? (NYT)

• Why rate hikes haven’t affected the economy more (Axios)

• FTC warns companies to keep AI claims in tech (TC)

• What Elon Musk gets right - and very wrong - about solving AI (Vox)

4. Book of the Day: The 1% Rule

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It’s not working.

Not only is it not working with our ability to achieve our goals, we’ve never been more frustrated, stuck and unfulfilled.

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Enter The 1% Rule — a daily system designed to help you close the gap without the crushing pressure that leads most people less inspired, and more stuck.

“When you truly love who you’re becoming, you become unstoppable.”

5. Short Squeez Picks

• Why emotional intelligence can be more important than IQ at work

• 19 Stoic rules for a better life

• How physics can explain business

• 9 evening habits that make all the difference

• The secret to loving winter

What Else To Read

If you enjoy Short Squeez, you will surely appreciate Milk Road. It provides a perfect mix of insightful content and humorous commentary.

The crypto market moves at the pace of light and Milk Road provides a concise and straightforward daily summary.

Join 250k+ satisfied crypto readers.

6. Daily Visual: Fortune 500 Woman CEOs

_{Source: Axios}

7. Daily Acumen

“The way we deal with risk vs. luck couldn’t be further apart. One is instantly recognized and we can’t wait until it’s over, the other causes instant denial that it might ever end.

It happens in investing, where every decline has to be explained and blamed on someone else, but every increase is usually accepted and attributed to your own intelligence.

It happens in business – so many big tech companies are laying off workers because they assumed the Covid-19 business bump would remain permanent.

It happens in careers, where everything from cheap money to macro tailwinds can shift the gap between how much you earn and how much value you produce.

People are much more attuned to negative anomalies than positive ones, especially for things that impact their own lives. It’s such a hard thing to manage.

Maybe the broadest way to protect yourself is the simple rule that the luckier you are, the nicer you should be.

The more successful you are, the nicer you should be.

The better things are going, the nicer you should be.

That’s probably the best – or only – way to guard against entitlement, which is the main thing that blindsides you when luck turns the other way.”

Source: Collab Fund

8. Memes of the Day

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