Napkin Math

Business breakdowns, by the numbers.

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Napkin Math

The Futility of Utility

A personal essay

Apr 8, 2022 by Evan Armstrong

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The Meh-taverse

A Book Review

1 Aug 4, 2022 by Evan Armstrong

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The Quest for Monopoly

A history of stock market exchanges: from fragmentation to monopoly, monopoly to fragmentation and back again.

Aug 25, 2020 by Adam Keesling

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When Content Creation Goes to Zero

AI is making a world where it costs nothing to produce anything. What happens next?

Feb 23, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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Why Are Republicans Better at Making Money on the Internet?

What consumer tech and media got wrong

May 11, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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How Chegg Grew Their Share Price 20x In Four Years

Chegg grew their stock price from under $10 to over $85. They did it by changing their business model from the ground up and investing in digital media content.

Sep 18, 2020 by Adam Keesling

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How Startups Can Survive the Creator Economy Winter

The Race for Revenue Share

May 19, 2022 by Evan Armstrong

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AI Can Construct a Trading Strategy Now

And it means there are big changes ahead for what software can do

Jun 22, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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The Bugman Cometh

My sick, unexplainable desire to buy a face computer

1 Jun 6, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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What I Learned From Being Cancer Free

Seven Years of Freedom

Sep 8, 2022 by Evan Armstrong

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You Need to Know What You Are Betting On

How to think about investing in a startup versus a public company

1 Sep 7, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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Has Venture Lost Its Soul?

A Book Review of The Power Law

Jul 15, 2022 by Evan Armstrong

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Cash—Kingmaker or Killer?

A examination of when cash can anoint a market winner

Apr 28, 2022 by Kyle Harrison

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The Internet Demands Greatness

No one cares, so take more risks

5 Aug 31, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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Software is Eating the Individual

The Embedded Human

Jun 10, 2022 by Evan Armstrong

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The AI Writer

How tech is changing what it means to be an author

Sep 22, 2022 by Evan Armstrong

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7 Reasons Media Is a No-Good, Horrible, Rotten Business That I Love Anyways

Plus a few things that bring me hope

1 May 4, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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Announcing Napkin Math Fiscal Year 2021

After a short break, Napkin Math returns with a new writer

🔒 Apr 13, 2021 by Evan Armstrong and Adam Keesling

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Snap’s Probably Screwed (Again)

Maybe Elon should buy it

Jul 27, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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Pinterest Has a Chance

The first full-stack shopping platform

Nov 10, 2022 by Evan Armstrong

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Joe Rogan: The Platform-Proof Creator

Spotify’s No-Win Predicament

2 Feb 25, 2022 by Evan Armstrong

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Defense Tech Shouldn’t Be Sexy

Weapons are a necessary evil, not a hype-y consumer product

1 Sep 14, 2023 by Evan Armstrong

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Investing on Instinct

Why the best deals are done with no data at all

1 Dec 1, 2021 by Evan Armstrong

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NFT Projects are just MLMs for Tech Elites

A somewhat impartial review of current NFT business models

4 Sep 30, 2021 by Evan Armstrong

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Recommendation Algorithms Are a Necessary Evil (Sort Of)

AI is about to remake our information ecosystem and it is past time for us to prepare

Mar 9, 2023 by Evan Armstrong