Canadian Geese fly together

The missing link: Yesterday the 2X Women of The Year Nomination reminder had an incorrect link. Here it is. Get your noms in by June 5th, folks!

Trendy outerwear brand Canada Goose flaps its way into China -- and a $3.4B market cap

Just 2 years after opening its first retail store, Toronto-based (and family-owned) goose down arctic wear company Canada Goose has its sights set on making China their 8th and 9th storefronts and an e-commerce partnership with Alibaba’s online Tmall.

9 stores? What are we just reporting on anything now?

Before you get your feathers in a ruffle, consider: We’re talking about jackets that retail at $1k -- and a company with a multi-billion-dollar market cap.

What the flock is Canada Goose?

Founded in a Toronto warehouse in 1957 by Sam Tick, the brand has been under the leadership of Tick’s son-in-law David Reiss since 2001.

In that time, the Goose has increased their annual revenue from less than $3.5m to $283m. Last year, it hit the Toronto Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange and today it has a market cap of $3.4B.

Yeah.

They were low key one of the best retail IPOs of 2017

In a year with a relatively short list of IPOs, the dark horse retailer stole the show, with stock up about 150% from its 2017 IPO price to its closing price at the end of the year.

2018 has been a hot year for the winter-coat company as well. Through the first 6 months of fiscal 2018, Canada Goose expanded its top line by 40% over the prior-year period.

Rugged-gone-bougie

Canada Goose’s understated success comes at a time when blue-collar wear has become the cool duds on campus. Especially with, dare we say it, hipsters.

These days, a pair of Red Wing Boots seem more authentic on an indie rock guitarist than a roofer. It all arguably started with a little marketing twist from the canvas-forward Nike of workmen (and hipster fave for beanies and coveralls): Dearborn, Michigan-based Carhartt.

According to Canada Goose, Chinese consumers are starting to show interest in legacy cold-weather brands. In other words, ‘outdoor’ is ‘in style.’

GM ‘Cruises’ to self-driving dominance with another $2.25B in the tank

Cruise, the autonomous-driving division of General Motors, just fueled up with a high-octane $2.25B investment from Japan’s SoftBank -- to challenge its primary competitor, Google (which runs Waymo).

In an effort to pull ahead in an industry expected to reach $2T in the US by 2050, GM will commit $1.1B more to the project (and retain 80.4% ownership) to get commercial self-driving cars on the road by 2019.

Cruise is already in the fast lane

Since acquiring Cruise in 2016, GM has been careful not to become a backseat driver, letting the company operate independently. It seems to be working -- Cruise improved performance 1.4k% last year (more quickly than any competitor).

GM bought the San Francisco startup in 2016 for $581m, and just 2 years later, this SoftBank investment values the company at $11.5B.

So who’s winning? Depends on which numbers you look at

In California, Google leads the pack in terms of miles driven (352k to GM’s 131k), but GM has more test vehicles on the road (94 to Google’s 75). While GM’s tech is improving faster, Google still holds an edge in overall performance.

But any way you slice it, Google and GM are the two leaders by a massive margin -- with startups like Drive.ai and Zoox trailing hundreds of thousands of miles behind and auto-tech companies like Uber and Tesla backing down after high-profile accidents.

MoviePass continues to peel back the layers of its ‘grand plan,’ with MoviePass Films (266)

As MoviePass continues to flush cash down movie theater toilets like a bag of drugs in a Tarantino movie, the subscription service is moving forward with the next act of their plan to dominate Tinseltown.

On Wednesday, MoviePass’s parent company Helios and Matheson Analytics announced a MoviePass production company (that they have a 51% stake in) aptly named MoviePass Films.

The new venture will produce films that MoviePass plans to market to its 2.7m members and other moviegoers. But, the question remains, how are they going to make money?

You know what they say, in Hollywood, it’s all about who ya know

Helios and Matheson is partnering with EFO films (who owns the other 49% of MPF) in a cash and stock deal that gives them the exclusive option to buy EFO’s movie library and current production slate (which includes Martin Scorsese’s upcoming movie for Netflix).

In exchange, EFO will pay MoviePass to market their films.

It’s aaalll part of the plan…

MoviePass’s CEO Mitch Lowe discussed the plan to distribute their own movies back in January, and in April, Lowe told Quartz that he saw Movie Pass’s partnerships with movie studios as one of the company’s biggest avenues for revenue growth.

It may seem like a Hail Mary, but this cash grab has been part of their playbook all along, and whether MoviePass becomes the next big thing or just another starry-eyed Hollywood reject, the company’s third act is not to be missed.

After 82 years, Canon sends its film cameras to the Big Dark Room in the Sky

Canon issued a heartbreaking statement yesterday that it would discontinue sales of film cameras and pull its final EOS-1v from the sales rack.

The rise of inexpensive digital cameras (like the one in your iPhone) has led to a mass extinction of old-school film cameras, and Canon isn’t the only company kicking the canister.

Film is an endangered species

Competitor Leica announced last week that it would discontinue one of its 3 remaining film cameras, while Fujifilm announced it would discontinue several of its remaining film varieties due to diminishing demand.

Nikon still makes a film camera -- but its cheapest option is nearly $3k, enough to make even the most hardcore filmophile consider taking a Snap instead.

Canon produced its last film cameras in 2010, but just sold out of inventory 8 years later -- underscoring how tiny the film camera market has become.

Camera companies are looking for a new hobby

Canon maintains a narrow lead in digital camera market share (21%) -- slightly more than Sony (20%) and Nikon (14%), but even digital camera sales declined 28% in the first month of 2018.

Now, it’s up to hipsters and history books to keep the memories of Canon film in focus.

Our top 20 audiobooks on life and business, recommended by… you

Two weeks ago we asked you to send us your favorite audiobooks and got enough suggestions for a lifetime of listening — so, we’re splitting them up into business and pleasure.

First, down to business: Here are the top 20 reader-recommended titles for building better businesses, being more productive, understanding how the world ticks, and just plain living better.

STOP. EDUCATE AND LISTEN →

1. Today, using newspapers to blend into a crowd is more suspicious than not using one.
2. When you get out of school at 3, it felt very late. When you get off work at 3, it feels like you got half your day back.
3. Ads vs Ad Blockers is the Arms Race of the internet.
4. There is no such thing as a baby butterfly.
5. Copy and paste are the gateway drugs of keyboard shortcuts.
6. via Reddit

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They’re incredibly helpful.

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monday.com serves up a mean dashboard of productivity

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