Black Kite on the CrowdStrike Outage
Welcome to the Volition View!
In today's Volition View, we are excited to feature a recent article from Black Kite sharing their analysis on the recent CrowdStrike outage.
Also included in this edition:
Black Kite on the CrowdStrike Outage
Ferhat Dikbiyik, Ph.D., CTIA , CRIO at Black Kite , recently published a blog post titled "CrowdStrike Outage: Lessons on Fragility and Resilience." In the article, Ferhat walks through several critical aspects of the routine sensor update that resulted in a global IT crisis.
Specifically, Ferhat breaks down what exactly happened from a technical perspective as well as the aftermath including tireless efforts to restore affected systems, government and vendor responses, a new dilemma for CISOs, and what lessons can be learned on fragility and resilience. Additionally, the article looks ahead highlighting the "concentration risk around a particular vendor" and the need for "diversified resilient systems."
Key excerpt:
"During this incident, Black Kite actively supported our customers by providing CrowdStrike-specific FocusTags™ to help identify and manage associated risks. We also guided the use of our Supply Chain Module to pinpoint vulnerabilities and mitigate potential impacts. Additionally, we alerted our customers to possible phishing campaigns related to this incident.
Click here to read the full article:
Scaling Success: Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah on Scaling Success Podcast
In this episode of Scaling Success, Volition Capital Managing Partner, Sean Cantwell , sits down with Wayfair CEO and Volition Capital SAB Member Niraj Shah.
Sean and Niraj discuss a variety of topics including Niraj’s entrepreneurial journey, advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, the future of Wayfair, and so much more!
Portfolio News: hackajob launches hackajob intelligence
Recommended by LinkedIn
hackajob announced the launch of "their biggest platform upgrade in a decade" in hackajob intelligence (hi). hackajob intelligence empowers companies to source, schedule, qualify, and hire top tech talent.
Leveraging a knowledge graph with 50m unique data points, hackajob intelligence helps companies discover talent based on context and not keywords. hi will not only surface the most relevant candidates for a role but explain back to the user why they’re a good fit, enabling them to refine their prompt and hi to learn and improve its recommendations.
Make sure to sign up for hackajob's July 31 Linkedin Live where the hackajob executive team will be unveiling the platform!
Volition Media: ICYMI: Investor Roundtable 2024
In the last edition of the Volition View, we featured our annual Investor Roundtable where five of our investors shared insights and perspectives on a variety of topics including what industries currently excite them, advice for founders raising capital, and more!
Over the next several weeks, we will be featuring excerpts from the Roundtable on social media. Below, please see Volition Capital Principal, Steve Achatz's answer to the question, "What sectors or areas currently excite you from an investment perspective? Where do you think the best opportunities currently lie?"
Steve Achatz (Principal, I&C): We remain really excited about consumer internet opportunities despite the uncertain macro conditions. The private investment community as whole tends to stop investing in consumer categories when there’s economic uncertainty which seems like an overreaction and creates opportunity for those willing to lean in. While some categories are certainly more discretionary and there’s perhaps a higher bar to success without the pandemic-era consumer spend tailwinds, there are still excellent companies out there.
If anything, the environment helps flush out the highest quality companies by removing the excess funding that can muddy the waters around unit economics and paid customer acquisition (sometimes for entire categories). The highest quality companies, who have been able to grow even with capital constraints, will be hitting their stride. Finally, the same generational consumer preference shifts that have fueled the emergence of so many new brands and companies over the last decade will continue through economic cycles.
Click here to read the Investor Roundtable in its entirety.
Portfolio Fun: Automatiq: Average Resale Ticket Prices at the Sphere!
The Automatiq team continues to share interesting data around pricing trends in the ticketing space!
Make sure to check Automatiq out on Linkedin for charts and insights around ticket trends for your favorite bands, sports teams, and more!
Thanks for the read! We would love to hear what you think, so feel free to reply to this email if you would like to chat.
-The Volition Team
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