Grandma Would Have Waymo'd!

I was in high school when I first heard the amazing sound of what can only be described as a long scratch and screech, followed by a series of rapid beeps. The anticipation would build as you awaited those wonderful three words “You’ve Got Mail!” I can remember it like it was yesterday as I sat at the dinner table and shared with my parents how I could use our phone line to dial something called the Internet on a website called AOL. I could send virtual letters to my friends, called email and download photos and even short videos. I was absolutely blown away. My parents were less than enthused.

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When I went off to college in 1996, computers had evolved quickly and long gone were the days of The Oregon Trail, replaced with what seemed like even faster internet speeds and an ever-evolving platform. In addition to AOL, the mothership of all internet destinations, search engines such as Lycos or Ask Jeeves began popping up, and just about every day it seemed there were new things to discover in this amazing virtual world. By the time my sophomore year was done, I had to somehow get involved.

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The vision I had was rather revolutionary in that I could clearly see the internet being a destination for every single business in the world. Wouldn’t most businesses want to share their products and services with those on the internet, thus giving them an experience of what the business was all about before a person ever stepped foot in their doors? It seemed so obvious to me.

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For the next several months I spent countless hours in the basement of the WT Young Library on the University of Kentucky campus teaching myself a program by Microsoft called “Front Page” and when I had even a small understanding, began peddling the idea of charging local businesses to develop a website. What an easy sale….or so I thought.

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I know it’s hard to imagine, but I would say that 3 out of 4 businesses I approached had absolutely no interest in developing a website, much less any web presence at all. “We’re good with the Yellow Pages” I would often hear or even the more abrupt “This fad will NOT last” I can even remember one gentleman running a well-established business in Lexington at the time, who proceeded to have a 10 minute conversation with me about how there was no way people would stop randomly showing up in his store ‘foot traffic’ and that his edge was always the ability to talk to his customer face to face. “There is no way a computer will ever replace that” he confidently told me. He’s not in business today.

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Slowly but surely folks embraced this new technology and the move was on, fast and impossible to stop. Our business grew, our ideas were on point, we raised capital and for about 6 months we were IPO bound. A fun fact most of you don’t know is that in 1999 I dropped out of college to attempt to take our business public and make a few billion. The short version is we missed our window, I finished my degree, and the first epic failure of my career turned into what I have the privilege of doing each and every day with all of you.

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I have often had many of my clients share with me that despite their age, they don’t feel any older than they did in their 20’s. With sharp minds and enthusiasm it is only their physical bodies that seem to slow down with time. As I round the corner to 50, I now fully understand as the technological advancements taking place at this moment have me as excited or more than when I first opened that CD-Rom in the mail and logged into AOL!

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Recently I spent some time in Phoenix and had the opportunity of trying a Waymo. If you’re not aware, Google, or Alphabet, their corporate name, owns a division of their business which is driverless automobiles. Think Uber, without the driver! What I find fascinating about this is that not a day passes without a headline regarding when or rather HOW will Tesla become full self driving. In fact, look at this headline from a competitor regarding Tesla’s full-self driving.

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You know the funny thing about this? Google and their Waymo brand have been doing this successfully now for a few years! That’s right, in Phoenix, Austin, and San Francisco you’ll see Jaguars driving around the city without a driver. These cars are equipped with bubble like radars on the top, multiple cameras, strange things that rotate on the sides and a host of other oddities attached for what I’m assuming is safety. Well, much like the first AOL and dial-up, you know I had to try it! (I hope you enjoyed my video above!)

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While I never set out to write a formal review you probably can guess my reaction. It’s not only here, it’s going to spread very very fast! This is just one area of technology that is advancing so very rapidly and so very exciting. Kick and scream all you want, times are changing and as investors, there’s money to be made!

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Out of all my family members who I shared my ideas regarding the computer and internet within high school, there was one who became the most excited. At the time, my 70ish year old grandmother Ada Jane was living in Sun City Arizona and was beyond intrigued about my excitement over the computer and AOL. She asked if I would come out and help her set up a computer, equipped with dial up internet and AOL. I did and we proceeded to email each other almost daily the remainder of my high school and college career. As a life long investor she always embraced technology and wasn’t scared of it. She chose to see the positives and while understanding the negatives didn’t allow that to slow her down. She began teaching computer classes at their local community center helping other grandparents set up computers to share emails with their grand kids. Shortly before her passing, I spent time with her and shared that we had started a podcast. She was on the edge of her seat and couldn’t get enough. I’m convinced that the next step would have been for her to buy a mic and begin her own!

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In my home office I have a stock certificate of? hers framed and hanging from the 1950s. The unique aspect of the stock certificate is that it bears her name, not her husband’s. Think about that for a moment. The 1950s.

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There is no question in my mind, Ada Jane would have been cruising around Sun City in a Waymo and emailing me about her adventures!

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Despite the ups and downs in markets, the inevitable pullbacks and scary environments we will go through, I can say without a shadow of a doubt I have never been more excited about the technological advancements taking place in our lives and the future opportunities because of that. Let us all choose to embrace these changes and look upon them as Ada Jane would, with excitement and enthusiasm!

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Until next time

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~ Quint

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