With the onslaught of a pandemic, startups are pitching investors these days via Zoom. COVID accelerated digital transformation, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

At least not for Blair Silverberg, CEO and co-founder of Capital, which uses a proprietary analytics platform to identify startups worth funding, and accelerates the fundraising process in stride.

Blair started investing young. He turned $5,000 in Bar Mitzvah money into $100K by value investing on the stock market. An impressive feat.

His grandmother gave him Beanie Babies when he was about 6. He sold them online for a modest profit. By the time he was 10 years old, he was reading John Burr Williams and Philip Fisher.

“Back then I think I was fascinated with business examples of the economy at work. So I thought every time I learned about a new business, I was learning about how the economy actually works.”

He’d go home after school and would order the physical annual reports in the investor relations sections of company websites. He still had these reports stacked up in giant boxes at his parents’ home.

Blair likes value investing.

Standing Out to Win the Game

“Pause. Take a breath. Think about things with first principles. Don’t follow the crowd instinctively.”

The biggest lesson Blair learned as a young investor stays with him today is monitoring performance. Monitor daily and respond instinctively.

Don't get swayed just by what others are doing. With this kind of thinking, you lose sight of your goals. You have to avoid distractions and focus on what you need to do and where you need to be.

There are great investors who think conservatively. But no matter how great they are, they miss opportunities. They get scared of financial bubbles and avoid tech investments as Warren Buffet did. 

Yet the times have changed. Buffet took the risk of investing in technology stocks. Now he’s winning the game.

Are We in a Financial Bubble?

We live in unprecedented times battling a global pandemic. Despite the crisis, the stock market is still high. Is this something that we have to be worried about?

The global stock market is worth $350 trillion and continues to rise. Every year, wealth continues to pile up. Asset prices are inflated. Not even a global pandemic can deflate these prices.

But there's a real tension between the US and China right now. And what could burst the bubble is the transition from the US to China the global financial leadership.

One day, we’re going to look back at how a Chinese company dominated the IPO list before making its debut on the New York Stock Exchange. Alibaba Group’s record-breaking initial public offering of $25 billion is a testament to this.

The three largest IPOs in history are Chinese-owned companies with zero involvement from the global financial superpower. These events have been to catalyze the shift of global financial power.

How the Pandemic Changed the Business Landscape

The pandemic took its toll on many businesses. But it has not killed the economy.

Some businesses are actually doing better because of the crisis. With the ongoing secular changes, they've benefitted tremendously from the shift to the new normal. Zoom and Slack are good examples.

Food delivery services are all rage. It's just some businesses that thrive on in-person activities are negatively affected. The healthcare industry,