The Pillar project, which is being run by CVA member company 20/30, is currently running its token launch online. This was the occasion for Wired magazine to interview 20/30’s founder David Siegel as part of a larger article on token launches.
As Siegel told the magazine, while the Pillar idea has been around for a long time, until now he had not been able to raise money in the traditional VC world. Thanks to the advent of the token launch, he can now do so directly with the public.
“I couldn’t raise any money for Twenty Thirty from investors, because they didn’t get what we were doing; now we have ordinary people hammering our email about Pillar,” Siegel says. “These people really want to fund this open source project.”
The article goes on to discuss the pros and cons of token launches – often called ICOs though, in the opinion of an increasing number of people, more properly referred to as token generating events or TGEs – and the opportunities and challenges they represent.
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Financial information is king and Thomson Reuters Corporation holds the crown. The company is the market leader in financial data (ahead of rival information provider Bloomberg). Thomson Reuters provides electronic information and services to businesses and professionals worldwide, serving the financial services, media, legal, tax and accounting, and science markets. Data is primarily offered online, and to a lesser extent via CD-ROM and print formats; nearly all revenues come from subscription sales to its plethora of offerings. Thomson Reuters was created in 2008 as the result of the $16 billion cash and stock purchase of news service Reuters by information provider The Thomson Corporation.
Operations
The company is organized into four business units. Its Financial & Risk segment accounted for more than 50% of total net sales in fiscal 2014. The segment provides news, information, and analytics to financial institutions.
The company's Legal segment provides online and print information, decision tools, software, and services that support legal, investigation, business, and government professionals. The Legal unit accounted for more than 25% of total net sales in fiscal 2014.
Thomson Reuters' Tax & Accounting segment offers integrated tax compliance and accounting information, software, and services to accounting firms, corporations, law firms, and governments. The unit accounted for 11% of total net sales in fiscal 2014.
The company's Intellectual Property & Science segment provides comprehensive intellectual property and scientific information, decision support tools, and services to governments, academia, publishers, corporations, and law firms. The Intellectual Property & Science unit accounted for 8% of total net sales in fiscal 2014.
Geographic Reach
Thomson Reuters has a truly global scale indeed. The company operates in more than 100 countries, and more than 40% of revenues come from outside the Americas. The business has US offices in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, and Texas, and international offices in London and Bangalore, India.
Sales and Marketing
Thomson Reuters sells its products and services directly to its customers. In addition, it has been successful in selling some of its products and services online directly to customers. Focusing some of the marketing and sales efforts online has allowed it to broaden the range of customers and reduce sales and marketing costs.
Financial Performance
In fiscal 2014 Thomson Reuters' revenue was $12.6 billion. That was a decrease of $95 million compared to fiscal 2013. The primary reason for the drop was decreased sales from the company's Financial & Risk unit partially offset by increased sales from the Tax & Accounting segment.
The company's net income was $1.9 billion in fiscal 2014. That was a dramatic increase compared to the previous fiscal period. The primary reason was due to decreased operating expenses.
Thomson Reuters ended fiscal 2014 with $2.3 billion in cash on hand from operations. That was an increase of $263 million compared to the prior fiscal year.
Strategy
The company's growth strategy mainly involves developing new products, services, applications, and functionalities to better meet its customers' needs.
