. SEEDTABLE

December 20th | #55

The best stuff of 2019 and a personal reflection

Hey there,

This is my first end-of-year review, and the last Seedtable of the year – and the decade. Next week I’m going to be enjoying family in Argentina while working on something very cool for y’all.

But before I dive into it, let me ask you something – what's the one thing you'd like me to do more of in 2019?

Let's do it.

The best emails of 2019

General topics

• A playbook for European Tech Hubs - this is probably my fave one.

• The counterintuitive ideas that make Entrepreneur First work – a fantastic conversation with Matt Clifford from Entrepreneur First.

Startup hubs

• Estonia is like Lord of the Rings – why Estonia is a great place to start a startup.

• La French Tech – Paris is the most interesting tech scene in Europe today. Here's why.

• Das Berlin Startup Szene – should you move to Berlin?

Industry deep-dives

• – why the scooter industry is going to consolidate. I loved this one, mostly because I was right. I like being right.

• and What's for dinner tonight? – a look into the food delivery industry.

• – the Gimlet acquisition and why Spotify could be Adsense.

Policy and politics

• – a look into the Microsoft antitrust suit, and European tech.

• – the perfect example of regulation and second-order consequences.

• A dark day for internet freedom – a rant on Article 11, Article 13 and free speech.

The best books of 2019

These recommendations come from me and from other readers like you.

• The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro.

• Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnigan.

• Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear.

• The Fish That Ate The Whale: The Life And Times of America’s Banana King by Rich Cohen.

• The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee.

What was good and what could've been better

Seedtable started in late 2018 as a small side project. I was in Argentina and wanted to reconnect with the European tech scene. A few friends were kind enough to subscribe and provide some early feedback.

In early 2019 I wrote the Spotify piece, my first original take. For some reason, it (sort-of) blew up. At least on a small ...