#weatherbill

[parkparadigm]

How to turn £1 into £6,427

Warning: requires patience and conviction, very rare ingredients in the investment world, without which the recipe will not turn out as hoped...

Invest £1 in 10 shares of Betfair (at £0.10*) in February 2000

Sell 10 shares of Betfair (at £13.20) in April 2006

Hold GBP deposit (at 5%) until November 2006

Convert GBP to USD (at 1.905) in November 2006

Invest $258.72 in 862.4 shares of Weatherbill (at $0.30*) in November 2006

Sell 862.4 shares of Weatherbill** (at $12.00*) in November 2013

Convert USD to GBP (at 1.61) in November 2013

Works out to just under 90% IRR over almost 14 years.*** Pretty sure that beats Buffett, Soros, etc. but to be fair would not scale to billions of dollars and brokers/traders would hate this type of strategy as they would get bored with it…and past returns are no indication of future returns (which of course why it is such a mystery as to why pretty much the entire multi-trillion dollar investment industry allocates capital based almost entirely on past returns…)

Oh and for anyone interested my next trade was:

Convert GBP to EUR

Invest in Anthemis Group SA

Notes:

* split adjusted

** name changed to Climate Corporation, acquired by Monsanto

*** only possible as a result of the amazing vision and talent of entrepreneurs like Ed Wray, Bert Black, David Friedberg, Siraj Khaliq and their teams...

[4thquarterthoughts]

the strategy is to first know what you don’t know, the tactic is to grind, and the value is to remember: there are plenty of places to innovate. Read more: http://firstround.com/article/Theres-a-00006-Chance-of-Building-a-Billion-Dollar-Company-How-This-Man-Did-It#ixzz2hC8ySIlb

[hackingfinance]

Who knew betting on the weather could make a billion dollars?

Monsanto Buys Climate Corp For $930 Million - Forbes

>> ummm... we did.

[parkparadigm]

The Climate Corp. has to simulate the weather, and that means getting even more granular. For each point on a grid, it has come up with 10,000 scenarios that could affect a grower two years out, Khaliq said. Eventually, that figure will seem like peanuts and is likely to reach 100,000. This represents The Climate Corp.'s biggest data set -- 20 to 30 terabytes of data generated monthly.

AllAnalytics - Beth Schultz - Where Big Data, the Cloud, & Corn Collide

Big Data is the future of finance. Proud investor in the-company-formerly-known-as-Weatherbill since 2006.

[parkparadigm]

As Kedrosky says, things are still very early in the "feed the world" cycle. But these food jocks might just be what the business world needs. The general population could certainly use a few dream makers that don't issue from the banking world. Technology was once viewed as an undeveloped Wild West. Now, a group of teenagers heading off to 4H club in Iowa could be the next Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Twenty years from now, they may even have a ticket to be on a national magazine cover.

Business' next generation of 'cover boys' - Fortune Tech

>> I'd vote for David Friedberg (Weatherbill)

[parkparadigm]

This column is just a starting point for discussions that examine weather, sensors, data, networks, and their combined influence on commerce, with particular focus on the effects these technologies will have on energy consumption. Over the last couple of years, there has been a heightened interest in this area from the applied research side, evidenced by new topics and sessions presented at the annual conferences of the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Society, and others. Investors, too, have been backing companies in the weather data space, including recently Google Ventures, Khosla Ventures and NEA’s support of weather insurance company WeatherBill.

Weather Data Is the Next Smart Grid Opportunity: Cleantech News and Analysis «

yep.

[parkparadigm]

David Greaves, director of the RSA insurance company said: "Bad weather in the run up to Christmas will have a major impact on the UK's economy and could lead to significant losses for already struggling businesses.

Snow: Britain faces £12bn weather bill - Yorkshire Post

...exactly why the world needs Weatherbill...

[parkparadigm]

"The increasing frequency of extreme weather events has only made it more difficult for businesses of all sizes to predict and manage their financial results," said David Friedberg, chief executive officer of WeatherBill and a former founding member of Google's corporate development team. "According to government statistics, extreme weather costs the U.S. agriculture industry tens of billions of dollars each year. Similar estimates for the energy, travel, outdoor entertainment, and construction industries underscores how business managers, now more than ever, need a way to protect their bottom line from the effects of climate change. That's what WeatherBill does - it gives businesses a simple and affordable way to lock in profits and offset the economic impact of bad weather."

AgriMarketing.com

...I love this company. ;)