{"id":55610,"date":"2021-09-13T19:15:44","date_gmt":"2021-09-13T23:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=55610"},"modified":"2021-09-13T21:20:05","modified_gmt":"2021-09-14T01:20:05","slug":"why-paypal-is-so-much-better-the-beginning-of-a-journey-into-small-company-and-personal-automation-check-check-check","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=55610","title":{"rendered":"Why PayPal is so much better. The beginning of a journey into small company and personal automation. CHECK. CHECK. CHECK."},"content":{"rendered":"

I used to be a publisher of magazines. That was before the Internet. In those halycon days a publisher had to mail potential subscribers, beg them to subscribe for a year or two…and then do another round of begging in a year or two.<\/p>\n

No longer. These days, publishers are much more intelligent. They entice you with a $1 a month “trial subscription”, then hit your credit card with $50 a month – forever and ever. Unless you cancel.<\/p>\n

Cancelling rarely works. The publisher has a call center that doesn’t answer emails or the phone etc.<\/p>\n

I have tried cancelling through Visa and MasterCard. But that doesn’t work either. They say they’ve “discussed” it with the vendor. He says I’m wrong and can go pound sand.<\/p>\n

Enter PayPal.\u00a0 Finally a solution.<\/p>\n

Here’s Peacock TV inside PayPal.<\/p>\n

I wanted to try Peacock. But it’s not for me. I much prefer YouTubeTV.<\/p>\n

PayPal has a magic button: “Cancel.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I hit it and behold:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I tried to get my bank to issue me finite value credit cards — like for $30. But I never heard back from them.<\/p>\n

Bricks and mortar banks have zero imagination.<\/p>\n

Meantime, I would like to subscribe to Bloomberg. They have $1.99 a month subscription which bounces quickly (not sure when) to $290 and then to $475 a year — automatically billed to my credit card. I like the idea of trying Bloomberg, and they do say I can “cancel anytime.” They just don’t say how, where or when! No phone numbers. No email addresses.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, I think back on all the many ideas I’ve suggested to my standard bricks and mortar bank. And how manyy have been adopted — zilch!<\/p>\n

That lack of interest in innovating is reflected in this simple 10-year stock chart of PayPal versus JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Guess why I own shares in PYPL and none in JPM or C?<\/p>\n

Please update your Apple software<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Apple has released a patch to a zero-day flaw \u201cthat affects every iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch,\u201d TechCrunch reports<\/a>. Update your devices, folks.<\/p>\n

I updated Susan’s and my iPhone and my Apple Watch. Easy as pie. Do it now.<\/p>\n

Got a great new company idea?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Business Insider<\/em> has just published of\u00a0The 50 most important VCs in New York, according to other VCs.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s\u00a0 really good list. It includes the doyen of them all, namely Fred Wilson, Click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Check. Check. Check.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

When IBM had “Think”, I had CHECK. CHECK. CHECK. Much better.<\/p>\n

+ Check that you gave them your correct address — not the one in their stupid computer.<\/p>\n

+ Check that you hit the “one time” button — not the “every month” button.<\/p>\n

+ Check that you look both ways twice<\/strong> before you drive across the intersection. Connie, age 95, taught me that one.<\/p>\n

+ Check the bottom step going down. That’s the most dangerous one and the one that breaks ankles.<\/p>\n

The beginning of a journey<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Friends who own small businesses are turning me onto two automation companies — Zapier<\/strong><\/a> and ifttt.com<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Matt Wood of my brilliant insurance broker MetzWood<\/strong><\/a> turned me onto Zapier. He says it’s like an API Bridge which joins his software together. For example, if Harry (me) fills in a form (in one software), Harry will get an email (from another sofware) and then maybe a voice mail…. Matt explains “If this, then that.”<\/p>\n

I’m still scrambling to see how Zapier or ifttt would work for me, since I’m not a business with many employees. But I can see how these simple tools — including RingCentral, (which Matt loves) might significantly improve my customers’ experiences where I running a business.<\/p>\n

Neither Zapier or ifttt is public but UIPath<\/strong><\/a> is. Remember these intriquing words from Path’s website?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After I sent out this blog by email, I found these powerful words on the ifttt.com site:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There’s serious value in these three companies. I don’t which one is best for your company. But I’m already seeing some applications just for me and how to make me more “productive.”<\/p>\n

Favorite cartoons<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It’s another awful day for our stocks. But all the losses are coming in stocks we’re up big on — so I don’t care.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, the weather up here is stunning — blue skies and all that. And I did good on the court today.<\/p>\n

I sold LOGI and VMEO. I had small positions and they didn’t seem to be going anywhere.<\/p>\n

See you tomorrow. Or so. — Harry Newton<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I used to be a publisher of magazines. That was before the Internet. In those halycon days a publisher had to mail potential subscribers, beg them to subscribe for a year or two…and then do another round of begging in a year or two. No longer. These days, publishers are much more intelligent. They entice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55610"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55675,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55610\/revisions\/55675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}