Introduction
The common thread that connects finance professionals with decades of experience and a commerce graduate who has just entered the industry, is the need to keep up with the latest events in the global markets and to also constantly learn about new concepts in the industry. YouTube can help satisfy these needs, by being a powerhouse of content that is informative and enjoyable, helping users across the globe stay on top of the trends. Let’s look at some of the most interesting channels that YouTube has to offer.
Slidebean: Startups 101
Slidebean is a recent discovery of mine, but one that I instantly fell in love with. Slidebean: Startups 101 is a YT channel founded by Jose Cayasso aka Caya, who is the CEO & Co-founder of the company. Some of the services offered by Slidebean include helping users create attractive presentations, offering financial modelling templates and simplifying the process of finding investors for their startups.
Slidebean’s videos as you might have guessed predominantly focuses on startups- their funding, how to start a business and other issues relating to startups such as making pitch decks and customer acquisition costs. With Slidebean itself being a startup, (it has raised $962.5K till date) it is perfectly placed to offer valuable insights on its journey and other issues relevant to entrepreneurs. One such video which was really insightful was titled “The danger with convertible notes”, Caya explains what convertible notes are and how Slidebean dealt with them and goes on to say that the purpose of a startup is not to keep raising funds, instead it’s to become profitable.
Slidebean’s flagship series is Company Forensics, which analyses famous companies and startup failures. The series boldly covers the darker aspects of famous companies and dissects the reasons that led to a startup’s failure. It’s analysis of the complicated history of Hertz and the recent IPO of DoorDash is worth a watch.
Bloomberg Quicktake
Quicktake has some of the most interesting content among Bloomberg’s YT channels, with videos covering topics such as AI, startups, current affairs, history and profiles of famous people. Most of the videos are within a duration of 15 minutes and are loaded with content which makes them ideal for consumption on-the-go.
The series that I personally enjoyed is Profiles, which documents the journey of the movers and shakers of the global economy like- Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Masayoshi Son and Bill Gates. Hello World is another exciting series by Bloomberg’s Ashlee Vance, the author of the bestseller Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. The series currently has over 90 videos and covers everything from robot farmers and moon colonies to Russia’s internet and Japan’s tech industry. The video where Ashely visits Wet Design, a company known for its fountains, is fascinating.
Bloomberg Markets and Finance
Bloomberg Markets and Finance is the de facto YT channel for news related to business and finance. It provides constant updates on financial markets, commodities, currencies, cryptocurrencies, central banks and businesses. It often features interviews with representatives from top financial institutions and major companies like JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank, Chevron, Mastercard, Marriott, Goldman Sachs etc. Its coverage on currencies and commodities is intriguing as it signals the trends in the global economy. That’s debatable is a series which focuses on the emerging issues faced by the global business community like inequality, US-China relations, corporate wealth and national deficits.
BloombergQuint
BloombergQuint is a joint initiative of Bloomberg Media and Quintillion Media, providing quality coverage of the Indian financial markets and businesses.
The Trade Setup series is a “quintessential” way to start the day for finance professionals as it covers the major events lined up for the day, the performance of major financial markets, geopolitical events that could affect the markets and the stocks to watch. One can end the day with Market Wrap, which as the name suggests provides a summary of the important events in the financial markets for the day.
Business Insider
Business Insider, a division of Insider, has diverse content focusing on businesses, billionaires, technology, automobiles and aviation. The channel has numerous series which are worthy of binge-watching. My personal favourite being So Expensive, which revolves around some of the most expensive items and materials known to mankind such as saffron, Rolls-Royce, spacesuits, gold, truffles and many more (it is currently in its fifth season). Big Business focuses on how some of the largest companies in the world operate, it features companies from various industries such as food, aviation, sports and shipping. Rise and Fall documents the journey of failing businesses like J.Crew, Pan Am, Blockbuster, Chuck E. Cheese etc.
CNBC International
CNBC International has a vast array of short and crisp videos on issues relating to business, economics and technology. CNBC Reports boasts of varied content on regulating Big Tech, sustainable investing, the economic crisis, real estate, Michelin star restaurants, electric vehicles, China’s luxury hotels and a hundred more interesting videos.
There are a lot of topics in finance, technology, economics which are complicated and which need to be simplified in order to be understood. Enter CNBC Explains which tackles the most difficult questions and answers them in the clearest way possible. Some of the questions include- what happened to 1MDB’s money? how do airlines price tickets? what is currency manipulation? and why is Brexit so complicated?.
These are some of the most interesting business-related channels on YouTube among the thousands that exist, please let us know about your favourite channels in the comments section below.
