Highlights of the Week (December 24, 2021) 🎄

Did you buy a Christmas tree? For those who celebrate, the Christmas tree is the epitome of holiday spirit. The smell, the lights, and the ornaments are both sentimental and sparkly. For one family, Christmas trees also represent their livelihood. A forty-seven-year-old family business out of Hyde Park, Vermont, sells nearly 17,000 of their home-grown Balsam, Fraser, and Douglas Firs to New Yorkers on street corners spanning the boroughs. Uptown Christmas Trees has had the good luck of being a pandemic resilient business, with a customer base eager for holiday cheer and an outdoor shopping experience. But supply chain issues continue to leave no fir untouched, with rising costs of fertilizer, equipment, and fuel making a dent in the company's earnings. Still, we love to see a business modernize, adapt, and be nostalgic all at once. Have a great holiday weekend!

Here’s a taste of the week’s top stories:

• Monday, we examined McKinsey's latest findings on the future of a post-pandemic world. Greater productivity, less grocery shopping, and higher returns for intangible assets were all part of the twelve-point report. Read our summary here.

• For our investor highlight, we looked at gamers turned investors making up the Transcend Fund. The firm has seen gaming evolutions since the ’90s and are placing bets on the next generation of gaming. Check it out.

• For creators recording podcasts and writing newsletters, Patreon is their path to earning. But how will the eight-year-old company fare in the next era of creator content, one increasingly excited about NFTs and crypto? Find out.

• How the heck is any brand to launch this year? In a world backlogged by supply chain issues, even for billion-dollar businesses, how can a small brand get started? We looked at the New York model for small business success. Read more.