Marvin’s Best Weekly Reads August 27th, 2023
“Good things come to people who wait, but better things come to those who go out and get them.” —Anonymous
This is an excellent interview re: multipreneurship. Its a great path to explore for new entrepreneurs. Jesse is really sharp.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Plon_u6CyZg
2. Such a baller move.
"When Swift switched over to Republic Records in the fall of 2018, she negotiated to own the master rights to all the music she creates going forward. So by rerecording her old songbook with Republic Records, she will own the copyright to all of the new recordings.
The move would give licensers the option to work directly with Swift and her team rather than go through Braun. And that, in turn, would allow Swift to reclaim some command over her music and how it’s used."
3. This was an educational discussion by some ex-US soldiers fighting in Ukraine. True heroes here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNjYWS8M6c4
4. One of the most interesting space startups around. Varda Space. Educational. Sci-fi becoming Sci-fact.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maGE5dehsS0
5. "Now, I’m generally a major critic of election security, and I would still be shocked if Milei is actually allowed to become President (he wants to dismantle the Argentine government - literally cutting nearly every single department), but let’s see what happens.
Maybe, Argentina, which has been rocked by hyper inflation, controlled largely by Marxist radicals (Peronistas) for decades, and was one of the more totalitarian countries in Latin America during covid, is simply a reminder that it’s always darkest before dawn."
https://calvinfroedge.substack.com/p/a-big-moment-for-argentina-libertarian
6. This is a pretty good recap of the intriguing Capital Club. Lots of good tips and frameworks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfkn2ZkJ0xc
7. I wish I was this clued in on how money works when I was his age.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqT4EhAbqiI
8. "The lessons from 2023, Silicon Valley's "year of failures" go beyond just business strategies or financial models. They emphasize persistence, genuine business relationships, and unwavering self-belief.
Today, as tech rebounds, learning from past mistakes can prevent future risks and transform failure into a launchpad for success."
https://jeffmorrisjr.substack.com/p/learning-from-failure-lessons-by
9. What a time to be alive and young.
"Hurley, the Texas high jumper, presents a crucial case study. Of the 25 college and high school athletes with NIL valuations of $1 million or more, according to On3.com, all except two—Hurley and LSU gymnast Olivia Dunne—play football or basketball, the two sports that drive athletic-department revenues.
Like Dunne, Hurley has leveraged his enormous social media following into earnings that, he says, are approaching $1 million. Among the 25 most highly valued athletes, only Bronny James, LeBron’s son, and Dunne have more impressive social media metrics than Hurley (12.9 million followers for James, 11.4 million for Dunne, 5 million for Hurley).
Hurley’s creating a novel path toward college-sports riches. Influencer first and foremost, athlete second, with each job gilding the other. His story, however, also points to the shortcomings of a model that allows athletes to make money only through outside deals and may make people take a careful look at who is benefiting from NIL, who is not, and what still needs to change."
https://time.com/6284880/sam-hurley-track-and-field-tiktok-nil-texas/
10. "That so many have been purged reflects disobedience in the ranks expressed as a reluctance to go to war. The regime handed down a death sentence this year to former Air Force General Liu Yazhou due to his continued opposition to an invasion of Taiwan, and he is not alone.
"The image that Xi Jinping is firmly in command of the Communist Party is belied by increasing evidence of instability in the ranks of China's military leadership," said Charles Burton of the Ottawa-based Macdonald-Laurier Institute. "The extraordinary purge of both the commander and political commissar of the Rocket Force suggests there is serious discontent within China's military with Xi Jinping."
Burton, a former Canadian diplomat posted in Beijing, points to Xi's failing domestic and foreign policies, especially the "cratering economy." "They have got some problems," said President Joe Biden about China earlier this month. "That's not good, because when bad folks have problems, they do bad things."
Bad things like starting wars."
https://www.newsweek.com/xi-jinping-preparing-china-war-opinion-1819587
11. Learned so much from this. Jack Butcher is pioneer of creative entrepreneurial life & personal holding companies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDS1R6QUxWE
12. I finally found out what that "crazy plane lady" meme was all about.
Man, so many peoples brains were broken during the pandemic. I'd include myself in this.
https://nypost.com/2023/08/09/tiffany-gomas-full-airplane-meltdown-revealed-in-new-video/
13. Lots of great thoughts here. Kale vs Cocaine phone. Also great breakdown on Arnold documentary & Barstool Sports deal. One of my weekly favorite shows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGOZ8YvqwRE&t=620s
14. This was a solid interview on living like a man on a mission. In his case, becoming a UFC fighter and having a family.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDb9E25CXSk
15. "Lifetimes of work and risk lie between a Seed round and a Series D round. And, despite increasing the value of the underlying business 7x, the dollars at exit for the founder remain roughly the same. It is also worth noting that an exit at $210M would not even qualify as a home run for even the smallest fund in Sam’s examples.
There are many paths to managing dilution- be it raising fewer rounds at higher and higher valuations, or raising one round and scaling a business on revenue and profits generated from customers."
https://medium.com/strong-words/meaningful-exits-for-founders-4c3b2baba6b4
16. "What’s baffling is that the board would give such a delicate task to a person almost universally regarded as a jerk.
“David’s not likable,” says a longtime colleague — one of the more diplomatic comments I heard in talking to more than 30 of the CEO’s current and former executives, most of them partners. “He’s a prick,” says another. “Everybody thinks and says he’s a dick,” adds a third.
“He’s a tough guy with a very short fuse”; “He dehumanizes you when he talks to you.”
Morale has sunk to the lowest level in recent memory, in tandem with a sense that the bank inspires less envy among its rivals and less esteem among its fee-paying clients and governments around the world.
Some critics have suggested that perhaps Solomon was too distracted between DJ-ing and taking private planes to the Bahamas to kitesurf to see that Marcus had veered off course. But I think that narrative misses the point. Solomon is a workaholic, a CEO who never takes longer than three hours to respond to emails. It’s not that he wasn’t paying attention; it’s more likely that no one told him."
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/david-solomon-goldman-sachs-profile.html
17. "Most leaders make the same mistake I did. They jealously protect their other resources: their cash, their position in the market, and their social media presence. But they freely give away their most valuable asset: their time.
This may be just the right time to take careful account of your schedule. To what are you giving your time and attention?"
https://www.mattmunson.me/sanity-notes-017-time/
18. It’s a good time for startups with alot of cash on their balance sheet for sure.
https://tomtunguz.com/big-balance-sheet-as-an-advantage/
19. This was inevitable. De-globalization and why would you invest in your great power rival?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovvQdCmnCLo
20. "Ultimately my job as a VC is selling a few simple products: cash, trusted reputation, and access to as much downstream capital as possible. And I can do that just as well as anyone who invests in only AI.
To be clear, the venture world is evolving fast, and specialist investors play a valuable role. But I urge my generalist friends to be proud."
https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/18/why-generalist-investors-will-always-win/
21. This was one of the better discussions at the All in Podcast. Some important nuances about what’s happening in the economy & American society. Worth listening to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlzobkV_CgU
22. "My mind, body, spirit, and finances were the abilities I had to gain experience in.
I wanted to become multidimensionally jacked.
Maybe because I started questioning the default path early.
Maybe because I noticed how unhappy, overweight, and miserable people seemed.
Maybe because I observed how people limited their opportunities by taking a specific path in life.
It didn’t make sense to follow what most people do, because that would create a life that most people have, and that isn’t pretty.
The problem with the default path in life is specialization, compartmentalization, and niching down.
We are trained to focus on one dot, instead of the lines that connect the dots."
https://thedankoe.com/letters/the-cure-to-a-mediocre-life-become-multidimensionally-jacked/
23. "As an investor, there is value in recognizing the value of your life that’s been lived. You can become a better investor by seeking out the experiences that make you into a more well-rounded character. The pursuit of greatness is state of mind, not a one off accomplishment. It’s not about what you are, it’s about what you are becoming."
https://investing1012dot0.substack.com/p/back-to-the-grass
24. "Likewise, Schwarzenegger did not want to be typecast and play the same role over and over. The 1980s action star market got saturated quickly with Stallone and other ambitious actors (Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, Wesley Snipes).
Doing a comedy like Twins was a risk but there weren’t many muscle-bound actors trying the same pivot.
“Don’t go where it’s crowded,” says Schwarzenegger. “Go where it’s empty. Even though it’s harder to get there, that’s where you belong and where there’s less competition.”
https://www.readtrung.com/p/arnold-and-the-art-of-re-invention
25. "Generative AI can do some amazing things. There’s a reason why Silicon Valley is excited about it and so many people have tried it out. What remains to be seen is whether it can be more than a party trick, which, given its still-prevalent flaws, is probably all it should be for now."
26. "But we’re seeing a radical shift in how founders and engineers view public service: that some of our greatest problems can be solved through building technology companies for America, whether it’s manufacturing drones to shore up the defense industrial base or building AI tutors to help elementary students learn math.
We see American Dynamism as an underrated big idea because so many young engineers are choosing to build startups that support the country, particularly after living through Covid-19 and now seeing war in Ukraine. We believe the next ten years of technological innovation will be very much focused on supporting the needs of America."
27. "We keep mediocre sales reps for way too long because we haven’t clearly defined and understood what the Mendoza Line for sales reps should be — we then potentially fire the wrong sales reps. Companies who spend more time on this will see significantly better results in the long term."
https://www.onlycfo.io/p/damage-from-mediocre-sales-reps
28. "I was struck by just how large and diverse the distressed asset opportunity of Latin America is. Whether it's high-yielding loans tied to major corporations or quirky niche assets such as Venezuelan debt, there are many sub-themes to be exploited. As stated at the outset of this series, distressed assets are not something that most private investors would be overly familiar with, and this lack of interest only further aides my point.
Latin America's economies and financial markets have matured to an extent, as seen by the much-improved balance sheets and leverage ratios mentioned above. However, the region hasn't matured to a degree where those dislocations won't occur anymore.
Many investors also continue to have misconceptions, such as that liquid bonds of major corporations are the best ways to get exposure, when actually there are even more interesting alternatives for those who have boots on the ground and highly specialised expertise."
29. "Now Cowart is in the big leagues, running a real refinery, screwing up hedging to piss away what would have been a Godsend of a quarter, failing to disclose said screw up in a timely enough manner, entering into egregious agreements with blood sucking banks and product marketers that put his company over a barrel, deciding to dilute himself (as the largest shareholder) to pay for mistakes and bad market timing, and having the whole world ask who is this idiot that doesn’t know how to run a refinery.
Gentlemen, on a scale of 0 being someone who has accomplished nothing at all in the past 20 years, and 100 being Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet, or Carlos Slim, Benjamin Cowart has to be ranking in the high 80s. Cut the man some slack.
Extreme success means sometimes taking loans at high interest rates, sometimes signing agreements with counter parties you know are screwing you, sometimes diluting the crap out of yourself to make sure you don’t go bankrupt later, and needing to hear the rest of the world call you an idiot. When Ben Cowart moved to Houston, I’ll bet you he was the only person in the world who believed in what he was doing - and on some days that’s probably true even now."
https://calvinfroedge.substack.com/p/empire-building-is-hard
30. "Because of China’s struggling economy, but also because of the risk of war and because of Xi Jinping’s increasingly authoritarian policies, Western investors are pulling money out of China. They are fleeing Chinese stocks and Chinese bonds. They are doing much less direct investment too.
What are Western investors going to do with the money they get from selling down their Chinese assets? They’re going to invest it somewhere, and the most obvious place to do it would be in the U.S. and other rich countries — especially if people think interest rates are going to fall. In other words, the U.S. and other developed nations could become suddenly deluged by a flood of money that pushes up the prices of real estate and other assets — but, most importantly, real estate. Chinese capital might also find ways to flee the country, and property in developed countries is always a prime target for capital flight.
The combination of fleeing Western money, fleeing Chinese money, and interest rate cuts could put the property sector in developed countries on an upward trend. That could then spark a process of extrapolative expectations, in which a whole new generation of homebuyers and mortgage lenders become convinced that real estate is a great investment that always goes up.
If everyone has already forgotten the disaster of 2008, and throws caution to the winds, we could end up with another housing bubble in the U.S. or other rich nations.
In other words, over the next two or three years, a Chinese slowdown will likely come as a breath of fresh air for Western economies beset by inflation."
https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/chinas-crash-is-unlikely-to-hurt
31. "In Israel, where Wiz was founded, such quasi-celebrity is no shock. Nearly a decade ago, Rappaport, Costica and two friends sold their security startup, Adallom, for $320 million to Microsoft, where Rappaport helped the company dethrone Google as Dun & Bradstreet’s “best place to work” in Israel.
But in just three years since leaving that job to get the band back together for another startup, he has emerged as a globally relevant tech player, too: the CEO of one of software’s buzziest unicorns, invited to rub shoulders with OpenAI’s Sam Altman at Sun Valley’s exclusive confab of moguls, attending Formula 1 races as a VIP guest of Amazon and skipping famed VC firm Sequoia’s CEO summit to hang backstage with the Chainsmokers in Las Vegas.
That part is all new for Rappaport, an introvert with the eating habits of a 5-year-old (no coffee, no vegetables, no spices) and few hobbies aside from walks with his red border collie, Mika, Wiz’s “chief dog officer” (who has 2,000 LinkedIn followers), who keeps him company during late nights at the Tel Aviv office. But Rappaport’s the man of the hour because he’s catching two waves—the cloud and AI—with his security tools, and doing so faster than anyone."
32. "A road not taken. An inauspicious start that might have led to a company shutting down before it found its way. A strategic reset that proved to be the right bet. They’re the kind of stories that get explored on Acquired—and they’re also the Acquired story.
Gilbert and Rosenthal are two millennial investors who met almost a decade ago and started a podcast in 2015 as a way to cement their friendship. Gilbert, who is a managing director of the early-stage venture fund of Pioneer Square Labs, acknowledges today that if Acquired had been a startup, it would have been shuttered after two years because of its slow growth.
Now the show has gotten so big that both Gilbert and Rosenthal, who was a professional VC for a decade and currently has a fund called Kindergarten Ventures, have gone from investors with a podcast to podcasters whose popularity creates a multitude of previously unimagined investing and business opportunities. The show’s audience has doubled year-over-year for eight straight years."
https://www.fastcompany.com/90927453/acquired-number-1-tech-podcast-sensation
33. Obsession to be the best. I always get motivated after listening to David Senra.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP0XvV02INw&t=2426s
34. Very interesting list of "cool" by GQ.
https://www.gq.com/story/the-gq-hype-list-2023
35. "A new era of choice will result in a "great reshuffling" of people and economic activity. This reshuffling of people who practice a variety of professions will mimic the internet's impact on content creators: It will have two seemingly opposite effects — making some destinations more popular (and more populated and expensive) than any place ever was and increasing the number and diversity of viable destinations at which people can live and work."
https://www.drorpoleg.com/the-weird-future-of-work/
36. "I’ve discussed three important communications principles that I think politicians execute well, illustrated how you can see them every day if you’re looking, and shown how to apply them to the world of Silicon Valley marketing and communications.
Those principles are:
-Demonstrate an understanding of the problem. Don’t skip over this critical step in your rush to offer technical proof.
-Framing is everything. You can win deals by changing the customer’s view on what they should be buying.
-The power of consistency. Repetition works. Pick a standard set of messages and words, train your team on them, and enforce standard usage.
Use my maxim to help: it’s better to be consistent than better."
https://kellblog.com/2023/08/20/three-marketing-lessons-from-the-political-realm/
37. "As our livelihoods shift further into this world, increasingly more parts of the machine economy will need to be built. Many investors have shifted towards AI for sheer novelty and attention momentum. My thesis is that fintech, Web3, and artificial intelligence are one economic whole, and that our ability to grow each relies on their deep synthesis."
38. "From a more practical standpoint, the real issue with high valuations, large rounds, and the overall frenzy around early-stage startups, it’s that very often, entrepreneurs lose sight of what really matters.
They quickly lose the sense of humble beginnings, of the grind that comes from early rejection, of the extreme common sense that arises when people start with absolutely nothing.
It’s great to have leverage and raise with great conditions, to have early momentum and traction, but it’s a trap as much as it’s a gift.
Stay hungry, not foolish :)"