Marvin’s Best Weekly Reads March 7th, 2021
“The Best Way To Get Started Is To Quit Talking And Begin Doing.” – Walt Disney
"It was, according to many industry analysts, one of the most successful promotions in the history of American cuisine.
But the deal wasn’t so hot for Subway’s franchisees.
Eager to grow at all costs, Subway refused to let the promotion die. As inflation drove up the cost of doing business, the $5 footlong became financially unsustainable for many of the independent entrepreneurs who owned the company’s eateries.
This is the story of a promotion gone very right, and then very wrong. But it’s also a parable about the oft-conflicting goals of small business owners and large corporations."
https://thehustle.co/the-rise-and-demise-of-subways-5-footlong-promotion/
2. "There was a lot that he got right: Armstrong had been running fraud prevention at Airbnb. “This is someone who was entrusted with this billion-dollar marketplace,” Tan remembers. On top of that, Tan had tried to buy Bitcoin from Dwolla and Mt. Gox and concluded that “it was not legit.” Tan had also worked on software for Peter Thiel’s hedge fund as an early Palantir employee. During that time, Tan was told to read the book The Dollar Crisis. So, he understood how the dollar’s decoupling from the gold standard had changed the world. And, of course, by then he’d bought into Marc Andreessen’s assertion that software was eating the world.
And Tan was convinced that Bitcoin would be an amazing medium of exchange — not a store of value. “I didn’t want to believe in store of value back then because I was worried about investing in something that was digital gold,” he said.
“But I was wrong,” he says. Most of the value from Bitcoin today is as an investment or as a hedge against the financial system."
https://www.newcomer.co/p/what-i-got-wrong-about-coinbase
3. "He tells The Verge that Spotify will incorporate a hybrid business model with three distinct parts. One will involve the typical user subscription revenue, another is advertising dollars through its podcast ad marketplace and music streaming ads, and the third is a la carte options, like helping musicians and podcasters sell merch, tour tickets, or even subscriptions to their own content.
“I think you’re going to see platforms making a distinction of not a one-size-fits-all, not just in terms of the creators or how they think about their audience, but really about how you can grow your audience, engage with them, turn them into fans, and then create new and important ways to monetize that fan base,” he says."
https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/23/22295315/spotify-ceo-interview-podcast-daniel-ek-music-stream-on
4. Anyone who cares about your career: this is an important video worth watching.
How to Build a Personal Monopoly with Jack Butcher
5. This is a damn good Netflix series if u like Japanese samurai military history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RYcKCtbFpE
6. “Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, has an alter ego,” O’Keefe wrote: “Farmer Bill, the guy who owns more farmland than anyone else in America.”
https://nypost.com/2021/02/27/why-bill-gates-is-now-the-us-biggest-farmland-owner/
7. "The federal debt of the United States is increasing by over $1 trillion per year, and any amount of this new debt that isn't purchased by foreign and private investors would need to be monetized by the Federal Reserve, meaning a greater supply of dollars.
This of course is an argument for hard assets. Bitcoin, Gold, etc—these commodities are products that derive their value from not changing."
https://eriktorenberg.substack.com/p/the-devaluing-of-the-us-dollar
8. Great basics on fundraising.
https://foundermusings.substack.com/p/part-1-fundraising-without-yc-the
9. "And though Asia’s growth boom is still going strong, it can’t last forever, and Africa’s day as the workshop of the world may come soon.
But economists, leaders, policymakers, businesspeople, and international organizations need to be focusing on this challenge more than they are. The fate of humanity in the 21st century and beyond hinges on whether African countries can figure out the riddle of industrialization."
https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/all-futurism-is-afrofuturism
10. Turkey turning into a Gaming center.
11. "it’s important to realize that not all acquisitions are created equal. When the opportunity to sell your company comes along, you will be eager to move forward; but make sure to take a beat, think twice and assess the situation. To help do that, remember that there are at least four types of acquisitions."
https://thefamily.substack.com/p/not-all-acquisitions-are-created
12. "One way to think about Lambda is like fintech: You have all these transactions that are moving all over the place, but what makes it all work is a clearinghouse that moves all the money to where it needs to go. I think of Lambda as kind of an economic clearinghouse: Here's all of the untapped human potential, here's all the would-be labor, and over here’s all the jobs that need to be done. There's nothing connecting the two right now other than sheer happenstance and going to university, or maybe you hear that there's a good job over here somewhere."
https://www.thepullrequest.com/p/the-american-dream-as-a-service
13. "We need to be great at managing risk — at identifying it, articulating it, allocating it appropriately, and discharging it systematically and efficiently. Because if you’re great at managing risk, you can take bigger ones. And if you take bigger risks you can accomplish greater feats. So, am I saying that risk management needs to be our core competency as an industry, as if we were actuaries at an insurance company? Damn right — that’s exactly what I’m saying."
https://lifescivc.com/2014/03/the-awesome-power-of-risk/
14. "Whether it was Russia and Venezuela explicitly talking about getting off the US dollar standard or Argentina settling an export deal with Paraguay in Bitcoin, countries have been looking for a new solution for awhile.
We aren’t going to see this occur overnight, but we are definitely starting to see early signs of potential. Bitcoin is widely viewed as a financial asset that investors can hold, but Bitcoin is also a payment network that has proven to be superior to every other payment network in the world. That technology story is rarely covered in the mainstream media, yet it remains one of the most interesting aspects of the Bitcoin network."
https://pomp.substack.com/p/the-currency-of-choice-for-international
15. I'm down with Portugal and Mexico!
https://nomadcapitalist.com/2021/02/24/easiest-countries-to-move-to-from-usa/
16. Sadly anti-Asian violence is increasing in USA/Canada & Europe. Ignorant morons as many of these us are very anti-CCP/China.
"So my theory of anti-Asian violence is that misplaced anger over COVID kicked it off (perhaps aided by Trumpian rhetoric), but it became a self-sustaining meme. Violent people looking for someone to attack — whether because of pandemic stress, natural aggression, a desire to rob someone, a yearning to find someone to hate and exclude, or whatever — zeroed in on Asians as potential victims instead of looking elsewhere."
https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/is-conflict-with-china-fueling-anti
17. Not surprised. These folks are investing in some super interesting stuff and their close ties to Thiel help too.
https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/03/presight-fund-two/
18. This is a real shame. There is a real need for funding mechanism like this. Too bad many of traditional LPs either don't understand it or just too conservative.
Congrats to Bryce Roberts for trying this even if it did not continue. Amazing initiative for sure.
19. "While we have a very long path to the final stage, it is inevitable in my mind that bitcoin will become the global reserve currency. Any human with an internet connection will be able to plug into the decentralized, open protocol and send or receive value instantaneously and nearly for free. This is going to fundamentally change the way that resources are organized and used.
As this occurs, entrepreneurs and technologists are going to see the power of decentralized, open protocols. They will start to apply them to various aspects of the legacy system. They will decentralize individual products like collateralized lending or exchanges, but they will also decentralize more complex aspects of society like insurance, corporate governance, and ultimately the law itself.
This innovation and progress is going to take decades."
https://pomp.substack.com/p/a-new-era-is-upon-us
20. This movie looks really good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtGjZp3MWrI
21. "The internet accelerated the shareability of memes, but the creation of memes remained full of friction. It took a fair amount of work to make a meme and, as a result, few people were meme creators. But the internet is becoming more participatory—with new tools democratizing creation and unlocking creativity—and meme culture will be no different. The building blocks for this future will be “cultural legos” and “software legos”
Culture and memes are now indistinguishable: memes reflect culture, magnify culture, and create culture. And the future of memes is, like much of the consumer internet, about creation—more people remixing and sharing."
https://digitalnative.substack.com/p/memes-and-the-atomic-units-of-culture
22. This is a must read for anyone who is thinking about their career and their future.
"The Future of YOU
#1 Audience = Future Currency.
Cash may not be king in the future, your audience will be.
#2 Audience is an Annuity.
It is a cash-flowing asset. It continues to pay and unlike an annuity, as they only have one revenue stream, your audience has numerous.
#3 You-Corps.
The next wave of companies is and will be creators. We increasingly do not trust institutions so we increasingly may move towards trusting individuals. With the tech onslaught why can’t the next group of Unicorns all be You-Corps. Aka You!"
https://contrarianthinking.substack.com/p/i-messed-up-the-you-corp-nfts-and
23. "Gamers are already spending over $100 billion a year on virtual currencies and assets, which amounts to five times the size of the global music industry. And now with blockchain, gamers can actually own items in the games they’re playing. Investors see the value in this, and are striking while the iron is hot."
24. "Deep science investor Lindy Fishburne cofounded the seed- and early-stage venture firm Breakout Ventures several years ago, after cofounding Breakout Labs within the Thiel Foundation back in 2011, and she has amassed a wide array of stakes in the process. Among her firm’s portfolio companies is Cortexyme, a company that aims to treat Alzheimer’s disease; the sustainable materials maker Modern Meadow; and Strateos, a company whose robotic cloud platform is remaking how lab work gets done."
25. Long overdue in Europe. There needs to be other financing options available to startups than VCs.
https://sifted.eu/articles/funding-alternatives-startups-europe/
26. These are some very cool gaming studios. Shout out & congrats to my friend Emily at Double Loop Games!
27. Long one but worth the read. Lots of great insights in general.
"Various memes and trends pass around on networks like Instagram and Twitter. But there, you still have to create your own version of a meme from scratch, even if, on Twitter, it's as simple as copying and pasting.
But TikTok has a strong form of this type of network effect. They explicitly lower the barrier to the literal remixing of everyone else's content. In their app, they have a wealth of features that make it dead simple to grab any element from another TikTok and incorporate it into a new TikTok.
The barrier to entry in editing video is really high as anyone who has used a non-linear editor like Premiere or compositing software like After Effects can attest. TikTok abstracted a lot of formerly complex video editing processes into effects and filters that even an amateur can use."
https://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2021/2/15/american-idle
28. Good to know.
"Despite the recent focus on efficacy rates without context, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is not an inferior shot. Its authorization in the US is an exciting development that will help us get to our two goals of Covid-19 control: reducing hospitalizations to an acceptable level and achieving herd immunity. The most important thing is that everyone takes whatever vaccine they can get—both for their own safety, as well as the safety of those around them."
https://www.wired.com/story/covid-19-vaccines-equally-worthy-of-your-arm/
29. Like it or not, China's CCP is the main enemy to the west.
"Democracies are, of course, far from perfect. They suffer from inequality and injustice. But Xi’s vision for “a community with a shared future,” as he calls it, is like a neighborhood where a man beats his wife every night, but anyone who tries to help her is “intervening in his internal affairs.” In order to show you are not “prejudiced,” you invite the guy over for pool parties, and smile as if nothing’s wrong. Maybe he’ll bring you a few beers. That’s how Xi defines “mutual respect.”
I don’t want to live in that neighborhood. For the West to full-on decouple from China is impractical. But we do have to think hard about how we choose to engage with Beijing. Fueling Xi’s rise by sharing our best technology is not a good idea. Imposing costs on China for its human rights abuses, in the form of sanctions, is a must.
Pro-Beijing advocates will say that we in the West are being hypocritical and that our real agenda is to “keep China down.” Still, we’re under no obligation to share our technology and capital with a regime that is increasingly contemptuous of what we hold dear."
https://www.politico.eu/article/xi-jinping-turned-me-into-a-china-hawk/
30. This is a worthwhile read.
"We see the influence of this survivalist mindset in our economic systems, ranging from Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” or Hobbes tying “self-preservation” to “self-interest.” In turn, scarcity reinforces zero-sum thinking, the destructive “I win, you lose” that masquerades as meritocratic competition."
https://radreads.co/how-to-overcome-the-scarcity-mindset/
31. "It’s important to recognize that board members are not there to sit in judgment of you but rather to collaboratively problem-solve with you. If you’re not able to discuss the company’s biggest problems with them, you’re much less likely to make meaningful progress. You should choose your board members accordingly. "
https://sacks.substack.com/p/the-saas-board-meeting
32. "The creator economy served as a catalyst to disrupt legacy structures by introducing platforms & products that enable individuals to build a business around themselves. There are many reasons why individuals want to go independent which I explain in detail here (Media Companies as Record Labels) and here (Rise of the Renaissance Creator), which introduce a variety of opportunities for both the talent and existing media institutions.
The rapid development of platforms and services that empower individuals to build a business around themselves is a major one. Top talent wants more control and ownership over their work, having options to transcend their reputation and financial success from a parent brand."
https://medium.com/digital-diplomacy/a-new-media-structure-the-ownership-economy-517131568ced
33. "NFT creators in the future will have two paths: independent or collective. As an independent, creators can realize the full upside of their NFT creations, and earn their built-in royalties. But the collective model is an entirely new way to build distribution. By fractionalizing the royalties of an NFT, creators gain more distribution. These fractional royalties can be represented in the form of tokens, which are inherently programmable like NFTs. Creators will strategically distribute these tokens to users who can help them sell the NFT, potentially at a higher price than if they were to do it alone."
https://jammsession.mirror.xyz/-xYcfFRlhDdLDSUgRMTYJAaRJBs2VG4LP34DnOV84mI
34. "This is what I’m calling the age of the Renaissance Creator — the hybridization of the individual as both a creator and an entrepreneur. This development and definition of ‘creativity’ is one of the more interesting things happening today because it is contrary to the supposed logic for a creator to go independent. We like to say independence (see: passion economy) is valuable because it lets a creator focus on what they do best; create. But actually it’s the opposite.
By going independent, the creator is aspiring to not only create, but willingly assume the management and business of their entire self. This acceptance of responsibility as a formula for success will dictate a creator’s desire to go independent and develop a micro-label or decide to limit duties and create within a larger media organization.
I want to be a creator. I want to be a business. I want to be a brand."
https://jarroddicker.medium.com/media-2020-rise-of-the-renaissance-creator-459daec4bc6b
35. Salesforce VC is one of the few CVCs that are doing it right & effective. The numbers are impressive.
"In a boom time for large tech IPOs and software consolidation, Salesforce’s name is showing up everywhere. CEO Marc Benioff has proven that he’s not only a mega-dealmaker when it comes to buying high-priced cloud companies like Slack and Tableau, but has also turned Salesforce, with its hefty balance sheet, into a major force in Silicon Valley venture capital."
36. "The sneaker boom has created opportunities for a new generation of speculator. Hebert and other young resellers are the first to treat footwear as a bona fide asset class, products as worthy of informed valuation and investment as any other commodity. The sneaker market, for them, is a lot like playing the market. In the hours after siphoning up stock from retailers, they essentially sell short-term futures based on street sentiment."
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2021-sneaker-investment/
Listen to this Newsletter: https://listencat.com/the-hard-fork-by-marvin-liao-podcast/