Good day fellow compounders.

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Here's what's interesting this week:

• Ai winners, losers, and moonshots.
• Index funds may not be as safe as you think.
• Value investing rethink.
• Being contrarian about the RE market.
• Some cool Ai news, tools, and more...

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But first - Results are in!

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A couple weeks back we asked which Ai tools you were paying for (if any) and were actually finding useful in your day-to-day.

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Beyond the fun in just testing new sh*t - what tools do something meaningful?

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For a few months the new-Ai-tool-every-minute pace created Christmas morning level excitement, but the picture is starting to become clearer. Just 2 are horses are really running the race 🐴.

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As such, the results from our email, forum and Tweet poll were ​not surprising.

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Outside of a few niche cases, most people feel there are only two clear winners worth paying for, especially since many tools are simply layered onto ChatGPT.

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Ai Poll Results:

Now something that probably stuck out even more was how many people were NOT paying for anything.

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i.e. no AI tools were providing enough value to consistently warrant a subscription.

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So it seems most of us are still waiting for that big disruptor tool that we can't live without.

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Not Christmas morning thus far, but still fun.

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Clearly there are niches where AI is already having a big impact, but it appears to be few and far between. Most of the people we spoke to treated the tools as a convenience accelerator. They could live without them, but are currently glad they exist.

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Maybe, sooner rather than later, someone is going to catch lightning in a bottle. (Whether or not that's a good thing, remains to be seen)

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Did you know?

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🗞️ BUSINESS & FINANCEY STUFF

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🤑 Need some new reading material? Here's the hefty Berkshire Reading List for some "light" summer reading - you'll be wicked smart by September.

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🤑 An epic Twitter post on the ever evolving Ai startup landscape. It covers the current winners, losers, and all those in between. It covers the founder perspective (both for Indie Devs, and for funded startups), as well as the investor perspective (who's printing and who's crying). Worth the short read.

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🤑 "Index funds may be riskier than you think" The risk/reward trade-offs and performance dynamics of index funds have changed, and investors need to rethink their strategies.

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🤑 A huuge increase in crypto scams has lead to a frightening amount of cash lost, over $666.5M so this year. Losses are actually lower compared to last year, recovery is super hard, and only a tiny fraction ever gets returned.

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🤑 The Federal Reserve's aggressive rate hikes and the inverted yield curve have increased the risk of a hard-landing recession, with potential vulnerabilities in the banking system and commercial real estate. The Fed's late decision to pause rate hikes may not be enough to prevent a hard landing, making a recession imminent.

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🤑 The Superinvestors of Graham and Doddsville Dudville.
This great post brings up some unique insights on why many value funds may keep getting kicked in the nuts; from possibly using outdated assumptions and from anchoring to old benchmarks.

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🤑 Some inspiration from someone who has killed it in the last three years, and a solid round up of thoughts from sensei Godin.

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🤑 What are the best stablecoins? For the Crypto folks, Bluechip is an independent, nonprofit stablecoin rating agency. "We evaluate stablecoins, cryptocurrencies designed to hold their value over time, and we tell the public which stablecoins look safer."

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🖥️ Ai STUFF AND COOL TOOLS

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♦︎ Have a Shopify store? Shopify comes in with epic drop - Sidekick appears to be a wild looking Shopify assistant, allowing sellers to ask about your trends, make theme changes, put items on sale, and assuming so much more.

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♦︎ An new rank tracking tool for hardcore SEO's from Wope, a tracker that seems to attempt to measure everything.

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♦︎ Well ain't this some sh*t - here's how people beat Ai, they make money PRETENDING to be Ai - Wut the actual F? And here I thought Ai would push people to gain skills not easily replaced - gold star for the creativity tho! (here's the Japanese NPC version if you want to see pro-level weirdness)

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♦︎ Only a matter of time before somebody came up with a way to test multiple Ai platforms at the same time. On Vercel, choose the Ai you want to compare from the drop down and type your question.

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♦︎ Veed is taking Ai avatars to another level. Not all the avatars are perfect, but some are damn good.

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MEMBERS ONLY👇

Not a member? Fix that and join the waitlist here.​

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⚡️ ICYMI - It's getting closer! Massive changes are a-comin' -

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If you're not a member click the link above☝️and get on the waitlist now, as we'll be opening to new members very soon!

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Great chats and threads from the Discord you may have missed…

• Bill shared an investment opportunity with the group, hit him up if you'd like more info or an intro.
• Some great conversation about the balance and life transformations of having kids. Very insightful stuff.
• Rob dropped in a nice Pod covering the ins and outs of office to apartment conversions.​
• Tony kicked off a conversation on the benefits of cod liver.
• Travis shared the menu of his Super Secret Supper Club.
• Convo about value adds and owning spa/fitness centers.
• Bill shares his experiment with paying for product placement on a Prime Time TV show.
• Thoughts on the actors strike and the studio proposal.
• Rob dropped in a quest to find the best platform for automatic investing.

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In the forum...

• The Marketplace is updated every week with new curated online business acquisition deals - Saas, Websites, Apps, Agencies, & Ecom businesses.
• Periodically Travis will host a guest in a 'Fireside' chat - Members can access recordings of all our Fireside Chats anytime here.​

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Disclaimer: Not financial, investing or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly for information, entertainment and education purposes. Nothing in here is investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This newsletter is not tax advice. Talk to your professional advisors. Do your own research. There will also be affiliate links in here from time to time because we like free money.