the value in being first, check your rights when buying property, NFT ownership is complicated, biggest risks of investing in Bitcoin and more!
Hi there, π β Guess what? β There were so many absorbing news items from the past few days that we had to ruthlessly cut today's content. β If you're one of our members, you'll see the overflow in the knowledge share and podcast spaces inside the community. β βPlus, we have a few surprises for you over the next 10 days. ββ That's because this writer is taking a short break. β We're keeping the format to ourselves, but you'll be in the eminently capable hands of Travis - and others - on the investing.io team. β Travis always has an intriguing story to tell so watch out for his news. β It's likely that you'll see a round up from the first 6 months of our 2021 newsletter. β βIf you're new here, then getting access to some of the best stories and news from our past issues will give you a better idea of what interests us and our readers - you! β βLet's get on with today's letter. ββ You'll see:
The entrepreneur who built the first social network - can you guess?
Why not all founders celebrate selling their business
Important info on mineral rights - for when you buy property
NFT ownership is more complicated than you think - snippet
The biggest risks of investing in Bitcoin - snippet
β As always, thanks for being here! β βP.S. See the special offer from today's sponsor below. β βP.P.S. Hit those feedback links at the bottom of this newsletter (email version) and tell us which are your favorite investing and startup topics. We'll hunt some goodies out for you. β β
Value in Being First
β Social networks abound in the 2020s. β βBut who built the first of these? ββ For those of you old enough to remember MySpace, you might guess that they were the frontrunner. β Certainly, they were the first social network to become truly mainstream, but they didn't start the movement of people with similar interests coming together to share information, photos and videos, etc. β That honor belongs to a website called SixDegreesβ¦ as-in βsix degrees of separation.β β It was launched in 1997, and it was so early to the social networking space that its founder, Andrew Weinreich, filed a patent for the concept of online social networking. β
What happened to SixDegrees?
β If you've never heard of them, you might think that they "failed" or were too far ahead of their time to have had any impact. β The opposite is the case. β SixDegrees actually sold for $125 million which is a successful exit in most people's eyes. β And a big reason for their eventual success is that they were first. β βWhen youβre first in a market you often accrue lots of value, even if you donβt ultimately become the market leader, e.g., Facebook. ββ Aaron Dinin caught up with Andrew to discuss how he identified a huge potential market before anyone else. β You might be too early, like Andrew, or you might be first and still create a valuable company. βFull story.β β β
Buying Property? Check Your Rights
β βWhen you buy or sell land, itβs essential to know exactly which rights are included. ββ There are two types of rights that may be included in land ownership: surface rights and mineral rights. ββ A landowner may own the rights to everything on the surface, but not the rights to underground resources such as oil, gas, and minerals. β In the United States, landowners possess both surface and mineral rights unless they choose to sell the mineral rights to someone else. β The U.S. has what is called βsplit estates,β which means surface rights and mineral rights are two separate entities. People can own and sell one or both of these rights together or apart from each other. β Other places in the world offer less freedom. β Remember that the mineral rights holder is always the dominant party when it comes to accessing subsurface resources. β To find out what this means for you when buying property see the complete thread.β β β
Monetizing Art
β βSketchAR is a mobile app that allows artists to turn images into illustrations, cartoons and more using AI. β The app also features AR-enabled drawing and a range of other cutting-edge technologies.β β βIt's basically a customized personal assistant for creativity. ββ SketchAR is for all artistic skill levels - from novices to professional artists. β You can download SketchAR and try many of the features for free. There are more than 200 free images and you get drawing lessons in their tutorial section. β To use all the features you need to buy a subscription. Pro Plans run from $14.99 to $69.99. β
SketchAR News
β During our research, we came across the latest news on this app. β βSketchAR is now launching a new feature that allows users to turn their art into NFTs directly inside the app, and then sell it. ββ It looks like there is no real equivalent app on the market, although there are of course plenty of ways to create artwork and then upload it to an NFT marketplace in a separate process. β SketchAR will start off selecting a single βCreator of the Week '' from its community for their art to be NFTβd on the OpenSea marketplace. β A new feature will shortly enable any artist using the platform to create and auction an NFT on-demand. β βVentureBeatβ βSketchAR blog postβ β β
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The Truth About Cashing Out
β Selling your business is not necessarily an excuse to celebrate. ββ While we stress the importance of having an exit strategy for your business, an exit doesn't always spell perpetual financial freedom and retirement. β Entrepreneurs and founders sell their businesses for a myriad of reasons, and every owner has a different motive for selling. β βThe promise of a hefty lump sum appearing in your bank account is an attractive proposition that many founders jump at - but it's not the only way to achieve a significant upside. ββ Of course, there's the chance that you sell too early or hang in so long that prospective buyers become suspicious about why you're so eager to quit your mini empire. β In her latest article, Rachel Greenberg takes a look at the truth about cashing out.β β She uses one of her own businesses to illustrate what would make a sale attractive to her, and explains why not every entrepreneur is building a business with the aim to "startup, cash out and repeat." β β
Random Tweet
Last week, Just Eat Takeaway completed a $7.5 billion takeover of Grubhub in the US. β They are now represented in 24 countries and made 4 billion euros in revenue last year. After Karen Kwok - a journalist at Reuters - published this article, the founder of Just Eat Takeaway took exception to her views.
β
User-Generated Video
β The best tasks to outsource are those that are repetitive, time consuming, and for which you lack the talent or skills in house. β Short video promotions probably fall into at least one of those categories. β βBillo offers a platform for ecommerce businesses to get quality video ads created by users. β βYou get custom made 60-second video ads to help you drive sales. β It's a simple 3 step process: β 1. Create a task 2. Video creators apply for your task and you choose who gets the job 3. Take delivery of your user generated video ad and publish on any leading platform β Billo state that they vet their video creators for skill, and claim to have 3,000 people available to help you out. β βA single video ad costs $59.β If you use video every week, then you'll save a bit with their monthly plans.β β All plans are charged upfront and include payouts to content creators, the Billo software, and transaction fees. β βSee Billo. β β(It's an odd name for a company that offers video services. The domain name is better suited to a finance or payments platform. The right business might pay big $$$ for it. Just saying) β β
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The Europas: Hottest Startup Finalists
The Europas Awards was originally started in 2009 by TechCrunch editor-at-large Mike Butcher. β Today, they are into their twelfth year of identifying Europe's most ambitious and successful startups, including Spotify, Transferwise, Soundcloud, Deliveroo, Babylon Health and many others. β The Europas has grown into the premier awards for Europeβs hottest tech startups. β Here's the complete list of the 2021 finalists for these awards. It's worth checking them out to see what they're doing. β β
β Snippets to Send You on Your Way
β π· Ignore the law: Harry Stebbings, a 24-year-old law school dropout from south-west London who, as a teenager started a popular podcast about tech investing, has raised $140 million in new funds to back tech startups. Stebbings, who started "The Twenty Minute VC" six years ago used to record from his Mumβs kitchen. β π· Own the news: CNN says it will create and sell NFTs from key news "moments." They have named this effort "Vault by CNN: Moments That Changed Us." It will include key moments in CNNβs history as a news channel. The effort will start in late June. β π· Don't be fooled: NFT ownership is much more complicated than one might imagine. Many believe the NFT they purchased gives them the copyrights. This is not the case. Copyrights to an NFT still belong to the original artist. The NFT purchaser owns nothing more than a unique hash on the blockchain with a transactional record and a hyperlink to the file of the artwork. β π· Control of corporate America: The centralization of proxy power is a big problem because the index fund industry is dominated by five companies that collectively own 90% of index fund assets. For example, when you buy Tesla stock through an index fund, most of your investor rights are stripped away and given to someone else. If you don't hold your shares outside an index fund, you no longer have voting rights. Why this matters. β π· BitDAO raises $230M:BitDAO, a new decentralized autonomous organization, announced its launch following a $230 million funding round led by Peter Thiel. The company allocates significant financial and talent resources to drive decentralized finance growth. β π· Hard landing: Mark Cuban says he was βhitβ after Iron Titanium crashed 100% in one day. A slew of other buzzy tokens have also collapsed. According to crypto-data website CoinMarketCap, roughly one-third of the world's 100 most valuable cryptocurrencies have plummeted at least 40% over the past month, and a dozen have crashed more than 50%. Get the background and the numbers here. β π· The biggest risks of investing in bitcoin: All you need to know. β π· Privacy is freedom: Non-tracking search engine DuckDuckGo has just revealed that it beefed up its balance sheet at the back end of last year with $100 million+ in βmainly secondary investment.β It's quite the line up of investors. We'll throw you one: Tim Berners-Lee. β π· Wise update: Since our last newsletter, Wise has confirmed plans to go public in what will be the first direct listing of a tech firm in London. The company said it has been profitable since 2017 and sales hit Β£421 million this year. The float could reportedly value the company at as much as Β£9 billion. β β
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