$17.2M selling "The Hustle," lifestyle businesses as assets, investing in edtech, Ethereum co-founder is "done" with crypto, a free finance masterclass, and more!

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Hi there, 👋
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The Tokyo Olympic Games officially commence tomorrow.
​Who's excited?​
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While the Olympics have recently made the news for cardboard beds and Covid-19 cases, they may not be as risky as the hiking routes recommended by Google Maps.
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A Scottish mountaineering group levied criticism against Google after they allegedly discovered it had been suggesting “potentially fatal” routes up mountains - and even directly over cliffs.
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While some of us think that hiking is just an excuse to get lost in ugly shoes, there is no excuse for following a map that leads you off a cliff.
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Before Google Maps and GPS, people used common sense and experienced guides.
Oh, and instead of gazing at their mobile phones, they watched where they were walking!
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​Here's what we've got for you today:​
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• $17.2 million - one email at a time
• The business of lifestyle businesses
• Investment opportunities in Edtech
• Ethereum co-founder is done with the cryptocurrency

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​Plus you can:​
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• Take a finance masterclass - for free
• Analyze your mood by how you type, and
• Search for words and phrases in video

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Read on for more.
As always, thanks for being here
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​P.S. If you enjoy our newsletter, go ahead and share it!
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The Business of Lifestyle Businesses

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A lifestyle business is the dream of all who want to avoid the 9-5, enjoy more free time and work from anywhere.
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These businesses appeal to entrepreneurs who are comfortable generating just enough revenue to meet their needs.
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A lifestyle business requires less investment than a startup, is designed to generate profits quickly, and tends to be less risky.
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They also offer little or no growth opportunity or upside.
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Or do they?
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Flippa just published an Ultimate Guide To Lifestyle Businesses.
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​The article discusses starting a lifestyle business from scratch, as well as ideas for building your business into a saleable asset.
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There are many factors that impact the value of a lifestyle business, including its age and how much time you spend working on it each week.
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Flippa covers the pros and cons of this business choice, and the key questions you should be thinking about when valuing your lifestyle business.
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​(The best way to get the most value from your online business is to plan to sell it from the beginning).​
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Edtech Offers Opportunity

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As the cybersecurity and fintech sectors create headlines and see a deluge of cash, it's easy to miss the investment opportunities in edtech.​
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Brighteye Ventures’ analysis showed that VC investments in European edtech had breached $1 billion in a calendar year for the first time.
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The report shows that the average deal size has tripled to $9.4 million; seven companies have raised $50 million in five different markets; and the U.K. has more than three times as many deals as the next individual market.
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Here's a quick round up of the edtech news this week:

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📘 Blackstone is acquiring a majority stake in Bangalore and San Francisco-headquartered edtech startup Simplilearn for $250 million.
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Simplilearn operates an online bootcamp to help people learn data science, AI, machine learning, cloud computing and other skills that are in demand in the market.
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📘 Australia-based Go1, a provider of learning tools for enterprises, raised $200 million.​
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Led by Softbank and backed by AirTree, Salesforce and Microsoft’s venture arms among others, it was one of Australia’s largest ever funding rounds.
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The platform, which links users with online education courses from different publishers, now has 3.5 million users with an eye on overseas expansion.
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The latest round reportedly sets a valuation for the company of over $1 billion.
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📘 The popular language-learning platform, Duolingo Inc., seeks to cash in on the rapidly rising interest for online education tools.​
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They're expected to list on the Nasdaq exchange next week and their aim is a valuation as high as $3.41 billion.
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Their Securities and Exchange Commission filing shows about 5.1 million shares will be offered in the IPO. These are priced between $85 and $95 each, which would rake in more than $485 million at the top end of that range.
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Duolingo plans to trade on the Nasdaq exchange with the ticker DUOL.
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There's an App for That

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Using typing biometrics, TypingDNA Focus analyzes how your mood changes throughout the day.
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You’ll know when you’re happy, stressed, focused, tired, energized or calm.
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The app works in the background by analyzing your typing activity and processing it through their prediction model.
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​The premise is that you can improve your daily productivity by knowing your mood.
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Everyone starts with 3 trackable moods: Focused, Tired, Stressed.
Additional moods are unlocked by inviting 5 friends or contributing to their public research program.
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​This writer doesn't need an app to know when she's "angry typing."​
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Still, it could be a useful tool if you haven't figured out when you’re most focused.
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​For macOS users. Coming to Windows soon.
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$17.2 Million - One Email at a Time

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We're not sure that Sam Parr would describe himself as a "badass writer," but he knows how to create content that educates and entertains entrepreneurs and startup founders.
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Parr grew his newsletter, The Hustle, to 1.5 million subscribers before selling it to HubSpot for $17.2M in February 2021.
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​He recognized the power of harnessing an audience via email.​
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This was way before publishing platforms like Substack, Ghost or Revue existed.
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Parr made email relevant again.
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"Anyone who says email’s dying is on drugs or stupid."​
​Sam Parr​
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In his new story, Time Denning says, "I searched the internet for weeks to discover the harder to find insights from Sam Parr’s sale of “The Hustle.”
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They are excellent insights.
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​If you're considering starting a newsletter, need a lesson in the power of email or just curious about Sam Parr, then read the full story.​
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AD

🦄 SEOs with Skin in the Game

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​Smash Digital - a growth agency, filled to the brim with unicorn images and SEO memes. A team of SEOs with actual skin in the game, ranking their own portfolio of profitable businesses, and offering the exact same services to clients.
An agency with so much link juice you’ll need a mop and bucket to clean it all up.
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​Check. Them. Out​
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Domain Snacks

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👉 Everything Has a Price
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​Velvet.com (“not for sale”) was sold.
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In mid-2019, Elliot Silver offered $45,000 to buy Velvet.com and was told it was not for sale - regardless of how much he offered.
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It just changed hands for a lot more than that.
​Silver has the details.​
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👉 Dan 2.0 Is Live
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If you have a Dan.com account you will notice some big changes.
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Not only are there changes on the back end of the platform, but also on the landing pages.
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They've updated their logo, typeface, and colors, as well as making significant changes to their sales pages.
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DAN also mentioned there is more to come.
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The company discussed the launch of their newest iteration of the platform in this blog post.
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Free Finance Masterclass

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​As a startup entrepreneur, you're always on a learning quest.
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These days it's far easier to access online education, but many courses aren't worth your time.
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And, it becomes expensive when you waste precious hours searching for and completing a lackluster course.
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If your summer plans include improving your knowledge of business finance, then you might enjoy this free masterclass from Foundr.
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​Specifically, the class focuses on the right way to set-up and structure (or restructure) your business finances.
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You'll learn:

• "The smart way” to earn more and keep more of what you make.
• The most common, costly, and completely unnecessary “money mistakes” made by business owners.
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This class is taught by Alexa Von Tobel, Harvard Business School dropout and founder of LearnVest.
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​Access to the class requires your name and email address.
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Random Tweet

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Startup Concepts as Comics

Startup Concepts is a project from A Junior VC who aim to educate newbies in the entrepreneurial and startup ecosystem.
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​If you've ever been lost trying to understand the terms DAU, CAC, or Net Promoter score, this is for you.
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Plus, it's fun.
There are 31 terms (so far) simplified into comic book format.
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All the concepts are free to access and read.
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​Improve your startup vocabulary.​
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Search Phrases in Video

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​Yarn gives you the ability to search inside videos.
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Similar to the way other search engines work, the majority of their content comes from indexing based on the best and most popular videos and search terms across the web.
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You can search by a word or a phrase, and Yarn will display a selection of clips from T.V. movies and music which contain that content. (Like this)​
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Too many results to count? There are a range of filter options to help you find, use and share the perfect clip.
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​Search on Yarn.​
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✅ Snippets to Send You on Your Way

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🔷 Start and scale: Here is the seven-stage approach that Silicon Valley entrepreneurs adopt for turning ideas into valuable exits.
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🔷 Replicating success: Attempting to replicate Thrasio’s success, three-month-old GlobalBees just raised $150 million to acquire and partner with more digitally native brands. The company helps these firms scale and sell to marketplaces (such as Amazon and Flipkart) and through other channels in India and outside the South Asian market.
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🔷 Second Speedinvest fund: Pan-European early-stage VC Speedinvest has reached the final close for its second fund aimed at specialist marketplaces and consumer startups. Four investments have been made from the €60 million fund so far, including Turkish freight and logistics startup Yolda.
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🔷 Both Dogecoin creators are now critics: Palmer's co-creator, Billy Markus, retweeted Palmer's Twitter thread and responded with a GIF. In a later tweet, Markus added that "I think his points are generally valid aside from the pointless American politics piece."
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🔷 Ethereum "unsafe" for founder: Anthony Di Iorio, a co-founder of the Ethereum network, says he’s done with the cryptocurrency world, partially because of personal safety concerns, reports Bloomberg.
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🔷 The new frontier: Latin America is the new frontier for impact investing. Many sectors are facing major challenges, which creates a pressing need for immediate solutions. Local interest rates are at historic lows in many countries, which can make financing of businesses and investments to fund these solutions highly cost-effective.
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🔷 Big enough: Titan, a startup that is building a retail investment management platform aimed at the new generation of “everyday investors,” has closed on $58 million in a Series B round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
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🤸 Athletes of the future:

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