Hi there, 👋
​
If you're looking for a robot to follow you around, meet Astro.

This creepy tech from Amazon gives them a new level of access to your home - and heightens privacy concerns.

On the bright side, it appears to have suicidal tendencies.* Leaked documents quote a source who said that Astro would “throw itself down” the stairs “if presented the opportunity.”

See below for:

• Eastern Europe - undervalued and overlooked
• An overview of The Psychology of Money
• Buy, sell and discover side projects
• Ecommerce buyer's guide
• The NFT learning curve

As always, thanks for being here,
Juliet Lyall.
​

*We are not making light of suicide. If you are struggling to cope in your life, please seek help now from a family member, friend or health professional.
​
​

Overlooked and Undervalued

​
Russian-speaking and Eastern European tech entrepreneurs are acknowledged as some of the most technically skilled in the world.

To prove the point, Coursera’s 2020 Global Skills Index found that Russian learners had the highest proficiency in technology and data science among 65 million learners across 60 countries.

In addition, levels of entrepreneurship remain high and are still growing.

The prominent success stories from Eastern Europe include Telegram, Revolut, PandaDoc, Preply and others.

Even so, the challenge to win over investors and successfully raise seed funding is greater in this part of the world.

When startups have been successful and raised seed, Series A or Series B funding, they are on average raising 65% less than their U.S. peers and over 40% less than U.K. and EU entrepreneurs.
​
​Alexander Chachava writes:

The reasons are probably myriad, including perceived cultural differences, lack of understanding, trust and confidence, and, sadly, greater risk aversion, probably too often fueled by negative Russian and Eastern European stereotypes.

It appears that Eastern European startups are still overlooked and undervalued.

For investors, this represents a massive untapped opportunity.

​Think outside the West.​
​
​

Side Projectors

Our recent story about the Tiny Acquisitions platform was one of our most-clicked articles of the year.

Shortly after publishing, we received an email from a reader who suggested we check out SideProjectors.

The Side Projectors platform lets you buy, sell and discover a variety of side projects covering SaaS, blogs, ecommerce, apps and more.

You can also search for a co-founder or showcase your own product or service.

The service is free to use, although the membership offer gives you additional functionality for only $3 per month.

​See the side projects.​

(h/t to Jason. Sorry we don't have any link details for you)
​
​

Sponsored by Empire Flippers Capital
​

💰 Build A Passive Investment Portfolio

​Empire Flippers Capital allows investors to own fractional shares in a variety of online businesses.

You can easily build a passive and diverse portfolio of assets that includes Amazon FBA, content, eCommerce sites and more.

Plus, your investment is managed by experienced operators.

Round 2 of the EFC Fund is now open to accredited investors.

Want to learn more?

👉 Book a call with their friendly team.​
​
​

The Fastest Way to Screen Capture

​
​TinyTake is a free tool created by MangoApps.

This multi-purpose tool lets you mark up virtually anything you see on screen as videos or images or use it as a file sharing application.

Features:

• Take a screenshot of a region, window, or full screen
• Annotate your screenshots with a text box, arrow, or highlighter

What’s great about TinyTake is that you can easily share large files with anyone, including non-users.

TinyTake also offers screen recording capabilities.

There is a free plan for personal use and commercial plans are available from $29.95 per annum.

​Free download.
​
​

Domain Snacks

​
👉 Dot App Sales

One domain investor who shows up a lot for one extension is Top. Domains.
They have rung up 17 of the 77 reported .app domain name sales in 2021.

The top .app sale is NFT .app at $50,000. It’s now listed for sale on OpenSea as an NFT.

Once bought, the NFT unlocks access to the domain auth code which is used to transfer ownership of the NFT .APP domain name.

​

👉 Start Your Own Auction Site
​

​
​Auction.io sold for $100,000 back in April and it's now live.

If you have any interest in running your own auction website then this might be worth a look.

They boast that you can build and launch your auction in minutes, but there is no detail on how best to promote your auction.

The portfolio page states: (their poor grammar, not ours)

You can market in marketplace and in your own domain. See some of our successful customers who developed marketplace using our AuctionSoftware.com and converted in multi million business.

​Visit Auction.io​
​
​

The Psychology of Money

​
We probably don't need to tell you who Morgan Housel is.

In case you haven't read any of his articles or books, Housel is a former financial columnist for the Wall Street Journal and now a partner at Collaborative Fund.

His most recent book is The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness.

The book consists of 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money.

Investors and consumers behave with flawed attitudes such as overconfidence, impatience, and anchoring bias.

These irrational patterns have tangible effects on global markets and, likely, on your own personal finances.

The most interesting lessons in this book are about greed and excess.

If you haven't read Housel's book yet, this post on Maker gives you one writer's perspective on what Housel teaches about wealth, economics, and success.

​Full story.​
​
​

Fat Finger Crypto Trade

Bitfinex, one of the crypto world’s most controversial exchanges, paid $23.7 million in transaction fees to deposit $100,000 on the blockchain in what appears to be a fat-finger trade for the history books.​

While erratic and pricey fees have been a common gripe this year, the $24 million price tag appeared to be a mistake, with DeversiFi calling it “erroneously high” in a tweet:
​

They added:

"DeversiFi is currently investigating the cause to determine how this occurred and will keep you updated."

"No customer funds on DeversiFi are at risk and this is an internal issue for DeversiFi to resolve. Operations are unaffected."
​
​

Sponsored by Smash Digital​
​

🦄 SEOs With Skin in the Game

​
​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.
​
​Check. Them. Out.
​
​

✅ Snippets to Send You on Your Way

​
🔷 SEO roundup: September finds SEOs on some shaky ground. A lot of updates have come in a short amount of time and not all of them were announced. This roundup from Matt Diggity covers some of the updates, plus the latest in SEO tricks and news.
​
🔷 Free credit for startups: Notion is launching a new startup program that offers a minimum $500 credit to any startup globally to try its product for free - regardless of its size and funding status. Based on the size of the team, the credit could give startups access to Notion’s premium offerings at no cost for as long as a year - if not longer.
​
🔷 Coinbase paycheck deposits: Coinbase will soon launch direct deposit in the U.S. Customers will be able to deposit a portion of their paycheck into Coinbase. App users can find their current payroll company or employer and update paycheck allocation from there. Once the money hits your Coinbase account, you can keep everything in USD or choose to convert funds to a cryptocurrency.
​
🔷 NFT learning curve: A TechCrunch writer explains why the NFT on ramp is still too steep for most people. Alex Wilhelm is a self professed NFT noob who says: "Folks who want to eventually climb through the software web required, and the huge fees that must be paid, will manage. But if NFTs want the more regular types like yours truly, the barriers need to come down a little."
​
🔷 7 reasons investors won’t fund inventions alone: Inventions are necessary but not sufficient to create real value for investors and customers. So what do investors look for in qualifying you for that million dollars you need to take your invention from your garage to the market? Here are some reality checks you should apply.

🔷 Ecommerce buyer's guide: The critical areas to look out for when buying an eCommerce business. This monster guide from Flippa covers everything from the importance of a store's platform to the legal issues surrounding a purchase.
​

🌲Wiry Bonsai (watch to the end):

​
​

Interested in sponsoring our newsletter?

Thanks for your interest in sponsoring the investing.io newsletter. The newsletter goes out twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays.
You'll find the details here.​
​
​

🙋 How did we do?

With your feedback, we can improve this newsletter. Please click on a link to vote:

• ​👍 Bravo - interesting and valuable. Thanks!​
• ​😐 Hmm - only okay​
• ​👎 Yawn - I fell asleep.​

You can also leave a voice message.
Thanks!
​
​

There wasn’t a dedicated space for entrepreneurial investors like us… so we created one. Join over 200 members interested in digital asset & start-up discussions, plus deal-flow. All in our paid community. 🎉

​