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Together With:

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Hi there, 👋

In an announcement that was a surprise to absolutely no one, Facebook has rebranded to Meta.
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Meta has several meanings, including something that is beyond, abstract or characteristically self-referential.
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The word 'meta' was a buzzword when the oldest Millennials were still crawling around in diapers making unintelligible noises - which means you should avoid saying things like "Dude, that is so meta."
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Watch out for an increase in domain name registrations containing the word meta.
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​Meta was trending prior to the FB news, and we predict a rise in .com Meta first and last names.
Let's go grab MetaZuck .com. Or does that sound too much like MetaSuck?
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In this issue:

• Investing in Main Street
• OurCrowd To Open Up Funding
• NFT Stunt
• The Vig
• 7 Types of Angel Investor
• Protecting NFT Collectors

Read on and enjoy!
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As always, thanks for being here.
Juliet Lyall
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​P.S. Here's a good read on the Metaverse. 28 experts share their thoughts on what the Metaverse will look like, and how it will be used.
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OurCrowd Opens Up Funding

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​OurCrowd is a venture investing platform that lets accredited investors back startups right alongside big-name VCs.

The Jerusalem-based company has 140,000 accredited investors on its platform and new subscribers have soared from 25,000 in 2020 to 75,000 in 2021 so far. This represents a 300% growth with three months remaining before the end of the year.
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Last week, OurCrowd partnered with SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 in a $25 million convertible equity deal. The partnership's focus will largely center around projects involving artificial intelligence, quantum computing, mobility, agri-tech, cybersecurity, and health-tech.
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The platform has backed 280 companies and had dozens of exits in the past 8 years. Among their notable exits are Lemonade, Wave and Argus.
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OurCrowd says it plans to use the round to further expand its platform, build up its base of investors, and more rapidly identify early opportunities in high-tech private companies.
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The company says the new funds, as well as the partnership, will be instrumental in helping it advance its mission to open up VC funding beyond the usual institutional players.​
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​Note: Individual investors can participate in securities offerings for as little as $10,000.
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​Related: VC Funding For Cybersecurity Companies In Israel On Pace To Nearly Double This Year​
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NFT Stunt

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How's this for a stunt?

Someone made a flash loan purchase of CryptoPunk #9998 from themself for 124.46K ETH. Yup, that's $532,414,877.01.
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The collector allegedly used flash loans from several sources to purchase the Punk before using the funds from the purchase to repay the loans.
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CryptoPunks creator, Larva Labs, stated this isn’t the first time it’s happened, and they are working on removing notifications for these transactions in the future.
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Since the money from this trade ended up right back where it started, why did they bother?
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​Not a rhetorical question!​
​Hit reply and tell us what you think. We'll give a shout out to whoever comes up with the best answer.
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The Vig

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First, an explainer:

If you ever watched an episode of The Sopranos, you'll know that 'Vig' is slang for interest paid on a loan. It's usually a loan with higher than market interest rates, offered by a loan shark.
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In sports betting, the difference between what is wagered and what is won is also called the 'Juice' or 'Vig'. It's one of the ways sports betting agencies make money.

When we discovered Vig.io's website, it made us smile.

Vig offers real time data on stocks, ETFs, bonds, crypto and more. They also track gainers and losers, unusual options activity, and alerts.
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Their sense of humor is evident in both the stock Mixes section and the risk profile area.
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The stock Mixes section combines stocks from specific sectors, e.g., Show Me the Money is where you'll find stocks focused on banking, investing, and financial transactions.
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The Risk Profile area lets you label yourself as anything from a tightwad to a speculator. You're then offered a group of investments that suit your profile.
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Vig has also added gamification to their site. They offer Daily Fantasy games to test your investing skills.
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You need to create a free account to play games or access additional features. A Pro plan is available for around $50.
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Investing in Main Street

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Mainvest lists passive income investments in brick and mortar businesses across the USA.

The company launched in October 2018 with the goal to democratize access to small business investment after the 2015 legislation changes to crowdfunding. These changes meant that small businesses could raise investment from anyone, not just accredited investors.

Mainvest states that over 10,000 people have invested more than $12M in capital funding into the small businesses hosted on their site.

Each business stipulates their own minimum investment (usually $100) and the targeted returns are between 10-25%.
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Recently, Mainvest added regulated cannabis opportunities to their marketplace and will expand to additional emerging industries fit for alternative investment.
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You can browse the businesses currently seeking investment or find out how this works for investors.​
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​Note: Mainvest is only available to US-based companies wishing to raise funds. Investors need a US bank account.
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Brought to You by Smash Digital​
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🦄 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.
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Alternate Images

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​Constraint Systems is a collection of 21 alternative interfaces for creating and editing images and text.

Aside from having innovative names, the tools allow you to explore different ways to interact with pixels and text on a computer screen.
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For example, you could try Freeconfig which lets you push around image pixels in blocks, Tri for image distortions or Res for selectively pixelating an image.
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​Free - and fun.
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Digital Meets Physical

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Last year, Beeple hit the headlines with the $69.3 million sale of his NFT, "Everydays: The First 5000 Days."
Now, he's back with a new creation.
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​Human One is a seven-foot-tall box-like structure covered in LED screens that display 24 hours worth of video.

The piece has both digital and physical components, and naturally also comes with a corresponding NFT.
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Christie’s will auction the artwork on November 9.
​Any bets on what this will sell for?
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Together With MicroAcquire
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Ready to Pilot Your Next Rocket? 🚀
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You don’t have to go from zero to one to build a profitable business. Save years of grinding and MicroAcquire one instead.
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You’ll find 1,000s of vetted startups on MicroAcquire across SaaS, ecommerce, and more.
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Apply your skills and experience to a healthy, growing startup and earn profits from day one.
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You can even finance your acquisition with Pipe or Clearco.
💸 No debt. No dilution. No problem!
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​Join over 100,000 entrepreneurs who love acquiring startups on MicroAcquire:

• $800 million in listing revenue
• 500+ successful acquisitions
• 40+ 5-star reviews on G2​

Browse the listings with a free MicroAcquire buyer account. Upgrade to a Premium subscription to engage sellers and get access to more business metrics.
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Find a profitable startup, big or small, ready for you to take it to the next level.

👉 View Listings​
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✅ Snippets to Send You on Your Way

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🔷 Cream Finance hacked: DeFi protocol Cream Finance suffered yet another hack after an exploit stole at least $130 million in what could be one of the largest thefts in decentralized finance. DeFi has been a frequent target of hackers, with many using flash loans as a way to take advantage of poorly protected protocols.
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🔷 Scaling your ECommerce biz: Check out the 30 Smart Decisions to Scale Your ECommerce Business. You'll get ideas in each of these 3 areas: Strategies to strengthen the core of your business, decisions to nail your marketing strategy, and tips to help you close the sale.
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🔷 Know your angel: The reason too many entrepreneurs fail to raise investment is simple. They’re unable to communicate effectively with investors. Discover the 7 types of angel investor and what they want to hear.
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🔷 Bitcoin’s elusive ownership: A study revealed that the top 10,000 investors still control over one-third of the Bitcoin supply. Bloomberg.
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🔷 Protecting NFT collectors: ClubNFT, an NFT startup based in Massachusetts, has secured $3 million in seed funding to protect NFT collectors from financial risk via its next-gen platform. The platform developed by the startup includes features such as search, analysis, backup, and recovery, removing the risks of losing the media files associated with your NFTs.
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🔷 Number crunching: Seed-stage funding to startups has exploded in the past decade and become an asset class of its own. To visualize the dramatic change and understand how much seed investment grew in the past 10 years, Crunchbase looked at the number of U.S. startups that were funded over various five-year time frames and at different stages. See who's investing and get the stats on these deals.​
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🧔 The Beard Olympics:

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