RIP Young Dolph, NFT Lending Goes Mainstream, Newsletter Discovery, and The Largest Crypto-Focused VC Fund is Based in San Francisco
November 19, 2021: Stretch Four Insights Volume 4
Hello All,
I am reporting live from the Carolinas this week, Charlotte and Charleston to be specific. This is the second full week of my 18-day east coast trip. Fortunately for me, Whitney (and the little one that we are expecting in April) joined me in Charlotte.
I left the West Coast immediately following the Warriors/Hornets game at Chase Center and my wife snagged tickets to their rematch here in Charlotte the day she arrived. My home team was able to capture the second-only win against the Warriors this year and the Hornets doubled down by beating the number one team in the Eastern Conference on Wednesday. Speaking of winning, Cam Newton is BACK so naturally, I scored some Panther tickets for Whitney, myself, and my parents for Sunday's big game. There's no way this game won’t be entertaining and it's a great way to cap off my East Coast trip.
My mom surprised us with a two-day getaway to Charleston and we picked the perfect time to come two hours south as the weather beat all my expectations. I cherish coming south much more these days considering I live 3,000 miles away. It is definitely true that absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Let's dig in.
And if you want to hear more or spread the word, subscribe and tell your friends!
📚 Startup Spotlight
NFTFI - A simple marketplace for NFT collateralized loans.
Oddly enough, I stumbled across this company on Twitter (linked above) from the Founder and CEO of Dapper Labs, who is most notably the Godfather of the NFT craze. Dapper is the original creator of CryptoKitties which launched in 2017.
Sure, Roham is talking up his own book. He's an investor and clearly a user but it was an interesting concept that I am sure is not the first of its kind and certainly not the last.
NFTs are an asset class, and maybe the fasting growing one on the internet at that. There should be a more liquid market around these assets and NFTFi is solving these problems, albeit with a fairly small Series A round in today's market. I assume they will raise a much larger B round, especially considering this was somewhat of a larger party round considering the amount of participating investors. Also worth considering NFTFi is a South African-based company, so this may be a reasonable round size there.
The NFT financial product opportunity that may emerge will be quite interesting. If you look at the brands and communities that are developing around NFTs these are to be thought of us financial markets just as much as communities no matter what people say and we keep score by looking at the AUM (assets under management).
There are sure to be all types of financial products built around these communities. Take the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) for example. It's not unreasonable to think that we will see a very fluent financial product business being built and catered directly to this community and it seems NFTFi is early in building this out.
📰 Recommended Readings
Paradigm’s New Venture Fund | Matt Huang
Matt Huang and Fred Ehrsam are standing out even in a time where it seems like we will are all now Crypto millionaires. These two have a leg up and this week we got the news they have doubled down with a $2.5B Fund II. Just when you think crypto and Web3 are in their infancy you look up and realize Coinbase is a $75B publicly-traded company, Crypto.com just paid $700 million for naming rights to the iconic Staples Center, and a three-year-old VC fund is raising $2.5B dedicated to only crypto. I'll be watching this fund closely over the next few months as I assume they are going to make some very large bets with this dry powder.
If the direct announcement from Paradigm (above) wasn't enough, The Information was able to conduct a fairly informative interview with the managing partners from the firm. This article surprised me with a few things. First, Huang and Ehrsam have chosen to lay down roots in San Francisco of all places. The crypto space has seemingly set up shop in NYC and Miami. With the largest crypto-focused venture fund now headquartered in San Francisco, I'm curious if others will follow suit. Additionally, with Paradigm intentionally one-upping Andreessen Horowitz with a larger crypto fund from (and with two young emerging fund managers at that), this is a fairly big accomplishment and flex.
Notes on newsletters | Benedict Evans
This is a dark article coming from a guy with an emerging newsletter (shameless plug) but Evans definitely makes a clear presentation of what is happening in the Newsletter ethos. Evans takes us back to the "original paid newsletter" which began back in 1987 and Fred Hickey is still writing it today. He then walks us through the Substack business model and focuses on the real question many of us have. How will discovering new writers and newsletters work when there are 100M readers and 1M creators? He alludes to what I believe is the most critical point in the piece, "Any tool that makes it easy for everyone to create and reach an audience also means you're competing with all the other everyone." This is the mic drop moment for me. While it does seem to be a more crowded space, it still feels early unlike other popular mediums like podcasts, social media, and general blog sites. We are going through a great renaissance for writing and I still feel writing is one of the most valuable things you can do right now on the internet.
🎵 My Jam of the Week
The news of the untimely death of Adolph Robert Thornton, Jr., also known as Young Dolph, came Wednesday afternoon while I was with my mom in Charleston. I rarely missed a Young Dolph album release within the first few days but unfortunately this week I am dedicating my jam of the week to a Memphis legend based on tragic occurrences.
I recall a drive with Whitney last year and I was playing the whole Rich Slave album and before we could even get through a few songs she asked me, "Who is this?"
This will forever be the memory I have of the flamboyant, lavish, and melodic sounds of Young Dolph's music. He had a unique, descriptive style of rap that would make anyone stop and ask that question. His Memphis drawl and bars most of a fast life made it clear he was to be respected and revered. He rapped so confidently and poetically about some of the rawest and telling things about his lifestyle, city, and culture in a way that was different and fairly hard to explain but impossible to ignore.
In an over-saturated world of hip-hop that can often times sound robotic and familiar, Dolph's music stood out and so did he. He was a non-conformist, an independent, and self-described loner who knew his exact audience and context with lyrics.
Dolph died at 36, another one has gone way too soon, and this week the song of the weeks is his now infamous if the not now haunting song "100 Shots."
RIP to Adolph Robert Thornton, Jr., aka Paper Route Frank. May his legacy live on through his beautiful family and loved ones.
#StopTheKillingOfBlackMen
What's Next
As I conclude my East Coast trip and gear up to head back to the Bay with Whitney on Monday, I am continuing to work on a few things:
As I've mentioned in previous newsletters, I am launching my first business-in-a-box course for new tax professionals that are starting, growing, and expanding their firms in 2022.
It will be geared toward individuals looking to do at least one of the following three things within the next six months:
Start an online tax business
Expand their current tax business
Grow their team of certified tax professionals
If you or anyone you know is interested, shoot me an email. My experience in the industry over the last five years has afforded me the knowledge to understand what can be improved on.
Much more to come on this next week with our first cohort which will be a small select few firms set to start November 29th.
I will be taking a break from the newsletter next week and returning the following week.
Lastly, if you found this newsletter interesting and know someone else who would, please forward it to them or tell them to subscribe here. It would make my day if you do!
Check out last week's Stretch Four Insights Volume #3 here and tell a friend to tell a friend.
Back to the trenches.
Best,
Matt