Steph Curry’s Rolling Stone Feature, Texas versus California, The Business Credit Card Wars, Figma Exits for $20 billion
Stretch Four Insights Volume 37
This week’s edition of the Stretch Four Insights Newsletter is brought to you by Future. I am ramping my cardio and my trainer Alex has been kicking my ass lately. I have not set a date yet for the half marathon I plan to run in 2023, but my goal is to stay ready so I do not have to get ready. I am down three pounds in the last three months and Future takes care of all fitness needs and goals the diet is a work in progress. Alex has adjusted my workout regime and I have been working my way up to 15 miles a week and ramping up. I am still getting strength training in and Future makes it all possible if nothing else it gives me digital accountability. Alex sends me a text every day.
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Happy Saturday,
What a week if your name is Dylan Field. If not maybe it was just a normal week. I am writing this heading out to Sacramento and listening to the All-In Podcast.
This week I am highlighting:
Steph Curry’s Rolling Stone cover story
An interesting report on how taxes are a bit more expensive in Texas than you might think
Mercury’s launch of a new business credit card and why they waited.
Figma exits for $20 billion
Beyond the free weekly update I will go deeper into some topics above and some additional ones on a premium version.
Happy Saturday.
Quote of the Week:
Reading is not the marker of genius. Books cannot, on their own, bestow wisdom or prepare you for life’s more hellish encounters. They are not talismans. They wait, inert, for you to pick them up. If you want to belong to the educated class and you aren’t reading books—if you aren’t making time for them—you do, perhaps, deserve censure. Someone has to do it.
Excerpt from Political Currents by Ross Barkan, You Should Read Books
Tweet of the Week:
Steph Curry’s Rolling Stone Feature Recap (NBA)
Rolling Stone delivered their feature story for October on none other than Steph Curry. I enjoyed the read as it unlocked Curry’s life outside of making 35 foot jumpers like they are layups and running off four NBA titles in the past eight years. The gems that stuck out spanned across his business ventures like his now lifetime relationship with Under Armour, his upbringing in my adopted hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina, his political ties and where he stands on issues including his relationship with former president Barack Obama.
The most interesting part too me was a section where they highlight a type of mood Steph unlocks when he is angry. It is called “Wardell Mode.” These were times referenced from his circle of influence on when Curry has be upset with the way he’s been portrayed and one included an experience where a close friend mishandled some of his money. I highlight this specific story on my premium feed this week.
One of the best quotes from Steph in the piece was this one, “I don’t have to raise my voice to get mad,” Curry says. “That’s the best part about it.”
Curry has come a long way from the baby-faced assassin.
Everything is Bigger in Texas (Taxes)
Living in California has been the punching bag of the mainstream media for a consistent two years now. Why not swing the pendulum for a change and pick on one of the new hotspots for those leaving California, the great state of Texas?
The conclusion of the study completed by the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) was that if you are a low income earner it is cheaper to live in California in terms of taxes. The counter reality is that if you are wealthy you fare better in Texas than in California.
This is intriguing because of the massive media push on the extreme cost of living in California. This study counters that narrative in that only being true for the wealthy which checks out considering folks like Joe Rogan, Elon Musk, and others who have made the move and promoted it mostly because it is self-serving to them for a tax benefit versus a lifestyle move.
Mercury Finally Joins the Credit Card Wars (Fintech)
I had a chance to catch up with Catherine Ordeman Mercury’s Lead Product Manager on their new card product which was officially released this week. The credit card wars have been heating up since Brex launched the first charge card for startups in 2018. Mercury took a different approach to get to a card product. Their core offering was a business checking account which they launched in 2019. The initial question I had was why did they wait three years to launch a credit card?
According to Ordeman, it was all about features, from her perspective they had to be amazing. Mercury already has a large user base for their core checking account and this product was rolled out directly to current customers with $50,000 minimum in their back account.
Head over to the premium for a deeper dive into my interview with Catherine and the Mercury team.
Figma and the long short game of exits (Startups and venture capital)
Figma exited this week to the tune of $20B in cash and stock to Adobe. These are the weeks the sometimes excessiveness of tech twitter makes sense. The massive wealth generated by the venture capitalist, founders, and early employees of Figma is a part of the reason we in Silicon Valley operate in obscurity for what can be years. Figma’s founder story is fairly straight forward and Dylan Field by all accounts is a great “human being.” Figma’s product is revolutionary in that they brought the design function to the web and acquired tens of millions of users while building a real community around the design function. This is valuable for Adobe who had done everything but until Figma came along. Adobe was known for a clunky download only software program and to be honest it was not necessarily cool to be a designer pre-Figma now designers in many cases are the most sought after professionals in tech.
What’s Next
Next week, I am spending some time in the south bay at the Morgan Stanley Innovation Summit in Palo Alto. It is a two-day event where nearly 40 companies are pitching Morgan Stanley on their products. I will spend most of my time with the technology teams of the Wealth Management (Individuals, SMBs), other founders, and the Morgan Stanley investment team. This will also be my first time at the notorious Rosewood Hotel.
Stay tuned for a premium edition of that will cover more insider stories and backchannel feedback.