Texted a Seed series founder about their situation last night, response being, “Had a busy couple days, but I was fast and wired out the money yesterday AM and the wires posted. Still a couple mil locked up, but they’re in money market funds, so should be good. I was part of the bank run… Continue reading SVB
Tag: Finance
Miner/Maximum Extractable Value (MEV)
I want to quickly cover MEV, or Miner Extractable Value, given it's still a topic of increased relevance, and yet still opaque. MEV refers to the potential value that miners can extract from the transactions included in a block they mine. On the Ethereum blockchain, MEV is primarily generated from arbitrage opportunities, transaction reordering, and other forms… Continue reading Miner/Maximum Extractable Value (MEV)
DEXs
1/ Today Uniswap Labs, PancakeSwap, and DODO constitute more than 75% of total volume. 2/ The largest selling point is they're non-custodial, i.e., you are in control where centralized exchanges (CEX) are the opposite. DEXs range from orderbooks, AMMs, to hybrids. 3/ Orderbooks allow buyers and sellers to set offers around assets. These offers get… Continue reading DEXs
Weekly Startup Spotlight: Lendtable, a Series A Fintech
This week's FintechFriday session is with Mitchell Jones, co-founder Lendtable ⚡ a YC S20 batch company that raised $18M from Softbank to help workers get thousands in additional income by giving a cash advance to cover living expenses so they can finally begin earning their employer match.It’s noted from YC’s site that 1 in 4… Continue reading Weekly Startup Spotlight: Lendtable, a Series A Fintech
Economics of Staking (and lending)
Recently speaking with someone who loves everything crypto, she and I got into the guts of staking. Unbeknownst to me, I didn't have as full of a grasp of the dynamics of this growing marketplace. It is exciting, to be honest. The act of staking provides another way for owners of particular digital assets to… Continue reading Economics of Staking (and lending)
Floor NFTs
Floor NFTs is a young company led by Chris Madden. Chris has a background in both Fintech and Martech. Being an early employee at Venmo, he spent two years researching how social + money work together. Currently the Co-founder of Button, he works in Fintech by day, and crypto by night. Chris is also on… Continue reading Floor NFTs
Tectonic Shifts In Fintech
Below are some quick thoughts. Several earlier fintech companies found success, with younger adults being solid customers. Today, we see newer companies target teens and kids through several gifting platforms that have closed rounds the past few quarters (i.e., UNest). This is good, but it will be difficult for those companies to scale over time… Continue reading Tectonic Shifts In Fintech
Be a specialist
An interesting study was just released about venture capital. One tool I view that corporate development teams can refine and build upon to execute in-organic growth. The study essentially notes that venture capitalists are specialists. I believe this. The research paper also notes that performance is much better in the sub-industry VC's focus on; even… Continue reading Be a specialist
Early Stage Company Nomenclature + Rounds
Two things are popping up more and more in 2021: 1) I get a fair amount of questions about equity and where it should land for first-money-in through the mentoring I do for early stage companies. Unfortunately, it’s not a straightforward answer. 2) Round inflation is real. It really doesn’t matter if you mark your… Continue reading Early Stage Company Nomenclature + Rounds
The Continued Shift in Financial Advisor Technology
This post is a continuation from my original in 2019. I’ll quickly cover my initial hypothesis and provide any updates, then move into what I believe may be coming down the pipeline in this exciting space. If you haven’t read the initial post, it may be worth quickly pursuing that first. VC investments have hit… Continue reading The Continued Shift in Financial Advisor Technology