News flash: The crypto and blockchain crowd have rebranded to web3. They probably thought it sounded better and didn’t want all the baggage that hundreds of scam ICOs, STOs and skirted securities laws brought with the term blockchain. In a way, it was a bit like Facebook changing its name to Meta. Crypto’s biggest players...
Designing virality and word of mouth marketing into your product When it comes to producing hockey stick growth and exploding valuations, virality and word of mouth are the holy grail. A product that markets itself without spending a dime on customer acquisition (CAC)… That is the stuff of legends that every company strives for, but...
The Top Worldwide Venture Hubs Source: Founder Collective San Francisco, New York, Berlin, London, Shanghai… If I asked you to list the top startup tech hubs globally, these established powerhouses would certainly top the charts. They produce the majority of the elite of tech companies and the lion’s share of venture returns. And every city...
“The battle between every startup and incumbent comes down to whether the startup gets distribution before the incumbent gets innovation.” — Alex Rampell, a16z The only question, will you win that race? And for Fortune 500 companies with everything on the line, that’s a costly question indeed. Yet so often, incumbents fail to innovate and fall hard. Worse...
In the eyes of experts, when it comes to blockchain, there is often no middle ground — it will either be boom or bust, nothing in between. I for one have become a big proponent of blockchain technology, especially the crypto-economics used to jumpstart powerful network effects. But with so many opinions and noise floating...
Apple’s an interesting company — a true underdog success story that defined consumer tech and later became the most valued company on Earth. And while everyone knows Steve Jobs, few truly understand Apple — especially going forward. Warning, I have never really liked Apple (which is ironic as I write this on a MacBook Pro) and could be considered...
We are entering an era of unparalleled tech dominance. Companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple control more and more of our everyday lives, owning our data and everything around it. The inherent network effects and flywheels these companies built are unprecedented both in their scope and ability to stave off competition. This is the 3rd...
As a technologist and angel investor, I am very interested in blockchain. The ability to rewrite the internet and operating system of trust has massive economic, political and societal implications. This convergence creates opportunities. What is Liquidity? Liquidity is defined as a market’s ability to purchase or sell an asset without causing drastic change in...
2017 was the year of the ICO. With $6B going to 879 projects (source), ICOs shook venture capital to its core (at least that is what many seem to believe). Among the chaos and “value creation” however; one thing became increasingly clear: utility tokens were the future… until they weren’t. Regulators sat back and observed while...
It would be hard to think of worse system for incentivizing founders than the one used by many of today’s top ICOs. As an angel investor and startup advisor, I have seen the how the venture world works and think blockchain is building itself on a house of cards. It isn’t a question of if,...