Hi there 👋,
It seems the SERPs are turning into a battle of the robots.
In a headline that warmed the hearts of content writers everywhere, Search Engine Land posted a good reminder that Google doesn’t want your AI-generated SEO spam content.
Let's face it; most websites have trouble creating higher-quality content, they don’t need help creating low-quality content.
In this issue:
📈 Market Moves
📰 News & Views
🤝🏿 Deal Summary
🧰 Cool tools
Don’t miss: Getting ‘exit ready’, investing in fast-growing, late-stage startups, US crypto report, the boom in equity crowdfunding, and Opensea lawsuits pile up.
As always, thanks for being here.
Juliet Lyall
📈 Market Moves
👎 Bitcoin | $41,148.50 | -2.69%
👎 Ethereum | $3,054.51 | -2.69%
👎 Shopify | $597.16 | -0.83%
👎 Coinbase | $153.34 | -4.66%
👎 Meta | $218.46 | -1.79%
📰 News & Views
Recent stories that resonated with us.
Talking Exits
There are many things to put in place for exit-readiness, and some entrepreneurs are unsure where to start.
Of course, one of the first critical steps toward exiting is building a scalable business model that is sustainable over the long haul. Early-stage founders may underestimate the challenges of growing and scaling a business, and they need to be prepared to avoid some of the most common pitfalls, such as:
Premature scaling
Resistance to change
Securing capital
Failing to account for the customer experience
2 entrepreneurs (and an attorney) offer their tips on preparing for a successful exit.
Late-stage Startups at Low Valuations
A few days ago, Julian Shapiro quietly announced (in his newsletter) that he's launching a "private club for investing in fast-growing, late-stage startups at low valuations."
Shapiro's news mentioned that if you're an accredited investor, you can invest in late-stage startups with him before they go public. Shapiro noted that they have "invested $9M recently."
The landing page for WithCarveout offers an explainer packet for which they require your LinkedIn and Twitter handles. Don't be fooled. You won't receive the packet immediately. We guess they need a few days to determine whether or not you'll be a suitable club member.
🩳 The Shorts
🔹 The boom in community round fundraising: The equity crowdfunding platform, Wefunder, has quadrupled the amount of fundraising on its platform in the past year. GritDaily asked Jonny Price, VP of Fundraising at Wefunder, about the future of crowdfunding, what they look for in companies, and how they aim to level the playing field for founders raising capital. Price stated that they will expand their service into the European Union in the coming weeks.
🔹 Lawsuits pile up over stolen apes: The NFT marketplace OpenSea is now facing at least three lawsuits over stolen cartoon apes.
🔹 Fintech unicorn Bolt is buying crypto startup Wyre for $1.5 billion. The cash-and-stock deal for Wyre, founded in 2013, adds crypto payment capabilities to Bolt’s ecommerce checkout technology.
🔹 Tackling the trust issue: Peer-to-peer transactions continue to be plagued by a lack of trust between buyers and sellers, resulting in over $220 billion of inhibited transactions annually. Cork-based end-to-end digital transaction platform Trustap has raised $3.4 million in funding to tackle the problem.
🔹 Capital for ecommerce: Madrid-based RITMO has closed a $200 million debt funding round led by i80 Group and Avellinia Capital. The Spanish startup aims to help ecommerce entrepreneurs scale up rapidly and overcome the current supply chain challenges by providing them with capital.
🔹 Metaverse tech: Improbable has raised $150 million in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz and SoftBank's Vision Fund 2. The London-based metaverse technology startup plans to use the funding to launch a network of interoperable Web3 metaverses called MSquared.
🔹 Why investors are snapping up virtual land in a metaverse ghost town. Decentraland was supposed to be a digital utopia — floods of money are undermining that vision.
🔹 Surprising stats: Almost half of all cryptocurrency owners in the United States, Latin America and Asia Pacific purchased the digital assets for the first time in 2021, according to a new survey from U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Gemini. Download all the survey results here — no signup needed.
🤝🏿 Deal Summary
🔒 = Accredited Investors Only
None of these deals is a recommendation from investing.io. This content is for information purposes only. All returns listed are estimations from the respective platforms, and not advice from investing.io. Do your own research.
➽ 2nd Skull: Venture Raise. Game Changing Head Protection. 2nd Skull is turning to the future to develop and launch a sensor-enabled wearable product line. Patented products featuring Impact Absorption Technology. A roster of partnerships and relationships in place. Startengine.
Offering Type: Equity
Price per Share: $10.00
Pre-Money Valuation: $10,312,250.00
➽ Gary Vee Original Veefriends Sketch—Sharing Squirrel. In under a year, the VeeFriends NFT collection has notched over $500M in sales volume. Rarity: 1 of 1 (Original Drawing). At a Christie’s auction in October 2021, five of these unique works sold for over $1.2M. Rally.
Minimum: $10
Market Cap: $275,000
➽ Real Estate: West Valley MHC. A Manufactured Housing Community located in one of Las Vegas' top resort residential neighborhoods. Class A properties. Current Occupancy 83%. Ability to return equity through both net cash and interim refinancing. RealtyMogul.
Minimum: $35,000
Potential Return: 18.14%
👩🏽🌾 Top Yields on Stablecoins
USDC - Vires (Waves) 107% APY
USDT - Vires (Waves) 107% APY
MAI/USDC - Autofarm (Cronos) 44.70% APY
💲 DeFi Yields
Hundred.Finance (Fantom Chain) *note: We list the fully-boosted yields here MIM: 10.58%, DAI: 20.62%, FRAX: 9.75%, USDC: 17.43 %
Hundred.Finance (Arbitrum Chain) *note: We list the fully-boosted yields here MIM: 26.13%, DAI: 12.65%, FRAX: 10.52%, USDC: 20.54 %
Platypus via YieldYak (Avax Chain) USDT: 61.8 %
Platypus via YieldYak (Avax Chain) DAI.e: 43.9 %
Platypus via YieldYak (Avax Chain) USDT.e: 31.6 %
🔊Listen: The Psychology of Money, Picking the Right Game, and the $6 Million Janitor
You have to have a level of savings in your asset allocation that doesn’t make sense. You have to have a level of conservatism that seems like it’s a little bit too much. That’s the only time that you know that you are prepared for risks that you cannot envision.
— Morgan Housel
Tim Ferris hosted author Morgan Housel on his podcast, and the duo discussed all things finance, risk, and investing. It's a meaty 3 hour conversation. Check it out here.
🧰 Cool Tools
»» Public alternative: Public's app lets you invest in stocks and ETFs, but it isn't available outside the U.S.A. If you’re searching for other options, Interactive Brokers (IBKR) lets you invest in an enormous range of financial products globally. Their products include stocks, options, futures, currencies, bonds and funds. IBKR was founded in 1978, is listed on the Nasdaq, and has shown a rigorous risk management process.
»» Linktree alternative: While Linktree is one of the most popular "link in bio" apps, there are several excellent alternatives for creating mini websites. If you are trying to create a simple landing page on your mobile device, the Milkshake app might be the choice for you. The service allows you to link to five sites on one page, and has tools for creating landing page cards that you can swipe—just like an Instagram Story. Free to use.
»» Understand your audience: Lucky Orange is the Swiss army knife of digital marketing. For a monthly flat rate of $9 (on an annual plan) you get access to tools like conversion funnel analysis, heat mapping, user surveys, visitor profiles, live chatbox, announcements, and more.
🎨 An artist’s incredible progress: FREE ROLL
Brought to You by Smash Digital
🦄 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.
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Not financial, investing or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly for information, entertainment and education purposes. Nothing in here is investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This newsletter is not tax advice. Talk to your professional advisors. Do your own research.
the floor of digital land is a falling, I'm looking for an entry point using http://analytics.wemeta.world/ :)