Hey there 👋🏾
We live in a wild world and it’s getting hard to cope with all the crazes and unique creatures that keep trying to grab our attention. Could it be the pandemic and boredom that has caused people to derive unique and rather questionable ways of making and spending money? We’ve talked about Crypto, NFTs and now we’re talking SPACs. Oh, Prince Harry is also joining the startup world...
Like I said, we live in a wild wild world right now, but no complaints since it gives us some good content and emoji usage 👾
On the other hand, some things never change! The race between Saudi Aramco and Apple for the world’s most profitable company continues and Elon Musk is still a corporate prankster as he retitles himself at Tesla as “Technoking”.
To close this intro on a more serious note and leave you with some food for thought, does looking and seeing mean the same thing to you? Don’t be naive - they are obviously different. People who see are not in a rush and have a high level of focus in their lives. Most of us can look at stuff, but we can’t connect with it. Now that you've recognized you might be a looker and not a seer, what will you do to change that 🤔 |
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Share this newsletter with a friend and get a chance to feature your startup, contribute to HOV Opinion or join our upcoming Startup Investor Community. |
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OpenSea is magically opening doors to NFTs. The startup closed $23 million in a round from a16z. |
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Are iPhones more in demand than oil? Apparently so. Apple is now the world’s most profitable company after Saudi Aramco had a collapse in profits by 44%. Aramco will probably come back on top, but Apple's enjoying the spotlight for now. |
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Blackstone closed it's growth equity fund at $4.5 billion dollars. Imagine we all had friends and family (and strategic investors, pension funds etc etc) willing to bet this big on us. Oh, the places we'd go. |
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ByteDance is making a Clubhouse-like App for China. Do you think it can do even better than Clubhouse? |
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Battery day is the day Tesla makes big announcements. Now, Volkswagen is doing the same thing on ‘Power day’. Looks like there’s a good chance that VW electric vehicle sales can surpass those of Tesla. |
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WFH meant Zoom was your bff. The company had a $170B valuation in October, but since the vaccine roll-out, it’s shares have fallen by almost 40%. Smart move: Zoom is looking to license it’s video tech to other apps and finding other ways to grow. |
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Need to unwind? Here are our top picks to help put your feet up and take a break. We all deserve it. |
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My first million / Podcast |
If you’re ever forced to listen to a podcast, you should pray it’s this one. In each episode you’ll hear breakdowns of the newest trends and areas of business opportunities. 40 minutes later you’ll actually feel like the smartest person in a crowded room. |
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David Skok / Article |
An easy to read break-down of all the major metrics one needs to be aware of when starting a business (especially new entrepreneurs)! This article is specific to SaaS but you can apply the principles across multiple business types. |
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Chef Savvy / Recipe |
When something is this easy, there’s really no excuse. Just 5 ingredients and you have a snack full of protein, fiber and healthy fats to give you all the fuel you need to run your business.
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NY Times / Health and Wellness |
“Did I feed my dog this morning? What was that TV show someone recently mentioned? Ok sshh thoughts, I’m trying to medidate!!” If this is you, follow the article for some guided meditation and tips on how to get the best out of your time off. |
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Dan Sullivan / Book |
In a nutshell: when we come across problems, we need to stop reverting to how to solve the problem instead of who could solve the problem for us. |
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💰 Digits or it didn't happen |
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Did you know that .net’s can actually sale for this much? Yeah neither did we! The biggest .net sale ever was for Poker.net. What determines domain prices anyway?
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What do you think that is? The sale price for Michael Jordan’s house in 2012. Plot twist: It never sold. Today the house sits at just over $14 million. Any buyers? |
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Microsoft might be acquiring Discord, the chatting app for video gamers, for a stunning $10 billion. Considered a strategic asset, Discord has an active user base of more than 140 million. |
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Airtable |
Create an organizational database with this visually appealing and collaborative tool. It can get a bit overwhelming at first glance, but once you play around there's endless possibilities of data storage and capturing. We use Airtable an embarrassing amount at HOV. |
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Drift |
"Hi, what can we help you with today?" If you're new to chat bots, Drift is the perfect tool for you. Easy to use, customize and keep track of all website conversations. Don't lose customers! |
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🤓 Pop Quiz |
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A blank check company is a term often used for.. |
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Imagine having piles of cash available just for mergers. That’s basically a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) also called a blank check company. SPACs have been around in their current form for a long time (2003) but gained massive popularity in 2020 because more companies have been turning to SPAC instead of a traditional IPO. Why? Simply put, an IPO is just annoying. You try to woo multiple investors, your valuation isn’t certain until closer to the offering, and the uncertainty can also cancel your IPO. An easier, less risky option in today’s crazy times is a SPAC. You negotiate with just one party (the one that might acquire you), you know your valuation, don’t have to flock your feathers for everyone to see, and you can cash out existing investors. PLUS it’s much faster. But some investors might be iffy about buying shares of a company going public through SPAC because the due diligence needed for a merger might be less than that needed for an IPO.
Also, does anyone else think it’s weird that things that have been around for a long time gained popularity only recently? Someone needs to do a story on the possible conspiracy theories that lie here.
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Sooo… Should you SPAC or should you IPO? Everyone who's ‘anyone’ has a SPAC right now including Jay-z, ex-Trump advisor, Shaquille O’ Neal. It’s the new flex and way of recognition. “Hey, you rich? What’s your SPAC?” Are celebrities experts at venture capital and investing and should you really trust them with billions of dollars? Of the 302 U.S IPO’s this year, 80% are SPAC. Rumour has it, the $156 billion SPAC bubble is about to burst. Find out why. |
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An opportunity to come together, share learnings, and kickstart the collaboration needed to scale solutions for a sustainable future. Meet founders focused on sustainable tech and hear from leaders about realizing opportunities to rebuild cleaner, more resilient industries and infrastructure. |
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Learn how to build a digital marketing strategy for your business by learning about the different digital marketing channels available and how they can be applied to your business objectives. Delivered by Google Digital Garage. |
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Confused about Data Analytics? Start here! |
Analyn Timbal, Data Analyst |
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Design Ethics II: What does it mean to be unethical? |
Djordje Vlaisavljevic, Designer |
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🤦🏽♀️ How we felt this week |
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Was this news valuable to you? Let us know! |
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High Output Ventures, 3 Temasek Avenue Centennial Tower, #21-00 , Singapore 039190, Singapore |
© 2020 High Output Ventures, All rights reserved |
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