#14 Tings Newsletter 5
Network state startups, where $1B+ Unicorn founders come from, and more
Who am I? I’m Tze Donn. I’m a Web3 investor at Tioga Capital. I love all things tech, finance, and Web3. Every month, I send out a newsletter about my information diet, encompassing Stablecoins & FinTech, Investing, and Lifestyle. Hit “reply” or comment if you wanna chat about anything below.
Stablecoins, FinTech & Money
Stablecoins are US Dollars for non-US citizens (SY Taylor). As a stablecoin maxi, this is the manifesto to all my crypto-interested friends out there.
Top 13 blog posts by JP Koning, one of my favourite writers about money. I particularly enjoyed about Starbucks’ monetary superpower (2019) where they get a negative interest loan from gift cards, Bitcoin as a game (2019), and the fact that Somalia had cash without a central bank backing it (2017).
Uniswap Fees & Open-Source Business Models by Ryan Rodenbaugh (Wallfacer Labs). How Open Source models have evolved. “Labs” should accrue value from “Protocols” through better security, better UX or better enablement (e.g., better on/off-ramping or customer support)
Nic Carter of Castle Island Ventures speaking about Crypto-dollars vs Euro-dollars and the future of stablecoin markets. Nic is an OG stablecoin “maxi” and in fact coined the term “crypto-dollar” before stablecoins became a thing. I also think “crypto-dollar” is a much better name, separating it from “algorithmic” not-so-stablecoins.
Investing
The Network State Conference (Parallel Societies and Parallel Services) by Balaji. This is probably one of the most exciting “narratives” that is still relatively unknown. The conference is held today in Amsterdam and is live on Youtube. All the companies mentioned are giving 7-10min talks there, a very efficient format.
Further Thoughts on Sea Change by Howard Marks (Oaktree Asset Management). Why investors should (would) move towards credit and fixed income assets due to sustained high interest rates. The low interest rate environment 2008-22 is an outlier period in the history of investing.
Beyond the Hype: Exploring the True Potential of Autonomous Agents by YChuah. All substackors are mandated by law to mention AI at least once. I’ve been thinking about the crossover of Crypto and AI, and although 99.9% of Crypto x AI projects are bullshit, I think there is some merit around AI agents being able to move money on-chain (e.g., Autonolas). Note: The Substack is purely about AI agents and not crypto.
Where do $1B+ founders come from? (Endeavor) Interestingly, only 1/3 come from elite universities, only 1/5 worked for an elite employer (MBB, big tech, bulge bracket investment banks), 1/2 worked at a startup or scaleup before founding their startup, 1/2 were serial entrepreneurs and the average founder had 10 years of work experience, not your stereotypical college grad founder!
Life & Misc.
“Protocol daddies” by Johnny Bowman. How Andrew Huberman, Liver King, Andrew Tate, and others are changing men for good and bad. We tend to learn most of our lifestyle choices from Youtubers and Podcasters these days.
The 80/20 of how to get into good health. Given the interest around longevity these days, here’s how you can get into good health without spending $2M a year (I’m looking at you Bryan Johnson)
No More Bets was by far the best movie I’ve seen in recent years. It’s a Chinese film about gambling scams and modern day slavery and it’s ranked 11th in Worldwide Box Office at $530M. I think it deserves so much more recognition and it’s crazy that such a thrilling masterpiece is overlooked in the West where people do not watch non-English movies with subs, whereas the opposite is the norm in the East. There were also only two London cinemas airing it, crazy considering its box office numbers!
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Thanks for reading!
Donn