Archive: Early Investing
Page:
Five Bold Predictions for the Future of Crowdfunding
By Andy Gordon on May 11, 2022
May 16 marks the sixth anniversary of crowdfunding under Regulation Crowdfunding. But it was the JOBS Act of April 2012 that made it possible. Whether you go by 10 years ago or six years ago, crowdfunding has come a long way. Millions of Americans are participating in this investing space. Crowdfunding portals Wefunder and StartEngine both claim to have 1.5 million investors in their communities. New York-based portal Republic…
Fidelity Is Changing the Bitcoin Market
By Vin Narayanan on May 6, 2022
Market Musings The 30-day trendline for bitcoin isn’t pretty. And Thursday was particularly ugly, with bitcoin dropping to $35,871. The broader stock market was routed on Thursday as well. And as of this writing, spot gold and silver prices are down. Investors are skittish. French regulators…
The Nightmare of Navigating Student Loans
By Allison Brickell on May 4, 2022
What do you picture when you think of college? Maybe you see cavernous lecture halls. Football stadiums packed with fans. Beautifully manicured lawns where students study or play frisbee or make lifelong connections. For many of today’s students, that image includes mountains of debt.
The Fun and Profitable World of Collectibles
By Vin Narayanan on April 29, 2022
Before crypto, before startups, before I even knew what the stock market was, I was into collectibles. Baseball cards. Garbage Pail Kids cards. Cabbage Patch Kids. Action figures (especially “Star Wars”). I loved them all. And I collected them all. I didn’t know the…
Why Musk (Probably) Didn’t Buy Twitter as a Free Speech Play
By Vin Narayanan on April 27, 2022
Elon Musk finalized his deal to buy Twitter this week for $44 billion. If you’ve been following me on Twitter (@vinistic), you know that I’ve been obsessed with Musk’s efforts to buy Twitter and…
Washington Contemplates a Digital Dollar
By Vin Narayanan on April 22, 2022
Editor’s note: We’re trying a new format for our Friday crypto updates. We hope you enjoy the new look. And don’t forget that once a month, Vin will be writing about collectibles instead of crypto. Market Musings As of this writing, bitcoin is up around 2%…
News Fix: Cannabis Industry Reaches New Highs
By Allison Brickell on April 20, 2022
It’s April 20, which means cannabis enthusiasts around the country are celebrating what Ronald Reagan once called “probably the most dangerous drug in the United States.” Today, that remark seems pretty outdated. A full 37 states have legalized marijuana in some form (medically or recreationally). Eighteen…
Instagram Embraces NFTs
By Vin Narayanan on April 15, 2022
NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are having a moment. These tokens typically represent some sort of collectible — often a digital collectible. But NFTs can also be used to represent wine, sneakers and other physical goods. Like bitcoin, NFTs are based on blockchain technology. Each NFT…
Now Is the Best Time to Be a Startup Investor
By Vin Narayanan on April 13, 2022
Andy Gordon and I recommend a startup for our First Stage Investor members to invest in every two weeks (click here to sign up). When Andy and I first started working on startups together in 2018, we couldn’t do…
Ethereum Merge Searches Give ETH a Boost
By Vin Narayanan on April 8, 2022
Google searches are an interesting signal in crypto investing. They’re not necessarily predictive. But they do often correlate with price. The correlation between Google searches for bitcoin and the price of bitcoin is fairly well established. The more searches…
Lessons From a New Startup Investor
By Allison Brickell on April 6, 2022
I’ve been working at investment-related companies since 2015. But I’m still pretty new to the investing world. My background is in communication and journalism, not finance. So for the last seven years or so, I’ve been researching the online startup markets and observing my colleagues’ approach to investing.
Goldman Sachs Signals Crypto Is Here for the Long Haul
By Vin Narayanan on April 1, 2022
Goldman Sachs has made its first crypto trade. No, this isn’t an April Fool’s joke. The trade actually happened last week. It was a bitcoin derivatives trade with Galaxy Digital. And Goldman is interested in participating in a full-fledged options market…
Startup Price Inflation Signals Danger for Investors
By Andy Gordon on March 30, 2022
Price inflation in the startup world is running rampant. This isn’t new. But I do wonder when it’s going to peak. We’re not there yet. If anything, it’s getting worse. I’ll give you a recent example. I was talking to a founder yesterday who…
Three Principles That Determine a Crypto Project’s Success
By Vin Narayanan on March 25, 2022
On Tuesday, I attended a founder event hosted by Wefunder and Brex in New York. It was a chance for founders and investors to meet and get to know each other. And it was hopping! I spent so much time speaking to founders and other investors that I…
Data Is Eating the World
By Vin Narayanan on March 23, 2022
For more than 10 years, “software is eating the world” has been an article of faith among startup investors. Marc Andreessen — co-founder of both Netscape and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) — wrote these famous words in a blog post in…
The Best Strategy for Collectibles Investing
By Vin Narayanan on March 18, 2022
Normally, it’s not big investment news when a Super Bowl-winning quarterback retires or unretires. But then, not every Super Bowl-winning quarterback is Tom Brady. Brady is widely considered to be the greatest quarterback of all time (as a Michigan State alum, I found that sentence painful…