Search results for: Risk
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Bitcoin 2021: Leverage, Volatility and Other Takeaways
Last week I traveled to Miami to attend Bitcoin 2021, the world’s largest crypto conference. Around 12,000 people attended this year. It was an amazing experience. I met fascinating people, learned a ton and discovered many innovative companies doing good work. Despite all the drama happening around Elon Musk and bitcoin’s price, I came out of the conference more excited…
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How to Invest in an Overheated Market
It’s been a fascinating last year and a half in the startup investing world. We went from a complete meltdown in March 2020 to one of the hottest venture capital markets I’ve ever seen. I’ve been quite selective throughout this time, preferring to stick to early-stage deals outside of the San Francisco area. That’s worked quite well, but I get…
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Invest in the Transformation of Real Estate Loan Flow
There’s an ancient adage I have leaned upon at certain times in my life: What doesn’t destroy you makes you stronger. It certainly applies to AlphaFlow, the startup I’m showing you today. 2020 was the ultimate stress test for AlphaFlow. And it survived. We all know that retailers took a massive hit last year. But when so much business activity…
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Three Advantages of Investing in Business-to-Business Startups
Every investor has preferences and biases that influence which startups they choose to invest in. And some sectors play to an investor’s values more than others. Whenever anybody asks me which sectors I prefer, I say it doesn’t matter to me. And I mean it. I prefer startups led by savvy and determined founders that meet huge needs or wants…
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Crypto Bull Case Solid Despite Correction
I’ve had a lot of questions about crypto coming from friends and family lately. Many of them are particularly concerned that Elon Musk can apparently move this huge market by himself. So I want to make it clear that I don’t really believe Elon was the primary reason we sold off recently. He was more a catalyst that gave the…
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Tradefox Rides Virtual Business Trend to New Growth
I recently spoke to Chris Yerbey, the founder and CEO of Amsterdam-based Tradefox. We recommended TradeFox in 2017 (back when it was called Scrap Connection) and again in 2019. It provides a business intelligence and trading platform for the global trade of scrap and recyclable commodities. I caught up with Chris while he was back home for a couple of…
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Addressing Questions About Digital Brands Group’s IPO
Digital Brands Group (DBG) had its initial public offering (IPO) recently. And it generated some confusion and many questions from our members. So I’m taking the opportunity today to address some of the issues you’ve raised. To refresh your memory, DBG’s IPO incorporated a “reverse stock split” of 15.625 to 1. Most First Stage Investor members paid around $0.50 for…
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These Three Portfolio Coins Are Going Strong
What an insane few weeks it’s been in crypto markets. Elon Musk’s waffling on bitcoin has really shaken up the crypto markets. And now we’ve got a government “crackdown” on crypto developing — though that’s not as bad as it sounds. Let’s look at a few Crypto Asset Strategies portfolio coins. A couple of our favorite older projects — which…
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Crypto Regulation Shows Mainstream Acceptance
What an absolutely insane few weeks in crypto it’s been. All the Elon Musk drama, the Tether reserve breakdown and now there are further signs of government regulation. Today I’m going to look at the regulatory developments and what they mean for crypto markets. One of my favorite crypto people — Avanti founder Caitlin Long — recently summed it up…
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New Pick: The Future of Bottled Juice
Deal Details Startup: Genius Juice Security type: Crowd SAFE* Discount: 20% Valuation (cap): $14 million Minimum investment: $100 Where to invest: Republic Deadline: September 16, 2021 One of the best things a startup can do is figure out exactly where the market is headed — and then make the perfect product for that future market. And that’s exactly what Genius…
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Crypto Crash Isn’t Elon Musk’s Fault
One of these days, we’ll dig into my complicated feelings about Elon Musk. They were complicated before Tesla bought bitcoin, started accepting bitcoin as a payment method, stopped accepting bitcoin as a payment method and Musk hopped aboard the crazy dogecoin train. (Say it with me everyone, dogecoin is a joke.) But the truth is human beings influence markets. They…
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How to Develop a Strategy for Ethereum
Ethereum (ETH) is killing it. That’s the only way to describe this current run that the second-largest cryptocurrency is on. On Wednesday, its price hit an all-time high of $4358.30 at 10:30 a.m. ET according to CoinMarketCap. A year ago, ethereum was trading for $197.59. That’s 2106% gain in the last 12 months. Ethereum’s 2021 performance is impressive as well…
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Buybacks Are Bad for Shareholders
My old nemesis SoftBank was in the news today. Thanks to some big bets paying off in its $100 billion Vision Fund, it posted a record $46 billion profit for the last fiscal year. I’m not impressed. In fact, I’ve never been a big fan of SoftBank’s Vision Fund. I’ve written a lot about why I don’t like the fund’s…
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Government Spending Means Investors Should Seek Hedges
This week I came across a statistic that shocked me. It turns out that 34% of all US income currently comes from the government. Here’s a chart from an article on ZeroHedge showing the rise of government “transfer payments” to citizens. I just can’t believe that more than a third of the entire nation’s income is currently dependent on the…
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Four Assets to Hedge Against Inflation
In April 2019, Bloomberg Businessweek magazine’s cover story asked “Is Inflation Dead?” The subtitle accompanying it was “Did Capitalism Kill Inflation?” I recall thinking at the time that this story was probably a contrarian indicator. It reminded me that nearly everyone in the financial world was ignoring the threat of inflation. It also has similarities to an infamous BusinessWeek cover…
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Invest in the Next Super Material
DEAL DETAILS Startup: BNNano Security type: Common stock Round size: Up to $1.07 million under Reg. CF Share price: $1.70 Valuation: $20,211,463 Minimum investment: $100.30 Investment portal: Netcapital Deadline: May 1, 2021 After 100 years, plastic is still being used in new ways. A decade ago my lawn mower was made with a steel frame and handle. Now I use…