Twitter as a City-State, Decentralized Investing, and Cash is King...Maybe?

Happy Sunday!

This week we’ve got words on decentralized investing, crypto gaming, thinking about Twitter as a city-state, and why cash may or may not be king. But first thing’s first: Getting to know you! 

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Now, on to this week’s posts.

Cash—Kingmaker or Killer?

Kyle Harrison / Napkin Math

They say talk is cheap, and cash has been even cheaper for the last few years in startupland. So is money in the bank really the defensible moat that some people want to believe it is? Or would the folks who raise $100M every six months be better off lighting that cash on fire? 

This week in Napkin Math, guest writer Kyle Harrison digs into the cash habits of rich and famous companies to get to the bottom of that very question. He looks at case studies from ridesharing to productivity software to enterprise SaaS, and explains why in the grand scheme of things, money may matter less than metrics and mindset. 

Read.

Twitter as a City-State

Nathan Baschez / Divinations

In the ongoing saga that is “will Elon buy Twitter,” there’s been a lot of talk about Twitter as a public utility—a service akin to gas or electricity that everyone should be able access. But as Nathan lays out in this week’s Divinations, public utility really isn’t the best metaphor for understanding how Twitter and its social media peers function. Instead, he makes the case that we should think of them as city-states—and that has all kinds of interesting implications for how they should be governed. 

Read.

Using Tokens to Power Collective Insight and Investment

Sari Azout & Joey DeBruin / Tokens, But How?

Spend any amount of time in the web3 universe, and you'll hear a lot about aligning incentives. But hearing about it is one thing—seeing it in action is another. This week on TBH, Sari and Joey talk to Joyce Yang and Arthur Zubkoff of Global Coin Research about how they’re using tokens to build what is essentially a decentralized VC firm, with the entire community coming together to crowdsource deals, diligence, and the investment itself—all powered by their token, $GCR. 

Read.

Can Sunflower Land Build Crypto Farmville

Nat Eliason / Almanack

The olds of the internet might remember Farmville, the Facebook farming game that consumed everyone’s lives for a year back in 2010. This week on Almanack, Nat takes a look at what might be considered Farmville’s crypto cousin, Sunflower Land. On the surface, Sunflower Land is another chill game of tending and harvesting crops, but under the hood, it’s taking an interesting approach to solving one of play-to-earn gaming’s most persistent problems: runaway inflation due to player growth. 

Read.

A Few More Recommendations

The Fog of Change | Anna Gát

“In the forever-present of the fog of change it’s hard to spot nuance, hard to see the chain of chapters in which the story really unfolds.” We love the first edition of Inter-Era, a new newsletter from Anna Gát, founder of Interintellect. 

Time anxiety: is it too late? | Ness Labs

We all know the feeling: the crushing, claustrophobic, anxiety-inducing feeling that there’s not enough time in a day, a week, a year, this life to do all the things we want to do. In this insightful post from Ness Labs, author Anne-Laure Le Cunff breaks down where time anxiety comes from, and provides some actionable advice on what to do about it. 

The Premoney List | Jake Schonberger

Want to be in the loop about super early stage, high growth start-ups? The Premoney List is a bi-weekly newsletter that features two companies currently raising funding. Premoney lets you learn about the companies & connect with the founders to invest or get involved.