Social Leverage Letter | Issue #35

Valuing Startups, Measuring Innovation, Catching Up on Crypto, and A Future Worth Getting Exited About

The Social Leverage Letter is a weekly newsletter for early-stage seed startups and investors. Receive it directly in your inbox every Sunday. Subscribe now.  

“Decide what you stand for. And then stand for it all the time.”

~ Clay Christensen

UPFRONT

We caught up with beehiiv co-founder Tyler Denk for a short profile piece. The Fund IV portfolio company streamlines the ability to create, customize, monetize, and scale email newsletters. beehiiv was co-founded by Morning Brew alums Tyler Denk, Benjamin Hargett, and Jake Hurd. Every issue of the Social Leverage Letter is created using the platform. 

ICYMI: Photos and videos from Social Leverage Palooza 2022 are now up on our website.

READING

Patents: Measuring Innovation

Each year the Patent 300 List identifies America’s most innovative companies by analyzing the patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In 2021, the USPTO granted a total of 327,798 utility patents, down 7% from the previous year.

Tomasz Tunguz

“How do you value a company?” The question is important. A valuation must have some justification to be compelling. Tomasz lays out the three eras of startup pricing: cash-flow, multiples, and discount-to-future-value.

LISTENING:

Odd Lots

"...all of a sudden everyone’s like, wow, people just decide to put $200 million in the box. This is a pretty cool box, right? Like this is a valuable box as demonstrated by all the money that people have apparently decided should be in the box. And who are we to say that they’re wrong about that?"

Panic with Friends

Howard spent the past week at Crypto Bahamas with Team FTX and had a few thoughts, "Crypto/Web 3 is money, culture, religion, community, media and trading …so it just is happening and here to stay. Period." 

And, ICYMI, he caught up with SBF last summer. It is an evergreen conversation about entrepreneurship, domain experience, product, crypto, trading and growth.

Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX on Futures, the Global Scale of Crypto and More (EP.159)

Listen to this episode from Panic with Friends - Howard Lindzon on Spotify. For this week’s episode, we’re chatting with Sam Bankman-Fried. He’s a 29-year-old vegan living in Hong Kong. Oh, and he’s also a crypto billionaire with a huge cult following of fans around the world. Sam is the founder of two impressive companies: Alameda and FTX. His claim to fame came after capitalizing on the South Korean crypto kimchi premium (not the fermented food) and building FTX. Founded just a few years ago in 2017, FTX is one of the fastest growing digital asset exchanges in the world. I’ve had my eye on FTX for a while now and was excited to sit down with Sam to get his thoughts on the state of crypto markets and where he sees it going. In this week’s episode, Sam and I talk about his background, how he gets it all done, his preferred way to relax, living in Hong Kong versus the United States, stablecoins (and why they matter), crypto, defi, blockchain, derivatives, regulations, who he looks up to in the crypto space, and more. Enjoy!  Guest - Sam Bankman-Fried, Founder and CEO of FTX  howardlindzon.com, ftx.com  Twitter: @howardlindzon, @SBF_Alameda, @FTX_Official, @knutjensen, @Nikita_Arora17  https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-bankman-fried-8367a346 #fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance 

WATCHING

Ladies and Gentlemen... Elon Musk:

WHAT WE'RE READING

Here's what caught our eye over the past week.

JOB BOARD

Explore openings at our portfolio companies: 

Featured Jobs:

Check out all of our portfolio companies at Social Leverage.

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Affiliate Disclosure: Social Leverage Group, LLC ("SLG"), Social Leverage Capital Fund I, LP ("SLC"), Social Leverage Capital Fund II, LP ("SLCII"), Social Leverage Capital Fund III, LP ("SLCIII") and Social Leverage Capital Fund IV, LP ("SLCIV") are all distinct entities from Social Leverage, LLC ("SL"). Social Leverage is not a registered investment advisor. SLC, SLCII, SLCIII, SLCIV, SLG and SL have used the logo and branding of Social Leverage with the permission of Social Leverage Group, LLC.