Posts in monetization / commercial
Marqeta's $300MM of revenue & Ethereum's $20B in ann. transaction fees highlight opportunity and industry structure

This week, we cover these ideas:

  • How market structure determines the types of companies and projects that succeed

  • A walk through Marqeta’s economics and business model, and how Square’s Cash App and DoorDash were needed for success

  • The emerging $10B transaction revenue pool on Ethereum, MEV, and the changes to mining and gas

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Lessons from Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, Galaxy Digital, and the emerging DAOs for building a Fintech empire

This week, we cover these ideas:

  • The difference between building a Fintech company, and building an empire to transform the world

  • How Warren Buffett is the best in the world at getting leverage through third party capital to grow

  • How Elon Musk is the best in the world at re-investing capital into his own judgment and view of the future

  • The $1.2B BitGo acquisition by Galaxy Digital, and the growing footprint of Alameda Research

  • DAOs as a way for all of us to participate

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Getting paid now for future performance with Pipe's $150MM raise and BitClout's $200MM of Bitcoin

This week, we look at:

  • Pipe’s $150 million raise at a $2 billion valuation to turn annualized revenue run-rate into a new peer-to-peer asset class

  • BitClout’s $200 million of Bitcoin contributions and its mechanisms to turn social media profiles into digital assets

  • How both projects trade future performance for current monetization

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Understanding the Fintech user growth behind the $10.4 billion eToro SPAC and coming Chime IPO vs. the melting Megabanks

This week, we look at:

  • Chime, eToro, and Wise targeting the public markets through IPO and SPACs, and their operating performance

  • The overall growth in fintech mobile apps, their install rates and market penetration (from 2.5 to 3.5 per person), and whether that growth is sustainable

  • The implications for incumbents from this competition, and in particular the impact on money in motion vs. money at rest

  • Broader financial product penetration and an anchoring in how the technology industry was able to get more attention that we had to give

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Explaining ~100x revenue multiples for Affirm, Checkout, Rapyd, and other fintech companies using systems theory

This week, we look at:

  • Over $1 billion in raises announced last week, and over $10 billion in Fintech company value creation: Checkout.com with $450 million at a $15 billion valuation, Affirm more than doubling after its IPO to $30 billion, lending enabler Blend raising $300 million, and payments enabler Rapyd raising $300 million.

  • A systems theory framework that explains the stocks and flows of goods and services, and what monetization strategies are available to fintechs

  • How transactional models are thriving and creating 50-100x revenue multiples

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