10 years ago, Netflix spent $0 on original content.

This year:

Netflix: $11B
Apple: $6B
Disney: $1B
+ amazon, hulu HBO etc.
=
$20B+

Here's a crazy startup idea to take a swing at this $20B+ content piñata. 👇 Here's a quick business plan 🤔

The ancient struggle was not having enough.

The modern struggle is having too much.

Too much news, too much sugar, too much of everything at your fingertips..There's only 1 way out.

Let's lay it out:

On one side, you have "Team Dopamine":
* 24/7 news cycle, full of clickbait headlines
* Social Media, friend's pics that disappear in 24 hours
* Endless varieties of sugar & porn

going up against your tiny, 3 pound brain running 20,000 yr old software

Even if you are a smart person who tries their best to stay healthy & happy... you are going up against Fox News, TikTok, PornHub, Robinhood, Instagram

These are weapons of mental destruction.

Thousands of our smartest engineers & data scientists work at these companies.

They run constant experiments. Fighting against each other for every moment of your attention. So you open THEIR app.

It's skinner's box, rats pushing buttons for rewards. But you're the lab rat.

So what do we do?

We have everything. More than any species, at any time period in history. It's wonderful...but also deadly.

Food injected with syrup sugar
Painkillers you can't live without
Video games where you can fly and kill
Porn better than any date you'll ever have

If you're out of the loop - this is the (hilarious) story of a subreddit (wall street bets) taking down a multi-billion dollar hedge fund... get your popcorn ready 🍿

the hero of our story: a user named DeepFuckingValue bought $50k of call options in Gamestop ($GME) that has turned into a $13M+ win in ~3 months.

he's a part of the subreddit r/WallStreetBets, a group of degenerate gamblers that I love.

So here's the situation.

Gamestop (GME) = a dying biz. circling the drain. Who goes to a store to buy games? It's basically a pokemon card dealership at this point. Plus with covid, malls are dead.

So some Hedge Funds are shorting the stock, betting it would go down.

One fund in particular, Melvin Capital Managment - a multi-billion dollar hedge fund...had been accruing a big short position in gamestop. Usually you don't have to disclose your shorts - but these were 'listed put options' so some clever redditors discovered the position

Melvin had a $55M+ short against GME.. If you're not familiar with shorting - read this simple explanation using apes and snakes and bananas from the subreddit.

Teachers, take note:

Hot take: Everyone is wrong about the Metaverse.

here's my 3 part theory..

Part I - Everyone is wrong

Most people think "the metaverse" is a virtual place.

Like in the movie Ready Player One.

A virtual world, like Minecraft, Roblox, or like Zuck showed in the facebook demo yesterday.

But what if it's not a place?

Part II - It's Not a Place, It's a Time

A time? wtf?

Yes, a moment in time.

You know in artificial intelligence, there's an idea of "the singularity"?

It's a moment in time where AI becomes smarter than humans. The moment when artificial intelligence > human intelligence

Part III - What it is

The metaverse is the moment in time where our digital life is worth more to us than our phsyical life.

This is not an overnight change. Or an invention by some steve jobs type.

It's a gradual change that's been happening for 20 yrs

Every important part of life is going digital.

Work --> from factories to laptops. boardrooms to zooms.

Friends --> from neighbors to followers. Where do you find like minded people? Twitter. Reddit. etc.

Games --> more kids play fortnite than basketball & football combined.

So I thought the whole "paid newsletter" thing was dumb.

So naturally, I tried it out as an experiment.. The results were kinda nutty. The newsletter started bringing home $49k per month (!) -- Here's the backstory

"what was the newsletter about?"

Well - for the past year, I've been doing a podcast called My First Million. Gimmicky name, but whatever.

It's a pod where me and @theSamParr (and friends like @awilkinson @_jacksmith etc.) brainstorm business ideas based on trends we see

Anyways - the podcast has gotten pretty big. We do over 350k downloads/month.

People like listening to us shoot the shit, brainstorming ideas.

But as the nearest schmuck will tell you - ideas aren't shit without execution!

The problem is - execution is less sexy.

Usually when people talk about execution, it's in the past tense. We did X, and voila, we won.

They edit & cut out all the dead ends they hit, the stuff they tried that failed.

This gives people a f*cked up idea of what execution really is.

Still - there's demand for learning how to execute better.

The number one question I get in my DMs everyday is: "I love that idea from the pod, how would you approach it?"

There's no simple answer. So for months I just ignored them.

Elon Clubhouse summary for those who are locked out:

Q: When are we going to get to Mars?

@elonmusk (says some smart space stuff)... I figure... idk.. ~5.5 years.

Q: What will it take to go to Mars?

@elonmusk You need a fully & rapidly re-usable rocket. Rapid is imp.. can't take months between flights. Needs to be like airplanes where the biggest cost is fuel.

And be able to send 2nd rocket to re-fuel

And be able to make fuel on mars

Q: Why does being able to have humans on other planets matter to you?

@elonmusk - I was trying to figure out what the meaning of life is. Why are we here. Got kinda depressed.

What broke me out was reading Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Inspired to explore the galaxy

(I'll keep tweeting the convo in this thread)..

@elonmusk - all civilizations fall. Romans, Mayans, Babalyonians etc..

Most likely we will too.

So I think for the first time in 4.5B history of earth. It's now possible to make life multi-planetary. Let's take advantage

How I created a six figure business by only writing tweets in a third world country.

A thread on how a razor and $50 changed my life:

I'm by no means special, I'm actually stubborn as fuck.

English isn't my first language.

For months I just lurked Twitter not doing anything.

It was not until an opportunity literally fell in my lap that I decided to take it.

But here's how I did it (and how you can too):

The funniest part of the story is how I did literally nothing for months on Twitter.

Just write, write, write.

Meanwhile, I saw everyone winning.

"I made $100k last year!"

"I made $50k last month!"

"This tweet made me $1,000!"

I started asking questions:

"How the fuck do you make $50k in a month?"

"Clients? How do you get your first client?"

"What would my clients even pay for?"

Then I kinda put it aside and kept writing tweets.

100 followers, then 1k, then 2k then 10k and it all went pretty well

One problem tho:

I loved it.

I really did. Writing is so fucking dope to me.

But I haven't make a single cent from it.

Zero.

"Follow your passion" seemed like bullshit, until it hit me:

How to run a company (in priority order):

1: Define a crystal clear north star

Great companies know their destination.

Everyone rowing in one direction.

The best north star? A SIMPLE, measurable metric.

Get it right, and watch the magic unfold! 💫

2: Hire uncomfortably good people

Ah, my favorite line!

Hire people you have no right to hire.

Who are so good it makes you nervous.

Who force everyone to step up their game.

Always level up 🦾

3: Create a culture of urgency

Nothing is more powerful than a group of people making every day count 🔥⚡️🚨

4: Make sure no one gets blocked

You’re paying good people good money.

Make sure they don’t get stuck!

Demotivating for them 🤦

Disastrous for the bottom line.

One thing I'm always most excited about as an investor:

Watching CEO interviews.

Over the years, I’ve watched over 100s of them.

Here’s 25 traits I’ve seen in the very best leaders.

You can swipe these into your own framework to evaluate management teams:

1. They don’t rely on external motivation

Not status or money.

Instead, they seem to be driven an inner fire.

Sometimes it’s to make the world a better place.

Other times, it’s to prove themselves right.

And that's why they can keep going even after they're already rich AF.

2. They're not human

They don't see the world like 99% of us

Whether it’s creating a culture that’s a sports team vs a family...

Or thinking of everything from first principles…

They have a different modus operandi.

This helps them see solutions that 99% of us muggles miss.

3. They enjoy founder-company fit

The great leaders are great because:

They’re in a company that plays to their unique personality.

The stars have to align for a great leader to be made.

The product + business model + personality of the leader must match.

4. They give lots of freedom and autonomy

They know how to unleash the potential in their team

They know how to paint an exciting vision…

And then give their team the space to roam free.

They understand that people flourish when you give them room to explore and experiment.

Build a cold email lead gen agency from scratch

// THREAD //

You've already seen it on this side of twits.

People who have transparently built $10k/mo. agencies with a few resources.

I'm going to reveal exactly how you can start this agency today and the ONLY resources you'll need for it.

Let's begin!

1. Core service

A cold email lead gen agency gets leads using cold email

>> scrapes the emails
>> writes the emails
>> sends the emails
>> books appointments

2. Your clients

Imagine running an agency where ALL appointments are booked for you.

You will target
>> local biz agencies
>> ad agencies
>> ecom agencies
>> coaches / consultants

HUGE MARKET.
PEOPLE GO CRAZY FOR THIS.

3. Cold email clients

Seriously, if you write a killer cold email to an agency, it speaks for itself.

Just ask @blackhatwizardd or @THETYFRANKEL.

What you'll need is obviously a 10/10 first line.

But that's not all.

You need to know exactly what agencies are looking for.