📗 The Bulletin #19: The History of VC, Growth/Hiring in Startups, & What is Web3/Crypto?
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📗 The Bulletin #19: The History of VC, Growth/Hiring in Startups, & What is Web3/Crypto?
Hello, hello, world! We at VWV wish for warm weather, a packed main green, and time to sit in the sun this week. ☀️ Today, we’re diving into history of VC, growth/hiring in a start-up, and basic terminologies of Web3/Crypto.
What We’re Watching 📺
💹 Something Ventured
We have all our analyst-in-training watch this because knowing the history of VC, how it was birthed not even half a century ago, and seeing how it has evolved is very informative to understanding where VC will go.
If you got an hour and a half to sit back and relax with some popcorn, here’s the link to watch it (for free!)
What We’re Listening To 🔉
💥 20VC: Faire’s Max Rhodes on Rapid Growth- Hiring and Writing
I was on my second drive of the week to Boston from Providence, so of course, I popped on a 20VC episode.
Listen in if you’re interested in learning:
How to hire the best candidates (hiring really does sound like dating... are we right for each other? Do we bring the best out of each other and want to make the other grow?)
Why every company should have a strategy doc (Rhodes really emphasizes the necessity to write well, to keep everyone on the same page once the company grows incredibly large.)
The art of referencing (what the right questions are to ask when talking to referrals?)
🐳 Who we’re following on Twitter?
These incredible VC’s run by GenZer’s:
Rough Draft Ventures: while powered by General Catalyst, they source, diligence, and invest completely independently. Invested in 220+ startups!
Dorm Room Fund: writing $40k per check, they’ve invested in student founded, and have invested in 277 startups!
Contrary: invest in both student and non-student founders, with a fellowship program that serves as a community for engineers, designers, and product minds.
What We’re Reading 📖
🦄 Disrupted: My Adventure in the Start-up Bubble
Recommended by Christina Qi!
At 50 years old, Dan Lyons was fired from his 25 year job at Newsweek. Having spent so many years covering Silicon Valley and the tech explosion, he thought, why not join it himself? Lyons ended up at Hubspot, where:
“The office vibe was frat house meets cult compound: The party began at four thirty on Friday and lasted well into the night; "shower pods" became hook-up dens; a push-up club met at noon in the lobby, while nearby, in the "content factory," Nerf gun fights raged...”
Interested? Finish reading the blurb here. 🌟
W3W #2: What is Web3? What are NFTs, blockchains, and cryptocurrency? 👾
Before we jump in to answering your questions... 👇
🔥 VC Investing into NFTs: Boss Beauties just raised a round to turn their NFT collection into media IP
🧚 Key Terms of the Week:
What’s Web3? Think of it as a new sort of internet system that is built off of decentralized blockchains.
What is crypto? Synonymous to Web3.
What’s decentralization? Let’s say you’re standing in line to buy Kung Fu Tea. You swipe your card and magically, money has gone to Kung Fu Tea. But! Not directly, it’s through a bank– the central system handling these transaction. Decentralization essentially means that there isn’t an intermediary.
Examples: NFTs, cryptocurrency (Bitcoin, ETH, etc), defi (decentralized finance), DAOs, gaming, social tokens
What is an NFT? A non-fungible token. Fungible: you can exchange one unit for another ($1 = $1). Non-fungible: you can’t exchange on unit for another (front seat tickets does not equate to back seat tickets at a concert). NFT: an asset that lives on the blockchain.
What is blockchain? It stores information in blocks chained or linked together, and can be seen as data records. that cannot be changed under any circumstance.
Read this blog to dive deeper into why blockchains offer so much value.
🧐 Why is everyone interested in Web3?
How did people even get into Web3? Check this survey conducted 👇
Why did people get into Web3?
Creator monetization
Web3 as “frontier”
The openness and composability of blockchain
NFTs and ownership
Community
Financial gain
I won’t dive into the specifics but do read more here! The blog has an amazing overview that summarizes the desirability of Web3 very well.
I’ll be covering each of these points in the next few newsletters, so stay tuned. 🌟
Next week is out last newsletter of the semester... quite sad but enjoy your summer! W3W #3: How does Web3 relate to art/NFTs? is coming your way soon.
💡 Follow us!!
Instagram: @vanwickleventures
Twitter: @VanWickleV
Thanks for tuning in, see y’all next time <3
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