The crypto wallet has won the Solana ecosystem. It’s now coming for Ethereum – and MetaMask’s throne. Brought to you by Phantom The first time I used Phantom’s crypto wallet, I was blown away. Founders Brandon Millman, Francesco Agosti, and Chris Kalani have built a beautiful, intuitive product with leading-edge safety features. It makes interactin…

The world’s largest semiconductor foundry is expanding beyond Taiwan, investing $40 billion in a U.S. factory. It’s a move with immense political and commercial ramifications. Brought to you by Sardine If you’re a fintech shooting for “default alive,” fraud prevention should be at the top of your priority list. Fraud is a huge, growing threat. Last…

A look back at the highs, lows, and lessons of running a media company. Brought to you by Vauban from Carta To succeed as an angel or VC, you need the right platform Thankfully, Vauban from Carta has you covered – whether you’re writing your first check or running a $1 billion fund. Though there’s a lot of power under the hood, here are three key f…

ChatGPT is the latest step towards a world of infinite, customizable content, all generated by artificial intelligence. Its advent will impact how we create, consume, and commercialize media. Brought to you by Masterworks The Ultra-Wealthy Are Falling in Love with This Secure Investing App (Here’s Why) Masterworks.com, the $1B fintech unicorn, lets…

The $600M fintech grew rapidly by digitizing an existing behavior. CEO Ravish Naresh shares his lessons and why profitability is his new focus. Brought to you by Vauban from Carta To succeed as an angel or VC, you need the right platform Thankfully, Vauban from Carta has you covered – whether you’re writing your first check or running a $1 billion …

Reflections on crypto and trying to make sense of a nonsensical week. Brought to you by Masterworks Microsoft Co-Founder’s $1.5B+ Sale Highlights Real Asset Resilience Last week, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s historic art collection shattered the record for largest ever sale in auction history. The fact that the blue-chip art market is still se…

Reid Hoffman, Saam Motamedi, Sarah Guo, Lan Xuezhao, Matt Turck, Leigh Marie Braswell, Nathan Benaich, Rob Toews, Cat Wu, and Michael Dempsey highlight the AI trends to keep an eye on. Brought to you by Sardine Scams only work if people believe they’re real. Scams hide in plain sight. The email outlining an investment opportunity or the phone call …

The Midas List investor talks about religion, cyber warfare, and David Swensen. Brought to you by Sardine Fraud isn’t a problem until it becomes your only problem. Getting better at fraud prevention is mission-critical to scaling revenue. That means you need the right tools for customer onboarding and compliance to protect your business while also …

The e-commerce and gaming conglomerate was worth more than $200 billion a year ago. It has since lost $177 billion of its peak market cap and is leaving key geographies – but it still has one of the highest ceilings in the business world. Brought to you by Sardine Fraud isn’t a problem until it becomes your only problem. Scaling your business for g…

The rapidly scaling startup is more than just a fearsome fraud prevention platform for fintech and crypto. It’s laying the foundation to become a payments giant. Brought to you by Sardine If you’re a fintech or crypto company, you should be using Sardine. It is that simple. The fraud prevention and payments provider protects your customers from mal…

The “internet of blockchains” believes tomorrow’s builders will prioritize specialization and sovereignty. It represents a distinct view of crypto’s future and is gaining momentum. Brought to you by Masterworks After injecting trillions of dollars into the financial system…What could go wrong? Try the worst inflation in 40 years, the stock market i…

The venture firm has succeeded by focusing on geographies in which most investors dare not tread. It is positioned to become a dominant force in emerging markets. To find the original piece, published September 28, 2022, follow this link. Subscribe to this podcast, and to our newsletter at readthegeneralist.com. You can also follow @mariogabriele a…

Five years after Masayoshi Son’s $100 billion fund shook the financial world, Softbank’s venture firm is crumbling. Can it be saved? Brought to you by Fintech Nexus London Calling! Join Fintech Nexus for its Merge conference October 17-18 at Tobacco Dock in London, and witness the impact web3 is having on financial institutions and fintechs. Hear f…

With over $5.6 billion in total value locked, Aave is one of DeFi’s most dominant players. Its ambitions extend far beyond lending, with stablecoins and social media in its sights. Brought to you by Masterworks The near-zero interest rates and sub-two percent inflation that fueled the record bull market of the last ten years are gone. In their plac…

FTX’s CEO shares his thoughts on management, staying focused, keeping up with the competition, scaling himself, hiring mistakes, and building a generational business. Brought to you by FTX US Here’s a puzzler for you: what do Tom Brady, GameStop, and chess god Magnus Carlsen have in common? The answer is, surprisingly, FTX US. The cryptocurrency ex…

The firm has spent billions attempting to transform itself into a tech company, exploring lending, savings, investing, and beyond. The initiative shows the opportunities and challenges of innovating from within. Brought to you by FTX US When I first wrote about FTX in The Generalist, I said the company was building an “everything exchange.” One com…

The $5 billion football club is amidst a high-risk transformation. Its strategy reveals the tricky economics of running a sports franchise and the potential teams see in web3. Brought to you by Masterworks Solve your “zero return crisis” with this fintech platform realizing 27.9% Vanguard, a $7.2 trillion money manager, calculated that stocks will …

Fifteen investors share crypto's highest-potential projects featuring Cosmos, Toucan, Farcaster, Maple Finance, Axelar, and many more. Brought to you by Eco Eco may be one of the most innovative startups in the world. It’s not just improving the customer experience, it’s revolutionizing the financial system from the ground up. Built on a sophistica…

In this new series, we ask the most interesting, unobvious questions we can think of to one of tech’s most fascinating people. Before founding crypto company LayerZero, Pellegrino played professional poker, sold a machine-learning tool to a Major League Baseball team, and published AI research. Brought to you by FTX US Last week, FTX’s CEO Sam Bank…

Ten habits of some of venture capital’s most successful firms. This piece is brought to you by FTX US. It’s been a tough year for the markets – crypto is no exception. Amidst the mayhem, FTX and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried have been quietly executing and stabilizing. For example, FTX provided a $250 million credit facility to BlockFi to help stea…

Nova Labs’ Internet of Things network is one of crypto’s greatest achievements. In its next chapter, it’s pursuing an even more audacious goal: to provide the infrastructure for 5G, WiFi, VPN, CDN, and other networks. This piece is brought to you by Stytch. Want to boost conversion and drive growth? Stytch makes user authentication and onboarding s…

The weapons manufacturer has scaled revenue at record speeds, reaching a rumored valuation of more than $7 billion. It may be one of the most important companies of our era. This piece is brought to you by FTX US. It’s been a tough year for the markets – crypto is no exception. Amidst the mayhem, FTX and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried have been quie…

YC has more weapons than any other player in venture. This piece is brought to you by FTX US. FTX US is a safe, easy-to-use, and inexpensive way to put your crypto investing on automatic. You can get started in minutes and set up recurring buys for assets like BTC, ETH, SOL, and many other tokens. You can also invest in NFTs and stocks, all without…

We have raised a $12.25 million fund designed to help a small number of founders maximize the power of narrative. This piece is brought to you by Stytch. Want to boost conversion and drive growth? Stytch makes user authentication and onboarding seamless and secure. They offer customizable, out-of-the-box authentication with magic links, one tap soc…

The New York-based venture firm has one of the industry’s most remarkable track records. Its success comes from deep thinking and unusual discipline. This piece is brought to you by WorkOS. WorkOS is a developer platform to make your app enterprise-ready. With a few simple APIs, you can immediately add common enterprise features like Single Sign-On…

Michael Grinich has built something close to magical: an API that expands the TAM of the companies it serves. Some of its investors believe it’s the next Stripe. To find the original piece, published June 22, 2022, follow this link. Subscribe to this podcast, and to our newsletter at readthegeneralist.com. You can also follow @mariogabriele and @th…

The CEO of Gojek shares his lessons of creating a principled culture, managing organizational debt, and building true moats. This piece is brought to you by WorkOS. WorkOS is a developer platform to make your app enterprise-ready. With a few simple APIs, you can immediately add common enterprise features like Single Sign-On, Multi-Factor Authentica…

The promise and peril of social tokens. This piece is brought to you by FTX US. To start investing, download the safe and easy-to-use FTX US app. Thanks to our friends at FTX US, using the code GENERALIST, you’ll get free crypto on every trade over $10. Get started today. To find the original piece, published May 8, 2022, follow this link. Subscrib…

The $8.7 billion used car marketplace became Mexico’s first unicorn by focusing on data. Next stop: the rest of the world. This piece is brought to you by FTX US. To start investing, download the safe and easy-to-use FTX US app. Thanks to our friends at FTX US, using the code GENERALIST, you’ll get free crypto on every trade over $10. Get started t…

Christina Cacioppo’s company is the established leader in automated compliance monitoring. Its ambitions span the web. To find the original piece, published May 18, 2022, follow this link. Subscribe to this podcast, and to our newsletter at readthegeneralist.com. You can also follow @mariogabriele and @thegeneralistco on Twitter for updates.…

Chris Dixon has called blockspace the “best product” of the 2020s. We ask a16z’s head of crypto to explain why that’s the case and where we’re headed. This piece is brought to you by Composer. Composer is the next generation of active investing. No code, no spreadsheets, no Robos and no YOLOs. Just smart investing for smart investors. Bonus: Genera…

The $8 billion freight forwarder has succeeded by bringing tech to an archaic industry. It has designs on a bigger prize: owning the data layer for global trade. This piece is brought to you by FTX US. To get started with the safe and accessible investing platform, download the FTX app on your phone. Make sure to use the code GENERALIST to get free…

Crypto’s leading analytics platform is a tamer of blockchain information. It’s also a portal to a new kind of economic empowerment. To find the original piece, published April 20, 2022, follow this link. Subscribe to this podcast, and to our newsletter at readthegeneralist.com. You can also follow @mariogabriele and @thegeneralistco on Twitter for …

The co-CEO of investing unicorn Public shares his lessons on fundraising, hiring and finding focus. This piece is brought to you by Composer. Check out my "Blockchain or Big Tech" symphony, or simply learn more about Composer today. To find the original piece, published April 10, 2022, follow this link. Subscribe to this podcast, and to our newslet…

How do you create a successful corporate venture capital firm (CVC)? TDK Ventures shows that invention can come from within. To find the original piece, published April 6, 2022, follow this link. Subscribe to this podcast, and to our newsletter at readthegeneralist.com. You can also follow @mariogabriele and @thegeneralistco on Twitter for updates.…

The Colombian company grew 70x over the past two years by giving low-income women a way to augment their income. By pioneering this social form of e-commerce in Latin America, Elenas could be the continent’s answer to Pinduoduo and Meesho. To find the original piece, published March 9, 2022, follow this link. Subscribe to this podcast, and to our n…

How do you find the next Solana? In the final part of our trilogy, we examine where Multicoin is looking for future fund-returners, exploring emergent themes and groundbreaking startups. This piece is brought to you by FTX US. To get started building your crypto portfolio, earn interest, and save on fees, download the FTX US app here (make sure to …

The trick to being a great venture capitalist is being non-consensus and right. Multicoin Capital is a perfect example. In Part 2 of our trilogy, we explore how the fund reasons from first principles and remains disciplined. This piece is brought to you by FTX US. To get started building your crypto portfolio, earn interest, and save on fees, downl…

Multicoin Capital may be the best-performing venture fund of all-time. The crypto investor has won big by making highly concentrated, non-consensus bets on Solana, Helium, The Graph, and others. To find the original piece, published March 20, 2022, follow this link. Subscribe to this podcast, and to our newsletter at readthegeneralist.com. You can …

After publishing over half a million words on some of the world’s most innovative businesses, these are the 10 lessons I come back to again and again. You’ll find tactics from Stripe, FTX, Tiger Global, OpenSea, and other exceptional organizations. To find the original piece, published March 13, 2022, follow this link. Subscribe to this podcast, an…

AngelList Venture is now worth $4.1 billion. That makes Naval Ravikant’s company a unicorn and a creator of unicorns. It may just be getting started. To find the original piece, published March 6, 2022, follow this link. Subscribe to this podcast, and to our newsletter at readthegeneralist.com. You can also follow @mariogabriele and @thegeneralistc…

The fintech company is building the country’s fairest financial institution by doing things differently. To find the original piece, published February 16, 2022, follow this link. As a note, this was written as part of The Generalist's partner program. You can read about the ethical guidelines I adhere to in this link. Subscribe to this podcast, an…

The megafund might look like Tiger Global, but it's operating a very different playbook. Coatue’s performance has been built around strong in-house research, astute data analysis, and a stellar network. Its greatest weakness may be its own culture. To find the original piece, published February 13, 2022, follow this link. Subscribe to this podcast,…

Solitary general partners now manage more than many multi-person venture funds. What are the limits of a one-man band? And how should legacy firms counter? To find the original piece, published February 6, 2022, follow this link. This piece was supported by Clay. Clay brings data sources together to help people find information and build (sometimes…

The projects, trends, and assets worth paying attention to this year, shared by some of crypto's sharpest founders and builders. To find the original piece, published January 23, 2022, follow this link. This piece was supported by Rows — a spreadsheet with superpowers. With Rows you can build interactive spreadsheets, automated reports, forms or mo…

"Russia's Mark Zuckerberg" has built a social media giant defined by its counter-positioning. Today, Telegram has roughly 600 million active users and was the fastest-growing app of 2021. To find the original piece, published January 16, 2022, follow this link. This piece was supported by Masterworks — my favorite place to invest in art. You can jo…

The virtual world has grown its users by 3,300% over the past year and reached a peak market cap of $12 billion. It may prove the best challenger to Meta’s long-term ambitions. To find the original piece, published January 9, 2022, follow this link. Subscribe to this podcast, and to our newsletter at readthegeneralist.com. You can also follow @mari…

Tiger Global is venture capital's winning machine. The near-$100 billion crossover fund moves at a pace that no other firm can compete with, allocating around the world, on virtually a daily basis. To the casual observer, Tiger seems to run on a dark blend of hedge fund bravado, inflated valuations, and fast-twitch hunches. It's a lot more complica…

As technology lowers the barrier to product and company creation, a new type of empire-builder is emerging. While hedge funds, private equity groups, and venture firms battle for tech's fastest-growing companies, "micro private equity" searches for bargains amid a jumble of family businesses, software side projects, and profitable but unloved apps.…

Update on my life style changes and featured song for the episode