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Panelists: Roger Ver Roger Ver, often dubbed Bitcoin Jesus is one of the earliest investors in and proponents of Bitcoin. He's made hundreds of millions, if not billions off his investments and was also an early investor in bitcoin.com, blockchain.com, Zcash, BitPay and Kraken. He led a fork of Bitcoin, known as Bitcoin Cash to... The post Roger Ver, Clay Collins and Paul Veradittakit The Future of Cryptocurrency Investing appeared first on The Syndicate.

Originally posted on mattward.io “Moving first is a tactic, not a goal….It's much better to be a last mover.” — Peter Thiel On the surface this seems contrarian. When is being last better than being first? Steve Jobs understood this. Apple didn't make the 1st MP3 player or the 1st smartphone. Yet in consumer tech, Apple is synonymous... The post Uber is Going to 0, and Benchmark Knows It! appeared first on The Syndicate.

Originally posted on mattward.io Those words terrify entrepreneurs. You get one chance to make a first impression. And fear of failure often ruins that. Overconfidence is equally harmful though. And one way or another, most startups screw this up. It isn't easy. It isn't hard either though. Short, sweet and to the point. That is... The post The Memorable Elevator Pitch that VCs Can't Ignore appeared first on The Syndicate.

Source: FanArt Originally posted on mattward.io Get rich or die trying — that's a common mantra among entrepreneurs, gangsters and drug dealers. I know that was my mindset. How can I hustle my way to a million bucks? That was the question I asked myself every day, and night. Looking back, this was the wrong question to... The post Don't Mine for Gold When You Can Sell Shovels appeared first on The Syndicate.

Hardware is hard. Consumer hardware is even worse. As an ex ecommerce seller with years of experience manufacturing overseas, I can tell you dealing with suppliers, MOQs (minimum order quantities), quality control, cash flow and even LTV are tough. Unlike SaaS where you build it once and sell again and again with almost no added... The post Consumer Hardware's a Horrible Business Model, So Apple Slows Down Your iPhone appeared first on The Syndicate.

Two days ago I had the privilege of moderating a roundtable with some of the smartest futurists and forward thinkers in the industry. Our panelists included Tim O'Reilly, James Allworth, Ben Gilbert and Jeff Morris Jr. [VIDEO REPLAY] The State of Consumer Tech Roundtable with Tim O'Reilly, James Allworth, Ben Gilbert… It was an interesting... The post  Why Your J Curve is Actually an S Curve and TAM is a Meaningless Metric appeared first on The Syndicate.

The internet has changed. The world of the walled garden is here. This creates interesting dynamics, problems and opportunities for startups. It is exciting, and terrifying. Let me explain. My background is ecommerce and Amazon. In 2015 I invested ~$8k in product and managed to scale my “startup” to a 7 figure exit at the... The post Facebook's Mantra “Join us or we will copy you” – Platforms, Marketplaces and Playing with Fire appeared first on The Syndicate.

Yes, that headline and image is meant to be provocative. Startups need to sell. Attention is critical. But not clickbait. So grab your coffee and let's go (btw that definitely isn't me!). First, a quick backstory My background is ecommerce and Amazon. In 2015 I invested $8k in product and managed to scale my “startup”... The post Why I Quit Startups to Be “Lazy” and Invest in or Advise Companies Instead appeared first on The Syndicate.

“If you've got a dream and your dream doesn't require a team, you need to dream bigger.” — Unknown When working with startups (both as an investor and advisor), I like to focus on incentivizes. The more aligned your organization is, the better the performance will be. Commissioned sales people are hustlers. Ever buy a used car?... The post Startup Pirate Game Theory appeared first on The Syndicate.

Software as a service is the new heroine. Companies and individuals sign up for free trials and are instantly hooked. It is a hell of a drug. For B2B customers this is especially true. Most businesses hate change. When the ball is rolling, the last thing you want is overhaul the entire new system. You... The post How to Start a Series A Fundable SaaS Business — A 15 Page Guide to Acquiring Customers and Reducing Churn appeared first on The Syndicate.

“Moving first is a tactic, not a goal….It's much better to be a last mover.” — Peter Thiel On the surface this seems contrarian. When is being last better than being first? Steve Jobs understood this. Apple didn't make the 1st MP3 player or the 1st smartphone. Yet in consumer tech, Apple is synonymous with both. That was no accident.... The post Uber is Going to 0, and Benchmark Knows It! appeared first on The Syndicate.

If you haven't heard, Amazon won ecommerce. Bezos' juggernaut is the most powerful marketplace and brand the Western world has ever seen (get my analysis here as an ex 7 figure Amazon seller). But it isn't the only game in town. Every year new startups appear, looking to compete and grab their piece of the... The post The Broken Business of Ecommerce and Why Your Startup Won't Be The Next Casper appeared first on The Syndicate.

As an angel investor, I am always looking for transformational businesses. And marketplaces are arguably one of the strongest and most time-tested business models of all time. From early Rome and milenia earlier, merchants conducted commerce in markets. Thanks to efficiency gains for both buyers and sellers, the market thrived. Sellers could set up shop... The post Marketplace Monopolies and the Cult-Like Religion of ICOs appeared first on The Syndicate.

Amazon's is the most monopolistic and well positioned marketplace the Western world has ever seen. Last year they did $136B in revenue with double digit growth every year. Yet they haven't even scratched the surface. The US food retail and food services industry represents a $5.35T market (with $800B+ in grocery alone). That is 40x... The post Amazon's Acquisition of Whole Foods, Gameover Groceries… appeared first on The Syndicate.

With great power comes great profit, and then even the innovative get fat and lazy. This was the paradigm pre 2000s. Rome rose and fell. Microsoft's monopoly was cracked. Kodak created the digital camera and kept it from customers. The bigger they are, the harder they fall and the harder they fight. But historically failure... The post Network Effects and The Unbreakable, Unregulatable Monopolies of Today appeared first on The Syndicate.

Apple and Google are two of the strongest, most profitable tech giants today. But both are in for a kick in the ass, here is why. Disruption is the name of the game. Great businesses die from one of two main reasons: failure to innovate or a powerful disruption. From my vantage point, both Apple... The post The Death of Google and End of Apple appeared first on The Syndicate.

Jeff Bezos is the Terminator… and he is killing competition and ecommerce faster than Arnold can say “I'll be back” Hope you are hooked. Let's go for a ride. My background is ecommerce. Before starting The Syndicate and investing in early stage disruptors, I cut my teeth in ecommerce, specifically Amazon. I had learned a... The post The Amazon Apocalypse of Ecommerce appeared first on The Syndicate.

The blockchain build up is eerily reminiscent of the Dotcom era – inexperienced founders with only an idea raising absurd amounts of money to build a product and take it to market. We all remember how that turned out. Things went up, things blew up, and later things went up again. This time is no... The post The Exponential Boom, Bust and Rebirth of the ICO Economy, ie Dotcom Bubble with Dumber Money appeared first on The Syndicate.