Welcome to New Subscribers:
If you’re new to Synthesis, welcome. This week, I gained quite a few new subscribers because of my blog posts (below) on the latest developments in DeFi—so I think it’s worth explaining what this weekly newsletter is, and what it isn’t. First, it’s not a crypto-focused newsletter like The Defiant or Bankless (both of which are great). As my professional career and network is much longer and broader than my six years in crypto, this newsletter covers a broad range of topics across tech and innovation—and synthesizes (thus ‘Synthesis’) them into a weekly summary so that busy executives like you can stay up to date on the latest news without having to read everything (that I do). That said, every week I share my latest developments and thinking, and because I’ve been working in the crypto space for the last six years, those topics tend to be about crypto and decentralization. So, if you came here only for crypto, I suggest that you instead follow me on Twitter. But who knows, you might learn something new and see—as I do—that everything is connected and part of a broader context and arc. I hope you enjoy this newsletter and find bits of it useful.
Top News of the Week:
Walmart launches $98/year Amazon Prime competitor (link)
Pinterest pays $90M to break its lease on SF headquarters (link)
Amazon gets U.S. approval for drone fleet for deliveries (link)
Uniswap topples Coinbase daily crypto trading volumes (link)
BTS’ K-Pop agency seeks $812M IPO (link)
Weekly Synthesis:
This week was surprisingly quiet in the world of tech, as news around TikTok’s forced sale took a breather as the deal hit a snag due to Chinese export restrictions and whether the app’s core algorithms (the crown jewels) could be included in the acquisition. The most interesting news came from the esoteric world of crypto when Uniswap (a two-year old fully decentralized exchange protocol with only 7 employees and $13M raised) eclipsed Coinbase’s (an 8-year old centralized exchange startup with 1,200 employees and $550M+ raised) daily trading volume. It was crypto’s Instagram moment. For subscribers who have been reading my newsletter the last few months, you know that I’ve been talking about decentralized finance (DeFi) and how its exponential growth is something to watch out for as it may one day threaten the traditional financial system. It seems that we are getting more and more evidence that DeFi’s network effects will overpower traditional finance—and its time may come sooner than we think.
My Latest Blog Posts:
After my blog post last week on why DeFi doesn’t need to go mainstream, I decided to continue writing—this week on two of the latest topics in crypto: fair launches and fast follower forks. ‘Fair launches’ are when new crypto networks launch into market without raising any venture capital or founder equity (mind-bending, I know), meaning that the network aims to be 100% owned by its community of users. While still early, I believe that fair launches will fundamentally disrupt crypto VC.
The second blog post covered fast follower forks in DeFi, where teams (often anonymous) copy the open source code of an existing crypto startup and fast follows it into market without taking venture capital and distributing 100% of its ownership to users (even more mind-bending, I know). It’s a more aggressive—in some cases hostile—approach to a ‘fair launch,’ and in the last seven days, fast follower forks have been done to the two most successful decentralized crypto exchanges right now: (1) Sushiswap, a fork of Uniswap (a crypto exchange protocol backed by a16z), and (2) Swerve, a fork of Curve (the most successful stablecoin exchange protocol).
Covid-19 Related News:
Zoom lifts full-year outlook as sales surge during pandemic (link)
Small business failures loom as federal aid dries up (link)
U.S. debt to exceed size of economy in 2021—first since WWII (link)
GM, Ford wrap up ventilator production—shift back to autos (link)
Artificial Intelligence:
Google secures U.S. military AI cancer research contract (link)
Microsoft launches deepfake detector ahead of U.S. election (link)
AI researchers use heartbeat detection to identify deepfakes (link)
Autonomous & Mobility:
GM, Honda form alliance to develop cars in North America (link)
Microsoft launches deepfake detector ahead of U.S. election (link)
Storelift launches autonomous convenience stores using AI (link)
Fintech:
Square Cash App surges during Covid-19, boosting Square stock (link)
Robinhood under SEC investigation—possible $10M fine (link)
PropertyGuru raises $220M from KKR, TPG (link)
Fintech founded by ex Goldman trader acquires national bank (link)
Blockchain & Crypto:
Coinbase adds Marc Andreessen to Board, replacing Dixon (link)
Switzerland to accept Bitcoin and Ether for taxes in 2021 (link)
U.S. Air Force, Raytheon exploring blockchain air defense (link)
Police raid headquarters of South Korea’s largest exchange (link)
Consumer Tech:
Juul may layoff more than 50% of its workforce (link)
Prince Harry, Meghan sign deal with Netflix (link)
India edtech Unacademy raises $150M @ $1.5B valuation (link)
Lunchclub raises $24M @ $100M valuation from Coatue (link)
AR / VR and Gaming:
Michael Jordan acquires stake in DraftKings—joins as advisor (link)
Biden Campaign offers yard signs in Animal Crossing (link)
Big Fish Games lays off 250 employees, 40% of workforce (link)
Health Tech:
Softbank leads $100M investment into therapeutics startup (link)
Hazel Health raises $34M—provides healthcare to 1.5M kids (link)
PicnicHealth raises $25M for health records service (link)
Spirit Airlines starts testing biometric check-ins (link)
Enterprise Tech:
Chinese logistics company YTO raises $1B from Alibaba (link)
Legion raises $22M to automate workforce scheduling (link)
‘Slack of Asia’ raises $13M series B (link)
Hypatos raises $12M for deep learning document processing (link)
Mergers and Acquisitions:
Optimizely to be acquired by Episerver for less than $600M (link)
Tencent acquires 35% stake in India streaming giant Gaana (link)
Bankrupt Intelsat acquires Gogo In-Flight Wifi for $400M (link)
Buffett buys $6B stake in five Japanese companies (link)
IPOs:
Dating app Bumble to IPO at $6B next year (link)
Mobile gaming company Skillz to IPO at $3.6B via SPAC (link)
VW-backed solid-state battery startup to IPO via SPAC (link)
Policy and Regulation:
TikTok deal hits snag over Chinese export restrictions (link)
India bans PUBG, Baidu, WeChat, Tencent (link)
Things I’m Involved In / Tracking:
Braintrust aims to take out gig platform middleman (link)
Growing movement where startups seek to exit to community (link)
About Synthesis
Synthesis is a weekly newsletter of the top tech and innovation news for busy executives. Stay up to date, and save time. Delivered every Friday.
About the Author
I’m Ian. I’ve been in the venture and corporate innovation space for the last 10 years and helped build and operate investing, venturing, and innovation units at IDEO, Citigroup, and Deloitte. You can find me on Twitter here, mostly rambling about the latest in decentralization and crypto.
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