NFR 34 - Disney +, One Click, RapTok

🚀 Please Share 🚀

I genuinely love writing this newsletter, it has influenced my life in such a positive manner and I truly appreciate that people bother to open it each week. Big shout out to Louis Sutton & Nick Daley for inspiring me to do this in the first place after reading their hit newsletter The Grapevine.I’d love to get this newsletter to as many people as possible so it would mean a lot to send this to whoever you think would find it interesting.

☕️ Morning Inspiration:

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🤖 eCommerce News:

👸🏽 Disney+ to launch cheaper ad-supported tier later this year

“Disney announced on Friday a new ad-supported tier for its Disney+ streaming service that will launch in the U.S. later this year. Disney did not provide a launch date or price for the new tier. The new ad-supported tier will expand internationally in 2023. The company said in a press release that the new offering would be “a building block” in achieving its goal of reaching 230 million to 260 million Disney+ subscribers by 2024.

🎶D’Amelio family launches VC fund 444 Capital to invest up to $25M in high-growth startups

“The D’Amelio family, including TikTok stars and digital creators Charli D’Amelio and sister Dixie, are formalizing their investments in startups with the launch of a new VC fund, 444 Capital. The family is teaming up with Doug Renert of Tandem Capital and producer Jeff Beacher of Beacher Media Group on the fund, which aims to back high-growth companies with strong end-user brands, including those in the direct-to-consumer space, fintech, edtech, healthcare, insurtech and other B2B2C platforms.”

💸 Selfbook raises $15M at a $300M valuation in Tiger-led extension to give hotels a way to accept ‘one-click’ payments

“Founded in September 2020 as a pivot from a consumer travel app to a B2B company, New York-based Selfbook describes itself as the “Shopify for travel,” and says it operates at the intersection of hospitality and fintech. Hotels can implement its technology, according to Meniri, “with a single line of code” to improve their booking experience directly on their existing reservation systems. Selfbook says that its software gives hotels a way to accept “one-click” payments directly on their websites while eliminating fraud and reducing chargebacks.”

🛍 Amazon acquires Veeqo, a start-up that helps sellers manage their online businesses

“Amazon has purchased Veeqo, a company that makes tools to help online businesses manage their storefronts on and off Amazon. The Big Tech company quietly acquired the e-commerce software start-up last November, but it didn’t publicize the acquisition. Amazon is estimated to claim about 40% of the nation’s e-commerce sales, but has long been interested in claiming a share of sales on other digital platforms like eBay, Etsy, Shopify and Walmart.”

🏆 Ipsy, BoxyCharm parent raises $96M in funding

“Ipsy acquired beauty subscription company BoxyCharm in October of 2020, officially forming Beauty for All Industries. In January last year, the company launched a skincare brand called Refreshments to capitalize on the booming popularity of the space, but that's just one of four brands the company has debuted in that time frame. Through its brand incubator Madeby Collective, BFA has also launched DTC brands from celebrities such as Addison Rae and Becky G, along with Complex Culture, which it defines as a brand for "time-pressed millennial women.""

🚀Fortnite creator Epic buying Bandcamp is a play to win the music metaverse

“In Epic, we’ve found a partner who believes as deeply as we do that the future of music, and art itself, depends on the creation of equitable and inclusive communities like the one our fans and artists have helped to build," said Bandcamp CEO Ethan Diamond in a statement. "We’re excited to work alongside the Epic team to accelerate the realization of our mission and pursue our shared goal of empowering more creators in a fair and open way.”

🚨Archive back with fresh funding as it builds community marketing space

“Now that a lot of transactions take place in e-commerce, tapping into the community is something merchants are finding is a necessity to continue engaging with customers. However, that community can live in a bunch of different places online, and Archive is working to harness that community, wherever it is, and provide insights on how the merchant can use that data to grow. Its first products were a Shopify app that automatically detects, classifies and saves Instagram stories relating to a brand, and Archive Communities, which makes influencer marketing programmatic so that brands can more quickly scale their community-building efforts.”

🇬🇭Ghanaian fintech Dash raises $32.8M seed to build connected wallets for Africans

“Africa has it different. It’s not a predominantly card continent. Telecoms and banks lead the majority of online financial transactions carried out in the region via mobile money wallets and bank accounts. But here’s the challenge: While both systems tend to work well when users make transactions within their unique environment, there’s no interoperability for transactions between them. An alternative payment network with connected wallets allowing a mobile money user to transact with a bank account would fix this problem, and that’s the premise of Ghana-based fintech Dash.”

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🎶 Tik Tok Of The Week

Tik Tok is a force of nature like no other. I’ve never seen a platform so innovative, creative & so tightly linked to culture. I’m just constantly amazed at the different way creators, brands & artists are using the platform to win & so I wanted to have a section each week to shout out creators.

This week i’m featuring rapper @russ who created an open verse challenge for his song “Handsomer”

An “Open Verse Challenge” is where artists allow anyone on Tik Tok to duet their video and showcase their talents.

@Kylynraps laid down her verse and the internet responded…21.4 Million views & 2.7 Million likes

What happened next?

Russ is featuring @Ktlynraps on his remix of Handsomer being released today.

Shoot your shot, this platform can change lives.

(Link to Tik Tok)

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📈 Trends Of The Week:

Science-Based Health Optimisation

“But the gap between the science nerds and the cool kids is rapidly shrinking — especially in the field of neuroscience. It’s suddenly in vogue to know what a neural synapse is, or how your dopamine system is regulated. Andrew Huberman and Ben Rein are examples of neuroscientists using social media to communicate the latest research in an accessible way.

Ben breaks down neuroscience on TikTok, where views for #neurosciencehacks have exploded 8x over the last 90 days. Andrew’s Huberman Lab Podcast (HLP) explains how our brains control perceptions, behaviors, and health — and demand is soaring.”

Similarweb shows Hubermanlab.com had 1.8m visitors in Jan., up ~17% MoM (Graph data source: Google Trends)

“Four ways to put the $ back into $cience:

1. Content: Just think — if only 1% of HLP’s 1.8m site visitors subscribed to a $2/mo. curated content newsletter, you’d pull in $18k/mo., even after splitting revenue with HLP 50-50.

2.Apps: A large part of HLP’s popularity are the actionable tips Andrew gives out — but these are numerous, and span a multitude of categories from addiction to reversing aging. Design an app that presents tips in an organized way.

3. High-End Retreats for Science-Based Wellness: Imagine hiring out a pad with a bunch of friends where you can sauna, ice bath, use the latest light therapy, etc. — before investing in equipment yourself.

4. Primary Care Clubs for Health Optimization: Science-based versions of exclusive care clubs like The Lanby ($2.4k/yr) and Parsley Health ($2.1k/yr), which are designed to mimic luxury hotels and spas rather than doctors’ rooms, could be huge.”

Highly recommend checking out Trends.co newsletter!

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❓Quotes that make you think:

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• “The unvarnished truth is that almost all the people you meet feel themselves superior to you in some way, and a sure way to their hearts is to let them realise in some subtle way that you recognise their importance, and recognise it sincerely.” Dale Carnegie, How to win friends and influence people.

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• “If you can’t, you must. If you must, you can” Tony Robbins.

• “Stress is nothing more than a socially acceptable form of mental illness” Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, Richard Carlson.

• “Systems program building is an entropy-decreasing process, hence inherently metastable. Program maintenance is an entropy-increasing process, and even its most skillful execution only delays the subsidence of the system into unfixable obsolescence.” Fred Brooks, IBM Software Genius .

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⛓ Mental Models Of The Week:

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Happy existing 👋