Is This The Turning Point For Bitcoin?

Many people have called Bitcoin a bubble. They have compared it to the infamous tulip mania. In our four phases of a bubble chart, they would probably say that last April (when Bitcoin’s price hit over $200) was the “mania” phase and that we’re now in the “blow-off phase.”

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But while many people are laughing at Bitcoin, others are leaning into it. Bitcoin startups are starting to attract serious investors.

Fred Wilson, who’s got a bit of a track record of investing in companies that seem too silly but later become mainstream, described his thoughts on Bitcoin in a post on the USV blog about their latest investment in Coinbase in this way:

“We believe that Bitcoin represents something fundamental and powerful, an open and distributed Internet peer to peer protocol for transferring purchasing power. It reminds us of SMTP, HTTP, RSS, and BitTorrent in its architecture and openness. Like what happened with those other low level protocols, entrepreneurs and developers are now building technology on top of Bitcoin to make it more useful, more accessible, and more secure.”

This makes a lot of sense to me. The benefits of a truly global, zero transaction fee, digital currency are too powerful to ignore. And the more people develop on top of the network, the more liquid, secure, and stable Bitcoin will become.

Fred is also quick to point out that it’s not just Bitcoin. If other or multiple digital currencies get massive adoption, then these startups will adapt and support them too.

And USV isn’t alone. Andreessen Horowitz, Jeremy Liew, and a lot of other smart people are thinking about Bitcoin, digital currencies, and the startups that will power them. Even Paypal is thinking about ways to work with Bitcoin.

The most exciting part of this ecosystem to me is the payment layer. And this is where Coinbase really excels. They are making it very easy for merchants to accept bitcoin payments.

I have no idea about the future price of Bitcoin and where it stands in the four phases of a bubble. But to me, this sure looks like the start of a long-term trend for Bitcoin startups.

I think Howard said it best:

“But, as a risk taker myself, I like to see this type of setup. Not too early for Fred, but way too early for Warren Buffett.

That’s meat.

Game on.”

Bowery Capital's Investment Thesis

Dan Primack on Bowery Capital’s investment thesis:

Bowery’s investment thesis is that “digital natives” are moving higher and higher up the corporate executive stack, particularly into decision-making positions like chief marketing officer and chief technology officer. And those executives are more likely to favor “new” technologies over incumbents, at a time when enterprise technology spend is expected to double over the next decade. … The opportunity for Bowery, therefore, would be to invest in early-stage startups that specifically target the marketing and technology layer within large enterprises.

I really like this thesis. I see this as a trend that is still very much in its infancy.

Another key point here is that it’s not only the CTOs and CMOs driving these decisions. Often it comes up from the rank and file level. A simple example here is an employee that starts using Box or Dropbox, falls in love with it, and then asks why their company isn’t using it.

Primack also lists some great recent examples:

Bowery data suggests that just 5% of enterprise technology spend — both internal and external — was allocated to “next-generation” solutions in 2011, but that the figure will rise to 16% by 2016 and 25% by 2020. Examples would include Jive Software (JIVE) taking market share from Salesforce.com (CRM), or Splunk (SPLK) vs. Comscore (SCOR) or Box vs. IBM (IBM).

Just more data on how the enterprise hasn’t just now gotten sexy, it’s been sexy for a while.

Jawbone Acquires BodyMedia for More Than $100 Million

Quotable from Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman:

“I think the first phase of this market has been about accelerometers and what those can do,” Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman said in an interview. “Now it’s about getting even more granular, and also, how we can get all that tech into an efficient form factor.”

Good to see Jawbone stepping their game up. Looks like the wearable tech space is about to get a lot more interesting.

I just contributed to Zach Braff’s new self-funded movie on Kickstarter Wish I Was Here. 

Creatively, this is one of the better Kickstarter pages I’ve seen. I thought the video was very well done: short, compelling, and sincere.

The different pledge amounts were well organized too. Everything from a weekly production diary ($10) up to a speaking role in the film ($10,000).

As a music lover and big fan of Garden State’s soundtrack, I opted for the 2nd level. This gets you access to a new playlist curated by their team each week and a first look at the final soundtrack.

And as a movie lover, it’s just really exciting to see more filmakers going direct to their fans. It gives them so much more room for creative freedom. I hope you join me in contributing to more projects like these in the future.

staff: Now you can do more than just reblog when you find something you love on Tumblr for iPhone and iPad. Share posts via Twitter, Facebook, and more Save stuff for later using Instapaper and Pocket Email an entire post with our beautiful new template Close photos by flinging up or down! GIFs animate while you scroll* Search your Following list (it’s now alphabetized and grouped by first letter!) Download the update *iPad 2, 3 and 4, iPad Mini, iPod Touch 5th Generation, iPhone 4S and 5 only Love this update. Mostly for the Instapaper integration, which is where I do most of my reading. Tumblr just keeps getting better and better for me.
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staff:

Now you can do more than just reblog when you find something you love on Tumblr for iPhone and iPad.

  • Share posts via Twitter, Facebook, and more
  • Save stuff for later using Instapaper and Pocket
  • Email an entire post with our beautiful new template
  • Close photos by flinging up or down!
  • GIFs animate while you scroll*
  • Search your Following list (it’s now alphabetized and grouped by first letter!)

Download the update

*iPad 2, 3 and 4, iPad Mini, iPod Touch 5th Generation, iPhone 4S and 5 only

Love this update. Mostly for the Instapaper integration, which is where I do most of my reading.

Tumblr just keeps getting better and better for me.

It seems to me that this is native advertising as it should be. … The content is genuinely fun, just as it is fleeting and unobtrusive. … These are the sorts of native ad projects that help change some of the traditional polarity of the advertising and publishing relationship. This is where we really see marketers challenged by publishers on behalf of users to make their advertising more fun and engaging on the consumer’s terms.

MediaPost: Tumblr Brings Its Native Ad Format To Mobile

I tend to agree with this. Tumblr more than anyone else I’ve seen has nailed native brand advertising. The key is if they can keep challenging marketers like this (instead of taking the easier money).

(via david)

Source: strle

It’s not about passion. Passion is something that we tend to overemphasize, that we certainly place too much importance on. Passion ebbs and flows. To me, it’s about desire. If you have constant, unwavering desire to be a cook, then you’ll be a great cook.

Thomas Keller On Why Passion Shouldn’t Drive You

Good thoughts from Thomas Keller on passion vs. desire. Applies to so much beyond cooking too.

I couldn’t help reading this through the lens of startup life. In a startup you sometimes have to slog through on those days when your passion wanes. What keeps you going is often, as Keller puts it, an “unwavering desire” to be the best [founder / coder / builder / designer / hustler / etc.] that you can be.