So This Is My Why | Issue 30

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Hey STIMYers,

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So I've decided to start creating original written content for the STIMY website, distilled into Twitter threads (like this, on Hermes' lawsuit against MetaBirkins & how it might play out in a UK context), because:

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1: I've realised that I'm consuming too much content & failing to pause and think through what I'm reading and where I really stand on issues.

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2: Given my background in intellectual property law, I'm bothered by the cavalier use of terms like "IP rights" and "licensing deals" in the Web3 space. While not entirely off the mark, the content still fails fully capture the legal scope of what should be considered, from the perspectives of an NFT author, owner and/or purchaser.

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So I'm kicking off with 2 original articles below - a simple (I hope) intro on the types of IP you'll likely find in an NFT and also a fun NFT game that Netflix recently released to market their latest TV series, Love , Death + Robots.

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Would love feedback if this is something you'd like, or any topics you'd like to see covered.

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And if you know anyone who might like this newsletter, please let them know about it.

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Have a great week!

​STIMY Episode 79: Celebrity Whisperer & Investing in Celebrities (Lady Gaga, Jessica Alba, Gwyneth Paltrow etc.)​

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Nicole Quin may be one of the most interesting, and established VCs that I was privileged to have interviewed.

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Her portfolio companies are real household names: The Honest Company, Cameo, Haus (Lady Gaga), Lunchclub, Autograph (Tom Brady) etc.

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So naturally, I wanted to shift our conversation more towards what it's like working with celebrity-led founders:

• What kind of due diligence did she do before deciding to invest in Lady Gaga?
• How do you separate the celebrity from the company?
• What is Cameo's hugely successful influencer policy, i.e. the 3 things that companies should get "influencers" to do?

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We covered all that and more in this episode. So if you haven't already, please do give it a listen.

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Highlights:

• 4:04 Working at Morgan Stanley for 8 years
• 5:06 Angel Investing
• 7:40 Focus on your strengths & make them stronger (in Stanford)
• 9:46 Meeting members of Lightspeed Venture Partners, including Jeremy Liew
• 12:22 How founders find the thing they were born to do
• 14:40 Working with Lady Gaga to build Haus Laboratories
• 16:13 Doing due diligence on Lady Gaga to measure engagement
• 17:42 Separating the celebrity from the company
• 19:26 Leading indicators of a true brand being built
• 20:23 Why Nicole invests in early stage founders (e.g. Girlboss & Rothy’s)
• 22:03 How Lightspeed spots new trends
• 22:47 Being wrong about future trends
• 24:42 Why Nicole offered Lunchclub a sizeable term sheet in less than 7 days
• 26:58 The ICE Influencer policy at Calm
• 29:50 Companies incorporating NFTs well into their business

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Places to listen to: Website, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Listen Notes​

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Looking for suggestions of past STIMY guests to listen to? Check out:

• ​Kendrick Nguyen: Founder of Republic
• ​Austen Allred: Founder of Lambda School (now renamed Bloom Institute of Technology)
• ​Dr Finian Tan: Chairman of Vickers Venture Fund, former Deputy Secretary of the Singaporean Ministry of Trade & Industry and Regional Director and Head of J.Aron (APAC trading arm of Golden Sachs)
• ​Michael Lints: Partner, Golden Gate Ventures – on raising USD 70 million in venture capital

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Favourite Finds of the Week

1. Netflix's NFT Scavenger Hunt

Netflix recently released Season 2 of Love, Death + Robots.

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An interesting marketing tactic was the use of a digital scavenger hunt: 9 QR codes (for each of the 9 episodes released) are distributed across the series' digital platforms, physical billboards and also within the episode themselves.

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Find them, scan them, connect your Metamask wallet and mint a free NFT!

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The NFT itself is completely worthless of course, but it's an interesting to see how NFTs are being used, so I wrote a quick visual step-by-step guide on how the digital scavenger is played.

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Found 2 within the episodes themselves.

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Links: Quick Guide to Love, Death + Robots' NFT Scavenger Hunt​

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2. What Kind of IP do you have in NFTs?

Another original I wrote recently, detailing the kind of IPs you might find in an NFT.

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All too often, we hear the phrase "the IP in an NFT", which I've always found to be very misleading. IP (or intellectual property) is a large umbrella term to refer to very distinctive property rights, e.g. trademark copyright, patent, design. Each of them have their own threshold requirements, application etc.

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So I thought to lay out some brief thoughts - not legal advice, of course!

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Link: Types of IP in NFTs​

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3. Sending a wrong email...

We've all been there. Sending the wrong email to the wrong person.

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In this case, a Maven employee sent the wrong email to 2500+ subscribers!

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Cringe.

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Maven decided to do a fun 5-minute documentary recording the whole experience.

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Link: Maven documentary​

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4. How is Felix today?

You'll find all sorts of interesting things on the internet.

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This is pretty up there.

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Back in 2019, Felix started tracking all kinds of metrics about his life. Fitness, social life, computer usage, the weather, how much he sleeps, what he eats, where he's located, whether he ate vegetables.

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For 2.5 years (!!!!), he has tracked over 100 different data points to answer some questions in his life, e.g.:

• How does living in different cities affect other factors like fitness, productivity and happiness?
• How does sleep affect my day, my fitness level, and happiness?
• How does the weather, and the different seasons affect my life?
• Are there any trends over the last few years?
• How does computer time, work and hours in meetings affect my personal life?

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And everything is recorded online. Alongside his results (in graph form).

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Pretty incredible.

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Link: How is Felix?​

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Upcoming STIMY Guests

• Phil Libin: co-founder of Evernote & mmhmm

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As always, all thoughts are welcome. Hit a reply button.

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And see you all next week! 😊

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Ling Yah

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