Tremendous

An angel investor's take on life and business

  • AMC Fails to Deliver Are a Massive Outlier

    Fails to deliver in shares of AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. passed 400,000 in data just released by the SEC yesterday. But what does that actually mean?

    To put the number in perspective, I pulled the fails to deliver for the 10 largest US companies by market capitalization. As you can see, at the end of the reporting period (December 14), AMC’s fails to deliver dwarf them all.

    Combined.

    Am I the only one who finds this a little odd? Why would this comparatively tiny company, at a $13 billion market cap, have more shares failing to clear than companies valued in the trillions?

    If this high level of fails to deliver were unprecedented, I’d think nothing of it. But massive numbers of AMC shares failing to clear has been common for many months (see this, this and this).

    Sometimes fails to deliver have a benign explanation, like clerical errors. But why would there be a colossal number of mistakes in AMC shares and not in Apple?

    And why would that be repeated for much of 2021?

    I suspect a more nefarious explanation: naked short selling. In this usually illegal trade, a trader sells short shares he does not own.

    The shares are never delivered because they never existed. Meanwhile, the trader can push down the share price without limitation.

    When will the SEC act on its own data?

    There will be no blog tomorrow. I have an acting gig in the city! See you Thursday!

    More on markets:

    AMC Fails to Deliver Soar Past 400,000

    How Elrond Could Take Over Payments Worldwide

    AMC Blows Up Hedge Fund with Sordid Past

    If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/Facebook/etc. using the buttons at the bottom of the page. This helps more people find the blog! 

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Amazon Business American Express Card

    You already shop on Amazon. Why not save $100?

    If you’re approved for this card, you get a $100 Amazon gift card. You also get up to 5% back on Amazon and Whole Foods purchases, 2% on restaurants/gas stations/cell phone bills, and 1% everywhere else.

    Best of all: No fee!

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account.

    Misfits Market

    My wife and I have gotten organic produce shipped to our house by Misfits for over a year. It’s never once disappointed me. Every fruit and vegetable is super fresh and packed with flavor. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless little lumps at salad bars until I tried theirs! They’re peppery, colorful and crunchy! I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. 

  • AMC Fails to Deliver Soar Past 400,000

    They’re baaaack.

    After bouncing around at mostly low levels in November, December saw AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. fails to deliver soar to over 400,000.

    AMC registered 405,523 shares as failed to deliver as of December 14th, the last day in the data set just released by the SEC. This represents a nearly 70-fold increase from the last reporting period.

    Shares fail to deliver when a trade is not closed out properly. This can happen for benign reasons, like administrative errors.

    But when there is a persistent pattern of high fails to deliver, as we saw through much of 2021, they can be a sign of something more nefarious. Naked short selling, or selling short shares one does not own, can cause huge fails to deliver.

    The shares are never delivered because they never existed in the first place! This illegal trade is a powerful way to push down a stock’s price.

    Sure enough, as fails to deliver mounted in the first half of December, we see a steady decline in AMC’s share price. Shares fell 14% in less than 2 weeks.

    AMC’s fails to deliver are completely out of line compared to other stocks. Much larger companies like Amazon (43), Apple (36,407) and Microsoft (0) had only a tiny fraction as many fails to deliver at the end of the reporting period.

    Maybe nothing inappropriate is happening here. But I’d like to see the SEC investigate it and find out, rather than just releasing the same shocking data month after month with a shrug.

    More on markets:

    AMC, GameStop Volumes Plummet as Investors Move to Computershare

    How Solana Could Wipe Out Visa and MasterCard

    Citadel Holding Nearly $500 Million in AMC Options

    If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/Facebook/etc. using the buttons at the bottom of the page. This helps more people find the blog! 

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Amazon Business American Express Card

    You already shop on Amazon. Why not save $100?

    If you’re approved for this card, you get a $100 Amazon gift card. You also get up to 5% back on Amazon and Whole Foods purchases, 2% on restaurants/gas stations/cell phone bills, and 1% everywhere else.

    Best of all: No fee!

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account.

    Misfits Market

    My wife and I have gotten organic produce shipped to our house by Misfits for over a year. It’s never once disappointed me. Every fruit and vegetable is super fresh and packed with flavor. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless little lumps at salad bars until I tried theirs! They’re peppery, colorful and crunchy! I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. 

  • AMC Blows Up Hedge Fund with Sordid Past

    AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. has blown up another prominent hedge fund to close out 2021:

    The New York-based hedge fund Anchorage Capital Group has shut down after more than 18 years of capital management.

    Anchorage Capital had 4 million put options on AMC, which accounted for 17.8% of its portfolio.

    Anchorage Capital Group had the second-largest short position against AMC stock.


    The hedge fund’s founder, Kevin Ulrich, has a sordid past. From Bloomberg:

    Last year, a woman sued Ulrich, accusing him of sexual battery in a Manhattan hotel in 2019 — a complaint that was later withdrawn. Institutional Investor, citing an Anchorage client, reported in November 2020 that Ulrich settled with the accuser and that clients were displeased by the firm’s failure to disclose the allegations after they became a matter of public record.

    Perhaps Ulrich was a little too busy with the rape allegations to mind his portfolio.

    Anchorage compounded their misfortune with massive put option bets on other meme stocks like GameStop Corp. and Bed Bath & Beyond, Inc. The $7.4 billion fund will now be liquidated.

    Anchorage’s returns had been lackluster for years, and its assets under management had shrunk by half from their peak. Indeed, Bloomberg reports it had been “trying to shrink.”

    I’m sure AMC shareholders were happy to give them some help with that.

    There will be no blog tomorrow. See you on Monday and happy new year!

    More on markets:

    AMC, GameStop Volumes Plummet as Investors Move to Computershare

    How Did High Dividend Stocks Perform In the Last Crash?

    Ken Griffin to Spend $300 Million to Defeat Governor

    Photo: “Fruit of the fireball machine” by SiamEye is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

    If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/Facebook/etc. using the buttons at the bottom of the page. This helps more people find the blog! 

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Amazon Business American Express Card

    You already shop on Amazon. Why not save $100?

    If you’re approved for this card, you get a $100 Amazon gift card. You also get up to 5% back on Amazon and Whole Foods purchases, 2% on restaurants/gas stations/cell phone bills, and 1% everywhere else.

    Best of all: No fee!

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account.

    Misfits Market

    My wife and I have gotten organic produce shipped to our house by Misfits for over a year. It’s never once disappointed me. Every fruit and vegetable is super fresh and packed with flavor. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless little lumps at salad bars until I tried theirs! They’re peppery, colorful and crunchy! I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. 

  • How to Ace a 3 Minute Pitch

    Last week, I was talking with a young founder who is just starting to pitch investors. She wished she could find a good example of a 3 minute pitch.

    So I figured if she was having this problem, others probably were too!

    This morning, I made a little video of what I would consider an ideal 3 minute pitch. I used the example of my favorite startup, Uber.

    A 3 minute pitch is a key thing to master because startup demo days are often in this format.

    It’s also useful if you have brief, individual meetings with VC’s or angel investors like me. You want to pitch in a concise way and leave lots of times for questions.

    Why Is This Such a Strong Pitch

    1. It’s short.
      There are just 16 slides with only a little text on each one. It takes under 3 minutes.
      I look at around 25-30 startups a week, so I can only spend so much time on each one.
    2. It clearly frames a huge problem and proposes a good solution.
      Mobility is a big issue, and long before Uber, everyone knew taking a taxi stank. This presentation clearly shows how Uber is better.
    3. It shows a clear growth trend.
      Nothing gets investors salivating like rapid growth!
      Show revenue or user growth in a chart and calculate the compounded growth rate. Make that explosive growth obvious!
    4. It shows the product.
      The same slide deck could describe 100 startups. Showing the product makes it clearer what you’re working on.
      It also shows you actually have something built!
    5. There is a clear request.
      I don’t just say “thank you for your time.” I ask the investors for something specific: $3 million.
      And I make it clear what it can achieve: us dominating the taxi industry.

      A little tip for making sure you hit the 3 minute mark is to have your phone with a stopwatch running right next to you, so you can glance over occasionally.

      I also suggest using this template from Sequoia, as I did. It gives a great framework for hitting the key points in your pitch.

      What did I miss? What questions do you have? Leave a comment at the bottom and let me know!

      Disclaimer: I am not Travis Kalanick 🙂

      More on tech:

      The High Growth Handbook: Scaling Startups from 10 to 10,000 People

      Why I Just Invested in Kippo, Where Gamers Find Love

      How Startup Founders Turn Investors Off

      Photo: “The Ace of Spades” by Toufique E Joarder is licensed under CC BY 2.0

    If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/Facebook/etc. using the buttons at the bottom of the page. This helps more people find the blog! 

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Amazon Business American Express Card

    You already shop on Amazon. Why not save $100?

    If you’re approved for this card, you get a $100 Amazon gift card. You also get up to 5% back on Amazon and Whole Foods purchases, 2% on restaurants/gas stations/cell phone bills, and 1% everywhere else.

    Best of all: No fee!

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account.

    Misfits Market

    My wife and I have gotten organic produce shipped to our house by Misfits for over a year. It’s never once disappointed me. Every fruit and vegetable is super fresh and packed with flavor. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless little lumps at salad bars until I tried theirs! They’re peppery, colorful and crunchy! I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. 

  • AMC, GameStop Volumes Plummet as Investors Move to Computershare

    Today, the hottest name among meme stock investors may not be AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. or GameStop Corp., but an obscure Australian stock transfer company.

    Investors in meme stocks have been moving their shares to Computershare in massive numbers since summer. The Australian company allows investors to hold shares directly, rather than through a broker.

    A Seismic Shift

    As investors began to hold their shares directly for the long term, volumes in AMC and GameStop have plummeted:

    AMC traded nearly 800 million shares a day in early June and is down to under 50 million now. GameStop was trading over 20 million a day in June, but now fewer than a million shares trade hands in a typical day.

    Why Computershare?

    Many investors are concerned that their shares are being loaned out to hedge funds to sell short. This can drive down the price of the stock.

    Brokerages insist they only lend out shares that were bought on margin. But many investors are skeptical.

    Even if brokerages are telling the truth, there’s another compelling reason to use Computershare: Robinhood’s January trading curbs.

    In January, Robinhood made it impossible to buy shares of GameStop, AMC, and other meme stocks. This cratered demand for the shares and they fell substantially.

    With Computershare, investors can buy shares directly. However, unlike many brokerages, there are fees for buying and selling with Computershare.

    Whether you want to go to the extra trouble to hold shares directly will depend on the person. But direct ownership is a valuable tool in the investor’s kit, and I’m glad it’s becoming better known!

    Do you own shares directly or via a broker, and why? Let me know in the comments below.

    More on markets:

    GameStop Now Accepting Dozens of Cryptocurrencies

    How Did High Dividend Stocks Perform In the Last Crash?

    Citadel Holding Nearly $500 Million in AMC Options

    Photo: “papa gorilla” by leamaimone is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

    If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/Facebook/etc. using the buttons at the bottom of the page. This helps more people find the blog! 

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Amazon Business American Express Card

    You already shop on Amazon. Why not save $100?

    If you’re approved for this card, you get a $100 Amazon gift card. You also get up to 5% back on Amazon and Whole Foods purchases, 2% on restaurants/gas stations/cell phone bills, and 1% everywhere else.

    Best of all: No fee!

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account.

    Misfits Market

    My wife and I have gotten organic produce shipped to our house by Misfits for over a year. It’s never once disappointed me. Every fruit and vegetable is super fresh and packed with flavor. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless little lumps at salad bars until I tried theirs! They’re peppery, colorful and crunchy! I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. 

  • The High Growth Handbook: Scaling Startups from 10 to 10,000 People

    Elad Gil is a Silicon Valley legend. After selling his startup to Twitter, he helped the company scale from 90 to 1500 people in under 3 years.

    He’s also had enormous success as an angel investor, investing in startups like Airbnb, Coinbase, Square and Stripe.

    So I was very excited to dig into his book, The High Growth Handbook. In it, Gil lays out his best tips for scaling a company at warp speed, along with interviews with a who’s who of tech.

    Here are some of the best pieces of advice I found:

    How to Hire

    “Hire only after there’s a burning need for that person.”

    Naval Ravikant

    Gil’s approach to hiring is carefully structured. He suggests writing a job description for every position and asking each interviewee the same questions.

    But even better than questions are actual tasks. The best way to assess someone’s skills is to have them complete a task similar to what they’ll do on the job.

    He also counsels interviewers to write down their opinion of the candidate before speaking with other interviewers, to avoid groupthink. This is the same process used at Amazon.

    And when you do find the right person, move fast!

    How to Lead

    So you’ve got your ideal employees. Now what?

    In an interview with Sam Altman, Altman says that setting the company’s direction is just 5% of a CEO’s job. The other 95% is making sure it happens.

    “Delegation is not abdication.”

    Gil also recommends holding skip level meetings with junior employees that don’t report to you. They tend to have their finger on the pulse of the market and are closer to the customers.

    How to Rest

    Gil used to work every weekend and even on “vacations.” But now, he tries to fully unplug.

    This is something I struggle with! I was meeting with a company founder at nearly midnight on my vacation in Barcelona while my wife waited patiently upstairs.

    We have to remember that if someone as successful as Gil can unplug for a few days, we can too!

    In all, I found this book a very practical guide to building startups. My only criticism is that with the mix of interviews and Gil’s writing, and the jumping between topics, the book feels disjointed.

    I think it would be more effective if it followed a company from birth to IPO, examining the challenges it faces on the way.

    Nonetheless, if you’re interested in startups, Gil’s advice will help you. Check it out!

    More on tech:

    What I Look For in Startups

    How Startup Founders Turn Investors Off

    The Top 3 Startup Pitch Mistakes

    Photo: “Elad Gil” by jdlasica is licensed under CC BY 2.0

    If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/Facebook/etc. using the buttons at the bottom of the page. This helps more people find the blog! 

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Amazon Business American Express Card

    You already shop on Amazon. Why not save $100?

    If you’re approved for this card, you get a $100 Amazon gift card. You also get up to 5% back on Amazon and Whole Foods purchases, 2% on restaurants/gas stations/cell phone bills, and 1% everywhere else.

    Best of all: No fee!

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account.

    Misfits Market

    My wife and I have gotten organic produce shipped to our house by Misfits for over a year. It’s never once disappointed me. Every fruit and vegetable is super fresh and packed with flavor. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless little lumps at salad bars until I tried theirs! They’re peppery, colorful and crunchy! I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. 

  • GameStop Now Accepting Dozens of Cryptocurrencies

    GameStop Corp. is now accepting dozens of cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Dogecoin, per a report from Investor Place yesterday.

    These cryptocurrencies can be used at any one of GameStop’s locations or online. GameStop is using the Flexa network, which supports a wide variety of cryptocurrencies.

    This comes shortly after AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. began accepting crypto payments, including Bitcoin and Ethereum.

    Meme stocks trying to draw in the adjacent crypto community is a wise move. All marketing costs money, but accepting crypto provides a bunch of press attention for the minimal cost of joining the Flexa network.

    Flexa appears quite robust, with tens of thousands of retail locations on its platform. It reminds me of a Square for crypto; easy payment acceptance for merchants.

    If GameStop ever delivers streaming games on its own platform, crypto payments could be particularly useful. Unlike with credit cards, customers from all over the world could purchase access with no foreign exchange fees.

    Will accepting crypto payments make or break GameStop or AMC’s business? Of course not.

    But for businesses that rely on foot traffic, anything that builds buzz at low cost is a huge win!

    What do you think of GameStop and AMC accepting crypto payments? And who do you think will be next?

    Let me know in the comments below.

    This is the last blog for this week. I’ll see you again on Monday.

    Merry Christmas!

    More on markets:

    Hedge Fund Paid Researcher to Write Misleading Reports on Seeking Alpha

    Parody Site Sues Citadel to Stop Shutdown

    How Did High Dividend Stocks Perform In the Last Crash?

    Photo: Photo: “Retail GameStop” by ccPixs.com is licensed under CC BY 2.0

    If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/Facebook/etc. using the buttons at the bottom of the page. This helps more people find the blog! 

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Amazon Business American Express Card

    You already shop on Amazon. Why not save $100?

    If you’re approved for this card, you get a $100 Amazon gift card. You also get up to 5% back on Amazon and Whole Foods purchases, 2% on restaurants/gas stations/cell phone bills, and 1% everywhere else.

    Best of all: No fee!

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account.

    Misfits Market

    My wife and I have gotten organic produce shipped to our house by Misfits for over a year. It’s never once disappointed me. Every fruit and vegetable is super fresh and packed with flavor. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless little lumps at salad bars until I tried theirs! They’re peppery, colorful and crunchy! I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. 

  • What I Look For in Startups

    You’ve been meeting with investors day after day. You get a lot of “very interestings” but no actual checks.

    What are these people looking for?

    Today, I thought I’d explain what I look for in a startup.

    As an angel investor, I invest in about 1-2% of the companies I see. Here’s how I choose:

    1) Are you solving a big problem? Take Uber: it gets you from anywhere to anywhere, anytime, easily.

    Mobility is a huge problem. Any technology that can make it easy to get places has a giant potential market.

    What is an example of a company that isn’t solving a big problem? Imagine a better way to search tweets.

    That’s a feature, not a product. It’ll probably get copied by Twitter or Twitter will buy it for a small sum.

    2) Are you growing revenue 20% month over month? I want to see clear signs that your vision is shared by customers.

    Dollars in the door are the best sign there is. I find about 2-3% of seed stage startups are growing this fast.

    If the company is pre-revenue, I would also find a similar growth rate in users quite persuasive. But revenue is best.

    The greatest companies of today, like YouTube, had incredible growth early on. That’s what I’m looking for.

    3) Is the product awesome? If there’s any way for me to use the product, I always do so before investing.

    Maybe you have great early growth, but if the product isn’t solid, it may be hard to sustain that pace.

    If I can’t use the product (most B2B SaaS, for example), I ask for a detailed demo. I also read every review of the product I can find.

    3) Is there good founder/market fit? If you used to work on M&A at Goldman Sachs and you started a company to help people find sustainable clothing, I’m going to have a few questions.

    Why would you start a business that is so far removed from your background? Perhaps you have solid reasoning, like a long-term commitment to environmentalism via volunteer work.

    Or maybe you’re just in it for the buck. I have nothing against making money, but starting a company is so hard that if the motivations are only pecuniary, you will likely give up.

    4) Are you raising at least $1 million? Most companies I invest in are raising $1-3 million seed rounds.

    Why does this matter? Companies that raise a seed round of at least $1 million are far more likely to be successful, per a Crunchbase analysis.

    A big round means you can hire lots of developers and sales people. That lets you get ahead of your competitors, fast.

    When I see companies raising a round of $250-$500k, I often think this isn’t enough to move the needle.

    I hope this helps clarify how investors pick startups. Other investors may have different processes, but I think you’ll find a lot of similarities.

    Best of luck and happy fundraising!

    More on tech:

    The Original YouTube Investment Memo

    How Startup Founders Turn Investors Off

    Why I Just Invested in Gauge, the Best Way to Sell Your Car

    Photo: “Historical Documentation Defenestration WHY Sign” by Lynn Friedman is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

    If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/Facebook/etc. using the buttons at the bottom of the page. This helps more people find the blog! 

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Amazon Business American Express Card

    You already shop on Amazon. Why not save $100?

    If you’re approved for this card, you get a $100 Amazon gift card. You also get up to 5% back on Amazon and Whole Foods purchases, 2% on restaurants/gas stations/cell phone bills, and 1% everywhere else.

    Best of all: No fee!

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account.

    Misfits Market

    My wife and I have gotten organic produce shipped to our house by Misfits for over a year. It’s never once disappointed me. Every fruit and vegetable is super fresh and packed with flavor. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless little lumps at salad bars until I tried theirs! They’re peppery, colorful and crunchy! I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. 

  • AMC: An Innovator Since Vaudeville

    Today, AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. is known as one of the hottest stocks in the market, beloved by meme traders. But the company’s origins are decidedly more humble.

    AMC was founded by Edward Durwood, a vaudeville performer. After his group disbanded, he bought a theater in Kansas City.

    The year was 1920. Durwood was determined to enter the nascent movie business.

    The tiny company grew, and in the postwar era, AMC created the first multiplexes. It was even first to offer reclining seats with cup holders, now de rigueur at theaters everywhere.

    I was fascinated to learn of this history while digging into the Wall Street Journal’s weekend feature on AMC.

    What struck me most was the company’s history of innovation. And AMC continues to innovate today, despite the headwinds it faces from high rents and substantial debt.

    Much like Durwood entering the movie business at its beginning, AMC is taking advantage of new trends like cryptocurrencies and the popularity of the UFC. It is the only theater to accept crypto payments or screen the sought-after fights.

    I think AMC’s best chance for a strong future lies in embracing and doubling down on that history of innovation. Here are some moves for them to consider:

    1) Sell non-fungible tokens (NFT’s), rather than just giving them away as promotional items.

    AMC has a powerful meme trader following. That group has substantial overlap with the crypto community.

    AMC could also split the proceeds with the owner of the IP (such as Disney), a win-win proposition.

    2) Screen Netflix content. Many Netflix subscribers would probably like to see their favorite movies and shows on the big screen.

    But aside from a few very limited releases, customers are generally out of luck. This could be a huge source of exciting new content for AMC.

    Meanwhile, Netflix gets to partner with a company that has more screens than any other.

    3) Offer more extensive food and even alcohol.

    Many upscale theaters offer restaurant-style meals, providing a major source of new revenue. Why stop with popcorn?

    Alcohol could also be a massive new revenue stream with very high margins and less equipment needed than a restaurant. Licensing will be an issue, but other theaters have done this successfully.

    Here’s hoping AMC will continue to innovate for another 100 years!

    P.S. My one bone to pick with the WSJ article is its contention that there is no evidence of naked short selling. Persistent, large fails to deliver fly in the face of that claim, although they have moderated recently.

    More on markets:

    Hedge Fund Paid Researcher to Write Misleading Reports on Seeking Alpha

    Ken Griffin to Spend $300 Million to Defeat Governor

    How Did High Dividend Stocks Perform In the Last Crash?

    If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/Facebook/etc. using the buttons at the bottom of the page. This helps more people find the blog! 

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Amazon Business American Express Card

    You already shop on Amazon. Why not save $100?

    If you’re approved for this card, you get a $100 Amazon gift card. You also get up to 5% back on Amazon and Whole Foods purchases, 2% on restaurants/gas stations/cell phone bills, and 1% everywhere else.

    Best of all: No fee!

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account.

    Misfits Market

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  • How Startup Founders Turn Investors Off

    You’ve worked really hard on your pitch to investors. But what if some of the things you’re saying are actually turning them off?

    Here are several things that can be a negative signal to investors:

    1) No clear growth trend. If you don’t share information about month over month revenue or user growth, it’s almost impossible for me to say whether I want to invest or not.

    How do I know if the business is succeeding without seeing a trend? Be sure to include those numbers and compute a month over month growth rate using a tool like this.

    2) Showing irrelevant metrics. Some founders show incredible growth…in numbers that don’t matter.

    Whether it’s social media mentions, letters of intent, or some other creative metric, showing numbers like these make me think there is nothing more substantive.

    What’s substantive? Customers and product.

    Nothing else matters.

    3) A focus on patents. Some startup founders talk for 10 minutes about patents and 2 minutes about customers.

    To most investors, this will show that the founder doesn’t understand what drives success in software startups. IP is rarely a key driving force in a software company.

    You will have to deal with IP assignments and patents eventually. But unless you’re a biotech company, don’t make it the core of your pitch.

    4) Mentioning irrelevant awards. If you won a startup pitch contest or Forbes 30 under 30, congrats!

    But leave it out of your presentation. Much like presenting irrelevant numbers, mentioning irrelevant awards just makes investors think you don’t have anything more concrete to show.

    5) An unrealistic valuation. I am not a stickler on valuation if it’s a good, high growth company.

    But more and more, I see seed stage companies asking for valuations of $75 or even $100 million. Sometimes, they haven’t even launched a product!

    This just shows me the founder doesn’t understand the market. Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures has clearly shown that venture firms cannot possibly make money on $100,000,000 seed rounds.

    Your goal should be a collaborative relationship with the investment community. You want to make money, and you want them to make money too!

    So keep it reasonable! When seed stage companies go much beyond $20-30 million, they’re getting ahead of themselves.

    A more realistic valuation would be about $10 million for most seed stage companies with solid growth.

    Founders work incredibly hard to raise money and build their companies. The last thing they want to do is torpedo their own pitch!

    If you follow the rules above and keep the focus on your product and customers, you’ll impress investors. You may even find them fighting to get in the round.

    Best of luck!

    More on tech:

    The Top 3 Startup Pitch Mistakes

    Why I Just Invested in Capbase, The Startup in a Box

    The Original YouTube Investment Memo

    Photo: “Stop sign at Curry Village in Yosemite National Park” by JcOlivera.com is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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