I'm Launching A New Fund...

Every person I admire lives their life based on a small number of simple principles. One of my guiding principles has always been: “You will never regret betting on yourself.” This mantra has been fairly easy to implement in various aspects of my personal and professional life, but one area that remained tough to execute this mindset was investing.

In order to bet on yourself as an investor, you historically had to either: (a) build a large company and personally capture significant financial upside or (b) compound money at an impressive rate for decades to build a big capital base. There are plenty of people who successfully accomplished one, or both, of these milestones. I am not one of those people.

A third path was recently created — frictionless solo GP fund structures. These “rolling funds” allow any individual to leverage their personal brand, audience, deal flow, and experience to raise capital and deploy it across the business funding cycle. This third path is likely to have a meaningful impact on the venture capital ecosystem:

1. More individuals will create funds

2. Founders will have more optionality

3. LPs will have more flexibility and transparency

4. More capital will flow into the asset class

5. Innovation will accelerate

Some people may think the rolling fund structure looks like a shiny flash-in-the-pan opportunity, but as we know, the greatest innovations historically have looked like toys at inception. This rolling fund structure will be the beneficiary of many other macro trends underway.

We are living through a time of great transition. These trends will lead to the creation of a new type of investor — the solo-capitalist. These trends include:

1. A transition away from institutions

2. Increased need for individual identity

3. Decreased friction for audience building

4. Greater focus on a decentralized investor base

5. Increasing desire for removal of communication middlemen

6. A rise in solo-capitalist tools & platforms

My goal is to be at the tip of the spear of this transition to the era of solo-capitalists. 

Today I am announcing a new rolling fund that will be backed by a group of successful investors across Silicon Valley and Wall Street. This rolling fund structure gives me ultimate flexibility, which I believe will lead to a significant advantage when investing in early stage technology companies. 

The best part is that these fund structures significantly increase access for the average person to the venture capital asset class. Any accredited investor can now invest with me, rather than the opportunity only being accessible to large institutions. We may not be able to decentralize the world yet, but rolling funds brings us one step closer to the ultimate goal.

After speaking to Avlok and Naval about what they were building, this opportunity was too good to ignore. I’ve spent the last few years building a community of like-minded individuals who are intellectually curious, aspire to be better builders and investors, and who work hard to put a dent in the universe. It was a no-brainer to pursue a chance to work with so many great people in a flexible structure.

As for the other work that I do, very little will change.

At Morgan Creek Digital, I will continue to fulfill my responsibilities to our founders, LPs, and team for the various funds we have already raised. Nothing will change in terms of the investments I’ve led or the board seats that I hold. Our team has been able to build one of the select few firms that raised 9-figures in capital and we were the first asset management firm to manage digital assets on behalf of public pension funds in the United States. I’m incredibly proud of the work that we have done and I foresee continued success in the future.

At the digital media business that I run, I will continue to create content, build products, and scale the business. It has historically been highly-profitable, and we are working on a number of new initiatives that we think people will really enjoy in the coming months. This balance between operator and investor is invaluable as I continue to deploy capital, whether it helps in providing a sounding board to fellow founders or an advantage in spotting specific trends and companies.

As I already stated, the world is shifting. We are entering the era of solo-capitalists. The line between investor and operator is blurring. There is no greater freedom than the ability to tie your identity to your own name. That is exactly what I am going to do. Once again, I’m betting on myself. Don’t be scared to do the same for yourself.

🚨 Accredited investors can invest alongside me in the new fund: Click here

-Pomp

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THE RUNDOWN:

Lagarde Says Euro Zone Will Reveal View on Digital Currency Soon: A panel of euro-zone central bank officials will soon reveal their verdict on whether or not the region needs to create a digital version of its currency, according to European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde. Such an initiative may be critical to ensure the bloc isn’t left behind in the move to digital currencies and global changes in payments, she said in a virtual event with Germany’s Bundesbank Thursday evening. New technology could improve the efficiency of financial transactions and put Europe at the edge of innovation, but it can also bear risks. Read more.

Square Forms Group to Stop Patent Hoarding From Stifling Crypto Innovation: Jack Dorsey’s payment company is inviting other cryptocurrency firms to join its “alliance” to pool patents and preserve the industry’s open-source spirit. Square said Thursday it has launched what it calls the Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance , a non-profit that wants to stop companies from locking up useful technologies in patents, a practice Square says hamstrings innovation. Read more.

US Congressman Darren Soto to Accept Cryptocurrency Donations for 2020 Election: Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.) – sponsor of a number of legislative proposals around blockchain technology – is accepting cryptocurrency donations for his reelection campaign. Soto made the announcement during the U.S. Blockchain Debate on Wednesday, hosted by Soto's campaign and the Chamber of Digital Commerce PAC. Donations will be processed by payments processor BitPay. Read more.

Judge Dismisses $200M Damages Claim in AT&T Crypto Hack Lawsuit: A California judge has thrown out a $200 million damages claim against mobile operator AT&T from crypto investor Michael Terpin over a SIM-swap hack, but has allowed the rest of the case to proceed. Judge Otis Wright II of California's central district court granted AT&T's motion, originally filed in April, to dismiss claims of concealment and misrepresentation, as well as requests for punitive damages. Read more.

Google Is Removing Search Suggestions About Candidates and Voting: On Thursday, Google said it will remove suggestions that could be seen as endorsing or opposing political parties and candidates. It will also eliminate autocomplete predictions related to information concerning participation in the election, such as voting methods, requirements or the status of voting locations. For example, phrases like "you can vote by phone" or "you can't vote by phone" would not appear in autocomplete. Read more.

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LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE POMP PODCAST HERE

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Alex Konrad is a Senior Editor at Forbes covering venture capital, cloud and enterprise software out of New York. He also edits the Midas List, Midas List Europe, Cloud 100 list and 30 Under 30 for VC. Alex has spent more time than most thinking about various trends in technology, so this episode was a lot of fun to record.

In this conversation, Alex and I discuss:

• Dustin Moskovitz

• Lee Fixel

• Masayoshi Son

• Chris Sacca

• Canva

• Clubhouse

• Zoom

• Snowflake

I really enjoyed this conversation with Alex. Hopefully you enjoy it too.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE POMP PODCAST HERE

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Nothing in this email is intended to serve as financial advice. Do your own research.

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