Something to think about this Christmas 🤔

Hey Blooming founders,

Welcome to your weekly dose of interesting reads about startup growth and learnings on web3.

Christmas Eve is here and I hope you are easing into the holiday break with your loved ones and a lot of good food. 🎄✨

This week has been an interesting one.

Sifted published an article about Europe’s wealthiest founders on paper. In order to make that list, you have to have an estimated amount over £780m.

Unsurprisingly, not a single woman made it onto on the list.

And of course, there were some immediate reactions about that. “But where are the women?” was commented across social media.

Well, the answer this question is simple: There are no women, because you can only get there when you’ve raised an absurd amount of money and your startup is valued at sky high valuations. Paper valuations are directly correlated with paper worth.

However, that was not even the issue for me. The real issue is that the startup world is still obsessed with wealth numbers, even if they are not real (or yet to be realised).

I got a little frustrated and blurted out this tweet, which stirred up an interesting discussion.

The real question for me comes back to “How much is enough?”.

I think I’ve written about this before because it’s a question that’s been on my mind a lot this year.

We’re so used to chasing the next goal and the next goal, and there is always someone who is further ahead or has more than us. It’s a never-ending story and it’s pretty tiring, isn’t it?

So for me, I have written down a number that will be ‘enough’ for me.

It’s a number that will generate enough in form of investment returns that I can live a comfortable life.

Technically, I wouldn’t have to work anymore, but I love creating and building new things, so it’s unlikely that I will actually retire once I get there.

Instead, I will continue to work and generate more income, but I plan to put this incremental income into startups and projects that change something in the world because, yes self-care first, but what is the point of hoarding money?

I think it’s really important that we make use of the money we’re making in our lifetimes, so instead of publishing “Rich Lists” maybe we should start publishing lists of how much money people have given away as a percentage of their net worth? 🤔

So, as a food for thought for you this Christmas: What would be your number?

Have a think, enjoy the holidays and see you next Friday! 😊

Keep blooming,

Lu

Founder of Blooming Founders

The “one-to-many business” model is fading out and brands are already more decentralised than they think. Learn more about The Stakeholder Economy & The Prospects Of Collective Ownership

How will you continue to build brand awareness for your business in the new year? Check out: 2022 Trends: What’s Next for Digital and Social Media?

If you work in B2B, then these marketing trends are here to stay: 10 B2B Marketing Trends That Are Here for the Long-Term

If you plan on raising money for your startup, then the due diligence process is about to become a big part of your life. Here is How To Prepare Your Startup For Due Diligence.

Believe it or not, soon you might meet your customers or next hires in a digital 3D world: What the Metaverse Means for Your Business

December has been an eventful month for brands in web3.

At the start of the month, Adidas announced that they will enter the metaverse in partnership with NFT project Bored Ape Yacht Club and other collaborators.

The Bored Ape NFT that Adidias purchased for around $156,000 will be developed into a metaverse character called Indigo Herz (a reference to its blue fur and heart-shaped sunglasses as “Herz” means “heart” in German).

But just when people started talking about how Adidas is such a cool early adopter to web3 and leading the pack for the fashion/consumer industry, Nike announced that they acquired RTFKT, a well-respected NFT collectibles studio.

The figures around that deal are not disclosed, but - in gated parts of Discord servers - it is rumoured to be above the 9-figure mark which is eye-watering amount of money for a company (or shall we say startup?) that only started in early 2020.

The acquisition also gave their most recent Clone X drop, a collection by RTFKT x Murakami, a significant boost pushing the price of one NFT to over 10 ETH (~$40,000) for about a week.

Adidas, however, didn’t sleep on things and launched their “Into The Metaverse” NFT a few days after.

This NFT is not a collection, but a singular NFT with 30,000 owner spots. There is no focus on artwork or rarities as it simply serves as an access token to the future Adidas metaverse.

Nonetheless, it generated approximately $24 million in revenue for the brand and created a 30,000 strong community who will be early adopters of the Adidas digital brand world.

Not a bad marketing ROI for investing $156,000 into that original Bored Ape, I would say.

Lastly, it is notable that not only popular consumer brands, but also niche fashion designers are starting to test the web3 waters.

Warren Lotas, a luxury streetwear designer, launched an NFT collection called The Wild Bunch in late November and this week he announced on Instagram what the utility of the collection will be:

What’s interesting here is that he emphasised that the NFTs are not just giving the holders exclusive access to a new private luxury brand, but that “the holders are the brand” indicating that - in the spirit of decentralisation and collective decision making - NFT holders have an influence on the creations and directions of the new brand.

We shall see how things develop, but one thing is clear, with Adidas, Nike and other brands (such as Pepsi and Budweiser) venturing into web3, it is only a matter of time until others follow.

In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if the next wave of web3 adoption will be driven by the brands we love - a MAC Cosmetics metaverse sounds quite fun, doesn’t it?

I hope you’ve learnt something new today. If you liked this newsletter, please vote with a ‘Yes’ 👍