HMMDP Update: Matt Wants To Build
Matt reflects on his strengths and shares businesses he wants to build instead of buy.
Every Wednesday @mattsaincome updates us on his incredible journey of turning $10,000 of his own money into $1,000,000 by any legal means possible. If you want Matt to take a look at one of your trading or investment ideas feel free to share.
The pod port – I sold the Voyager “maybe this won’t go out of business” trade.
Man, could our thinking on that stock be proven any more wrong? Thinking back to when it was first brought up: how did I not know any better?
Back in the day I actually lost money on Mt. Gox – one of the first Bitcoin exchanges – when it went under. Fast forward 10 years and I’m doing the same thing with Voyager? Jesus. I actually blame myself for this one way more than Gabe and Enrique. I should have cut them off and screamed on the pod “not your keys, not your crypto!”
One simple meme, drilled into my head since I was in college mining bitcoin on the same computer I used to run a Minecraft server, but I forgot its importance when I needed it most.
Also, remember when Steve (oyager’s CEO) was on the podcast and he kept bringing up how he only loans money to people he can trust – as if it was his grandma’s money? I wasn’t asking. Why did he keep bringing it up? Was it because he was naturally nervous that he had loaned out $670m+ of customer funds to a bunch of degens running a crypto hedge fund?
And why wasn’t I asking!? How come my old journalism instincts didn’t kick in and grill him? I have a lot of regrets about this situation and wanted to write it down so I don’t forget for next time. We always have to improve.
A couple quick lessons:
- Don’t get carried away when everyone around you is excited about a stock – unnamed counter parties could have been something I really looked into and asked Steve what collateral or risk management he had in place.
- Use position sizing to not become overexposed to single points of failure (like Steve’s risk management on loans, lol)
- If I speak to CEOs on any platform, grill those mother fuckers.
Also, I bought more Meta, and a long dated call option that expires in 2024. They actually have some great AI minds over there – so I’m considering this one of my AI plays! Their team just announced a great new tech that allows for translation of over 200 languages. Cool!
But I have a thought.
In business, there are two kinds of people. There are builders, and there are buyers.
This podcast and newsletter has been an experiment in me trying to become a buyer, but the truth is I’m a better builder than I am buyer.
So, just for one newsletter – why don’t we talk about a couple things I think I can build to make money?
Would you allow me that grace, just this once, dear reader? And I promise it doesn’t have to do with vending machines (although honestly looking back, how badass would it have been if I cashed out on the top and had a vending machine empire right now?)
Matt to build instead of buy:
AI PODCAST
I am in talks to acquire the podcast rights to a popular AI-themed twitter account. I think I can get it for $5-15K. The guy would keep running the account, but I’d be able to build a podcast off of it and own that podcast.
How about an AI investing podcast?
How about a podcast with an AI co-host? There is conversational AI text chat bots now – one which freaked out a google employee. Talk to text technology exists (take the audio of one human cohost, turn it into text, feed it into a text AI chat). Text to talk technology exists.
So I could have a podcast with an AI bot which speaks to its cohost, and I could use some editing to speed up the conversation so it flows naturally.
Then I sell ads.
I have enough in the podcast portfolio to launch this, and I’d have 1 million+ AI fans on twitter if I secure these rights.
Nerd Buy Network
I own a publication called Hard Drive. Millions of gamers (like me) are on there each month. We sell ads.
But what if we got all the coolest, rare, limited edition gamer gear and sold it directly?
I’d need a warehouse, shipping team, and some tech dev. This would cost more than the portfolio, but I have a thought.
A lot of guys who start out like me end up being advertising networks – essentially they don’t just serve ads for their own website, they serve them for a ton of websites and take a cut. This allows people to outsource the work, which is an easy choice when you don’t have much structure or resources.
What if I built up my gamer merch network to be the same thing? I start at my website, then I sign up other websites. The pitch is simple: you have a gamer audience, you can sell them our awesome collection of products, and we’ll give you a cut. We handle everything.
You could see how if done right, it could scale very nicely.
Interconnected Video Game Worlds
Normally when you play a video game, you can play solo or (if the game allows) you can play online with friends/strangers. Everyone is playing the same game, although they can be on different teams, roles, etc.
For example, there could be a video game where there are cops and robbers. You all join the same game, pick a team, and play together.
Some games have mini-games or other side-type games built into them that allow for players to focus on different aspects of the game (maybe you really like fishing in World of Warcraft, for example).
My thought: What if there were two separate games, with different game worlds, which shared some level of data to the point where the worlds interacted with each other and changed each other.
FOR EXAMPLE.
Game #1) This is a Spore-Like game where you start as a little bacteria and eventually evolve up into a full-grown monster. You mate with other monsters, you mutate, and you evolve to your environment. A player could exist entirely in this world creating monsters and competing with other monsters. Different skills, abilities, and magic could be attached to each evolved monster.
This would be a third-person animal survival game.
Game #2) This is a tower defense game. It is a top-down management style game where a player defends a castle from waves of aggressive monsters coming through a portal.
The twist? Game #1 and Game #2 are completely different, fully fleshed-out games with separate branding. But the monsters from game #1 come through a portal and into game #2. How well they compete against the castle-defending players in game #2 affects something in game #1.
Another way to think of it: what if you were playing grand theft auto at the same time someone was playing Sim City. But when the Sim City player changed a bridge or a tax rate, that affected the players in Grand Theft Auto.
Truthfully I don’t know and am not confident I could do this or fund it.
Anyways,
What do y’all think? DCA into the bear for the next two years with the profits from my building?
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