Hey there,
Over the last couple of weeks we’ve brought you some exciting Zash related news and we’re going to have more very very soon…So, make sure you’re ready when we drop it!
Sign up to our waitlist here and share with your friends to move up and get early access to our app!
Creator of the Week 🧠
This week we have Hannah Forbes, a crowdfunding PhD researcher and the founder of The Founding Crowd.
Hannah started conducting research into crowdfunding as part of her PhD and soon began to develop a set of validated methods to get businesses funded.
With these tools The Funding Crowd, have run over 50 crowdfunding campaigns for early-stage businesses and have a 100% success rate. In 2020 Hannah was named on the Innovate Finance Women in FinTech Power-list and won a Women in Finance Award!
Not to mention, while conducting research as part of her PhD she’s also a Researcher at Cambridge Judge Business School in the Cambridge Centre of Alternative Finance!
1. What do you generally like to invest in?
The majority of my portfolio (~75%) is in ETFs (a bit boring I know), mostly those that are defined with some kind of high ESG rating. The other 25% is split between lending-based crowdfunding, equity-based crowdfunding and crypto with the latter two representing the highest risk in my portfolio. Within equity crowdfunding, I generally invest in B2C companies either in FinTech or with some kind of sustainability angle.
2. How would you describe your investing style?
I think, ultimately, very vanilla. I invest mostly for the long-term - investing in industries/markets that I think will grow as opposed to betting on individual stocks/coins. The amount of my portfolio I have fun in is relatively small and I've been drip feeding small amounts into my portfolio over the long term as opposed to investing with any significant aggression or reaction.
3. What industry/ Company’s future are you excited by and why?
I found it hard to limit it to one industry so I'm going to give a few (sue me). I'm firstly super exited by DeFi - particularly the impact it can have in private markets (cc: Kontinuous ). Having worked within crowdfunding for the last 5 years, I'm excited about how DeFi can enable the next iteration of the model. On a completely different note I'm also really interested in HealthTech, particularly new technologies/substances for supporting mental health (e.g. CBD, Psychedelics) and also FemTech - any area that has been previously under researched holds big potential so I'm excited to see what discoveries come out of that space in the future.
Zash Learn 🤓
More buzzwords this week and this time its a doozey…The Metaverse what does it really mean? We’ll try explain it as best we can!
Metaverse has become a buzzword, particularly on Twitter and across social media where many users have started to treat the word with some distain due to its ubiquitous use over the past 18 months.
Originally coming from sci-fi in the 1990s its had a resurgence in popular media and movies like Steven Spielbergs Ready Player One and now it’s taking over the business world!
In simple terms, a metaverse is place where us humans - weary giants of flesh - can exist as digital representations of ourselves. We can do everything that we would do in the physical world and much more, in theory. Party, chat, learn, play games, work…this final use is where the term is getting the most transaction lately.
Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg had this to say in their most recent earnings call,
“In the coming years, I expect people will transition from seeing us primarily as a social media company to seeing us as a metaverse company,”
Interested? Check out these great articles to learn more, and our Community Spotlight might also peak your interests!
Community Spotlight 💬
A special mention from our community here, Sheena Patel has been put forward two speak on two panels in the coming months.
Sheena has been Director at YonderBeyond for the past two years. Having spent a decade working across live events, experiential campaigns and immersive experiences she has a wealth of experience across a range of sectors. Check out below for more details 👇
First up is a panel discussion on the dialogue around the value of IP in this new format of entertainment is an interesting one and most of the panelists here come from a location based experience background for more information and to vote, click here!
The next panel Sheena is nominated to speak on focuses more on Duty of Care and ethical design when contributing to a new digital ecosystem.
As innovation accelerates across Tech and Artificial Reality, comes the opportunity to consider the Duty of Care and designing inclusive, ethical ecosystems from the outset. To hear more about this at SXSW 2020 make sure to vote here!
We love to hear from our community and we’re always willing to share worthwhile events, so get in touch if you have something to share!
Reading of the Week 💡
We talked about Bitclout over the summer and the rapid progress made by the blockchain social network platform, last week their founder sat down with Sequoia.
Going by the pseudonym Diamondhands they discussed the journey so far with Shaun Maguire. They talk about the product that wasn’t ready to launch and the rollercoaster they’ve been on so far.
Check out why they drew criticism from media outlets and why they’re not going anywhere here!
Tech News 🖥️
Elon Musk unveiled the Tesla Robot last week, and its pretty cool! But don’t worry it’s designed to be safe for humans and not harmful, check out the video here!
Stock Market 📈
Meme stocks were on the rise again today as the S&P 500 broke even more records, elsewhere the dow lost 100 points.
Are you an ESG investor? Well you need to read this piece from the Financial Times Robert Armstrong where he references another wonderful piece by Tariq Fancy.
Crypto Market ₿
Is Defi going to signal the end of traditional finance? Some people believe it will, others point to “revolutions” that previously claimed to do the same but were absorbed into the current fabric. Have a read of The Banker’s piece and decide for yourself.
Remember the Binance debacle? Well here’s the latest, as the FCA say’s it isn’t capable of supervising Binance!
Speaking of crypto in the U.k., PayPal has just launched crypto services for its U.K based customers, with PayPal business accounts not yet supported.
Podcast
No time to read? Check out this brilliant debate on Bitcoin vs. Gold with Anthony “The Mooch” Scaramucci and Peter Schiff…what a line up!
That’s all for now and we’ll see you next week,
Team Zash
P.S.
Sign up to our waitlist here and share with your friends to move up and get early access to our app!