🏠 Altman's Anti-Aging Utopia

Altman Capital go brrrrr

Stephen Flanders & Jason Levin
March 10, 2023

together with

gm. Just another wild day in Silicon Valley 😳

TOGETHER WITH MASTERWORKS

A Banksy got everyday investors 32% returns?

Mm-hmm, sure. So, what’s the catch?

We know it may sound too good to be true. But it’s not only possible, it’s happening—and thousands of investors are smiling all the way to the bank, thanks to the fine-art investing platform Masterworks.

These results aren’t cherry-picking. This is the whole bushel. Masterworks has built a track record of 11 exits, the last 3 realizing +13.9%, +35.0%, and +10.4% net returns* even while financial markets plummeted.

But art? Really? Okay, skeptics, here are the numbers. Contemporary art prices:

outpaced the S&P 500 by 131% over the last 26 years
have the lowest correlation to equities of any asset class
remained stable through the dot-com bubble and ’08 crisis.

Got your attention yet? Homescreen readers can skip the waitlist with this exclusive link.

POLLS

Some very strong opinions on Wednesday’s polls. Love your responses, keep them coming!

“Not with him at the helm.” Savage contrarian opinion in tech. What’s the reason? Hit us with an email back.

“I'm sure he'll be able to squeeze money out of it, if that's his top priority. Not sure for how long, depending on how he gets there.” Dank memes are the top priority, money second of course.

“According to this tweet, he had approximately 4 months of runway when he closed the acquisition (4 months ago). I think it will be tough but I think he can do it.” A response with real research. You gotta love it, thank you.

“Great things take time if you start from scratch. He is starting from -736372910 so it will take just a little bit more than few months” Good things take time.

“They will definitely end up being in the black, but what next? p.s. your email subscription is awesome, thanks!” Well thank you sir! Dank memes are next of course!

Alright on to today’s poll:

Did you play Facebook games when you were younger?

Let's hear some stories. #IMissFarmville

FRESH POWDER

Looking at three startups that just raised. Congrats!

If you want to get your company in front of 21,000+ founders, investors, and operators, let us know! Contact [email protected] with any questions.

TECH

Altman’s Big Bets

When you think of tech, there are a few names that people instantly think of.

Elon Musk. Mark Zuckerberg. Jeff Bezos.

And Sam Altman.

The former president of Y Combinator has ascended into rarefied air because of his work with OpenAI. Just 37, Altman is now seen as one of tech’s greatest visionaries.

So, people pay attention when Altman makes an investment.

And especially so when they are as big as his investments into Retro Biosciences and Helion Energy.

Scared Money Don’t Make Money

Scared money don’t make money, and Altman definitely isn’t scared, as he took “basically all my liquid net worth and put it into these two companies”.

Sheeeesh. The man must be confident in Retro and Helion, so let’s dive a bit further into these two now well-funded companies.

Helion is Altman’s largest investment at a whopping $375 million. The company’s mission is to produce limitless clean energy through fusion. A noble goal, but one that they have yet to crack.

Retro is a longevity startup aiming to add 10 years to the average Human life span. Anti-aging is something that Altman, and other uber-rich dudes, been interested in for a long time. With his $180 million investment into Retro, Altman’s putting his money where his mouth is.

Hard Tech SZN

In the last tech bull-run, the big winners were internet companies. Think the Googles, Facebooks, and Amazons of the world. These companies were extremely innovative, but their wins were not due to scientific advancements, but more due to their speed and communities.

Now, Altman believes that the winners of the next-generation will be those working in “hard tech”: companies that have grand visions and need Sci-Fi-esque tech to reach them. Think fusion energy (Helion), life-extension (Retro), and AI (OpenAI).

If he’s right, and we are close to a hard tech breakthrough, then we might also be close to the next great societal leap. A futuristic world in which energy is limitless, people can live as long as they want, and AI has improved productivity by orders of magnitude.

I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty good to me.

FINANCE

What’s the story with Silicon Valley Bank?

Silicon Valley Bank is loved in Silicon Valley.

That’s why today’s news came as quite a shock. According to Reuters, SVB was suffering from a liquidity crisis and launched a $1.75 billion share sale.

This then scared the crap out of tech Twitter because “SVB is the banking partner for nearly half of U.S. venture-backed technology and healthcare companies that listed on the stock markets in 2022.”

When everyone’s scared, this is when bank runs happen. Everyone runs to go get their money. It’s not exactly great for business. This led to SVB’s stock collapsing 60% and wiped out over $80 billion in value from bank shares.

Rather than talk about the SVB issue, I’ll let tech Twitter do the talking. Here’s a few tweets from the community.

I feel bad for Silicon Valley Bank right now.
They have been the biggest capital partner to founders, employees, and investors over the last decade and they’re being completely turned on by all of them.
If SVB goes under it would be detrimental to the startup community
— Alex Cohen (@anothercohen)
Mar 9, 2023

deleted recent tweets about svb.
1. people who Know Things still believe SVB will be fine
2. fanning the flames of a bank run is a bad look for everybody and i don’t want to be a contributor
3. svb is good people and good partners for the ecosystem and deserve our support
— Siqi Chen (@blader)
Mar 9, 2023

SVB is the most important capital provider to tech startups and the biggest supporter of the community. Now is the time to support them.
— Villi 🇺🇸 (@villi)
Mar 9, 2023

and of course, some humor from the funny tech accounts as well.

The main reason why I don’t want SVB to fail is because I don’t want to read the “SVB, a major bank in Silicon Valley collapsed today. Here’s some history. A 🧵 1/564” posts
— Varunram Ganesh (@varunramg)
Mar 10, 2023

Leaked footage of the CEO of Silicon Valley Bank addressing his staff at market close just moments ago
https://t.co/AyJpKphkyq
— BuccoCapital Guy (@buccocapital)
Mar 9, 2023

QUICK HITS

Seed Round

Stat: 8/10: Apple took home 8 spots in 2022’s list of top 10 selling smartphones. The king is as dominant as ever.

Story we're watching: Layoffs suck, but they do have one positive side-effect: laid-off workers are now building their own companies. With layoffs nowhere near finished, and those who survived the cuts being told not to expect promotions, it’s possible that this startup surge continues in the years to come. And that is something we are very excited to see.

Rabbit hole: Discord, Or The Death Of Lore (Jason Scott)