- Homescreen
- Posts
- š SBF's Substack Summary
Gm.
Today's poll:
Have you ever watched a MrBeast video? |
CRYPTO
SBF, the Substack bro
SBF dropped a Substack and you bet I subscribed.
I need my crypto ente
Here's the summary of his first post:
"I didnāt steal funds, and I certainly didnāt stash billions away."
While FTX International went insolvent in November, SBF said that he had funding offers on the table, but he was pushed out of the CEO spot by the law firm Sullivan & Crowell.
SBF claims "strong-armed and threatened" him into naming the candidate they chose as CEO ā who then filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and chose Sullivan & Crowell as counsel to the debtor entities.
Fried also said that FTX US was solvent with $350 million in assets when he handed it off to the new CEO. "tās ridiculous that FTX US users havenāt been made whole and gotten their funds back yet," he wrote.
"I believe that, had FTX International been given a few weeks, it could likely have utilized its illiquid assets and equity to raise enough financing to make customers substantially whole "
"Nearly all of my assets were and still are utilizable to backstop FTX customers. I have, for instance, offered to contribute nearly all of my personal shares in Robinhood to customersāor 100%, if the Chapter 11 team would honor my D&O legal expense indemnification."
SBF stands his ground, saying FTX International and Alameda were both legit independently profitable businesses in 2021, each making billions.
"No funds were stolen. Alameda lost money due to a market crash it was not adequately hedged forāas Three Arrows and others have this year. And FTX was impacted, as Voyager and others were earlier."
CLIMATE TECH
A Carbon Capture First
Carbon capture is the dream of climate tech startups and environmentalists alike.
It's when you remove carbon out of the air and store it in the ground.
Unfortunately, carbon capture has always been impossible. Until now.
Climeworks has won the carbon capture race, and with it, is the first startup in a new and potentially very lucrative industry.
The Climeworks Dub
Although many of us have never heard of Climeworks, they have been working in the shadows for years now.
Founded in 2009 as a spinoff of ETH ZĆ¼rich, the leading technological university in Switzerland's largest city, they have already raised $780 million in funding and sold carbon-removal services to Microsoft, Stripe, and Shopify.
Their success is no accident.
A New Industry
With Climework's dub, we officially have a carbon capture industry, and it is potentially very lucrative.
Carbon capture removal costs customers several hundred dollars per ton. In 2021, there were 36.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide in the environment. Do some quick math on those numbers and your mouth starts salivating.
Climeworks has a monopoly on the industry right now, but when there's gold, people inevitably follow. Occidental Petroleum Corp is already working on their own carbon capture tech, and more established players and new startups are sure to enter the space in the coming years.
And that's a good thing for all of us who wish to see the Earth thrive a while longer.
QUICK HITS
Seed Round
Stat: At least one Twitter alternative looks long in the tooth, as Parler has laid off 75% of it's staff and has only 20 employees left following the failed Ye acquisition.
Story we're watching: Korean solar manufacturer Hanwha Qcells is spending $2.5 billion to build a new plant in Georgia and expand an existing one. Could this be the start of a U.S. solar golden age?
Rabbit hole: 2009's Top VC Blogs by Readership (Larry Cheng). Fascinating to see who has consistently put out good content for 15+ years.
WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON
OpenAI has started rolling out the paid version of ChatGPT.
Twitter is considering auctioning off popular usernames.
Apple might finally make a touchscreen Mac.
PC sales declined for the 4th straight quarter.
GUESSTIMATE
Elon now holds the prestigious Guinness World Record for losing the most personal wealth. How much has he lost?
FUNDRAISING FRIDAY
most important thing to remember when raising is that its a relationships game
build authentic connections when you're not raising to succeed when you are
ā brett goldstein (@thatguybg)
8:24 PM ā¢ Jan 12, 2023
LAYOFFS TRACKER
Notable Layoffs This Week
Blockchain.com: 110 people (28%)
Verily: 200 people (15%)
Flexport: 640 people (20%)
FOUNDERS CORNER
The best resources we came across this week that will help you become a better founder, builder, or investor.
š¤ Check out Inclined, the most entertaining AI newsletter in the game. Lots of insights with some solid memes to break it up.
š³ Just Fucking Ship by Amy Hoy is the reminder we all need to press publish, push to prod, to post that absolute banger of a thread.
š² Lex Fridman interviews MrBeast, the most popular YouTuber in the world, about growing his channel and related businesses.
FRESH POWDER
Looking at three funds that recently topped up their coffers. Congrats!
GUESSTIMATE ANSWER
$182 billion