I woke up at 5AM thinking about Bitclout.

On its face, Bitclout is really stupid:

1. Stupid name 😫

2. Stupid password system 🔒

3. Stupid crypto complexity 🤓

BUT, the idea is extremely interesting:

Creating a market based on betting on people and their content...
For the first time ever, Bitclout aligns the incentives of the audience and the influencer.

Here's a refresher:

1. I claim my profile, which is scraped from Twitter

2. You can buy my "coin" (aka stock) and the price goes up and down based on demand: bitclout.com/u/awilkinson
3. When people buy my coin, I get 10% of the transaction credited to me (someone buys $100 of Andrew Coin, I get $10).

The more popular Andrew Coin becomes, based on demand, the more our jointly owned coins goes up in value...
To be clear:

Bitclout is probably going to fail.

As I always like to drive home:

THE LARGEST NETWORK USUALLY WINS.

It makes way more sense for someone like Twitter to roll this out.

But if I ran Bitclout, here's what I'd do...
1. Swap out this ugly password screen out for a slick, Mailbox/Superhuman style teaser screen. Let people sign up and get in a crazy long line.

People love lines! Everyone wants to get in when they see one around the block.

Right now it just feels like an error....
2. Create a value proposition:

Is this a REPLACEMENT for Twitter, just a market used to TRACK Twitter/bet on social success, or crypto OnlyFans for influencers?

Personally, I think trying to replace Twitter is a fool's errand...
A market to bet on social success is kind of interesting, especially if price action is tied to follower counts.

A crypto OnlyFans (exclusive content for true fans) is the most interesting idea, to me.

Imagine if you could create exclusive content tied to coin holdings...
"I will do a monthly 1 hour zoom call with the top 10 holders of my coin"

"Top holder of my coin gets a special phone number where they can call me anytime personally"

Etc.

3. Let people do stuff they can't do with Twitter's upcoming "Super Follow"...

theverge.com/2021/2/25/2230…
Think about the possibilities for frictionless micro transactions using a crypto platform vs. fiat.

Imagine charging 1 cent to view an exclusive piece of content.

Imagine getting 1 cent every time someone likes your content.

Etc.

4. Change the name...
Enough said.

I think the name kind of sucks. It sounds like a VPN or something, not a social network.

5. Create trust using design. The closer it feels to a normal site vs. crypto project, the more likely it is to work.

The horrible loading graphics, the red courier text etc
These things don't exactly create a sense of bank grade security that makes me feel comfortable having hundreds of thousands of dollars invested...
All in all, Bitclout is super interesting. That doesn't mean it will work.

In fact, I'd probably bet money it won't work.

But it would be cool if it did. Or at least inspired Twitter to roll out a bunch of this.

It inspired me enough to wake up at 5AM to write this.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
Also, if you are a fellow nerd go buy my coin: bitclout.com/u/awilkinson

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More from @awilkinson

30 Mar
This is a story about how I lost $10,000,000 by doing something stupid.

Ten. Million. Dollars.

Literally up in smoke. Money bonfire.

That’s enough to retire with $250,000+ in annual income.

Here’s what happened…
In 2009, @metalab was a small but profitable agency.

The business was making a couple hundred thousand dollars a year in annual profit and I was trying to figure out how to invest the profits.

Agencies can be great businesses, but they are HARD.
You lose clients at random, your pipeline dries up on a dime. It’s feast or famine and unpredictable.

I kept reading about what @dhh and @jasonfried were doing with Basecamp, building software for themselves then selling monthly access to it.

wired.com/2008/02/mf-sig…
Read 57 tweets
23 Mar
One of the hardest things to balance as entrepreneur is WHEN to hire.

Hire TOO FAST and you end up with:

Toxic culture misfits 🤡

Middle management 👨‍💼👩‍💼

Parkinson’s Law: 🤼‍♀️

“Work expands so as to fill the resources available for its completion”

TLDR...
Your company gets does the same amount of work as before, way less efficiently.

Sometimes way SLOWER due to committees and too many cooks in the kitchen.

On the flip side...
Hire TOO SLOW and your life becomes a living hell 👹

You become Lucy in the chocolate factory, barely keeping up 😖

Your time gets consumed with unimportant tasks and decisions that are way below your pay grade 😩

And you don’t have time to be strategic or spot ice bergs 🗺
Read 6 tweets
22 Mar
This is kind of on the DL, but Tiny has made $10MM+ in venture investments over the better part of a decade.

Mostly just for fun. Our day job has been buying whole companies, so it’s a side hustle.

We think of it as a way to pay it forward and back friends we love.... 👇
In 2021, we’re taking our early stage investing more seriously.

As it turns out, when you have smart friends, investing in them goes well....
We’ve been lucky enough to invest in great companies like @Pitch, @Buffer, @Squarespace, @SpaceX, @Superhuman, Waking Up, and 30+ other awesome companies...

tinycapital.com/companies

(Click on Venture Investments)
Read 14 tweets
18 Mar
Most founders are scared of marketing.

They think it's douchey.

Instead, they do Field Of Dreams marketing:

"If you build it, they will come".

They won't. You need marketing.

The problem is, most marketers are aggressive.

They think in clicks and funnels, not brand...
For years, we hired marketing agencies who would embarrass us with cheesy and overly aggressive tactics.

So, we stopped doing it. We focused on organic growth, and in many instances it meant that we lost out on huge opportunities to well funded and better marketed competitors...
This was profoundly stupid.

Finally, we came to our senses and, infomercial style, said "there's got to be a better way".

Last year, we co-founded @doubleupgrowth with @aidanhornsby to create a growth marketing agency that focuses on marketing great product tastefully....
Read 5 tweets
15 Mar
One of the most impactful things I've done in the past 10 years is join a business forum.

Every month, I sit in a room and pour my heart out about my business and life problems to a group of 5 other entrepreneurs.

It's the same group every time and it's 100% confidential...
I have multiple groups and do one most weeks for the past 10 years.

I've been in groups with people who run popsicle businesses, puzzle companies, woodworking shops, tech companies—you name it.

Entrepreneurs have oddly universal problems and I've learned something from everyone
We've helped one another navigate:

- Failed business partnerships
- Bankruptcies
- Divorces
- Fraud
- Health scares
- Lawsuits
- Exits
- Toxic employees
- Mental health issues
- Deaths in the family
- Issues with kids

You name it, we've dealt with it and learned as a group...
Read 5 tweets
15 Mar
So this oil prospector dies and goes to heaven. At the gate, St. Peter reads the account of his life and tells him that he's qualified for heaven, but there was a problem

"See that crowd over there? They're all oil prospectors who've arrived before you".... 👇
"And the way things work here, you can't get in until after them. So I'm afraid this looks like a long wait for you."

"Not a problem," replies the man. "I know how to get rid of that crowd..."
So he turns towards them and shouts, "Hey, did you hear? Oil has been discovered in hell!"

And sure enough, as soon as they heard him, every single one of them ran off towards hell....
Read 4 tweets

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