The future work is changing and the freelance economy is thriving. Though for freelancers, getting paid is still a constant problem. Willa has built a payment platform specifically for freelancers that is more popular than Paypal, Quickbooks, or other invoicing platforms. CEO and Cofounder Kristofer Sommestad shares some on the state of the fintech market, how the needs of freelancers have not been addressed, and the company’s recent funding round led by EQT Ventures.
Finance
Bitcoin Does Not Define The Future, It Just Highlights The Start
It has been said that trust is the real flaw of the banking system. Inevitably counterparties must outsource their trust in each other to the bank as an intermediary, and with recent headlines, we can see that consumer confidence in banks is weakening.
UNest Raises Another $9M to Make 529s and College Savings Accessible to the Masses
While working at the largest 529 provider in the United States, Ksenia Yudina saw firsthand the inefficiencies with the process of setting up college savings plans. She launched UNest to make it more accessible for parents to start saving for college without complex paperwork and exorbitant cost. With UNest, parents can set up 529 plans in less than 5 minutes and it only costs $3M per month. Yudina shares more about the UNest’s mission, the company’s impressive growth, and recent funding round from investors that include Anthos Capital, Baron Davis, Northwestern Mutual Ventures, Artemis Fund, Draper Dragon, and Unlock Ventures.
As the Working Class Struggle, Blockchain and Decentralized Systems Offers a Plausible Solution
Blockchain makes banking and financial services more accessible. Anyone with a mobile phone can create a secure account. With recent data from the World Bank revealing 1.7 billion adults globally have no access to a bank account – but two-thirds of them own a mobile phone, blockchain can fill this void.
Hatch Credit Lets Students Build Credit Through Non-Traditional Means
Financing education is a problem with coasts soaring and this problem is compounded upon graduation when many do not have any significant credit history, with the only reference being a ballooning student loan. Hatch Credit allows users to build a credit score through non-traditional data points such as subscriptions. Hatch Credit’s Director of Public Relations, Shamara Carney, reveals more about Hatch and how this company is making the financial system more inclusive.
The World’s Falling Apart, What Are You Going To Believe In?
I grew up believing in American exceptionalism. That the U.S. was better than other nations. That’s what I was taught. When I looked around, that’s what I saw. But among many other lessons, Trump has taught me that the U.S. is a banana republic, just like most other/every other nation in the world. And that actually makes […]
What is Bitcoin?
As Bitcoin starts to gain the attention of the broader population again, we continue to struggle as an industry to define what Bitcoin is in a way that’s accessible to most people. I recently attended a Bitcoin 101 class taught as part of the grand opening of the awesome Bitcoin Center Miami. It’s a great way to help […]
The Three Different Bitcoins
For most, Bitcoin remains an enigma. I think part of the difficulty in understanding Bitcoin is that it’s not just one thing. Bitcoin can be many things, depending on how you look at it. Depending on the prism you look at the world throug
Facebook is Dying, Libra Won’t Save It, and Wall Street is Clueless
I was the first person to call Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 and offer to buy the company (I was running Bolt at the time). In March, 2010, I published the first Wall Street style research report on Facebook on a Tumblr blog, with a $100 billion five year price target (it was actively trading in the private markets at […]
Bitcoin : The Worlds Best Store of Value, 2024 Price Target = $50,000
Target Price = $50,000 (assumes $1 Trillion valuation and 20,000,000 BTC, fully diluted) I’ve been around the block. In the 90s I was an equity analyst following media companies at Goldman Sachs. I loved it. But the internet came calling, and I jumped in. After my 2nd company, I became an angel investor and then a VC. […]
Why The Facebook Coin Could Be A Watershed Moment In Crypto
While I focus on crypto, I’ve written a lot about Facebook over the years. I was the original Facebook bull following the publication of the first Wall Street style research report on Facebook in March of 2010. In April of 2017, I started writing about “The Profound Implications of Five Increasingly Dominant Tech Companies” (Facebook, […]