"Age of Miracles"

Cometeer makes my favorite coffee. I drink three a day. They arrive frozen, with the flavor locked in, and I just add water. 

Today, in this Sponsored Deep Dive + Investment Memo, we cover:

You can read the full piece at Not Boring.

Zero-knowledge proofs let someone prove that they know or have something without giving up any information about what they know or have. ZKPs have the potential to eliminate a major trade-off inherent in living, working, and transacting online: the convenience, speed, reach, and scale of the internet in exchange for our privacy. They also allow for nuance in a privacy landscape that’s often black-and-white.

I teamed up with Jill Carlson to glimpse into future of ZKPs and their implications by covering: 

You can read the full post at Not Boring.

Medicaid is a $613 billion market that, as of 2017, had only attracted $20-30mm in VC funding.  That left a massive, if complex, opportunity for someone willing to vertically integrate, take risk, and treat the whole person.  Meet Cityblock Health.

Cityblock is literally keeping people out of the hospital and saving lives -- the things that make the company tick are the same: big market, business model with positive unit economics, and an innovative product, powered by technology. We’ll use that framework to understand Cityblock:

Read the full post here.

And go work at Cityblock: check out jobs here.

Cooperation is the winning strategy in the Great Online Game. 

In this episode, we'll discuss why power is shifting from individuals to institutions, and how individuals can team up to accomplish bigger things together than any can alone. We'll cover: 

You can read the full post at Not Boring.

Melio, which has raised $256 million and was recently came out of stealth valued at $1.3 billion by Coatue, makes it easy for SMBs to pay each other. It's a Venmo-like experience on the front, with powerful tech in the back-end. It's also executing brilliantly on the disruption playbook.

Today, we’ll look at Melio’s story, product development, viral growth, and future through the lens of disruption. It’s rare that you get such a clear view of disruption playing out in real time. This one’s going to be in the textbooks. We’ll help the professors get started by covering:

You can read the full post, and subscribe, at notboring.co

What if I told you about a business that:  

This episode is my bull case on Ethereum. It is not financial advice. 

Read the full post at Not Boring.

Intro Song: I Will Derive - Ethereum

Prescription drug commercials are confusing. People eating ice cream while a voiceover talks about herpes. The Cialis couple in the bathtubs in a field (backstory revealed below). The long list of side effects that seem much worse than whatever disease the advertised drug claims to cure.

I asked Nikhil Krishnan, the man behind healthcare newsletter/community/novelty product shop Out-of-Pocket to explain why they are the way we are. He covers: 

Why Do Pharma Companies Market to Consumers?

What Are the Rules Around Marketing to Consumers?

Pharma Marketing is Evolving

So... Is Marketing to Consumers Bad?

You can read the full post at Not Boring. 

We’re all playing a Great Online Game. How well we play determines the rewards we get, online and offline.

The Great Online Game is played concurrently by billions of people, online, as themselves, with real-world consequences. Your financial and psychological wellbeing is at stake, but the downside is limited. The upside, on the other hand, is infinite.

We cover: 

Read the full post at Not Boring. 

Truework is building the verified identity layer for the internet, starting with employment and income verification. The company has raised $45 million from Sequoia, Founders Fund, Khosla, and Activant, and is executing on a brilliant 10-year plan to win you back control of your most sensitive personal information. We cover: 

Read the full post at Not Boring.

When Packy auctioned off his Power to the Person essay as an NFT that split proceeds with the people whose work Packy cited, Clint won the auction with a 2.19 ETH bid. We had to talk about it, and I'm glad we did. We covered: 

Follow Clint on Twitter