The Generalist

The crypto wallet has won the Solana ecosystem. It’s now coming for Ethereum – and MetaMask’s throne.

The first time I used Phantom’s crypto wallet, I was blown away. Founders Brandon Millman, Francesco Agosti, and Chris Kalani have built a beautiful, intuitive product with leading-edge safety features.

It makes interacting with web3 – whether you’re sending tokens, staking SOL, or buying an NFT – 100x less stressful and more enjoyable. There’s a reason the company has racked up millions of users in less than two years.

After becoming the standard in the Solana ecosystem, Phantom is taking its next big step, expanding to Ethereum and Polygon. This is big news with the potential to positively impact mainstream crypto adoption.

To get started with Phantom’s one wallet for everything, sign up here.

To find the original piece, published Dec 18, 2022, follow this link.

Subscribe to this podcast, and to our newsletter at readthegeneralist.com. You can also follow @mariogabriele and @thegeneralistco on Twitter for updates.

The world’s largest semiconductor foundry is expanding beyond Taiwan, investing $40 billion in a U.S. factory. It’s a move with immense political and commercial ramifications.

If you’re a fintech shooting for “default alive,” fraud prevention should be at the top of your priority list.

Fraud is a huge, growing threat. Last year, losses to scams increased by as much as 70%. Companies that don’t have adequate fraud prevention may find themselves in trouble quickly. Especially now that most fintech scams come from customers that have been “verified.”

One way to combat fraud is to assemble an expensive, dedicated team of experts whose entire job it is to stay one step ahead of ever-evolving fraud.

Another option? Use Sardine.

It’s like having the best fraud team in the world, available as an API. Sardine uses machine-learning, extensive transaction data, and intelligent rules to stop fraud before it happens. Companies like Brex, MetaMask, AtoB, and Blockchain.com trust Sardine to reduce fraud by as much as 700%. Better yet, thanks to its superior risk modeling, Sardine also improves conversion rates, reducing the number of good customers you turn away. Thanks to Sardine, Blockchain.com’s conversion rate improved by 10% (and it’s still going up).

Take control of your survival and scale without the scams by implementing Sardine today.

To find the original piece, published Dec 18, 2022, follow this link.

Subscribe to this podcast, and to our newsletter at readthegeneralist.com. You can also follow @mariogabriele and @thegeneralistco on Twitter for updates.

A look back at the highs, lows, and lessons of running a media company.

To succeed as an angel or VC, you need the right platform

Thankfully, Vauban from Carta has you covered – whether you’re writing your first check or running a $1 billion fund. Though there’s a lot of power under the hood, here are three key features investors should know about:

Start your VC today.

To find the original piece, published Dec 18, 2022, follow this link.

Subscribe to this podcast, and to our newsletter at readthegeneralist.com. You can also follow @mariogabriele and @thegeneralistco on Twitter for updates.

ChatGPT is the latest step towards a world of infinite, customizable content, all generated by artificial intelligence. Its advent will impact how we create, consume, and commercialize media.

The Ultra-Wealthy Are Falling in Love with This Secure Investing App (Here’s Why)

Masterworks.com, the $1B fintech unicorn, lets you invest in the booming art market. Millionaires love this app, but you don’t need to be one to sign up.

In fact, membership is 100% free. Even better, all offerings are SEC qualified, insured, and vetted by their experts.

In case you didn’t know, contemporary art outpaced the S&P 500 by 131% from 1995-2021 with near 0 correlation to stocks according to Citi.

So, what’s their track record like?

They’ve recently returned a net +21%, +27% and +32% to members. That’s pretty impressive if you ask me.

Investing in art isn’t a new concept. The ultra-wealthy have invested in art for centuries. And while the economy may be shaky, they’re still purchasing art at a record pace.

Want to see what’s available? My subscribers get early access right here*

To find the original piece, published Nov 13, 2022, follow this link.

Subscribe to this podcast, and to our newsletter at readthegeneralist.com. You can also follow @mariogabriele and @thegeneralistco on Twitter for updates.

The $600M fintech grew rapidly by digitizing an existing behavior. CEO Ravish Naresh shares his lessons and why profitability is his new focus.

To succeed as an angel or VC, you need the right platform

Thankfully, Vauban from Carta has you covered – whether you’re writing your first check or running a $1 billion fund. Though there’s a lot of power under the hood, here are two key features investors should know about:

‍Start your VC today.

To find the original piece, published Nov 13, 2022, follow this link.

Subscribe to this podcast, and to our newsletter at readthegeneralist.com. You can also follow @mariogabriele and @thegeneralistco on Twitter for updates.

Reflections on crypto and trying to make sense of a nonsensical week.

Brought to you by Masterworks

Microsoft Co-Founder’s $1.5B+ Sale Highlights Real Asset Resilience

Last week, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s historic art collection shattered the record for largest ever sale in auction history.

The fact that the blue-chip art market is still setting records amid major drawdowns in financial markets, and macroeconomic turmoil, highlights why it can be such a strong alternative diversifier. In fact, the high-end art market also remained resilient through downturns like the dot-com bubble and Great Financial Crisis.

But this time around, it’s not just the ultra-wealthy benefitting, thanks to Masterworks.

This unicorn investment platform compiles the results of thousands of auctions like this, generating millions of data points, and builds custom indices to find artist markets with the most momentum. Then it acquires works from those artists, securitizes them, and allows everyday people to invest in shares.

So far, seven of Masterworks’ eight exits have realized a net return of +17.8%.

To invest in works by top-performing artists like Picasso and Bansky, skip the Masterworks waitlist with my referral link.

See important Regulation A disclosures

To find the original piece, published Nov 13, 2022, follow this link.

Subscribe to this podcast, and to our newsletter at readthegeneralist.com. You can also follow @mariogabriele and @thegeneralistco on Twitter for updates.

Reid Hoffman, Saam Motamedi, Sarah Guo, Lan Xuezhao, Matt Turck, Leigh Marie Braswell, Nathan Benaich, Rob Toews, Cat Wu, and Michael Dempsey highlight the AI trends to keep an eye on.

Scams only work if people believe they’re real.

Scams hide in plain sight. The email outlining an investment opportunity or the phone call promising paid work may seem like good fortune. But more likely than not, they’re attempts to defraud you.

The sophistication of these scams means that anyone is at risk. Last year, fraud losses increased 70%, suggesting that fraud is outstripping our technological defenses. It’s a problem that is constantly evolving. While people like me and you are at risk, so are companies. Businesses lose billions every year in scams, sometimes without realizing it since they’re often defrauded by “verified” customers.

Sardine protects businesses from such threats. Leveraging sophisticated machine learning, Sardine stops the scammers from winning. You can think of them as the world’s best fraud team that you hire as an API. Compliance, onboarding, transaction monitoring, and fraud detection are all handled through Sardine’s simple API and SDK.

The impact is major. Sardine helps businesses like FTX, Brex, Metamask, and Blockchain improve their conversion rates, raise order values, and lower fraud losses.

Scale without the scams. Implement Sardine today.

To find the original piece, published Oct 30, 2022, follow this link.

Subscribe to this podcast, and to our newsletter at readthegeneralist.com. You can also follow @mariogabriele and @thegeneralistco on Twitter for updates.

The Midas List investor talks about religion, cyber warfare, and David Swensen.

Fraud isn’t a problem until it becomes your only problem.

Getting better at fraud prevention is mission-critical to scaling revenue. That means you need the right tools for customer onboarding and compliance to protect your business while also ensuring a top-notch customer experience.

But doing all these things is hard, and they typically require months of implementation across multiple vendors, which comes with headaches and increased costs.

Sardine was created to scale your business.

Combine risk, compliance, and payment protection to increase your customer satisfaction, trust, and loyalty – all from one API.

The leading fraud prevention and payments provider protects your customers from malicious scammers while improving your conversion rates. Companies like FTX, Brex, AtoB, MoonPay, Autograph and others use Sardine to stop fraud and increase revenue.

‍Implement Sardine today and scale your revenue without the fear of fraud.

To find the original piece, published Oct 30, 2022, follow this link.

Subscribe to this podcast, and to our newsletter at readthegeneralist.com. You can also follow @mariogabriele and @thegeneralistco on Twitter for updates.

The e-commerce and gaming conglomerate was worth more than $200 billion a year ago. It has since lost $177 billion of its peak market cap and is leaving key geographies – but it still has one of the highest ceilings in the business world.

Fraud isn’t a problem until it becomes your only problem.

Scaling your business for growth means strengthening fraud prevention, having the right tools in place for customer onboarding and compliance, and creating better customer experiences.

But doing all these things is hard and they typically require months of implementation across multiple vendors which comes with headaches & increased costs.

Sardine was created to scale your business.

Combine risk, compliance, and payment protection to increase your customer satisfaction, trust, and loyalty – all from one API.

The leading fraud prevention and payments provider protects your customers from malicious scammers while improving your conversion rates. Companies like FTX, Brex, AtoB, MoonPay, Autograph and others use Sardine to stop fraud and increase revenue.

‍Implement Sardine today and scale your revenue without the fear of fraud.

To find the original piece, published Oct 23, 2022, follow this link.

Subscribe to this podcast, and to our newsletter at readthegeneralist.com. You can also follow @mariogabriele and @thegeneralistco on Twitter for updates.

The rapidly scaling startup is more than just a fearsome fraud prevention platform for fintech and crypto. It’s laying the foundation to become a payments giant.

If you’re a fintech or crypto company, you should be using Sardine. It is that simple.

The fraud prevention and payments provider protects your customers from malicious scammers while improving your conversion rates. Companies like FTX, Brex, AtoB, MoonPay, Autograph, and others use Sardine to stop fraud and increase revenue.

‍To get started, book a demo here. By doing so, you stand to cut fraud by 300% and unlock $500,000 in operational savings.

To find the original piece, published October 19, 2022, follow this link.

Subscribe to this podcast, and to our newsletter at readthegeneralist.com. You can also follow @mariogabriele and @thegeneralistco on Twitter for updates.