KuCoin Exchange’s Post

Running a business is all about optimizing capital. As a business owner, you should always be looking to get the best return on investment for every dollar invested or spent. You may have seen that Elon is pledging $45 Million Dollars per month to a pro Trump super PAC. What will that $180 Million dollar “investment” get him? Im sure Elon is betting on preferable subsidies, contracts and tax benefits for his companies like Space X and Tesla that will greatly outweigh the donation. There was a Fortune article in 2019 where they found that the Fortune 100 turned $2 Billion in Lobbying Spend into $400 Billion of taxpayer cash. When you are at the level of business Elon is at, you can’t find a better use of your capital than political donations. What are your thoughts?

It's striking to think that all of the richest people in the entire world have raised money from other people. 💸 Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Warren, Buffett, and the list goes on. 💰 In my recent interview with Richard Wilson, founder of Family Office Club, we talk about how raising money gives you more leverage to do what you're already doing. We also talk about ways you can make a DSO or MSO more appealing to investment from family offices or other funds. 🏥 Listen here: https://lnkd.in/epHmzPpP #capitalraising #familyoffice #elonmusk #billgates #warrenbuffet #tesla

Running a business is all about optimizing capital. As a business owner, you should always be looking to get the best return on investment for every dollar invested or spent. You may have seen that Elon is pledging $45 Million Dollars per month to a pro Trump super PAC. What will that $180 Million dollar “investment” get him? Im sure Elon is betting on preferable subsidies, contracts and tax benefits for his companies like Space X and Tesla that will greatly outweigh the donation. There was a Fortune article in 2019 where they found that the Fortune 100 turned $2 Billion in Lobbying Spend into $400 Billion of taxpayer cash. When you are at the level of business Elon is at, you can’t find a better use of your capital than political donations. What are your thoughts? https://lnkd.in/gEPtuy9C

Numbers like this don't register and need greater context. 🤑 Here's one guy who's going to spend (PER MONTH) to influence an election an amount of money that it would take the median American worker 936+ years to earn. Months of donations this size will cost him a portion of his total financial wealth akin to what it would cost me to have a casual dinner at a SF restaurant. When we use frames like "saving our democracy" I think we need to get a little clearer. #Democracy isn't an on/off switch. It's a slope. 📉 The US is not hanging off a cliff at the moment, trying to pull itself back up to safety instead of dropping into the dark, choppy waters of authoritarian rule down below. We have been in a steady slide for quite a while and are already chin deep in oligarchic rule. At this dire stage, you'd have a hard time convincing me there is any valid use of (tax deductible - FFS!) #philanthropy other than aiming it squarely at dramatically reforming the very systems that allowed such staggering wealth (and therefore political power) to accumulate. This is the task that philanthropy has consistently failed to take on. At the risk of stating the obvious, one might surmise this is because philanthropists enjoy having the power that the ability to accumulate wealth has afforded them. Unfortunately, we're now facing an existential set of questions - whether allowing wealth to accumulate beyond a certain point, and allowing money to be "speech" - are compatible with a system that can claim to be democratic. Failing to quickly shift philanthropic flows toward democratic reforms and addressing #wealthinequality is giving up a last gasp for air, letting the undertow of minority rule take us to the depths. 🌊

Our system becomes more corrupt by the day. If you want power, you throw some money into it, if you want more money, you throw money into it, if you want special favors, you throw money into it, and if you want rax cuts, you throw money into it. Many people share concerns about how financial contributions can affect policy decisions, political power, and fairness. Addressing these issues often involves advocating for reforms like campaign finance laws, transparency measures, and stronger ethical standards for public officials. We need to come up with specific changes or solutions to help reduce corruption and increase fairness in the system.

The bible of raising money consists of three points, as per Indifi's Alok Mittal. • Big markets • Great teams • Protect the value you provide In this excerpt from an episode of First Principles, Mittal explains what exactly he means by the third point. Part 2 of our conversation with Mittal drops tomorrow. Catch up on the first part by clicking the link in the comments. ------ #TheKen #FirstPrinciples #MentalModels #Founder #FounderStories

"Is a SAFE or priced equity round better?" In EP32, Sean Byrnes, Ash Rust, and Nic Meliones answer questions about raising money from VCs. Up first: what type of round should you raise? Tune in for the full episode: https://lnkd.in/gjui45-h

Who won? I don't know if this was a fair fight. 🤔 But what was super cool here was... ... I was hoping to capture a snapshot. A good object lesson in how people are different. We like different things. We have different opinions. It's part of being human. And when it comes to the object lesson... ...you delivered! Thanks for voting! Now that we have the object... what's the lesson? Here's what I see. In your market, you're probably figuratively selling to one of these ICPs. It's okay if it's one of the small ones. From what I've seen, In the early days... 👉 Your TAM is for raising money. 👊 Your ICP is for making it. That can feel like you're missing out. But roll with me here. There're lots of ways to extend into new markets. None of them matter unless you can dominate the market for your best-fit customers. When you hear "The riches are in the niches," this is what it means. Long term, there might not be enough customers to fulfill the destiny of your company. Worry about that in the long term. For now, serve the heck out of the one who love you. It's easier to court your 80% fans when you are a $100M company. When you're a $10M company (or less), you need 100% fans. If you're selling vibranium claw sharpeners... ... don't worry that they kind of also work on adamantium. At least not until you OWN the vibranium biz. 😉

Something I learned about raising money: Go after fast money, don't waste time with slow money. If it's not a yes, it's probably not worth your time trying to slowly convince them to go from a maybe to a yes. Get more meetings until you find a fast yes, then call all your maybes and let them know. Most people follow other investors and signal, meaning that once they see someone else put capital in, then their maybe can become a yes. Til then, they're most likely not changing. Each check I've seen written so far took <2 weeks for a commitment. When I talk to founders who tell me someone is 'really interested,' but it's been 1-6 months, I can't help but think it's a waste of time and that they should focus on getting new meetings and call that investor later when they can put a strict time table on the round. Just my 2 cents. Curious what others experience has been.

Cold call from NYC area code 5:15pm Obviously going to be a young PE investor associate offering to invest in our company I take the call…give him 20 seconds for his script…then lower the boom with a simple question Me: “What does my company do again?” Associate: “yeh, you have efficiencies for customers with routing in the waste disposal markets” Me: “sort of...but what are our products that you like so much?” Associate: “yeh, the routing efficiencies and how that helps your customers” Me: “is this your first job out of college?” Associate: “…..yes….” Me: “don’t trust the ‘research’ done for you by your company. Follow me on 𝕏 and LinkedIn if you want to learn what we're doing. Also we’re not raising money so I’m not a worthwhile target for you." Tough sledding for these young kids.