The NBA trade window closed yesterday and it got us thinking: Imagine if the startup world also had a trade window—a period of time every quarter when companies come together to swap talent. 

This is obviously a horrible idea for a variety of reasons, but you can't tell us it wouldn't be entertaining to watch an all star engineer request a trade out of Stripe in order to join Bolt or something.

Again, awful idea, but Twitter would be fun af. 

NFTS

Non Fungible Tube

For an industry full of innovative people, the consumer tech ecosystem looks suspiciously like the Spider Man pointing meme when it comes to web3. The latest domino to fall: YouTube is officially getting into the NFT game. 

The details: Yesterday, YouTube’s chief product officer Neal Mohan announced in a blog post that the platform will be introducing new tools that would let creators sell content as NFTs. The move to NFTs is part of a broader push to help creators make more money which includes adding monetization features to Shorts and offering more e-commerce tools.

The push makes a lot sense

The initial wave of NFT mania was headlined by a few OG internet memes cashing in on their notoriety—Charlie Bit My Finger ($761,000), Nyan Cat ( $600,000), and David After Dentist (over $11,000) all sold for huge sums. Those sales took place outside of Google’s walled garden though, so it makes sense for YouTube to try to bring those sorts of transactions under its umbrella. 

• Sooooo Google is building an NFT marketplace? Not yet. A spokesperson declined to comment “at the moment” on whether Google would try to build a marketplace itself or partner with an existing exchange. 

Who else is making moves?

In short, everyone. OnlyFans is following in Twitter’s footsteps and letting users upload verified NFTs as profile pictures. Cameo recently announced Cameo Pass NFTs. Salesforce told employees it’s working on an NFT cloud service. Meta is going deep down the rabbit hole. And Gamestop is trying…something. 

Zoom out: It’s not exactly news that everyone and their aunt are getting into NFTs, but YouTube is separating itself from the pack by not clumsily forcing NFTs onto its creators/consumers. Instead, it’s reacting to existing behavior. “Creators are already engaging with NFTs" a YouTube spokesperson told TechCrunch, "We want to help make that easier and better.” 

EARNINGS

Apple's privacy power play hurt some more than others  

When it comes to earnings szn, much like airport sushi, you never quite know what you’re gonna get. Case in point: how differently big tech companies weathered Apple’s privacy changes.

Back story: Execs not named Tim Cook collectively quaked in their boots last April when Apple rolled out new rules that required apps to ask for your permission to track your activity across the internet.

Fast forward to today and a tons of people have opted out of tracking, a huge problem for the likes of Facebook, Twitter, and Snap who rely on that data to target and measure ads.

After Q4 earnings, we have our first look into how that tech triumvirate fared against the privacy changes.

• Meta got absolutely hornswoggled. It said last Wednesday that app tracking transparency would decrease 2022 sales by around $10 billion. The market gave it a $232 billion haircut in response. 

• Twitter fared better. It missed on most revenue goals, but said that the impact of the Apple update on the company “remained modest” in Q4. 

• Snap crushed it. CEO Evan Spiegel said that Snap was less affected by the Apple shift because his company is “much earlier in our monetization journey.” Founders, remember that spin zone whenever a VC asks you about rev figures compared to competitors.

Bottom line: People often look at Big Tech/FAANG as a monolith, but diverging performance when it comes to Apple’s privacy updates show that these companies don't move in lockstep when faced with headwinds. 

QUICK HITS

Seed Round

Stat: If you ever feel like your dating life is a mess, there are 24,000 people out there who are faring much worse. That's the number of Americans who the FBI estimates fell for a "romance scam" last year, collectively losing around $1 billion. Crypto-based scams, in particular, increased fivefold. Moral of the story? Guard that seed phrase tight this Valentine's Day. 

Startup: Anyone who tried to watch the dubbed version of Squid Games knows that it totally ruins the viewing experience. Studios hate dubs too because it takes a long time to complete on their end. Enter Deepdub, a $20 million startup that uses AI-powered dubbing to mimic the original actor’s voice. It makes for better dubs that take weeks, not months, to complete. Here’s to a future when dubs might finally be as good as subs.

Rabbit hole: Myspace, Tumblr, and the long-lost weirdness of the social internet

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON

• Republic’s metaverse real estate division, Republic Realm, is spinning off into a private company called Everyrealm.

• Zynga posted record revenues...and also record net losses.

• Alma, a French BNPL startup, raised a $130 million Series C.

• US Inflation hit its highest levels in 40 years.

• Tesla is being sued for alleged racial discrimination and harassment.

• Fired Peloton employees crashed the new CEO’s first all-hands .

TRIVIA

What consumer good once made up nearly 0.5% of US GDP?

Hint: Half a percent of GDP is about what Americans spend on fast food or pets. 

FRIDAY FUNDRAISING

A VC raising from LPs is not the same as a founder raising from VCs, but there are still some great fundraising tips in general in Jarrid's thread. 

TIME WASTERS

Most people are over Wordle by now so here are some better alternatives. The math one is definitely the hardest. 

• Wordle, but for math nerds 

• Wordle, but for marketing nerds 

• Wordle, but for Taylor Swift nerds

SOMEBODY BUILD THIS

"Grammarly for X" will always be a good idea. 

TRIVIA ANSWER

Nails.