Link Blog: Run Away When a VC Wants to ‘Preempt Your Next Round,’ How Barbie Got Made, Air Jordan Fraud, and More

Ok, I’ll get when to my procession of Startup Land Heat Checks shortly, but in the meantime, here’s a tuft of smart stuff I’ve enjoyed reading over the last few weeks:

It’s Not Your Fault, But It’s Your Problem [Charles Hudson, Precursor] – I vigorously stipulate with so much of what Charles writes, and so glad he’s getting posts out increasingly commonly these days. This paen is a reminder that lots of the time you’ll encounter real roadblocks caused by issues outside of your control, but where you still need to navigate them to move forward.

“Right now, we are in a moment where many founders find themselves confronting problems they didn’t create but must tackle. This is not the time to mutter or lament your fate – it’s your opportunity to rise to the occasion and push through despite the challenges.“

What makes this worth reading is that Charles has empathy for founders (he’s been one), and will protract to show up as one of their investors in a supportive manner. So it’s not “rah rah go do the work and make me my money” bs content marketing. It’s words (and advice) he’s been given and had to take himself.

Preempting the Round [Jared Hecht, Founder – GroupMe, Fundera] – The first time a founder hears an investor suggest they might want to ‘preempt their next round’ they . The second time a founder hears this they . Jared takes you through why. It happens often unbearable that I’ll write a post later well-nigh what to do once you get this whop from an investor, but plane that one will be largely based on the wisdom and wrestle scars shared here.

“I’ve been burned by entertaining preemptive rounds on multiple occasions. It’s like touching the hot stove repeatedly.“

The Air Jordan Drop So Hot It Blew Up an Alleged $85 Million Ponzi Scheme [Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou and Kim Bhasin/Bloomberg] – My goodness ZIRP and COVID was a perfect storm for a ton of fraud. I wonder how much of the growth in the sneaker exchanges was driven by pure speculation, venture dollars, and unsustainable economics. I” know it’s a huge industry overall and sneaker heads are a real polity but just read this vendible surpassing flaming me.

“But there was no secret shoe pipeline. In fact, Malekzadeh would simply wait until the shoes he’d presold were released, then purchase them on the unshut market from retailers such as StockX, equal to people familiar with his operation who asked to remain unrecognized considering the matter is sensitive. Delivery delays could persist as long as a year, but he managed to fulfill most orders—until one day he couldn’t.”

Mixtape Sites Like DatPiff Propelled Rap. Can They Be Preserved? [Brian Josephs/New York Times] – Save the culture! I wish we could at least freeze these in some format that recognized their important role in hip hop.

“That self-rule unlocked an era of unfettered creativity for a generation of artists and built a hair-trigger digital-first regulars that would later lead to rap’s dominance in streaming. It moreover led to the current dilemma: How do you preserve a part of hip-hop history that isn’t necessarily legal?”

After “Barbie,” Mattel Is Raiding Its Entire Toybox [Alex Barasch/NewYorker] – Came out surpassing the movie opened, so the insider worth of how the IP negotiations occurred is plane increasingly phenomenal as box office approaches $1B. I interned at Mattel in the summer of 1999 so have some light first-person stories well-nigh how this visitor works.

“At the start of the “Barbie” process, Gerwig decided to write the screenplay with her partner, the writer-director Noah Baumbach. Mattel and Warner Bros. insisted on seeing a preview of the script’s contents. The couple balked—they needed the self-rule to experiment. Jeremy Barber, an wage-earner at U.T.A. who represents Gerwig and Baumbach, is tropical with Brenner, so he could be blunt. “Are you crazy?” he told her. “You should’ve come into this office and thanked me when Greta and Noah showed up to write a fucking Barbie movie!”“

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