Alts
Season 1
by Horacio Ruiz
This week Horacio sat down with Billy Galanko from Vint, the popular & growing fractional wine investment platform. He is a professional sommelier who now has an (awesome) role as Vint's Head of Wine. In the chat, we discuss: How Billy parlayed an Upwork ad into an investment into Vint, and later Vint's first full-time role The ins & outs of high quality wine acquisition from merchant partners, Why whiskey is more difficult to source than wine, but more impervious to damage The possibility of professional grading of bottles How Vint is exploring NFTs with utility — including potential ownership of not just wine but other cool benefits Thoughts on opening up a liquid secondary market What Billy is personally investing in Upcoming offerings, including the Napa Collection w/ Screaming Eagle, some Northern Rhone varieties, and a unique whiskey collection with 36 bottles of Japanese whiskey, all with with beautiful, unique artwork. What Vint's roadmap looks like, including potentially investing in pieces of vineyards themselves. --- Follow Alts - Website & newsletter: https://alts.co - Discord: https://discord.gg/DEkHgzggwC - Twitter: https://twitter.com/altassetsclub - Insta: https://instagram.com/alts_co - TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alts_co - Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpmgk4gzQ56QvpyegBJJVQA?sub_confirmation=1
This week Horacio and Stefan sat down with Chase Chamberlin and Brian Doxtator, CMO and CEO at Commonwealth, which allows anyone to buy shares in world-class racehorses. In the chat, we discuss: How Rally inspired Brian to think about fractionalized horses What each founder brings to the table (Chase = horses, Brian = business & finance) How horse racing can be intimidating, and how they've worked hard to make everything so easy to understand How they spend their day-to-day (visiting their horses, talking to lawyers, keeping up with SEC regulations) Their bloodstock team, and the difficulty of selecting quality colts How they drive community and make everything feel personal (they have customers from 49 states and 16 countries) How they have aligned incentives by tying their business model to customer success How they think about racehorse valuations (there is tons of public auction data available) What goes into racehorse acquisition costs (horse itself, and 2 years worth of training costs, expenses & legal fees) Unicorn returns aside, what a good return actually looks like in this industry The excitement of watching their horse, Country Grammer, win a close race Where Commonwealth sits in the "investing vs gambling" spectrum What's next for Commonwealth (trading, secondary markets, gamification, and education) --- Follow Alts - Website & newsletter: https://alts.co - Discord: https://discord.gg/DEkHgzggwC - Twitter: https://twitter.com/altassetsclub - Insta: https://instagram.com/alts_co - TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alts_co - Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpmgk4gzQ56QvpyegBJJVQA?sub_confirmation=1
This week Stefan sat down with Michael Wenner, VP of Marketing at Masterworks; the world's largest (and arguably only) platform dedicated to buying fractional shares of high-quality contemporary artwork. In the chat, Stefan and Michael discuss: Artwork as the oldest "newest" asset class How Masterworks digitized decades of sales data; including activity, research, and other data points How Masterworks has published their database for anyone to see, and parallels with what Case-Schiller did for real estate Why effectively 0% of institutional capital is directed toward art — and why that will change What attributes Masterworks looks for when buying artwork (cultural significance + momentum) Living artists vs dead artists: Why living artists have a greater appreciation rate, but also a higher risk/loss rate Why selling artwork to a museum is the ultimate exit. The future of fractionalized artwork investing; including thoughts on the NFT artwork (spoiler: he thinks it's a fad) --- Follow Alts - Website & newsletter: https://alts.co - Discord: https://discord.gg/DEkHgzggwC - Twitter: https://twitter.com/altassetsclub - Insta: https://instagram.com/alts_co - TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alts_co - Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpmgk4gzQ56QvpyegBJJVQA?sub_confirmation=1
This week Stefan sat down with Alex Drew, co-founder of ODYS, a platform for buying high-quality aged domain names. The first half of the chat covers the world of domain investing in general, and the second half dives aged domains, which is Alex's specialty. In the chat, Stefan and Alex discuss: How Alex got started in domain investing What makes domain names such a great digital asset? Why .com's have stood the test of time, and remain the bitcoin of domains Why emotion and scarcity makes valuing domains so tricky What are the biggest marketplaces for buying & selling domain names What is a "domain drop", and how does it work? (Including redemption periods, grace periods, and expiry) How Dropcatch and similar companies are hired to help catch prized domains from hundreds of thousands of drops each day. How companies like Sedo, Afternic, and Dan.com obtain domains for their own marketplaces Why domain investing is like venture capital: you need a large portfolio with a few big winners to survive How domain investing has changed over the years What aged domains are, exactly, and what makes them so valuable? The value of a good backlink profile, and how aged domains fast-forward the painstaking process of building backlinks The risks of buying a domain with a poor backlink profile ODYS's plans for opening their own marketplace How their typical customer has changed over time How domain names are the original NFTs What factors help determine the "ODYS value", including traffic, backlink profile, and other trust signals How 301 redirects are an amazing way to harness a domain's power How ODYS is using logos to add even more value to their pre-owned domains What the future holds for the world of domain investing This episode is coupled with a newsletter issue: Investing in Domain Names --- Follow Alts - Website & newsletter: https://alts.co - Discord: https://discord.gg/DEkHgzggwC - Twitter: https://twitter.com/altassetsclub - Insta: https://instagram.com/alts_co - TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alts_co - Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpmgk4gzQ56QvpyegBJJVQA?sub_confirmation=1
This week Stefan sat down with Travis Winn from ZED RUN, the blockchain game where you buy, sell, breed, raise, and race digital racehorses. In the chat, Stefan and Travis discuss: How the lack of accessibility in Australian horse race culture led to the idea of digital horse ownership The otherwordly design of the game & creating the digital sport of the future Navigating the financial and legal considerations in getting ZED RUN off the ground Why ZED RUN is a fundamentally a skill & strategy game, not gambling How they maintain team synergy while having a remote, global team How integral ZED RUN's community is to the entire operation The disconnect between how active the community is and how the company has been relatively ignored by the mainstream media How NBA Top Shot kicked the NFT movement into high gear How ZED RUN treats the blockchain like an empowering mechanism to avoid becoming a game for "Crytpo Gods," and makes this confusing world easily accessible to the public The game mechanics, including horse rarity, and the simulation algorithm that determines the winner of each race How to buy "Genesis" horses during the drops, and the secondary markets How ZED RUN thinks about supply & demand in terms of ecosystem longevity Recent changes to breeding rules, and why they introduced the concept of "puberty" into the ecosystem to stop market flooding How ZED RUN fosters serendipity, compared to social media Why owning a ZED RUN racehorse is an active investment, and is sort of the ultimate digital asset The tightrope balancing act between treating ZED RUN as a game, vs treating it as a valuable, yield-producing digital asset The future of ZED RUN, including sub-economy opportunities, and, most excitingly, metaverse land ownership This episode was originally featured in the Alternative Assets newsletter issue: Investing in Digital Racehorses with Zed Run --- Follow Alts - Website & newsletter: https://alts.co - Discord: https://discord.gg/DEkHgzggwC - Twitter: https://twitter.com/altassetsclub - Insta: https://instagram.com/alts_co - TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alts_co - Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpmgk4gzQ56QvpyegBJJVQA?sub_confirmation=1
This week Stefan sat down with Charlie Swatkins, whose passion & expertise in investing in Legos has dubbed him "The LEGO Man." In the chat, Stefan and Charlie discuss: How & why Charlie started investing in LEGOs Why LEGOs are a worthy alternative asset What makes a LEGO set valuable What LEGO collectors look for in a purchase How a set's shelf life, design, and theme factor into price How to source LEGO sets How to find data-driven arbitrage opportunities The difference between buy & hold and quick flip strategies The risks of investing in LEGOs How investing in LEGOs led to his new project, All Things Arbitrage Why Amazon FBA is an important element in LEGO resale This episode was originally featured in the Alternative Assets newsletter issue: Investing in LEGOs --- Follow Alts - Website & newsletter: https://alts.co - Discord: https://discord.gg/DEkHgzggwC - Twitter: https://twitter.com/altassetsclub - Insta: https://instagram.com/alts_co - TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alts_co - Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpmgk4gzQ56QvpyegBJJVQA?sub_confirmation=1
This week Stefan sat down with Kenny Rose, founder and CEO of FranShares — a unique platform for making fractional investments in franchise businesses. In the chat, Stefan and Kenny discuss: Kenny's background in finance, franchise brokering and being on a game show How the company navigated financial and legal hurdles Why investing in franchises is gaining steam How FranShares' business model is similar to a REIT How FranShares is able to have no fees How has the pandemic has affected fractional franchise investing How FranShares sources franchises What’s next for FranShares This episode was originally featured in the Alternative Assets newsletter issue: Fractional Investing in Franchise Businesses --- Follow Alts - Website & newsletter: https://alts.co - Discord: https://discord.gg/DEkHgzggwC - Twitter: https://twitter.com/altassetsclub - Insta: https://instagram.com/alts_co - TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alts_co - Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpmgk4gzQ56QvpyegBJJVQA?sub_confirmation=1
This week Stefan sat down with Dovi Spigelman, a dealer of fine watches in Melbourne, Australia. In the chat, Stefan and Dovi discuss: The history of watch collecting What makes watches a good investment The most expensive watch ever purchased How Paul Newman (unwillingly) kicked off a revolution Why it's nearly impossible to buy watches at retail How and when watches got so expensive The top watch brands you should know about The top watch blogs and marketplaces to pay attention to Differences between the vintage market and modern market Newbie tips for buying your first luxury watch This episode was originally featured in the Alternative Assets newsletter issue: Collecting and Investing in Luxury Watches This episode is sponsored by The Watch Newsletter. --- Follow Alts - Website & newsletter: https://alts.co - Discord: https://discord.gg/DEkHgzggwC - Twitter: https://twitter.com/altassetsclub - Insta: https://instagram.com/alts_co - TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alts_co - Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpmgk4gzQ56QvpyegBJJVQA?sub_confirmation=1
This week Stefan sat down with Ezra Levine, the CEO of Collectable. Collectable is a new app that lets you own shares of iconic sports cards & memorabilia. In the chat, Stefan and Ezra discuss: Collectable’s history as a sports auction data aggregator Navigating the legal issues in order to get where they are today Emmitt Smith as the first investor How Collectable introduced the concept of retained ownership Collectable's new secondary market The advisory committee and shareholder protection How they source their items through existing relationships New partnership with Sports Immortals Creating a sports investor community Collectable's short & long term plans This episode was originally featured in the Alternative Assets newsletter issue: Investing in Sports Memorabilia with Collectable --- Follow Alts - Website & newsletter: https://alts.co - Discord: https://discord.gg/DEkHgzggwC - Twitter: https://twitter.com/altassetsclub - Insta: https://instagram.com/alts_co - TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alts_co - Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpmgk4gzQ56QvpyegBJJVQA?sub_confirmation=1