Nuggies: EVs and Tik Tok Mansions
Thursday, November 26th, 2020: HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Welcome to the twenty-sixth edition of Nuggies, an email newsletter that aggregates articles and commentary on business, economics, startups, and more, in bite-sized nuggets sent right to your email weekly. Created by and for college students.
Our quote of the week comes from transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau, “Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.”
This Week’s Articles:
TikTok Mansions Are Publicly Traded Now, New York Times
Tik Tok houses function as management companies for young Tik Tok stars. They are ritzy Los Angeles mansions which house Tik Tok influencers and in exchange, the influencers share revenue with the house owners. While they usually operate privately, one group that manages many Tik Tok houses, West of Hudson Group, was acquired by a publicly traded Chinese company. This article looks at the business of Tik Tok houses, the details of this deal, and how these houses are burning cash.
Read it here
Electric vehicles: double, double toil and bubble, The Financial Times
Electric Vehicle companies continue to pop-up and successfully raise capital. This article pokes fun at how some EV startups are able to go public through a SPAC and raise funds despite limited sales and production capabilities. One company is even trying to justify its valuation by replacing enterprise value to EBITDA or sales multiples, with enterprise value to total addressable market multiples in its investor presentation.
Read it here
The Idea Adoption Curve, Stratechery
In this Stratechery post, Ben Thompson applies the adoption curve to the current state of the media industry. Thompson argues different business models, such as premium Substack subscriptions, New York Times subscriptions, and ad-supported free websites, each serve a different portion of the curve. As a result, each media outlet tailors it content to their portion of the market and changes their strategy to respond to shifting incentives.
Read it here
This Week’s Tweets:
This Week’s Wildcard (an extra, interesting nugget):
Here is a chart of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since 1897, which is up 100,000%
This Week’s Question:
What are you thankful for? We are thankful for you.
What are we listening to this week?:
This week, we’re catching up on NPR’s Tiny Desk with Roddy Ricch’s live set. One of the biggest names in trap music, Roddy performs a four song set with a big band, showcasing his talents on the piano, rapping, and singing.
Thank you for reading! Nuggies is created by Thomas Pero and Spencer Koehl, two undergraduate students at the University of Notre Dame.
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