Last night I had the privilege of moderating a fireside with @nyknicks legend @ALLAN_HOUSTON .
We discussed leadership, entrepreneurship, purpose, and the challenge of building a legacy that extends beyond the game. Particularly through the lens of his new fashion brand FISSL, and a partnership with @espn for a capsule collection.
Fun fact: Allan told me he hasn’t finished Iceman yet, but loved that Drake chose the title because his favorite basketball player of all time is George “Iceman” Gervin.
The entire agent economy in a text.
Just Text Manfred for: account management, wallets, legal formation, A2A networks, continuous trading, etc
Civilizational power over SMS. Text Manfred for early access: https://t.co/6qrAMdfhtG
@garrytan, this is what we applied to @ycombinator with 🦞🏦
A lot of founders are applying token trading infra assumptions onto prediction markets, but think that’s largely skeuomorphic thinking.
Prediction markets are a different behavioral and liquidity primitive, meaning new product and user interaction models can emerge beyond just traditional exchange UX, margin, lending etc
Don’t think opportunity is rebuilding another exchange stack some may work, but discovering experiences native to prediction markets is likely the larger opportunity. A few founders in our current batch are starting to uncover and build for that assumption
Byron Allen, Founder of Allen Media Group, explains how treating business like a contact sport unlocks unlimited capital:
Byron once borrowed $310 million on a Friday to acquire the Weather Channel. He paid it back in five months.
When the lender hit him with a $28 million prepayment penalty for closing too quickly, he paid that too.
His philosophy on why capital is never the real obstacle:
"Business is a contact sport. You're nothing more than economic athletes. They will see your passion. They will see your stats. And they will always want you on their team because you make them money."
The framing shift here is everything.
Byron sees founders as athletes whose performance is being evaluated by people who need them to win.
"You have unlimited amounts of capital available to you if your hustle is at the highest level."
@RealByronAllen drives the point home:
"Keep your hustle at the highest level because capital is always looking for you to get the money back and a return. There's trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars of capital looking for you. Go get it."
The takeaway: Capital is hunting for operators who can put up the stats. Hustle at the highest level, and the money will find you.
Austin Jeter @CryptoJeter
Part of S&P Global’s crypto practice, focused on tokenization and digital asset indices
Blending institutional research with deep Web3 experience across CoinList and product strategy
Welcome to the community!
Very soon there are going to be more AI agents than humans making transactions.
They can’t open a bank account, but they can own a crypto wallet. Think about it.
@md_kadiwal@RobHoffman_ Second that.
This is a process I like:
1) Write down or talk out ideas about the website
2) Convert the transcript into your favorite LLM
3) Have the LLM ask more questions
4) LLM makes prompt for Loveable
5) Input prompt in Loveable and let it work
Imagine trying to keep your life running on just the basics in 2025–2026.
Rent or mortgage payment: ~$2,450/month
Groceries and household essentials: ~$1,500/month
Getting to work, gas, insurance, car payment or public transit + parking: ~$1000/month
That’s already $4,950 gone before you’ve paid a single copay, filled a prescription, had a cavity looked at, replaced a broken phone, bought new tires, or purchased anything remotely seasonal like boots or a coat when the weather turns.
No vacations.
No dining out.
No “fun money.”
No emergency buffer.
Just the floor of survival costs $4,950.
Anything beyond breathing, eating, and getting from point A to point B immediately feels like a financial five alarm fire.
That’s why even small unexpected expenses hit like a crisis because for millions of people right now, the margin for error has already disappeared.
I ran into an ex-YC partner that rejected me years ago.
He didn't remember me, but asked me what I'd been working on since the interview.
I told him about Starter Story and some of the metrics behind the biz.
He told me Starter Story more successful than 90% of companies that go through YC.
That felt good.
Permissionless entrepreneurship. We need more of that.
@davidpantera_@Lovable@StanfordGSB Get the right technical co-founder/teammate. There are very few projects that gain meaningful traction without a team of folks
Having a co-founder is more than about the skill set. It has many other benefits such as accountability, motivation, ideation etc…
Adoption of Tokenization so far:
S Tier: Money Market Fund
- BUIDL by @Securitize and @BlackRock
- BENJI by @FTI_US
- WTGXX by @WisdomTreePrime
- USTBL/EUTBL by @Spiko_finance
A Tier: Commodities
- PAXG by @Paxos
- XAUT by @tether
B Tier: Stocks/Private Equity
- @RobinhoodApp on Arbitrum
- @xStocksFi on Solana
- @OndoFinance on Ethereum
C Tier: Private Credit (Default risk is still very high due to adverse selection)
- @goldfinch_fi
- @centrifug
Tokenized Money Market Funds mark a major milestone for tokenization, offering low-risk yields to on-chain entities during a high-interest-rate environment.
In the next phase, I expect to see more adoptions and DeFi integrations of these RWAs, as well as the continued growth of Tokenized Stocks and Private equities in 2026.
- @Aave Horizon market has been paving the way for RWA DeFi integrations. We are seeing appetite for looping high-yield RWAs like @SuperstateInc's USCC, but not so much on the traditional MMFs as they have a lower yield. Would be cool to see more types of RWAs integrate with the Horizon Market to enable more strategies.
- xStocks has also been showing early promises of the potential possibilities of stocks integration in DeFi with @kamino and @Raydium
- I am particularly excited about the launch of Hood Chain (Could be biased), if they can migrate the existing trading infrastructure to Hood Chain, it could unlock the full potential of Tokenization as the future of finance