Eric Turner

The new proposed salaries for NYC's elected officials are insane. Mamdani's proposed salary would be more than the combined salaries of the Governors of FL & TX. NYC Council members would have higher salaries than any state legislators in all 50 states. Legalized robbery.

We're extending access to Claude Fable 5 on all paid plans through July 12.

stop buying conference sponsorships. i've sold $5m worth of them. i know exactly what you get - a banner, a booth, and leads that don't close. the people closing deals at every conference you attend are doing something completely different. here's what it is. 1/ the conference business model is simple: sell sponsorships, sell tickets, everything else is secondary. they'll promise you visibility to high-status people. what you actually get is bd people waiting for you to get off stage to pitch you. there is no ROI. i've seen it from the inside. 2/ if you're showing up day one with no meetings booked, you've already lost the week. three weeks out: identify the 10-15 people you actually need to see. not want to see. need. know their business. know their problems. when you get in front of them, you're not a stranger with a pitch. be the sniper, not the machine gunner. 3/ everybody wants the keynote slot. almost nobody thinks about the moderator seat. pitch yourself to moderate early. you get the speaker badge, the VIP access, and you don't have to buy a ticket. what you also get: your name on the agenda, a reason to reach out to every panelist in advance, and 45 minutes of guaranteed face time with the highest-status people in the room. free of charge, baby. 4/ if you're working a booth, you're paying money to position yourself as low status to the exact person you're trying to sell. booths resemble a transactional counter style sale - not a good vibe for a long term relationship. booths attract tire kickers, competitors, and people who want free swag. the real deals happen at the dinner the night before. at the hotel bar at 6pm. in the lobby of the nicest hotel within walking distance of the venue. that's where the 1% of your industry is having the conversations that matter. 5/ the salespeople who kill it at conferences are not the ones who pitch the hardest. they're the ones who make the other person feel like the most important person in the room. first conversation: purely relational. ask about their business. find a way to add value before you ever mention what you do. 6/ where you stand physically is a strategy. registration - first contact before the day pulls people away. hallway outside main stage - people want to talk about what they just heard. hotel lobby bar at 6pm - highest foot traffic, zero social obligation. also: get to know the event staff, email them before the event. sweet-talk the right person and you might get your hands on the attendee list. worth more than anything on the agenda. 7/ socially awkward? same. all good. find your most gifted bd/ social friend and attach to them. let them open rooms, carry conversations, pull people in. your job is to swim in their wake. when the conversation is warm, you step in and go deep. they're the spark. you're the fuel. together you outperform a room full of solo operators trying to do both at once. 8/ three days of conferences is a marathon. two drinks max. no 3am nightlife. the people you're trying to reach are getting invited to everything. the ones who show up sharp every morning stand out because almost nobody else does. manage your energy like an athlete managing game minutes. exit dead conversations immediately. it's not rude. it's professional. 9/ the follow-up window is 24 hours. not 72. not next week. the conference high fades fast. after a week you're basically a cold outreach. same night or next morning: one specific reference to the actual conversation. one clear next step. no fluff. this is where most conference value gets lost. and where the deals actually start. 10/ first conference: you're new. third conference: people recognize you. fifth conference: people are coming to find you. show up consistently. host things. moderate things. make introductions with no agenda. after enough cycles, the conference works for you instead of the other way around. conferences are not networking events. they're compressed relationship-building opportunities with a timer on them. come prepared. add value before you ask for anything. follow up like your pipeline depends on it, because it does. dm me if you want to apply any of this to your situation - happy to trauma bond / share tactics / save you money on your anti-sponsorship journey.

I believe that the correct takeaway from OUSD is actually quite nuanced, both specifically to what it means for Circle / Tether / Paxos and more broadly about what it means for adoption and the likelihood of being successful (warning, very long post). First, on CRCL, I wonder if it was more than a coincidence that Jeremy was on stage at the largest (and most hyped) Goldman Digital Assets conference in history at the exact time that the announcement occurred. He, Goldman, and many in the audience knew it was coming pre market open and that it would have a negative impact on the stock - that’s neither here nor there but did find it interesting as people in the audience were talking about it as he was being interviewed and the stock opened down 6% in the midst of the talk. In terms of impact on business, it’s been clear for awhile that revenue share %s were going to continue to go up and that for payments use cases redemption fees would need to go away. Circle was already responding to those points by striking deals with payment companies on mint/redeem and with distribution partners on yield sharing. The potential impending breakup with COIN, which has been signaled for awhile, actually near doubles their net revenue immediately, which is incredibly positive for them. That said, within a reasonable period of time that yield will likely end up in the hands of new distribution partners as they compete - but CRCL will be unshackled to compete here aggressively in a way they have not been able to with the COIN deal, so I think this specifically may end up being a net positive, if the deal is restructured or cancelled, even with further downward pressure on how much net revenue they keep. They also have deep liquidity that is hard to replicate and integrate, and that shouldn’t be forgotten or pushed aside as trivial. But it’s clear that for many Stripe partners, customers and ecosystem participants specifically, OUSD will likely become default use instead of USDC, which was previously preferred, as long as OUSD can bootstrap deep enough liquidity. And it’s inarguably true that Stripe is simply a better engineering and product organization and will likely ship better ancillary products and tooling needed for easy stablecoin use and distribution. Then again, CRCL has a clear head start and existing integrations that shouldn’t be ignored. Switching costs might not be high, but if you’ve built your product on top of CRCL’s APIs, you will need to be incentivized to switch which is a harder prospect than people realize and won’t simply come down to yield sharing - but of course the greenfield opportunity set is much larger than the market that is already well served. That said, for non payments use cases or for payments companies that compete with or have different incentives than Stripe, it’s not clear that this will be in anyway preferred vs existing (or net new) options. Lastly, if this ends up being issued by a Bridge entity, it doesn’t solve one of the main problems USDC has had in deeply penetrating enterprises - and that’s the fact that these tokens are still, today, essentially credit to the issuing organization and CRCL (and Bridge) is not investment grade credit. Bridge is also not, today, ready to be genius compliant (though they are working on that). If there is a parental guarantee at Stripe or some of the other members, that changes the calculus, but both are at risk of having the large banks/AMs swoop in and take the most profitable and largest opportunity use cases. And there is still a lot of wood to chop in terms of global licensing. So I don’t see this announcement as changing that competitive risk that already existed. Overall, I told someone before the announcement yesterday I thought CRCL stock would be down 15-20% on the day and it landed right in the middle of that. I do think the market reaction is justified but I don’t see this as some type of death knell many commentators are framing it as. CRCL does need to accelerate their payment and fintech product development, however, and I believe they need to be acquisitive. That time may have passed, now with the stock trading down, but there are a number of interesting options that they could explore that would still be accretive. This isn’t the end of the new entrants, so some defensive posturing will be key. For Tether, this is not their core market anyways and they will continue to focus on distribution in channels that neither Stripe nor CRCL will prioritize - they will be fine, but as Paolo said on stage at Token 2049 a couple years ago, Tether’s market share is likely to keep declining over time (but in a market that should grow a lot). Paxos, OTOH, will lose the upper hand on their main selling point of USDG and will, at some point, lose their regulatory upper hand as well. I see this as far more existential for them than the others but that’s also why they’ve refocused on the brokerage as a service business this past year.

Tokens with equity do not work

New York: it's hot out there, and the power grid is working overtime to keep us cool. Set your AC to 78 degrees, turn off lights/electronics you're not using, and unplug what you can. Our City is doing its part too: maintaining the 78 degrees rule in our buildings, dimming/turning off our lights during peak electricity demand, asking private partners to do the same, and powering down non-essential equipment. A stable grid means the AC stays on, and lives are saved. Let's ease demand — and get through the heat — together.

🤔

In my opinion, zero chance of this ‘crisis’ happening for $ETH zero “Funding secured”

REPORT: Jets owner Woody Johnson announces that the team is “seriously considering” a rebrand with the primary goal of moving to Long Island. Johnson believes a new stadium can be built in Long Island by 2029 as they try to branch away from the Giants and embrace a full rebrand.