3 Things: SPV DAOs, Inbox To-Do Optimizer, Zestimate for The Metaverse

Happy Sunday and a very warm welcome to all the new subscribers! I’m thrilled and honored to have you as readers and truly appreciate your thoughts and feedback 🙏. Each edition of 3 Things will contain a dive into 3 rabbit holes I’ve found myself going down recently. Subscribe to get each week’s edition straight to your inbox and if you enjoy it, please share (I suck at self-promotion so can use your help)! This past week I’ve been thinking a lot about:

• SPV DAOs

• Inbox To-Do Optimizer

• Zestimate for The Metaverse

1. SPV DAOs

It seems that every day, a dozen new DAOs launch to focus on everything from promoting digital fashion (RedDAO), buying a golf course (LinksDAO), supporting musicians (NoiseDAO), play-to-earn gaming(Ready Player DAO), investing in startups (The LAO) or even creating a sushi restaurant that requires an NFT to dine (Flyfish). There are NFT DAOs, protocol DAOs, investment DAOs, real estate DAOs, learning DAOs, gaming DAOs, DeFi DAOs, Protocol DAOs, media DAOs, and many more permutations. One of the earliest use cases for DAOs has been the concept of an investment DAO starting with “The DAO” which was a crowdsourced, investor-directed VC fund that was famously hacked within days of closing their fundraise, leading to the hard fork of the Ethereum blockchain.

In the venture capital world, 2021 marked a record year with over $643B deployed into startups; a 92% increase from 2020. It was also a record for the number of SPVs (special purpose vehicles) raised with the Assure platform alone launching over 2000 (over 6 a day!). In addition to Assure, there is AngelList, Carta and newer platforms like Allocations that enable relatively painless SPV creation. In the Web3 space, many new products and companies have cropped up to change the way that investing is done. From institutional VC firms operating as DAOs to collectives coming together as venture DAOs like MetaCartel, the available investing channels are broadening and enabling new models to emerge. Recently, Syndicate launched with their concept of “Investment Clubs”, allowing groups to pool capital in a wallet and invest both on and off-chain in tokens, NFTs, or startup equity. The existing solutions are focused on member-led investments where groups of people contribute funds and collectively vote on where those funds should be deployed. I think there is also an opportunity to do the inverse which is more like the SPV model where a person or group gets allocation in a specific investment opportunity (could be tokens, equity, NFTs, real estate, etc) and opens up the opportunity to their community via an SPV DAO which gets funded and then invested specifically for that single opportunity.

2. Inbox To-Do Optimizer

I’ve tried pretty much ever to-do app under the sun, but nothing ever seems to stick. I always revert back to just using my inbox as a to-do list which is far from optimal. In addition to the normal work emails which represent things that need to get done, I send myself emails when I randomly think of something that I need to do, forward myself links from other sites or social media that I want to read, and even email myself screenshots so they don’t get lost in the abyss of my photos. One of the biggest challenges of using your inbox to keep track of your unfinished tasks is that it is all too easy to just snooze the email again and again each time it pops up. If you don’t opt for the snoozing method, it becomes anxiety-provoking to see 100+ items sitting there, just waiting for your attention.

On top of just keeping track of your to-dos so you don’t drop balls, you also need to find the time to complete each item. Each task has a certain amount of time that it will take to finish, a deadline, and any collaborators that need to be involved. Aside from to-do apps, there have been numerous smart calendar companies that have gained traction over the past few years like Clockwise or Reclaim that focus on time blocking and coordinating team calendars. I want a Gmail add-on that allows me to assign any email as a to-do and indicate in a very simple interface 1) how long will this task take, 2) when is the date it *absolutely* must be completed by, and 3) who else (if anyone) needs to be involved. From there, the app will have access to your calendar and those of your colleagues and will automatically book time for each task (based off of how long you estimated it will take) and resurface the to-do in your inbox when the task comes up on your calendar. For the tasks that involve multiple people, it will find time on everyone’s calendar and surface the context in everyone’s inbox. It will check in with you to ensure that the item was completed and "check it off” in a list of completed tasks or find a new time to get it done if you didn’t finish it for some reason.

3. Zestimate for The Metaverse

During the pandemic, we have seen the real estate market fluctuate all over the place from coming to a screeching halt in March 2020, to turning into one of the hottest real estate markets in history. Houses in states like Montana were seeing 57% price increases and single family homes in the Bay Area were going for over 100% above asking in late 2020 and 2021 (we literally bid on a house in a not-so-great part of Oakland that sold for 120% over asking. Suffice it to say we decided to rent after that 🤣!) When people are looking to price a home or know what it should sell for, they often check the “Zestimate” which was a genius concept launched by Zillow where they provide their best estimate of home value based off of public, MLS and proprietary user-submitted data while also taking into account home facts, location and market trends.

While the built world was seeing skyrocketing prices and an overall buying frenzy, a parallel phenomenon began happening on the internet. Whether it’s all of the talk about the Metaverse or the explosion of blockchain-based worlds like Decentraland, Sandbox, or Polka City, people are flocking to virtual spaces to create avatars, buy up property, attend concerts, play games, hang out with friends, and much more. In November of 2021, a plot of land inside of Decentraland was sold for $2.4M. Right after that, a $2.3M transaction occurred in Axie Infinity (currently most popular play-to-earn game and platform) for the Genesis plot. To date, the most expensive virtual real estate purchase was conducted by virtual real estate development company, Republic Realm, who spent a record $4.3 million on a parcel of virtual land in The Sandbox. There are other virtual real estate companies that are popping up to take advantage of this opportunity such as The Virtual Realty Group, Metaverse Properties, and more. Just like we use Zillow’s Zestimate in the physical world, there is an opportunity to leverage the openness of the blockchain to get data on all properties across various metaverses and create scores to help guide buying (or selling) decisions. The insights can be sold to both the virtual real estate companies as well as individuals looking to either purchase land or figure out whether to sell a plot that they own. It would provide insights as to which new worlds are about to blow up and where the optimal locations are to purchase your plots.

That’s all for today! If you have thoughts, comments, or want to get in touch, find me on Twitter at @ezelby and if you enjoyed this, please share with a friend or two!

~ Elaine