Adventure #3 - Bull v Bear

Welcome to the 3rd issue of web3adventures where I shed light on web3 businesses

We’ll use a simple framework that covers:(1) the company(2) the founding team(3) hiring and funding(4) why the business excites me

Disclaimer: None of this is sponsored, I choose what to write about. This is not financial advice either!

Today we're looking into Bull v Bear

The company

In short: enabling on-chain degen gambling🎰

What this platform will utilize is "short" and "long" positions. Those of you who've been around for a bit (or from TradFi) will know what these entail but I'll give my TLDR for those who are new to this. (skip if you already know this)

The very very simple explanation is:

Going long: betting that something will increase in price📈Going short: betting that something will decrease in price📉

How do you make these bets? How does it actually work?Going long: you actually buy the asset and hope the price will go upGoing short: you don't actually buy the asset. You borrow it, then you sell it BUT promise to buy it back and return it to whoever lent it to you. Hoping the price goes down.

Eg: you borrow one $MEME token at $100 and sell it.The $MEME price goes down to $40 so you buy it and return it.You've now made a $60 profit. 

Going short can be extremely risky though, let's run another scenario:You borrow one $MEME token at $100 and sell it.The $MEME price goes to $420. If you want to close your position, you take a $320 loss.If it goes even higher, you're in a world of pain.

Going short exposes you to a higher loss than your original bet - please please thread carefully if you plan on using it. Read into stop losses too!

I learned all about this during the GME fiasco, what a piece of history that was! That's when I bought my first stocks hahah, banger of a throwback.

With the fundamentals of what Bull v Bear is based on, let's look into it some more.The product is in its very very early stages. The main website is just an image.

The app, however, is somewhat functional. It's on the Goerli Testnet and it only has 3 collections: WoW (pictured), CoolCats, and one less known.

As you can see, the platform isn't fully up to date - the current floor of WoW is 2.43eth.

It's all good though, that's when you know you're early in the journey of a company! That's why I write these - I want to bring more visibility to such cool innovations!

As far as I know, the betting on NFTs side of web3 is very much blue ocean!

The founding team

Alright alright, we've got the 3 musketeers here: Ness, Pierre, and Hugo

>> Ness BenamranI won't go full detective mode but just by looking at his LinkedIn, I can see Ness is a baller. Teaching assistant at Stanford, 2.5 years at McKinsey then a wild journey at a start-up.

Joined when the business was just 10 people and rose to VP within 5 years. Impressive!Just by looking at his exp, I know they wouldn't struggle to raise VC funding if they ever wanted to. Anyway, here's his LinkedIn if you wanna stalk him yourself

>> Hugo Mercier

Hugo is no stranger to the startup world either, leaving this here along with his LinkedIn.By the looks of things he left Dreem in a good spot - they're now 129 members just on LinkedIn and hiring actively!

Anon, if you're feeling frisky, here's some alpha for you: dreem.eth is available. NFA

>> Pierre GilardinAnd finally, the dev wiz - Pierre has been in the blockchain space for over 4 years. Take a peak at his Notion where he covers his experience and you'll see it's been a ride!!

^This one is my favourite. Anyway, here's his LinkedIn

= I'll finish the team section with a screenshot of how they've described themselves

Hiring and Funding

A) HiringDefinitely hiring! Even if you don't see your ideal position on there, I'd encourage you to reach out to them.

B) FundingThat's something I couldn't find much info on, sorry. I'd imagine they would be interested in at least hearing from you if you're an angel or VC.

Once I get into the rhythm, I'll be having convos with the founders before I write the newsletter and you'll get the inside scoop.

^Only if that's something they plan on announcing and happy for me to share first, obviously! Will get there soon enough, watch this space 👀

Why this business excites me

I'm bullish on this because I know there's demand from the market.I've seen such on Twitter, I've seen it in my circle too, and I've heard it from recent connections (shoutout McVal).

At the end of the day, Degens are gonna Degen. Bear or bull, it doesn't matter. As long as there's price movement, traders are active. It's how the cookie crumbles 🍪

I'm also excited to see how the lads execute. Strong team and very early in their adventures!!They're also based in Europe (like myself, though I'm UK based) so I'm extra biased😄

Favourite meme of the week!

Sorry to shill myself but I take such pride in making this hahahah

It was for a thread on crypto & adoption. I've been researching & writing about it all week. CT doesn't seem to be so interested but the articles on Linkedin certainly got traction👇

Quick market thoughts

This week's market was fairly mild. A few things I paid attention to:

0% Royalties convoVery interesting, I'm not a fan but can't say I'm surprised. Traders want all the profits they can squeeze. I certainly hope this doesn't become the norm though! What I am surprised about, however, is how marketplaces fees didn't get discussed🤔

BAYC liquidations & Full SendBenDAO is a great concept but IMO overly-bullish on NFTs to a point where it's reckless. The health factors of their loans are just wtf... In DeFi these assets would've been liquidated aaaaaages ago.. wen risk management :|

Anyway, if shit hits the fan, it'll be the biggest buying opportunity ever.. I also think it'll be armageddon - people from B and C tier bluechips will start selling off to get into BAYC.

In the same fashion, people from lower collections would sell to transition into B and C tiers. You know how Gary V says 99% of collections will be useless? If BenDAO starts liquidating apes, things for not-so-well-established projects will get extremely ugly💀

Gordon and Garga on the Full Send podcast were great btw.Got to give credit to the NELK boys, decent guests lately!

MAYC floorFor the past 3 weeks, I've been monitoring Doodles and MAYC floors religiously.

I've seen mutants go from $30k to as low as $18k... I think there's still a way down to go, need to see if Apes start getting liquidated. I'm tempted

No, I don't have that kind of money yet. I'm just planning for when I do.Full transparency: if you ever decide to sponsor the newsletter, your money will likely go towards a mutant 🥶🥶

My on-chain activity1) Staked my potato - his name is Maythan.

It's been really cool to see how 9gag's team is making progress with the collection. Slow and steady but in phases that are fun to follow. The Townhalls have been great too!

I just hope Maythan turns out to be a handsome fella as I really want a new PFP.

2) Minted a UNIC access from 6529

It's a free mint and it'll be an on-chain university course. 6529's thread + mint linkThe team is solid and looking forward to learning from them!

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Anyway, hope you've enjoyed this and will tag along for next Sunday's adventures.In the meantime, you can find me on Twitter. Keen to hear your feedback too!

If you are, or know of, a cool business that I should look into - DM me📩

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If you liked this issue, here are my previous two adventures:1) Cheq.xyz - Stripe but for crypto2) reNFT.io - Rental infrastructure for the Metaverse

Wishing you a productive week ahead!- Mitko