Max Melmed’s Post

Anybody watching the madness with Liquid Death and YETI's Casket Cooler? Only 1 in existence. Bidding started at $1,500. With about 45 minutes left in the "popcorn auction", over 700 bids placed and current high bid of $60,400. Another brilliant marketing campaign. Excited to tune in for the end of the auction. Curious to see how long over and how high this goes? $100k? Over 1,000 bids? Props to Seth Gordon for sharing a post and bringing this to my attention.

The 25% tax on unrealized capital gains has gotten quite a bit of attention. As it should. It’s an absolutely ridiculous proposal with perverse incentives. At least it seems so to me, but this post isn’t going to touch on the faults of the current proposal. Taking a step back – what problem is trying to be solved? The debt to GDP ratio and current deficit is out of control. There is a real concern that Social Security and Medicare trust funds will run out by ~2035. Tax payers must pay Social Security tax on up to $168,600 in income. Any income above that is not subject to Social Security tax. The $168,000 number is the cap for 2024 and that cap has been raised almost every year. There is not a maximum earnings amount or cap for Medicare tax. The current system and tax code allows for a “Buy, Borrow, Die” strategy. Buy - acquire assets which have historically increased in value. Borrow - leverage the asset’s value by taking out a loan, allowing individuals to tap into the value of their holdings without incurring capital gains taxes. Die- the current tax code allows for a step up in basis upon death, effectively minimizing estate taxes and allowing for a tremendous transfer of wealth without paying a “fair share” of taxes. This strategy has been deployed by ultra-high net worth individuals. The same individuals that the proposed 25% unrealized capital gains tax seems to be going after. Why not make 2 simple changes instead? 1 - Eliminate the cap on Social Security Tax. Or provide relief from $168,000 to $500,000 and require social security tax to be paid up to $168,000 and from $500,000 and above. 2 - Eliminate the step up in basis upon death. Or allow for the step up for up to $5 million in assets and tax the rest. I’m almost certain these changes will have unintended consequences and create new tax avoidance or minimalization strategies. But they seem much more reasonable and simple than an absurd 25% tax on unrealized capital gains. What am I missing? And rather than ragging on the absurdity of the proposed plan, what is a better solution?

I’m 4,358 words in…. I’ll be sharing a blog post shortly titled: “No, You Don't Need a Blockchain: Access and Liquidity in Private Markets” This has been sitting as a draft for over 5 years. For various reasons – I never decided to finish it and hit publish. In the last couple of months, that has changed. It’s been a great experience to get my thoughts down on paper and review/refine my thinking over the years. And very much looking forward to hitting publish. I hope this provides people with thoughtful, valuable insights and welcome any and all feedback. Ahead of that, I could use some help. I dispel the myth that blockchain technology will revolutionize private markets and touch on 4 major driving forces that have actually changed the landscape in private markets throughout the post. One being the cultural/societal shifts. I have a list of 16 and trying to cut this down to 10. What should be cut out? What should be added? If I can cut it down to 10, great. If it ends up being 20 that are powerful and noteworthy, so be it. What do you think are the greatest cultural changes that are changing the way private markets? Happy to tag anybody as a contributor in the final version and would love some feedback - publicly or privately. If you want to review a draft version or let you know when the final version is ready - just let me know. 1)     Effects of Covid on remote work and investing without meeting in person. 2)     Success and Awareness of Yale Endowment Model. 3)     Normalization of equity compensation in startups. 4)     Proliferation of Venture Capital and Private Equity. 5)     Increased social acceptance, admiration, and support for entrepreneurs, partly due to glamorization of startups in media, social media, and popular culture. 6)     Increased visibility and interest in investing private companies thanks to social media and high-profile individuals showcasing their private market investments and strategies. 7)     More companies allowing/supporting secondary transactions. 8)     Rise of collectibles – sneakers, cars, watches, vintage items, and pop culture memorabilia. 9)     ICO Craze of 2017 and general crypto market activity. 10)  Popularization of real estate renovation, flipping, and the Airbnb economy. 11)  Normalization of pooling small amounts from many investors. 12)  Globalization of investment opportunities. 13)  Millennial and Gen Z investors are more comfortable with digital investment platforms and have an increased interest in private markets. 14)  Increased desire for individuals to manage their own investments. 15)  "Hustle Culture" has put an emphasis on side gigs and multiple income streams, including investments. 16)  Wall Street Bets and meme stock madness with Gamestop

To lend, or not to lend, that is the question... The question that many investors face in regards to their cryptocurrency portfolio. Similar to fully paid lending solutions, that enable investors to generate additional yield in their brokerage account, there is the ability to lend your digital assets. And generate meaningful yield. Many institutional investors are uncomfortable with this, and understandably so. Without standards and protections in place, the concerns around losing your cryptocurrencies are legitimate. For an asset like Bitcoin where the potential is 2X, 3X, 10X, maybe even 100X and the yield for lending it out is “only” 4-10% per year - it is just not worth the risk. I subscribed to this belief for a long time. And was thankful that I did. Digital Prime Technologies CEO James A. Runnels recently joined me on “Learning In Public” to discuss this and much more. Digital Prime's solutions leverage traditional finance frameworks and standards, while allowing lenders to customize collateral requirements. So, if you’re only comfortable lending with 150% or even 300% collateral, they have the tools and the network to help you. If I were an institutional investor, I would definitely explore solutions like Digital Prime’s platform to lend portions of my portfolio. To counterparties I’m comfortable with. At terms I’m happy with. In the full episode, we touch on: - Basics of Prime Brokerage - Prime Brokerage for Digital Assets - Facilitating the first Institutional Digital Asset Loans Through Their SEC Regulated Entity - Founder and Employee Liquidity - Lessons From Being a Father and Coach - Advice to Other Founders I enjoyed this one. I hope you do too. If any of this sounds interesting or if you have any questions - let me know or feel free to reach out James and his team. #PrimeBrokerage #DigtialAssets #Lending #Founder #Liquidity

What makes you different? Every founder is tasked with explaining what makes their product different. And more importantly - better. This is not easy to explain. Even more difficult to deliver. Here's a quick clip of Sporttrade's CEO, Alexander Kane, explaining what makes Sporttrade different, how they're able to provide better pricing, and how that opens up new opportunities. It's much easier when you have a fundamentally better model. And provide customers an objectively better experience. It doesn't hurt to be a great speaker and storyteller. Check out the full podcast to hear: - Founding story of Sporttrade - Their unique solutions to run a fair and orderly market, providing an unparalleled player experience. - The moral dilemma of building a “sin” business and the fact that sports betting is a negative sum game. - His thoughts on founder and employee liquidity. - Lessons from his parents. - His advice to other founders and himself 5 years ago. I truly enjoyed this one and hope you do too. #sportsbetting #USP #founder

“Napoleon’s definition of a military genius was, “The man who can do the average thing when all those around him are going crazy.” ― Morgan Housel, The Psychology of Money I had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with Alexander Kane, founder and CEO of Sporttrade, last week. I didn’t share this yesterday due to the market conditions. Then the Morgan Housel quote hit me. As Alex alluded to many times in our conversation - they kept just putting one foot in front of the other. We need to keep plugging away, regardless of the macroeconomic environment. I’ve been lucky enough to get to know Alex and his team over the last 18 months. It’s been a pleasure watching them and their business grow. The clip below is just one of many gems. Throughout the conversation, Alex touched on: - Founding story of Sporttrade - Their unique solutions to run a fair and orderly market, providing an unparalleled player experience. - The moral dilemma of building a “sin” business and the fact that sports betting is a negative sum game. - His thoughts on founder and employee liquidity. - Lessons from his parents. - His advice to other founders and himself 5 years ago. Sporttrade was borne out of the belief that the golden age of sports betting has yet to come. Combining proprietary technology, thoughtful design, and capital markets expertise, their platform endeavors to modernize sports betting for a more equitable, responsible, and accessible future. I happen to agree. I truly enjoyed this conversation and hope you do as well. Full disclosure: I am an investor and customer. #sportsbetting #founder #NeverGiveUp

I turned 36 today. No list of 36 lessons or words of wisdoms. Just 1 reflection and 1 simple question. Why not? This is my first birthday after experiencing a “birth day” firsthand. The birth day of my firstborn son. About 385,000 babies are born every day. So it’s not a unique experience. Yet I am sure everyone’s experience is special and unique to them. Giving birth isn’t a big deal, unless it’s your baby. On that note - a quick thank you to my incredible wife, who was absolutely amazing throughout labor and is an even more impressive mother. But man, was that something. I’m incredibly thankful and grateful for the opportunity to be alive and having the ability to procreate. Life is a beautiful thing. We’re incredibly lucky. Everything in the universe happened exactly the way it did for the last 13.5-14 Billion years for us to be here. Everything on Earth happened exactly as needed for the last 4.5 billion years in order for today to be a reality. The forces of nature, wars, discoveries, innovations, mishaps, and our overall ability as a species to persevere, evolve, and progress has lead us to exactly where we are today. Exactly where you are, reading this post. That’s pretty wild. When you zoom out, our time here may be short. It may seem insignificant. Like we’re building castles in the sand. Maybe. On the other hand, our life is the longest thing we’ll ever experience. Maybe we can use our time to enjoy and help push society forward. So our kids, and their kids, and their kids’ kids can enjoy a better life than we were lucky enough to live. We are giants because we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. So today, I am very thankful to everyone who has come before us. I am thankful for those here now. And I ask why not? Why not be thankful for what you have? Why not enjoy it as much as possible? And why not build some awesome f**king castles while we’re lucky enough to be here? Happy Monday! P.S. - the car was parked.

One of my favorite parables of all time! I will never forget this one. It's part of the reason I put out content. Part of the reason that I voice my opinion, even when it's an unpopular one. You can tell how happy I was that my dad finally shared this one... Only 2 hours and 9 minutes in on the podcast and over 5 hours into the recording. Worth the wait. This is just one of the many that were shared on episode 1 of Learning in Public. From parables to personal stories. Recounting history mixed with words of wisdom. The feedback from those who have listened so far has been amazing! Already 10-20X+ more viewers than I could have ever imagined on episode 1. Thank you all for the support. I hope you enjoy! And looking forward to getting episode 2 out the door. If you know somebody who has something to say - tag them and I'd love to have them on to share their story. #podcast #LearningInPublic

Happy Belated Father’s Day to all you Fathers out there! This was a special Father’s Day for me for 2 reasons… 1 - It’s my first one as a father. 2 - My father, Victor Melmed, was the first guest on my new podcast - Learning in Public. He’s an incredible man. And an incredible story teller. It’ll be tough to top this conversation. In fact – the person I planned to bring on as the second guest already expressed that they don’t want to follow this episode. And I don’t blame them. Another test listener expressed "half the podcast was like listening to an amazing war movie". As much as I’m excited for the journey ahead – this episode alone already made it worth it. Whether or not you want to publish it, I HIGHLY recommend recording a conversation with your parents! Part of the reason my dad agreed to share stories that he’s never shared before, including some amazing stories from Vietnam, is because he’s going to be 80 in March and my son is only 7 months old. Nobody is going to live forever, but luckily, we have the tools and technology to preserve our stories and memories forever. If you want some military stories – jump to 23 minutes in. If you want war stories – jump to 48 minutes in. If you want entrepreneurship and life lessons – jump to 95 minutes in. If you have 2 hours, 17 minutes, and 24 seconds – I think you’re going to enjoy Victor Melmed's entire story from Siberia to Ellis Island to Vietnam and Beyond. I have a lot of work to do to improve my part of the podcast, but this is only episode number 1. Any and all feedback is welcome! A bit late as we hit the park and enjoyed the day. Hope you enjoy the conversation and follow along for the journey ahead....