Welcome to another edition of Business Twitter, where we collect the best tweets to come out of Silicon Valley so you don’t have to. This article is part of a newsletter — if you want a weekly Business Twitter roundup sent to your inbox every Friday, subscribe here.
This week: Matt Turck explains why he’s fascinated by bootstrapped startups like Squarespace, Dave Portnoy goes all in on Safemoon, Anthony Pompliano announces his own Bitcoin Pizza chain, and the crypto community reacts to China’s latest crackdown on mining.
Here’s everything you may have missed from this week.
1. Portnoy’s favorite shitcoin
Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports and self-described “Baron of Bitcoin,” has gone all-in on a single cryptocurrency, SafeMoon. Portnoy announced on Monday that he had invested $40,000 in the shitcoin (a cryptocurrency that isn’t worth much and doesn’t have any apparent purpose, like Dogecoin).
In the two-minute video announcement, Portnoy admitted that he had no idea what he was doing, but that he would hold on to his SafeMoon until it either goes to the moon (safely) or comes crashing down.
“Why?” Portnoy said in the video. “I don’t know fucking why. It could be a Ponzi scheme. I like the word ‘moon’ because that’s where I want to go.”
Despite his new holdings, Portnoy said he’s still keeping his Bitcoin. "I will never waiver in Bitcoin. I don't care what Elon Musk says," he added.
2. Pomp’s Bitcoin Pizza
Investor and crypto influencer Anthony Pompliano is celebrating Bitcoin Pizza Day this year by launching his own pizza brand, Bitcoin Pizza.
For those unfamiliar with Bitcoin’s connection to pizza, Bitcoin Pizza Day commemorates the first transaction using Bitcoin nearly 11 years ago, when Laszlo Hanyecz purchased two slices of Papa John’s pizza for 10,000 BTC. As of May 21, 2021, 10,000 BTC would buy you about $372.3 million of pizza.
As for Bitcoin Pizza, Pompliano announced his new product through a video posted Tuesday. Bitcoin Pizza works like this: a customer buys pizza through their local pizza place, the pizza gets delivered in a Bitcoin Pizza box, and a cut of the proceeds go to the Human Rights Foundation’s Bitcoin Development Fund, which works towards mass adoption for the cryptocurrency.
“Just as Bitcoin is working to disrupt the incumbent banks, Bitcoin Pizza will be working to disrupt the incumbent corporate pizza chains,” Pompliano wrote. “Bitcoiners can accomplish anything. Why not have our own national pizza chain? Now we do.”
3. China takes on Bitcoin again
It’s been a volatile week for Bitcoin as China decided to crack down (again) on the cryptocurrency, sending its price plummeting 6% on Friday. The Chinese government has been wanting to restrict crypto's use for years, fearing that a burst bubble could lead to financial instability.
It’s not the first time China has made an announcement to curb crypto mining and trading within its borders. The seemingly regular occurrence of China’s crackdowns prompted prominent traders and blogs to joke about the announcement. Despite the wisecracks, China’s move was a serious blow to public confidence in crypto.
Elon Musk, meanwhile, had a hand in Bitcoin’s drop when he announced last week that Tesla would no longer accept payment for its cars in Bitcoin. Since then, he’s tried to restore the world’s confidence by tweeting about diamond hands.
4. Squarespace goes public
Website creation platform Squarespace made its public debut this week on the New York Stock Exchange, with an opening price of $48, just below its reference price of $50. VC Matt Turck, a partner at FirstMark, outlined what makes Squarespace so special: bootstrapping.
Squarespace’s founder, Anthony Casalena, didn’t take any outside funding until 2010, deciding instead to start with a $30,000 seed round from his dad.
Turck said he found startups that fund themselves a “special breed,” despite how that may seem odd from the mouth of a venture capitalist. After being founded in 2003, Squarespace’s public debut marks a major step forward in the company, and in Casalena’s net worth — the founder and CEO’s holdings are worth an estimated $2.4 billion.
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online, jobs, social and web traffic, product sales, and app ratings, and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue, and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.