Stocktoberfest Begins ...Sunday Reads And Listens on AI, Crypto, Nuclear Investments by Big Tech and Data Centers

Happy Sunday.

I have the whole family at home for Stocktoberfest on Coronado. The last Stocktoberfest we ran was 2018 in New York. I am thrilled to be bringing it back to Coronado especially now that Rachel and Max are in the work force and actually interested in attending and networking. Our house is full with their friends who came to participate in the event and nearly 300 people are coming to The Del Hotel for the conference.

Stocktoberfest is a celebration of the financial markets, stocks, now crypto and of course the Stocktwits community (now over 8 million registered users). I started Stocktwits in 2008, inspired by Twitter and their API. Stocktwits early adopters were the creators of Fintwit and the ‘Cashtag’. The internet and web 2.0 in 2006 was an explosion of fun and color and good spirit and creativity. I remember sending the first $cashtag tweet to Fred Wilson via Blackberry about owning $RIMM. He pinged me back that the was genius and I should start Stocktwits. My simple idea was for Twitter to just buy Stocktwits and roll out Twitter DOT Finance DOT com and take on Yahoo and Bloomberg at the same time. Let’s just say that after 16 years, that did not happen.

Way back in 2014 and 2015, I remember interviewing Vlad and Baiju after we invested in their Seed and A round and pretty much everyone in attendance was skeptical…

Today Robinhood is a $24 billion company and for the most part just getting started. In 2013 We invested at a $10 million post money valuation.

Our portfolio company Alpaca will be at this years event discussing how they are powering the next 1,000 Robinhood’s around the world from the US to Turkey, Japan and Dubai.

A slew of new breakout financial/markets startups will be presenting at this years event including Finchat.io, 11th estate, Alto IRA, Frec.com, Archive Intel, Spot.dog.

The markets have evolved a great deal since 2018 as have some of my personal passions. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Nvidia, were NOT a topic of discussion in 2017, but Fred Wilson was recommending Ethereum in my fireside chat with him at $40 (now $2,700).

Beside Artificial Intelligence, Fintech and the Markets that we will cover in depth for the two days, I am fascinated by the reimagining of sports, media, the creator economy, collectibles, and the fast growing ‘degenerate economy’.

The Stocktwits team will also be sharing our 2025 roadmap which includes not just core community features, but our new ‘Stocktwits Everywhere’ products including our sentiment powered newswire. We will also be introducing a few original original live investing shows.

OK onward to some links…

Here is A16z’s State of Crypto 2024 Report.

My friend Om (He will be speaking with me on all things AI, Apple and tech at Stocktoberfest) sat with Matthew Prince of Cloudflare to talk about the future of AI in the age of the internet.

Michael Parekh on nuclear power and data centers - AI is early will be the topic of my fireside chat with Michael tomorrow on stage.

Have a great Sunday.