🍋 Metaverse Floppin'

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Good Morning! You’d think Kanye would have had enough breakups over the past few years, but apparently not. JPMorgan cut ties with Kanye West last week as the rapper continues to go rouge with his split from corporate America. At least some parties are getting back together as Fox and News Corp. (owner of the Wall Street Journal) announced they may reunite after splitting in 2013. We have an action-packed earnings calendar this week with Tesla and Netflix headlining the lineup.

Today's sponsor, LMNT is a tasty electrolyte drink mix, trusted by professional athletes. LMNT is offering ShortSqueez readers a free sample pack with any purchase.

1. Story of the Day: Metaverse Floppin'

It’s been a rough year for Mark Zuckerberg. Meta’s stock is down over 60% on the year, and its competitors are running circles around the company. 

Some analysts still don’t think Meta has a core product as Facebook fades. Younger generations are flocking to TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram (Meta-owned) and some now call Facebook ‘Boomerbook’. 

Zuckerberg began focusing on the Metaverse last year as a way to differentiate the company from its peers. So far, Zuck’s bet has been a flop. The company targeted 500k monthly users for its flagship metaverse offering, Horizon Worlds, but the current headcount is under 200k. To make matters worse, most users reportedly quit after a month.

If the cratering stock wasn’t bad enough, the company got embarrassed after releasing its virtual reality demo last week. Zuckerberg starred in a voiceover animation where he flexed his virtual reality legs - but the Internet exposed it as a lie.  

Creating VR avatars with legs has been tough as they’re usually just floating torsos. While Zuckerberg boasted metaverse legs are coming soon, the video was found to be both rehearsed and staged using motion-captured animation. Tough look for the brand as he reportedly invested over $10 billion to create an improved avatar.

Takeaway: Meta is struggling to reinvent itself as Facebook’s popularity wanes. Zuckerberg’s net worth has dropped by almost $75 billion this year, and the company is trying to rehabilitate its image over controversial privacy concerns. Zuckerberg remains a key target of memes, though, no matter how many times he tries to pivot. 

2. Markets Rundown

If you want access to Wall Street insider interviews, industry deep-dives, and investment ideas, check out our Insiders newsletter.

The stock market’s rally reversed on Friday as inflation worries resurfaced.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) JPMorgan ($JPM) +2% after the company delivered strong Q3 earnings.

• (-) Albertsons ($ACI) -8% after the company announced plans to merge with Kroger.

• (–) Beyond Meat ($BYND) -10% after the company announced it’s laying off nearly one-fifth of its workforce, including its nose-biting COO.

Private Dealmaking

• Odyssey Therapeutics, a biotech company, raised $168 million

• TripActions, a corporate travel and expenses company, raised $154 million

• Connex One, a customer engagement platform, raised $104 million

• Insite AI, an AI platform for consumer brand companies, raised $19 million 

• YardLink, a British digital procurement startup, raised $17.5 million 

• CrowdSec, a French cybersecurity startup, raised $14 million

Top Reads

• Bonds may be a riskier investment than stocks right now (MW)

• One economist believes the Fed will end up killing the labor market (YF)

• Workers at second Apple store vote to join union (CNN)

• The curious case of 2022’s venture fundraising (Axios)

• How tech has learned big lessons in 2022 (YF)

• How Biden’s stock maket compares to other presidents’ (Axios)

• How Kroger plans to win over Wall Street and Washington in Albertsons deal (CNBC)

• Even in a bear market, FOMO is a serious force (Axios)

• How Palantir grew into a controversial multi-billion dollar company (CNBC)

• Tesla investors try to ignore Musk’s many distractions (CNN)

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4. Book of the Day: Set For Life

Building wealth is always possible, even while working full-time, earning a median income, and paying off debt. By layering philosophy with practical knowledge, Set for Life gives young professionals the action plan they need to conquer their financial goals early in life. 

Scott Trench—real estate investor, demonstrates how to accumulate a lifetime of wealth over a short period of time. Even starting with zero savings, you can go from a five-figure income to six figures, from an active job to passive income, then finally to the ultimate goal of financial independence. 

Set yourself up for life as early as possible, and enjoy life on your terms!

“Serious progress is made at first through the intelligent and intentional application of frugal living and preservation of earned income.”

5. Short Squeez Picks

• How to boost productivity with the ‘one thing’ rule

• 14 rare habits to normalize and transform your life 

• Inside one 23-year-old’s 95-square-foot East Village studio 

• Elon Musk can’t fix your commute

• 9 of society’s rules you need to break to become a millionaire

A Message from Sunsama: Create the “Atomic Habits” You Need for Success

Many of the most impactful leaders know exactly what they need to accomplish before the day starts. They set weekly goals and individual tasks to accomplish those goals.

And guess what, they aren’t relying on their brain or scattered sticky notes to set those tasks. They have proper systems and tools.

6000+ ambitious professionals trust Sunsama with their daily routine. With features such as Daily planning, Weekly objectives, and focus mode - the free trial is a no-brainer to test out. 

Plan your day in Sunsama, no card required.

6. Daily Visual: Share of U.S. venture capital exit deal value

Source: Axios

7. Daily Acumen

"Whenever you make a claim or an argument, try and imagine the strongest possible argument against it. 

In chess, a thing that distinguishes a good player from a worse one is that the good player tests their potential move against the opponent’s strongest possible replies.

Weak players often play ‘hope chess’: they launch an attack, and assume their opponents will go along with their plans by playing weak responses. As a result, they don’t see how their attack might fail, and they lose. 

Stronger players make a mental habit of checking their opponent’s strongest responses and this allows them to pick the move that is in fact the best one. 

This sounds obvious, but it’s actually very hard to do and requires practice and training: it’s as though your brain resists the mental motion of modeling your opponent as strong too, as though it ‘wants’ the idea to work and blocks you from thinking about the resources your opponent actually has. 

A similar thing goes in life: people very rarely model out the very best arguments against their positions and then adjust accordingly. But if you do want true beliefs, this mental habit is essential."

Source: Nabeel Qureshi

8. Crypto Corner

• Crypto scam victims want to hold Coinbase responsible for losses

• NFT bargain-hunting on the rise as crypto prices crater

• Why did crypto surge after bad inflation news?

• Former Morgan Stanley CEO bullish on crypto

• Survey finds young people 7.5x more likely to hold crypto

• Will crypto cowboys crash the Texas power grid?

9. Memes of the Day

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