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🍋 Private Clubs Now Social Life Saviors

🍋 Private Clubs Now Social Life Saviors

Short Squeez
July 21, 2022

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"The stock market is the only market where things go on sale and all the customers run out of the store." — Cullen Roche

Good Morning! Cathie Wood's ARK Investment Management is shutting down its transparency ETF, the first of its funds to close since the firm launched in 2014. Tesla, a former Bitcoin believer, that touted the cryptocurrency's "long-term potential" last year, sold ~75% of its Bitcoin in Q2 to maximize its fiat cash position. Juul rival NJOY, is also potentially selling... itself. The e-cig company has hired bankers to advise on a potential sale.

If you are looking to reconcile all your investments in one place, check out the Delta Investment Tracker, which lets you manage and track your portfolio so you don't need 10 different spreadsheets anymore.

1. Story of the Day: Private Clubs Now Social Life Saviors

Manhattan's social scene is filling up with members-only clubs that are proving to be socialization hubs and workspaces for New Yorkers that are working remote. Over a dozen of these clubs have opened since 2003, nine of which began in the last three years.

According to Zack Bates, CEO of Private Club Marketing, most of the establishments charge $5k or less in annual dues, after you pay a smaller initiation fee. It is a wide spectrum though with one club, Aman New York, a private club on Fifth Avenue opening in August, charging a $100k initiation fee, and annual dues of $15k.

At Aman, your money gets you access to the club and spa, as well as tickets to sporting and fashion events, and private visits to artists' studios. While that may sound intriguing, or silly depending on how you look at it, the majority of these new institutions are purposed to be dinner, drinks, and networking locations while over half of New York's white-collar employees remain out of the office.

Mik Ang, a founding committee member of The Ned NoMad, which opened on June 30th, said, "We lost a lot of that in the pandemic, the ability to network and talk in person."

These new joints are very different from the old private clubs you may be picturing, filled with cigar smoke and old men laughing way too loud. They now cater to a younger, more diverse clientele, that's equally successful. At Zero Bond, you may even run into frequent flyer/New York City Mayor, Eric Adams.

Short Squeez Takeaway: Call me old fashioned, but if you wanted to network with like-minded individuals in person, why not just... go to your office? I mean it's free... actually, you get paid to do it, and I can't imagine anyone better to talk shop with than the people at your shop. I understand wanting to meet new people, and office settings not being the most appropriate setting for some conversations. Just get creative and reach out to new people. Ask them to grab a drink outside of work (or maybe play pickleball in Staten Island?).

2. Markets Rundown

Markets were up today on positive earnings results and news of resuming natural gas flow in the Nord Stream pipeline in Europe.

Movers & Shakers

(+) Netflix ($NFLX) +7% thanks to lower than expected subscriber loss in the last quarter.
(+) Wynn Resorts ($WYNN) +4% because Reuters reported Macau will reopen casinos on Saturday, easing back on COVID restrictions.
(–) Baker Hughes ($BKR) -8% after the oilfield services firm reported disappointing earnings.

Private Dealmaking

BlackRock to buy Vanguard Renewables, a natural gas producer, for $700 million
Halborn, a blockchain security startup, raised $90 million
TAE Technologies, a nuclear fusion company, raised $250 million
General Atlantic’s climate-focused fund raises over $2 billion
Fiume and Juggernaut Capital buy Thrill One Sports for $300 million
Casavo, a proptech startup, raised $410 million

3. Top Reads

Apple argues it’s now a major force in the health-care world (BB)
Broke colleges resort to mergers for survival (WSJ)
Is anybody watching the interns this summer? (NYTimes)
The start of a dollar ‘doom loop’ like no other (BB)
Europeans are working even less, and not by choice (WSJ)
The rise of subscription sleepers (Axios)
Here’s how much would go to taxes if you win the $630 million Mega Millions jackpot (CNBC)
Robinhood behind phantom surge in Berkshire Hathaway trade volume (WSJ)
Why corporate title inflation is a cause for concern (Forbes)
Parents pile into work conferences to escape their families (WSJ)

A Message from Delta: One App to Track it All

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4. Book of the Day: Whatever It Takes: Master the Habits to Transform Your Business, Relationships, and Life

No matter who you are or where you come from, your education, or your network, you can defy the odds to create the life you want and build the business you’ve only dreamed about.

His journey is all the proof you need.

Brandon Bornancin graduated college flat broke. He started a business that was an epic failure. Then he turned it all around – before he was 30 – closing over $100 million in sales for Google and IBM and founding two multimillion-dollar companies, the second named “LinkedIn’s Top 50 Startups.”

How did he do it? By doing Whatever It Takes.

In this no-nonsense guide to success, you’ll learn the empowering beliefs and transformative habits needed to achieve all that you want in business and in life.

You’ll discover the secrets of wildly successful people – how they think, what they say, and what they do to make their dreams come true so that you can too!

Whatever It Takes offers a transparent and tough-love approach to help you conquer what’s holding you back from the life you’ve always wanted and the business you’ve always dreamed about. Bornancin lays it all out to teach you exactly how to:

-break bad habits and form empowering ones

-master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results

-fail forward to get better

-unlock the single biggest secret to pursuing your passion

-grasp the upside of Constructive Paranoia

-leverage the power of The One-Percent Rule

-bullet-proof your sales

Be forewarned, this book will not show you the easy way out - in fact, consider it the complete opposite. This book is your battlefield. It’s all about dying hard to old ways and going all-in on the future person you want to become. "Wake up and do the work," Bornancin demands.

You too can defy the odds to get everything that you want in business and in life if you are willing to do Whatever It Takes.

“People don’t buy from people who don’t give a sh*t about them. People buy from people who are committed to maximizing their success.”

5. Short Squeez Picks

Why we should embrace boredom
End of cheap money spells trouble for innovation plays
Is the key to the affordable housing crisis more capitalism?
The surprising shoe that’s overtaking sneakers
Why more people are dating without drinking

6. Daily Visual: Population Density

Source: @undertheraedar

7. Daily Acumen: Likability

“Likability is a weird quality. Plenty of people are fans of Aretha Franklin or Bob Dylan, but it’s not because either of them spent a lot of time mailing out Christmas cards or being particularly warm to their fans.

Google doesn’t do tech support and plenty of popular high-end restaurants got that way by being difficult to book and not particularly welcoming to new patrons.

One reason is that we’re drawn to status. To like something as a way of certifying our insight or rank.

But there’s a different path, one that’s far easier to maintain and travel. It’s simple: Like your customers and they’re more likely to like you back.

This is one reason that the Beatles switched their focus after their first US tour (and eventually stopped touring). They couldn’t figure out how to like the screaming young fans that didn’t have much in the way of discernment. Instead, they shifted to writing and producing music for fans and colleagues that they wanted to spend their time liking.

If you want to be more liked, begin by liking.”