Garry Tan’s tweet on investing in Coinbase the most popular tweet in Q2 2021

Verdict lists five of the most popular tweets on venture capitalists in Q2 2021 based on data from GlobalData’s Influencer Platform.

The top tweets were chosen from influencers as tracked by GlobalData’s Influencer Platform, which is based on a scientific process that works on pre-defined parameters. Influencers are selected after a deep analysis of the influencer’s relevance, network strength, engagement, and leading discussions on new and emerging trends.

The most popular tweets on venture capitalists in Q2 2021: Top five

1. Garry Tan’s tweet on investing in Coinbase

Garry Tan, the founder of Initialized, an early-stage venture capital firm, shared a video on his investment in Coinbase in 2012. Coinbase is a platform that allows to buy, sell, and store cryptocurrency. It was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Ehrsam under the name BitBank.

Tan was approached by Armstrong with the proposal of funding his start-up, which was designed to provide a safe and easy platform for users who wanted to buy bitcoins. Tan agreed to invest $300k in Coinbase, which is now estimated to be worth $2.4bn in shares.

Tan elaborated on the reasons behind investing in the platform including the lack of viable ways to purchase bitcoin and the issues with fiat currencies. Further, the websites that offered bitcoin for purchase at that time had issues such as poor user experience. Tan also gave tips for start-ups on how they can attract investors.

Username: Garry Tan

Twitter handle: @garrytan

Likes: 7,518

Retweets: 1,064


2. Michael Arrington’s tweet on launch of Arrington Algo Growth Fund

Michael Arrington, the founder of  Arrington XRP Capital, a digital asset management firm, shared an article about the company launching the $100m Arrington Algo Growth Fund (AAGF). The new fund will focus on the development of Algorand, a cryptocurrency platform based on blockchain technology.

The platform has witnessed significant growth in the past few years and the fund is expected to further accelerate its development as it lacks an established decentralised finance (DeFi) ecosystem. The new fund will be the company’s second crypto fund, with a $100m investment in XRP Capital Fund in 2017 being the first.

Username: Michael Arrington

Twitter handle: @arrington

Likes: 1,270

Retweets: 232

3. Mark Suster’s tweet on strategic investors

Mark Suster, general partner at Upfront Ventures, a venture capital firm, shared a thread of tweets on strategic investors who can often turn out to be bad for start-ups. He says that most industry investors are not strategic and have different expectations and wrong idea about a start-up. Most investors are only concerned about the product rather than the growth of the start-up and are focused on keeping the valuation low.

Suster stated that these strategic investors sometimes try to block finance that can help the start-ups to grow, as they aspire to buy the companies in the future and therefore do not want their value to increase.

Username: Mark Suster

Twitter handle: @msuster

Likes: 1,010

Retweets: 187

4. Fred Destin’s tweet on Stride VC raising second seed fund

Fred Destin, founder of Stride VC, a seed investment fund, shared a thread of tweets on Stride VC Fund II, the company’s second seed fund. The fund, worth £100m ($138.6m), will invest mainly in London-based start-ups. Stride VC raised 80% of the funds from returning limited partners (LPs), while the remaining came from two unnamed institutional investors.

Destin stated that the company will remain focussed on seed funding, and leading and co-leading of funding rounds as well as be involved in pre-seeding and investing in larger companies such as Huboo. Strike’s first fund invested in 29 companies including e-commerce company Cazoo.

Username: Fred Destin

Twitter handle: @fdestin

Likes: 341

Retweets: 18

5. Brent Hoberman’s tweet on Deliveroo’s stock market debut

Brent Hoberman, co-founder of Founders Factory, a start-up accelerator, shared an article on the failure of food delivery start-up Deliveroo’s stock market debut on London Stock Exchange. The company was growing steadily especially during the pandemic with Amazon purchasing a 16% stake in it.

The start-up’s initial public offering (IPO), the biggest since 2011, turned out to a failure, however.

Deliveroo’s stock plunged on the listing day, closing at 26% below their listing price erasing £2bn ($2.8bn) in initial market capitalisation. Experts attributed the IPO’s failure to a number of factors including the pricing of stocks, timing, uncertainty regarding the company’s business prospects, and the regulatory risks faced by gig economy companies.

Deliveroo’s founders, however, remain positive about the company’s future and invest in delivery-only kitchens to offer more choice to customers.

Username: Brent Hoberman

Twitter handle: @brenthoberman

Likes: 72

Retweets: 11