Viva Las Vegas 🎉

After a great week in NYC, I arrived in Las Vegas yesterday night

Oct 24, 2021

After a great week in NYC, I arrived in Las Vegas yesterday night and am ready to go for Money2020!

I had a great week in New York and I met loads of interesting people.

Some examples: it was great to finally meet Nico Simko in person, the NY FinTech kickoff meetup was nice, and Dee Choubey told me some interesting things that are coming up at Moneylion. Also, there were some interesting startups at the TechStart pitch event, so that was definitely worth visiting!

Brooklyn is where I met with the Curve US team. We talked about some guerilla marketing strategies, among other things. It was a pleasure meeting you all, and I can’t wait for you to execute that Instagram trick 😉.

All in all, I’ve reaffirmed my beliefs about in-person events. It’s good to be back.

I also met somebody this week who has roots in Groningen and Amsterdam, just like me! It really is a small world... It was nice to hear your story Rutger van Faassen. I’m glad we’ve met and we will definitely stay in touch.

And of course, all the other people I met, I can’t mention you all but thank you for taking the time to meet with me and I hope to see you all again soon!

“Empire State of Mind”

Aside from feeling revitalized by networking, I truly enjoyed walking around this lively city.

The weather was awesome (some days you couldn’t notice the difference from Curaçao). So, I did almost everything on foot instead of a taxi.

I was a happy pedestrian among yellow taxis and the summer blue NYC skyline.

Walking is a great way to clear your mind in between meetings, so I tend to do it regularly in my hometown, Amsterdam. However, new surroundings like these, really inspire me to walk around with a smile on my face. So, if you were in NYC last week and caught a glimpse of an ambling happy tourist, it was probably me.

Hey! At least it’s some exercise, so that makes me feel a bit better about myself. It’s all in the balance. Don’t you know? Walking and NY bagels go hand in hand 😉.

My take on current events 🗞

My news of the week would be Donald Trump’s announcement on Wednesday that he will be launching his very own media network (and SPAC), including a social media platform called “TRUTH Social,” in order to “stand up to the tyranny of Big Tech.” 👀

But let’s keep it a bit more FinTech related this week.

One of the most interesting news that came out this week, has to be the Paypal - Pinterest rumor (thanks again for mentioning it to me, Amanda Orson 😉).

According to a publication, PayPal has “recently approached” Pinterest about a potential buyout.

Citing an anonymous source, Bloomberg said PayPal could pay around $70 a share, which would value Pinterest at about $39 billion.

Just in case you didn’t know, Pinterest is essentially one of the biggest data plays in the market about things you might buy or enjoy tracking. And if you have the world's list of things they might buy, that is pretty amazing.

As Techcrunch puts it; Paypals's plans to potentially acquire Pinterest make more sense than one might think at first glance.

Why? Because over the past 18 months or so, Pinterest has made a concerted effort to expand into an e-commerce platform, launching several new features.

For example, in April 2020, the company launched a new way to shop on its platform, giving Pinterest users the ability to browse in-stock inventory from newly added “Shop” tabs on Search and on Pinterest boards. The company also improved visual search to make more products shoppable from Pins.

What’s my take? It sounds like a shock move by Paypal, but I have to say I get it and it has huge potential. Let’s see how this develops. I’ll definitely keep my eye on this.

What are your thoughts on this? Let me know in the comments!

Marcel van Oost

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