Pineapples, bitcoin and beyond
Why we’re deep diving into alternative wealth
In the 1700s, a sweet and exotic pineapple from the Caribbean was comparable to gold in the American south. It also provided regular income to owners, the exotic fruit was so desirable amongst the bourgeoisie that people could, if they wished, pay to rent a pineapple from the original owner for dinner parties.
Oh, the prestige.
At its peak, a pineapple was worth nearly £5,000 in real terms.
It may sound silly, but a pineapple displayed all the valid traits of an asset; genuine demand, perishability, novelty, exoticism, scarcity, and income. Pineapples were largely unknown until they returned from lengthy expeditions throughout the 17th and 18th centuries (often gifted to royalty in Europe) but soon became good as gold.
But why are we talking about pineapples?
Because wealth is dynamic. And we appreciate that with every new generation comes new opportunities. That’s why, as a digital wealth manager, we’ve decided to explore the world of alternative assets in the coming weeks. Not because peer-to-peer, blockchain and cryptos are important parts of of any buzzword-y slide deck. We’re doing it because we want to better understand novel investment opportunities that resonate with our audience and the times we’re living in.
We’ve been wanting to do this for a while now. We regularly host community events, and they can’t seem to go a few minutes without a hearty conversation about cryptocurrencies, peer lending, thematic investments, angel investing, and the list goes on…
To give you all a flavour, here are a few recurring items at our events. For context, audience consists mainly of people in their 20’s and 30’s living in London (read “uber-millennials”). Again, this is purely anecdotal.
1) Shifting attitudes to risk
ie. Surprising appetite for asymmetric payoffs even if you might lose your entire investment in the pursuit of dramatically higher returns. Crypto currencies are a prime example and especially poignant with investors that are “bored” of a low interest rate world.
2) Access to investment opportunities that have traditionally been reserved for deeper pockets.
ie. PE-esque investments into private companies, venture funds, startups, bridge loans, or P2P lending…
3) Grrr… It’s just too much work
ie. Unless you’re a die-hard, or expert, gain exposure to alternative assets can be cumbersome. In many cases, many people are put off by the process of setting a wallet and storing bitcoin keys in a buried up vault.
How are we going to deep dive?
For full transparency, our deep dives (ie. immersive and rapid learning sprints) consist of two main elements.
Top down — Conducting thorough research by connecting with experts, articles/publications, internal research, presentations and more.
Bottom up — Community events so we can interact with real people and understand their genuine investment needs. We’re curious to learn more about the position some newer assets play in the grand scheme of someone’s wealth (Cash, stocks, bonds, property, bitcoin etc…)
If you’re based in London, we’d love to see you at our next community event to discuss alternative wealth (free tickets here).
Above all, this is a learning exercise
As we build a game changing wealth manager, we’re excited to be taking the time to delve into a new (and relevant) field. Even if our findings don’t lead us to the promised land, we’ll surely learn a lot along the way.
A small favour please
If you have any wisdom to share on alternative investments or important resources that we should be aware of, please give me a ping on Linkedin.
Stay tuned
We’ll be writing more about our forage into this brave new world — and will be sharing our findings. Stay tuned, it’s going to be pretty sweet (just like a pineapple).
Dann Bibas is the co-founder at Fountain, a digital wealth manager leveraging novel technology to create personalised investment experiences.