Live data from Hacker News

Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

marker.medium.com

61–70 of 145 posts

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#61
post #3

Why is esports listed as a vice-venture?

because it's kinda like gambling as a good portion of it can be down to chance, also "We try to keep the definition relatively broad..."

Are you thinking of Fantasy Sports ? I mixed the two initially as well. I see why Fantasy Sports (assembling virtual teams of real athletes) would be there, it's purely gambling, but e-sports (competitive gaming)… it's just like any other non-physical game, like chess or scrabble or whatever.

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#62
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect that weapons producers don't have a shortage of investment opportunities. Their customers include militaries and police departments. And if it's "just politics," the finance industry skews right and the NRA is one of the most powerful lobbies in the US. If ivestors are distancing themselves from the gun industry, I'd assume that it's good ol' fiscal conservatism: mass shootings are on the rise and they don'…

Big, established arms companies have decent financial prospects. Firearms/accessories businesses in the startup space (or just small, local businesses) are frequently cold-shouldered out of opportunities.

What we think of as startup-style capital, the kind that goes into software, is a hard sell for firearms manufacturers, because it's very difficult to get an edge, compared to software. Manufacturing is expensive, with a lot of up-front costs, and can't easily be scaled without a lot more up-front costs. Meanwhile, established deep-pockets competitors can just duplicate a successful product.

This is really about boutique/niche product manufacturing. There's usually not a reasonable path to becoming a billion-dollar company, at any degree of risk. That's what "startup capital" wants... to get in on the ground floor of a billion dollar company. They want that 100x return. You're not going to get a 100x return manufacturing a better rifle scope or a boutique handgun.

This is what banks are for. Start business on scraped capital, show real customers and real profit, then go to a traditional bank with a traditional business plan for scaling capital.

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#63

Why is esports listed as a vice-venture?

It's the equivalent of sports gambling.

Are you also thinking of Fantasy Sports (virtual teams of real players) ?

I don't see how E-Sports is different from Chess.

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#64
post #38

the numbers tossed around in these articles always amuse me. I have worked extensively in the adult industry and can guarantee its no where near $97B. Print is dead, the internet and PPV in hotels and satellites bring in the bacon and it's not much.

Does the adult industry include things like strip clubs, physical stuff like condoms/vibrators, or dating sites/apps? I feel like a sufficiently broad definition probably encompasses a lot of money. If we’re talking specifically pornography, then I have no idea how big it is, but it certainly seems to be in a state of flux at the moment. I would love to see some additional resources describing cash flow in that industry and where things are currently moving.

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#65
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's sex or drugs or any sort of addiction, the user is victim. With weapons, other people are the victim.

>If it's sex or drugs or any sort of addiction, the user is victim. With weapons, other people are the victim. At least in the US, a majority of deaths by firearm are suicides. And as for potentially addictive drugs (e.g., alcohol), the user can cause great harm to other people, as in drunk driving.

At the risk of stating the obvious: there is presently no war on US soil.

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#66

There are well-established benefits of CBD use in some patients covering a wide variety of symptoms, but pushing skin care pseudoscience is wrong. Isolated evidence like that of anti-inflammatory effects is not the same as an extensive clinical trial. This is why we need an actual healthcare system: to allow people to see doctors rather than falling victim to the junk CBD products that this person is excited to fund.

Recess's CBD sparkling water sounds kind of cool, but its $5 a can! Yikes, that's one hell of a markup. I'd try it at half the price, and might be a customer at 1/3 the price, but $30/6pk is pretty wild.

Each can contains 10mg of broad spectrum hemp extract: high quality broad spectrum CBD oils are $0.80 for 10mg CBD (10mg of broad spectrum oil means the CBD content probably 5mg+/-3). Price compare with TonicVibes's 1500mg CBD (from whole plant extract) for $120 - best quality CBD oils I've found so far.

Even if the other herbs are extremely high quality as well, the margins on this product are insane.

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#67
post #54

I find Unknown Fund more interesting: https://www.unknown.fund/

A thread about this is currently on the front page as well: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21538748

It wasn't at the time of me posting, I feared it to drown.

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#68
post #66

There are well-established benefits of CBD use in some patients covering a wide variety of symptoms, but pushing skin care pseudoscience is wrong. Isolated evidence like that of anti-inflammatory effects is not the same as an extensive clinical trial. This is why we need an actual healthcare system: to allow people to see doctors rather than falling victim to the junk CBD products that this person is excited to fund.

Recess's CBD sparkling water sounds kind of cool, but its $5 a can! Yikes, that's one hell of a markup. I'd try it at half the price, and might be a customer at 1/3 the price, but $30/6pk is pretty wild. Each can contains 10mg of broad spectrum hemp extract: high quality broad spectrum CBD oils are $0.80 for 10mg CBD (10mg of broad spectrum oil means the CBD content probably 5mg+/-3). Price compare with TonicVibes's…

CBD products in general are quite expensive, for example CBD extracts are similarly priced to their THC counterparts. I assume this is in large part due to marijuana prohibition laws. Prices will hopefully come down as those laws are relaxed around the country and more players enter the market.

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#69
post #58
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true for major manufacturers that have been around for decades or even centuries. Small start-ups have a much harder time finding funding.

Small startups doing expensive manufacturing in the face of existing industrial-grade competition will always have a hard time finding funding, because the risk/reward ratio sucks.

True, and the general consensus is if you want to make a start-up in this industry just don't. It's more likely you'll end up on a future episode of Forgotten Weapons.

I can definitely understand not wanting to invest in these sorts of start-ups purely from an ROI perspective.

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#70
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's sex or drugs or any sort of addiction, the user is victim. With weapons, other people are the victim.

>If it's sex or drugs or any sort of addiction, the user is victim. With weapons, other people are the victim. At least in the US, a majority of deaths by firearm are suicides. And as for potentially addictive drugs (e.g., alcohol), the user can cause great harm to other people, as in drunk driving.

No. A plurality of the gun deaths are suicide (%33). Accidents and homicide add up to more.
Post reply on HN