Howdy friends,

Happy Tuesday and Happy Belated Mother's Day to all the mothers (and mother-figures) out there!

I'm Jonah Baer and this is the Baer Necessities, where I share what I'm working on and exploring every week –– mostly in the world of startups, innovation, the creator economy, writing, crypto, marketing, and whatever else I'm digging up.

In full transparency, the Baer Necessities has seen small growth in subscribers lately (even though I'm still seeing 60%+ open rate every week). I've been stuck around 150 subscribers for a while. I spend 2-3 hours writing this but almost no time actually promoting it.

So if you like reading the Baer Necessities every week (but ONLY if you like it), do you mind helping me out by spreading the word and sharing with 1 friend or family member this week?

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Just one other thing from me

• Crypto Taxes: It's tax season (due May 17!). I've had quite a few people ask me if crypto taxes are any different than regular taxes or if you're taxed on crypto gains at all. The short answer? You're taxed on the capital gains, just like any other asset. Of course, there are many nuances depending how deep down the rabbit hole you're going (buying/selling NFTs, yield farming, lending, etc.). Read more about crypto taxes in this crypto tax guide I wrote for my job at Gilded here. But talk to an accountant for any serious questions you might have.

That's it from me. Let's get right to it with my recommendations for this week, a list of 3-5 things I'm exploring and learning right now.

Recommendations

Essay I'm Obsessing Over ––

🤖 Miami Tech Week: The Start of Startup Cities: I've been obsessed with Balaji Srinivasan lately, devouring every podcast appearance and article I can get my hands on. With his newest project, 1729.com, he's releasing new essays every week that give you the opportunity to learn, contribute, and earn micro-payments along the way (in the form of Bitcoin or Ethereum).

In this specific essay on Startup Cities, he describes how Miami is becoming the new startup city with their mayor Francis Suarez and lays the groundwork for how new startup cities (beyond traditional Silicon Valley) will form over the coming decades. Balaji gives 3 definitions of the startup city:

1. A city where startups happen, what San Francisco used to be prior to the current exodus.
2. A city that acts like a startup, like Miami or Dubai.
3. A city that is a startup itself, like Prospera, Culdesac, or Starbase, TX.

His thesis is that we're seeing the exodus of the tech community from Silicon Valley and New York into these new startup cities across the world. As someone who's only worked in these "new" startup cities and even joined a fellowship (Venture For America) that is designed to revitalize these American cities, I couldn't agree more. According to Balaji, while the 2010s showed the rise of cryptocurrencies, the 2020s will be defined by the rise of startup cities.

Pair this essay with Balaji's latest podcast appearance on My First Million, where he talks a lot about these ideas and so much more. He never fails to blow my mind.

Newsletter I'm Diving Into ––

🔮 Trends.vc: Looking for a source to learn about a wide range of topics and current trends? Look no further then Trends.vc. Dru Riley, a fellow Florida State alum, writes a weekly newsletter diving into various tech trends. I keep returning to his reports on decentralized finance (DeFi), charter cities, paid newsletters, NFTs, and remote work, but he's written about dozens of other topics too. There's a paid version and free version (I'm currently on the free version). He researches and writes about everything from the inherent problem and current solutions to opportunities and predictions in the space. Pair this newsletter with an incredible podcast interview with Dru Riley on the Creator Labs podcast.

New Bike I'm Riding ––

🚴‍♂️ REI Co-op Cycles DRT 1.1 Bike: If you know me in real life, you know I've been mountain biking like crazy during the pandemic. I needed a new bike for a while and finally got this bike from REI after failing to find anything at local Memphis bike shops for weeks. There's actually still a major shortage of bikes across the country because of supply chain shocks, so I'm definitely glad I was able to get one before summertime.

While we don't get the craziest trails here in Memphis (like you might in Arkansas or California for example), I'm still lucky to have trails in my backyard throughout Shelby Farms and Wolf River Trails. If you like cycling too, let me know if you want to ride sometime!

🐦 Tweets

Bringing back an old section where I share my favorite tweets or Twitter threads. I spend way too much time on Twitter to not share what I'm ~learning~ from the platform:

• THREAD: The top 0.1% of marketing mental models. (via George Mack)
• CEO of the City: In a remote world, talent is mobile. Mayors no longer need to run for higher office — they can level up just by recruiting talent to their city. On the other hand, they can also *lose* talent if the city doesn’t perform. (via Balaji)
• THREAD (and blog) on The Case for Universal Creative Income (via Li Jin)

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That's all I got for you this week!

What was your favorite bullet above? Least favorite? As always, if you have anything else cool to share with me, I'd love to hear from you.

Hope you have a great rest of your week and I'll see you back here next week!

Cheers,

Jonah

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