Starting with the commerce news:
Rush.app got the Built for Shopify badge! ✨
We’ve been scaling Rush hard this year and with Q4 coming around the corner, we’re super stoked to announce one of the best recognitions in the Shopify world. Along with our OS2 native experience (first in market in our category), and the upcoming SMS integrations with key players like SMSBump, I’m thrilled with the growing number of stores picking our platform for order tracking & upsells going forward.
If you run a Shopify store and aren’t using Rush yet, we generate 2-7% in added GMV pretty much turnkey – and our Klaviyo flows give a solid boost of 5-10X return on the subscription fee in the first few weeks of getting them live. Hit me up and I’ll put you in touch with our customer success leads for setup.
Next on:
My complete stock portfolio
I’ve been asked about individual stocks or ETFs over the past few months so I thought this could be a good exercise.
Here’s the entire international stock portfolio I’m investing in at the moment:
- ARM Holdings PLC (ARM)
- Semrush Holdings Inc (SEMR)
- Total Energies SE (TTE)
- iSHARES CORE S&P 500 (SXR8)
- iSHR NASDAQ100 UCITS ETF DE (EXXT)
- Alphabet (Class A) (GOOGL)
- Asana Inc (ASAN)
- HubSpot (HUBS)
- Logitech International SA (LOGI)
- J&J (JNJ)
- Pfizer (PFE)
- Microsoft (MSFT)
- Tesla (TSLA)
- Starbucks (SBUX)
- Dropbox (DBX)
- Alibaba (BABA)
- PayPal (PayPal)
- Spotify (SPOT)
- Nike (NKE)
- Snap (SNAP)
- Zoom (ZM)
- Adobe (ADBE)
- Activision Blizzard (ATVI)
- Toyota (TM)
- Cloudflare (NET)
- Moderna (MRNA)
- Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD)
- Amazon (AMZN)
- Fresenius (FRE)
- SBA Communications Corp (SBAC)
- Vanguard FTSE 250 UCITS ETF (VMID)
- Vanguard FTSE All-World High Dvd Yield (VHYL)
- Vonovia SE (VNA)
- Williams Cos Inc. (WMB)
- iShares Dow Jones Global Titans 50 UCITS ETF (DE) (EXI2)
- Coca-Cola Co (CCC3)
- Shopify Inc. (307)
There are several important lessons or takeaways I’d share before you head in and have fun with it or try to replicate it in its entirety:
- There are several strategic national tickers I’m also in, but not relevant to a global audience. If you’re in Bulgaria and want to learn more, let me know (spoiler: REIT on top)
- If I really had to simplify and pick two, it’s probably SXR8 and EXXT as a European. You can cruise with these two and be rolling.
- I have some terrible picks over the years. Zoom is one of them. Snap as well. PayPal is killing me lately – hopeful for their new CEO. Not all choices are great choices.
- Individual stocks are generally a horrible idea unless you know what you’re doing. I either do individual stocks because I want to track their performance closer/better, love the brands (SBUX/NKE), or I’m heavily invested in products related to them – just like 307 (Shopify) that’s tightly connected to Rush, or HUBS/SEMR we partner up with and use heavily.
- Some choices are dividend stocks. Price may go down but dividends keep rolling. Some get incremental bumps over time.
- There’s some diversification as well. I like indexes/ETFs for a more balanced outlook as I don’t engage in day trading.
I’m making changes over time though I rarely kill positions that are running at a serious loss (like Zoom at the time). This is not financial advise but my personal breakdown – and I may trim down choices to consolidate and focus more on SXR8/EXXT instead.
And Flippa coming to Sofia
Speaking of Semrush, and DevriX is an agency partner this year, they had a tour together with Flippa which was absolutely awesome.
We’re having the first local Flippa Exit meetup in Sofia this week and gathering site flippers, buyers, sellers, M&A experts, eCom gurus, and other folks interested in part-time or professional site flipping.
I’m super excited about this opportunity and looking forward to making this a recurring tradition here – building a new ecosystem of buyers and sellers, connecting folks together, growing the digital space with opportunities for acquisition, and more.
As always, if you’ve got any feedback or tips for what you enjoy or don’t in this newsletter, reply away. While newsletters aren’t exactly democratic, they are heavily influenced by regular followers and subscribers – and what works for you and the market.
Yours,
Mario
My Take
✍️ How do you Stand Out in a Competitive Landscape – There is no getting around it, differentiation in a competitive market is no longer a choice – it’s a necessity. Being unique from your competition requires you to unleash your unique power and captivate and convert your audience. Have a look at this week’s slide deck
✍️ Rush App Built for Shopify badge – Why do apps get the “Built for Shopify” badge? It’s the highest level of recognition in the ecosystem. It’s only granted to partners who have consistently delivered top-level security, stability, and UX. That’s why we’re proud to be the only order tracking app on the Shopify market with that badge!
Business Strategy
📄Microsoft’s AI team leaks 38TB of private data – Microsoft’s AI research team mistakenly leaked 38TB of the company’s private data, including sensitive personal information and internal messages. The incident occurred due to a misconfigured link provided by the team, granting visitors complete access to the Azure storage account, but Microsoft has stated that no customer data was exposed, and the issue has been resolved.
📄Huawei’s 5G chip – Huawei has released its latest smartphone, the Mate 60 Pro, which features a chip supporting 5G connectivity despite U.S. sanctions that aimed to cut off Huawei from such technologies. This development has sparked concern in Washington and could pose a challenge to Apple in China, one of Apple’s largest markets, as a resurgent Huawei could attract Chinese consumers with competitive technology and a strong national image.
📄Google Ads apologizes after automatic data migration – Google Ads has apologized for causing confusion among advertisers due to the automatic migration of configurations from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4. The updates have impacted advertisers’ ability to create reports and monitor campaign performance, and those who didn’t opt out in time can follow specific steps to disconnect and delete their automatically configured GA4 properties.
📄Instacart targets $9B valuation – The upcoming week is significant due to the Federal Reserve meeting, where interest rates are expected to remain unchanged, and other events include ongoing UAW strikes, Instacart’s IPO, FedEx’s earnings report, and data on Existing Home Sales.
📄Student Loan Restart – Billions of dollars are flowing into the Education Department as the federal student loan system restarts, with a significant increase in daily deposits of operating cash. While some borrowers have started making payments, it remains to be seen how many will utilize the new income-driven repayment plan and safety net options provided by the Biden administration in the coming months.
Global News
📈 Stock indices finished today’s trading session in the red ahead as the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision is only a day away. Indeed, the Nasdaq 100 (NDX), the S&P 500 (SPX), and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) fell 0.22%, 0.21%, and 0.31%, respectively.
- S&P: 4,443 (-0.22%)
📈 Since 2022, mortgage interest rates have experienced a significant increase, surpassing 7 percent during the summer for the commonly chosen 30-year fixed-rate loan. Following a period of historically low rates, these changes occurred due to inflation and the actions taken by the Federal Reserve. The most recent increase in the Fed’s primary interest rate took place in July.
- 30-year mortgage rate: 7.55% (-0.04%)
- 15-year mortgage rate: 6.80% (-0.01%)
📈 Fed is set to pause rate hikes, but don’t count out another increase
- The focus will be on dots that likely will show another 2023 move.
- With inflation elevated, FOMC will want to keep options open.
📰 This week’s news:
- Five Americans jailed in Iran have been freed as part of a deal that gives Tehran access to $6 billion in frozen funds, an official says.
- Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is acquitted of corruption charges in impeachment trial.
- Canadian autoworkers reached a tentative deal with Ford in extended negotiations, averting a strike days after the UAW walked out on the ‘Big 3’ in the US.
Investing Updates
If you’re more interested in networking opportunities, you can visit ISTAcon in Sofia on October 12th. In any case, let’s have a look at this week’s offers:
- TenderTec – A UK startup to unlock healthy ageing and healthy caring at home.
- Affirma BioTech – Startup that is raising a €600,000 seed round to advance its cure for chronic Hepatitis B and influenza virus.
- Finqware – is raising €3M to automate European corporate financial operations fully.
Note: Got a round going that you want to feature – your own business or a portfolio company? Get in touch.
Are you in Eastern Europe this September? Join me and other entrepreneurs in the first-ever Flippa meetup in Sofia, where we’ll be discussing selling an online business, acquiring, or simply what Flippa is all about. Pack your bags, it’s worth it. Have a look:
- Automotive Tech Store – This three-year-old Ecom business specializes in selling tech hardware for vehicles. With a profit margin of 64%, this business is setting the standard in the automotive tech industry.
- Monthly Profit: $105K
- Annual Revenue: $1.9M
- Average Order Value: $885
- Digital Fitness Program – This seven-year-old business is a fitness store, selling various postpartum workout programs. Easy to run in just a few hours per week, with a loyal customer base and showcasing a profit margin of 33%.
- Monthly Profit: $5.1K
- Annual Revenue: $186K
- Email Subscribers: 25.7K
- Cooking and Recipes Blog – With a library of over 550 different easy to follow recipes, the blog is monetized via ads and affiliates and has an authority score of 36. It comes complete with 17.9K quality backlinks, 9K email subscribers and 83% organic and direct traffic.
- Monthly Profit: $4.1K
- Monthly Page Views: 107K
- Age: 13 years
Need My Help?
I’m involved with a number of initiatives – here’s what I can do to help you:
🌐 Scalable and secure WordPress? DevriX provides WordPress retainers to SMEs, publishers, eCommerce, SaaS, and more. Our plans start from $1,200/mo to $40K/mo for anything from support through engineering, CRO, performance, security, to fractional CXO services and managing the data stacks of large corps.
🛒 Running on Shopify? Set up Rush now and increase your revenue with post-purchase orders automatically!
🚀 Want to scale and optimize your business? Growth Shuttle offers personalized advisory plans starting at $350/hr. Tap into my personal pool of business know-how and my data warehouse of industry data.
👥 Want access to my blueprints/books and a weekly Slack planning session? Join my Community and grab my Entrepreneurship book.
💼 Looking for investment opportunities? Check out SeedBlink.
💡 Eager to incorporate my recommended solutions? Track my angel investments. Sharing, applying for open roles, or writing reviews helps a ton. And anything else I try to publish on my blog and my courses here!