GM ladies and gentleman and welcome back to B&C, the newsletter that'll have you going, huh that was mildly amusing. Brought to you by the brilliant idiots Nat and V.

Here's the breakdown for today:

• A Warm Welcome 😎.

• Nat's Picks for the week.

• V's Picks for the week.

• Something to bless your inbox.

We've been on this newsletter grind for a few months now, BUT, this post marks the first one we're sharing with the world 😎. For those of you who are new here, this is Based and Cryptopilled you're go to newsletter during a good ol' bear market. Like the old adage goes: when a man reaches the lowest point of his life he starts a podcast- go even lower and!voila! you've got yourself a newsletter.

We're the equivalent of the orchestra on the titanic, playing one last tune on a sinking ship. Your crazy uncle who lives out of an RV in Yosemite and hosts a radio show interviewing his friends who've been abducted by martians. Ultimately, some blokes with a keyboard and too much free-time.

My names Viren, but you can call me V. I'm a big fan of mitochondria and have been working in crypto for the last couple years. You can follow me on Twitter @Virxx0

I'm Natalia, but you can call me Nati. Check out the Twitter @na0xm. Believer community generated fun, Chubbicorns, and mangos.

So sit back, enjoy the ride, and humor us by subscribing if you haven't already so you can stay up to date with our latest rantings and ravings of the week.

Best business advice I've ever received. Take notes kids.

I'ma keep it a buck with y'all and say that crypto isn't doing too hot this week. So I'll let Viren spread the FUD and tell ya'll the wonderful tale of Donald Mastick.

You might be wondering, why tf should I care about Mr. Mastick. Well our boy Donald was part of the Manhattan Project, the United States effort to build the first atomic bomb during WWII.

On a side note, everyone who worked on the Manhattan Project might have had the hardest ID photos in all of history.

At the ripe young age of 23 Mr. Mastick was working at the chemistry division of Los Alamos Labs studying the properties of plutonium, which at the time was only available in the synthetic form in minuscule quantities.

One night while Mr. Mastic was working with his lab partner, Arthur Wahl, on analyzing 10 milligrams of plutonium (a good chuck of all available plutonium in the world at the time), the vial exploded with some of its contents making their way to Mastick's mouth.

Yes. Donald Mastick had just ingested a solid amount of all the available plutonium on planet earth. His face was scrubbed and he went through a thorough decontamination process, but days later his breath would still set the needle on an ionization chamber off the charts even 6 feet away.

He eventually had to have his stomach pumped to retrieve the remaining plutonium, but remnants still remained detectable in his body even 30 years later.

So if you're ever feeling bad for yourself, just remember you weren't the guy who accidentally ate plutonium.

If you want to learn more about the strange history of plutonium, check out The Human Plutonium Injection Experiments by William Moss and Robert Eckhardt

POV trying to comfort the average Luna hodler.

Ok friends. Today we are going to talk about the most infamous man on the internet. Unless you've been living in Ohio, you've probably heard of Andrew Tate. He's an influencer / self-help guru who has taken the internet by storm the last couple months and was recently banned off of most major social media platforms. Why did he get banned? Well that's its own can of worms for another day, but how did he get so big? Now that's an interesting questions which involves cookies, alleged pyramid schemes, and a case study on one of the most dedicated fanbases on the internet.

Here's the story of how Mr. Tate took over the internet and bootstrapped he most loyal community on the web.

A Discord Poweruser

Prior to breaking onto the scene on most major social media platforms, Tate's toolstack consisted of two major pieces. The platform we've all come to love and hate, Discord, as well as a digital goods marketplace Gumroad.

Gumroad is one of the easiest ways to sell digital good online. Started by Sahil Lavingia in September of 2011, Gumroad seeks to help anyone earn their first dollar online. And that is exactly what it did. Countless people have made a living selling digital products from Iconsets and Ebooks to Notion Templates and Private Discord Access. Gumroad has created a robust tool-stack consisting of email-lists, payment processors, and easy to set up affiliate marketing programs to help digital creators market their products. That last tool will be important later on 👀.

A University of Hustlers?!?

Tate's product "Hustlers University", an online school based in Discord to teach people how to make money online, initially grew a cult following on Gumroad. Through utilizing video streaming features on Discord such as "Townhall" and "Voice-Channels" Tate was able to build an intimate relationship with his audience over the course of a few months.

By offering lessons on a variety of digital services such as copywriting and e-commerce to more ambiguous skills in "stocks" and "crypto" Tate created an enticing offering for his potential customers. For the low price of $49.99 you could learn how to get rich and get one step closer to living the life of your favorite influencer, Tate.

The Clip Industrial Complex

Let's take a step back for a bit and explore a phenomena that has become increasingly popular and influential amongst Twitch, Anime, and K-pop fans.

If you've spent any time on Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok you've probably been introduced to new creators and artists from fan-uploaded clips. Creator's true fans will go the extra mile and re-upload content from their favorite channels or artists. This comes in the forms of anime edits, videos of BTS practicing dancing, and clips from multi-hour Twitch broadcasts.

If you're not getting the idea, check out this video showing the vast array of popular youtube channels which have grown their audience by simply uploading clips of the popular Twitch Streamer HasanAbi.

Keep in mind very few of these channels ever actually interface or coordinate with the original creator much less get paid for doing this somewhat tedious work. They simply highlight their favorite part of their content! What's the incentive? Well for most fans they find the joy in connecting with other fans, building an audience around their support of a creator. On Tiktok, for example, entire trends are often started from audio clips of popular TV shows or youtube videos that fans post.

Here are a few examples from the TV show Breaking Bad and the anime Death Note

People who remix this content need not have any knowledge of the original, they simply can participate in the joy of contributing to the trend.

Ok, so how does this relate to Tate again?

Well like I said before, the generation of these clips is extremely valuable for the original creators of the content. It exposes them to new audiences, increases their digital footprint, and most importantly its completely free.

What if a creator was able to reward their audience for generating these clips and share their success with the true fans that made it happen?

This is exactly what Andrew Tate did. Here's how it worked.

• Members of the Hustlers University discord server had the ability to tune into multi-hour speaking events hosted by Andrew and his brother.

• He had small but loyal audience eager to make money online who bought into his message.

• He then started the HU Affiliate Program and gave precise instructions to his members how to market his product, a membership to Hustlers University.

• Through the Gumroad Affiliate Program, members would generate their own unique links to sign up for HU and post them on new social media accounts they made.

• Fans then chopped and edited small clips from his Discord Speaker series and posted them all over Youtube, Instagram, and most importantly Tiktok.

• Some viewers of this content would convert into members of Hustlers University, whose membership fee would be split amongst Tate and his affiliate.

• As new members joined HU gained more affiliate promoters who in part got even more new members to join.

This flywheel scaled tremendously eventually leading to tens of millions of dollars of revenue monthly for HU, Andrew Tate being one of the most searched people on Google, and a loyal fanbase that still reposts his clips to this day.

My thoughts: Tate is a controversial figure, however, his rise to prominence is a case study for any creator, company, or artist looking to build an audience. Include your fans in your success! When you share a piece of the pie the pie WILL get bigger over time. I think the opportunity for creators to leverage their fanbases and make them a more active part of their growth holds countless opportunities. Tate created a decentralized community to promote his personal brand. When will you?

The motto 😎

See y'all next week,

V and Nat

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