Hi there, 

Can I ask you a question?

(Fake wait for your response.)

What’s the best "scam" you’ve ever run?  

Here’s mine from ~15 years ago.

It involves Google.

1. I realized the keyword "mesothelioma" paid like $15/click on Google
2. I set up a 1-page mesothelioma website & put up Google Ads 
3. I told my friends to click daily
4. I got a little aggressive clicking
5. Google shut my account down :( 

Lesson: Easy money never lasts.

So back to the question at hand, what’s the best scam you’ve ever run?

I’ll share some of the best ones in a future newsletter (with your permission, of course).

How high? So high that I can touch the sky

Yup — the fintech boom is in full effect.

This quarter alone, fintech funding is on pace to reach $15B, the highest since Q2’18.

We'll be looking at where the fintech boom is coming from in our upcoming State Of Fintech report. Until then, here’s a sneak peek. 

Riding into the sunset 

Healthcare unicorn exit activity hit record levels in 2020, with billion-dollar companies like One Medical and GoodRx going public.

Take a look at the exits of 20 healthcare companies with valuations of $1B+ here.

Loyalty rewarded

Retailers & payments companies are looking to cash in on the rise of blockchain and cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether by rolling out crypto-based rewards and loyalty programs.

We dig into the future of crypto rewards and other tech trends to watch closely in 2021 here. 

And don’t miss our upcoming roundtable, when our analysts will answer your questions about these 12 trends. Sign up at this link and submit your questions here.

• Covid-19 Pivot: How Tech Partners Adjust Their Pitch To Insurers
• Aiming For The Sky: How Insurers Maximize The Cloud's Potential
• New Kids On The Block: Learning From Digital Insurers

Food for thought

As consumers rely more on delivery services, the $186B food and beverage delivery industry has expanded to meet their evolving needs and interests, including by doubling down on sustainability.

From eco-friendly meal kits to dark convenience stores, clients can see 60+ early-stage companies looking to transform food and beverage delivery here.

New York Times. Alina Tugend (@atugend) quotes CB Insights fintech analyst Anisha Kothapa (@AnishaKothapa) and cites CBI research in covering personal finance apps. 

TechCrunch. Kirsten Korosec (@kirstenkorosec) digs into mobility trends using the CB Insights State Of Mobility Tech report.

Business Insider. Bartie Scott (@bartielouscott) and Hillary Hoffower (@hillary_tweets) discuss the boom in fitness wearables, quoting CB Insights senior intelligence analyst Jake Matthews and citing CBI research.

P.S. We’re scaling up our sales team and are hiring a ton of account executives. Send in your resume here.

Not buying it. A wave of startup IPOs is minting thousands of millionaires, but many of them plan to spend cautiously amid the pandemic.

NYT

Project Gucciberg. A new project uses a deepfake of Gucci Mane’s voice to narrate selections of classic texts like Beowulf and Anna Karenina.

The Verge

Buttergate. Dairy farmers in Canada were asked to stop adding palm oil to their cows’ feed, which increases butterfat production, after consumers complained the butter was too hard.

Quartz

One-stop shop. Electric-vehicle makers in China are opening showrooms in luxury malls to gain an edge with consumers.

Bloomberg

Open book. Researchers were able to “virtually unfold” and read a sealed letter from 1697 using computer algorithms and an X-ray scanner.

WSJ