Achievement Unlocked 🧡💚💙

With the legal fund you helped us raise we are working behind the scenes to launch D2: Team Intrinsic. 🦆

Our coalition is expanding rapidly, and it is glorious.

A reporter asked me yesterday why I think we can compete with the big buyers being discussed in the press. I said this --

Any buyer - of Letterboxd or anything else - has to ask themselves a series of questions:

• How would this acquisition meet my objectives?

• Is this the best use of my available funds?

• Am I making an investment for the long-term or trying to flip a profit, and is the asset flippable?

• Are my objectives aligned with the objectives of the existing community?

Lots of people and companies can stack dollar bills to the moon and back, and that’s not nothing. Money makes life easier, we all know that.

But successfully acquiring a social platform for reasons beyond extracting value requires more than just financial capital: it requires alignment between your business, your investors, and the platform’s community.

Money alone is what leads to stories like those of Tumblr, Vine, and MySpace.

What’s funny is that Tiny, the company selling their 60% stake in Letterboxd, says the same on their very own website:

The power of money is overestimated, and here’s why.

When an investor’s primary concern is what you can do for them, they’re always on the lookout for something better. Profit-only investors get finicky around commitment -- whether they’re considering investment in a film or a business -- because they are constantly evaluating what economists call the opportunity cost of the investment.

That is econ-speak for FOMO: the double-bind of not wanting a competitor to buy the asset and get the benefit instead of you, but also not wanting to invest your money in one thing when you could potentially make more profit by investing it somewhere else.

If you are a private equity firm, your definition of successful acquisition might be “buy an undermonetized asset and squeeze the life out it until it is a shell of itself, then sell it for parts”.

If you are a strategic buyer, your definition of successful acquisition might be “absorb certain technologies or business verticals into the parent company, layoff staff, and ensure your competitors don’t do something advantageous with it”.

If you are Intrinsic Entertainment Collaborative, a public benefit corporation with a regenerative economic business model, your definition of success is to deploy a method for building economic coalitions between investors, workers, and communities; and utilize that method to cultivate the gardens of independent art, technology for good, and social entrepreneurship.

As we round the final corner of our Seed&Spark campaign with the finish line in sight, we want to thank the people and organizations who have cheered us along, advocated for us, invited important members to our coalition behind the scenes, and been generous with their time and expertise.

Together we are re-envisioning cooperative economics for the internet age.

We remain open to contributions of donated labor for anyone who has followed along but not felt able to pledge. Anyone who has taken on a project requiring lots of attorneys and bankers knows that hitting our goal is thrilling, but the work is just beginning.

• Social media experts to donate services optimizing our social media presence

• Bookkeepers to help get invoices tracked and bills paid

• Casting directors (or just people with connections to talent!) to help us with some upcoming promo videos

• Producers/directors/DPs/editors who want to help make one promo video each for our upcoming campaign

• Lawyers willing to contribute a few hours of time to assist our core legal team with tasks such as drafting contracts, filing SEC paperwork, or due diligence

1. Go to our campaign Wishlist

2. Select the Wishlist item you wish you contribute. If you want to offer a skill not listed, you may select the “Seat At The Table” category

3. Click the blue “Loan Item” button

4. Enter a description of the service you would like to provide, the number of hours you wish to contribute, and your hourly billing rate. If you have a professional website please include a link to that. Please be sure to use an email where we can reach you -- we will not be able to approve loans unless we are able to discuss the contribution with you!

5. We will receive a message asking us to approve the loan. We will contact you to make sure it is a good logistical fit, and then approve the loan if appropriate!

Once again, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

It has been an honor to have so many members of our community support this initiative. We’ll be in touch again soon as we launch Phase II.

With love and gratitude, Team Intrinsic