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Otis — Own a piece of culture.
Invest in contemporary art, sneakers, and collectibles for as little as $25. We're democratizing access and creating a new asset class around culture.
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Replies
@rrhoover I'm very bullish on fractional ownership!
Every generation has an asset class and we believe ours is culture. It’s about loving and understanding what you invest in, and investing in what you love and understand. Ask any sneakerhead about Jordan 1 OG Bred's, or any art enthusiast about Basquiat, and they'll be able to tell you everything. Only thing that locked them out is access. We hope to change that and give everyone an opportunity to participate in this kind of ownership.
@mikekarnj @rrhoover Economists like Thomas Picketty have written about how wealth grows fastest when one owns assets. With flat wage growth and inflation creeping up in ways that are often hard to discern, fractional ownership could be one of the only ways folks with disposable income can diversify their portfolio and obtain assets. I'm really excited to see what else happens in this space!
@mikekarnj @rrhoover Very bullish. These type of business are pushing a revolution in personal finance.
I've seen this done with expensive real estate property in NYC. I think if the story of a "new era of personal finance" is told and spread in the right way then mainstream adoption will happen. Stories shape popular opinion *far* more effectively than actual facts.
"Stories are a high level language for programming people." - Naval
@rrhoover @mikekarnj Congrats Mike! Great to see that you've launched. Will be excited to see where you go.
Very excited for my friend Mike launching Otis today. Fractional ownership makes a ton of sense and way more fun as a collector. If you want to know where the world is headed checkout their new app.
As someone who has been a early user of @onrallyrd for a while i think the jury is still out. Here are my stats on Rally Rd - 9 investments for the last year. Total return 4.8% - 6/9 assets have not budge a cent - 1 a slight loss. So the big question is my mind is how liquid will these markets be and how long of a time horizon do you need. Tougher sell while the markets and crypto are doing well.
But always been a big fan of diversification. @rrhoover theres also @masterworksio. Would love to hear @mikekarnj's perspective on this and looking forward to trying this out.
@arjunram good example. A related question is: What's the value prop of these companies? Is it for $ returns? Fandom/pride in owning a piece of something you care about? To support the creator?
@rrhoover In my case its diversification and access to assets that wouldn't normally be able to own like a Lamborghini. I support creators on @Kickstarter already so I would assume 1 & 2 in addition to my first line above. Hope that helps.
@onrallyrd @rrhoover @masterworksio @mikekarnj @arjunram 100% agree. This isn't investing, it's gambling, or a little kinder, speculating. Nothing wrong with putting in a few long shots, but don't bet the farm on this.
I've been lucky enough to pick up on a number of artists before they became well known (I own an early Banksy original and a Heather Horton) but that's not part of my investment strategy.
I'm so excited to see investing democratize on the basis of: what people can invest in, and who can invest. Both of those things are empowering. Plus, these assets are cool af. Happy investor here.
Focuses a lot on various opportunities to co-own assets, not a lot (if any) on exploring and explaining what can/may be gained as a result.
Personally, as both an investor and a collector, I reckon co-ownership is the polar opposite for the reasons why one would stake-hold/invest or collect. From a regretful friend:
"I own a (fraction of a) sports car that I cannot touch, and it's nearly impossible to sell my shares; simply because co-shared assets depreciate with time instead of appreciate and collectors and to use-or-move their investments for another investments".
Like a lot of similar attempts, including a bunch of offline and non-tech projects, little to no serious investors want to have a bit-piece of what they 1) cannot use themselves whenever they please and 2) cannot easily move or sell - to recoup their investment - for whatever reason they decide.
Fractional ownership, to collectors and investors, equals to not seeing-using-selling-spinning-marketing-and-ultimately-enjoying your investment in a personal matter, except for perhaps.. bragging rights?
And no, it isn't the same as stock-holding and investment shareholding, which are regulated in completely different ways. Even more stabilised attempts, such as sports cars and even apartments, are riddled with usage, leveraging and financial recuperating challenges.
Feedback: "Own a piece of culture" is one of the emptiest catch phrases I have ever heard. The entire purpose behind what defines "culture" is, in itself, something impossible to own. It's basically saying "Own something un-ownable".
It's a huge no for me.
Think this is a very cool idea - but I think business model will evolve to accommodate some sort of "physical ownership" somehow (it can be in your house for a week or something). Even for the uber-wealthy, how many folks are investing in high art and just storing it as an investment (real question)?
Whilst I like the app and the effort behind this, I don't think it's a good idea in terms of wealth creation for the users as investing in art and collectables falls under the category of speculation rather than investment as the asset class does not generate any income (like rents or dividends) and the investors here pretty much hope someone else is willing to buy the asset for more than they paid for it.
Would be investors are better off buying companies on the stock market using brokers like Freetrade and Robinhood to buy shares in companies (Bank Of America stock is like $31 today and well within the means of most people).
This product has a beautiful interface and congratulations to the team that launched it I appreciate the difficulty in creating a product / company and I wish you the best of luck!
@mikekarnj @rrhoover
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