2021 at Lykeion

2021 is officially in the books.

It was a transcendent year for us as we:

• Published 54 articles

• Added two new verticals (Sustainable Finance and Geopolitics) with two new studs for Editors (Manuel and Jacob)

• More than tripled our subscriber base

• Switched publication platforms and turned the brand from a concept into a finished product

• And we did it all (we think) without selling our souls, joining a tribe (read cult), or compromising content quality

The only thing that trumps how proud we are of this past year is our excitement for what’s ahead.

Let me give you a sneak peek:

• Lykeion Merchandising is coming – the design will be some mashup of our current branding (Tim’s notebook doodling’s on flights) balanced with our digital nomad ethos and my Italian/Portuguese love for overpriced fashion. So, basically, it’s never going to work.

• Full build-out of our Geopolitics vertical thanks to our partnership with Perch Perspectives.

• We’ll be splitting our crypto coverage between Bitcoin and Web 3.0 to help readers better understand the tectonic shift happening below our feet.

• We’re partnering up with different universities – so if you’re a student and think that Lykeion would help your colleagues, reach out at [email protected].

• Launch an ERC-20 Lykeion token so that… nah, relax, just kidding. We’re not THAT cool.

A QUICK RECAP OF OUR WHY

Naval tweeted in 2017, “The tools for learning are abundant. It’s the desire to learn that’s scarce.”

The Lykeion team is on a mission to bring high-quality ideas to those that have the desire to learn about business, finance, and economics, in an objective, non-pretentious, and relatable way. The way we deliver is as important to us as what we deliver.

Lykeion is a learning outlet that leverages current developments to help readers build the necessary knowledge base to understand Macroeconomics, Markets, Crypto, Sustainable Finance, and Geopolitics.

The knowledge that comes from reading our newsletters is far from academic. It’s purposefully delivered in a way that’s useful in your daily life – from job interviews to investment decisions and career considerations, or just helping you look at what’s going on in the world through a clear, objective lens.

We’ve built this brand as a response to a deep-seated need Tim and I had since our first years of University: the lack of high-quality financial content written in an approachable and relatable way (all alternatives were either way too in-depth and tedious, or engaging but shallow).

We’re working to make Lykeion the brand that lifelong learners interested in finance, business, and economics most relate to, from the way we write to the products we offer, and the content we bring forward.

As Al Pacino said in one of the best scenes of one of the best movies ever: We're just getting warmed up.  

2021 FAVORITES

• Charts: Tim’s October Update was my favorite one of the year, especially given his nuclear energy rant (and maybe because it was written in Rome). A perfect example of how charts are better than 10,000 word essays.

• Markets: So much has happened this year markets-wise… but the one I had most fun writing was probably our August Update, where I highlighted that global equity inflows in 2021 had been running at 34x the average of the last 25 years, and wrote about China’s Tech crackdown and non-OPEC oil supply slowing down – all of which are multi-year relevant themes that you NEED to be on top of. On the Macro side, Roger’s July Update was crucial in breaking down the drivers of the performance of the US Dollar (the most important asset in the financial world), especially against EM currencies, something that continues to be incredibly relevant at the beginning of 2022.

• Crypto: Institutional adoption, the energy debate, the China mining ban, DeFi and NFTs, multiple bull and bear markets... there's no time off in crypto-land. Amongst all of that, I would suggest our most recent subscribers go back to basics and check out our Bitcoin initiation, a required reading that helps set the stage for everything we write within the crypto space.

• Sustainability: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – there are very few outlets (if any) that are trying to help readers dissect the real meaning of the Sustainability movement within the context of business, finance, and economics. I’m proud of how much work we’ve done here, and I’d suggest you read Manuel’s Sustainable Finance initiation to get a sense of the kind of content we write about.

• Editorials: Our Inflation vs Deflation piece was, in my opinion, the best piece of content we’ve put forward this year. Mandatory reading for anyone who has a view on inflation, crypto, commodities, the US Dollar, or objectively any kind of asset class out there…

• Geopolitics: We’ve just launched this vertical, but the only primer we published so far already helps clarify what Geopolitics is and why it matters now:“Faced with a more competitive world, where the U.S. is not a singularly dominant power but rather one of several rising and falling great powers in a multipolar world, self-reliance has replaced globalization. Nationalism has supplanted idealism. Zero-sum competition is no longer on the fringes: it is the primary political mode of most countries in the world currently. These are the sort of forces that geopolitics is best at understanding.”

Grateful to have you all here with us.