Nathan + Sean

Nathan Sell’s his Financial Data On This Podcast with Bitmark

The Top Entrepreneurs Podcast by Nathan Latka

Nathan interviews me about Bitmark, the property system for the digital environment. It enables an individual to claim ownership of personal data and digital assets akin to how land registrars track land titles or patent offices track patents.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – High Output Management
  • What CEO do you follow? – Andy Grove and Yvon Chouinard
  • Favorite online tool? — Slack
  • Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Luck plays a big role and you just can’t quit”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:28 – Nathan introduces Sean to the show
  • 01:53 – Anybody that has data coming out of Fitbit can establish ownership over that data and can list it for sale or protect it
  • 02:11 – Bitmark’s business model is that they earn a small commission
  • 02:31 – Fitbit’s data is in your phone
  • 03:08 – We don’t have property rights on our data
  • 03:40 – Download Bitmark’s software to sell your data or protect it
    • 03:58 – Bitmark is currently on beta mode and only desktop software
    • 04:09 – Bitmark works with IFTTT
    • 04:56 – Bitmark’s software can generate a link for your data that you can share
  • 05:40 – You can make around $50 a year for selling your data
    • 05:59 – This is for location data alone
  • 06:15 – “Data is the next big asset class”
  • 06:30 – Can I use Bitmark’s data to sue someone for using my data?
    • 06:50 – Sean has talked to lawyers and his father is a lawyer
    • 07:42 – Sean thinks the court system will understand digital property titles
  • 08:51 – Bitmark was launched in 2014
    • 09:00 – Sean’s co-founders are from his previous company
  • 09:42 – Bitmark just closed a seed round for $1.7M
    • 10:18 – Bitmark is based in Taiwan, with 12 people
  • 10:41 – Bitmark has raised from WI Harper Group, which is Taiwan-based
  • 11:08 – Bitmark is currently on pre-revenue
  • 11:17 – Sean is hoping for revenue this year
  • 11:53 – Sean mentions how part of their expenses go towards his traveling expenses—going to and from New York and Taiwan
  • 12:33 – Bitmark will launch both in Asia and USA
  • 13:10 – Bitmark is actively recruiting buyers who are interested in health data
  • 14:30 – Sean looks into location data, health data, fitness data, and financial data
  • 14:50 – Nathan proposes a deal with Sean
  • 16:40 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

  1. Our data is as unique as our thumbmark—protecting it isn’t a bad idea.
  2. Data is the NEXT, big asset class.
  3. Luck plays a big role in your success and you just can’t quit.