How to Use Extra Money

💰 A shareholder vote about what to do when you get free money

Hello Shareholders,

We’ve seen a real uptick in votes recently as I try to respond in real time to the many opportunities of living in Kosovo. We invested in Paizley’s Dead Internet Theory and we took a chance on a new hair color (you can see the results here). Today a new opportunity popped up in our email.

What To Do With The Money

Last year we voted to renounce my Gumroad investment. Vote 175 closed 57% Yes. The reason was values, not returns: founder Sahil Lavingia’s work with DOGE and the cuts aimed at the VA sat wrong with me as a veteran, and you agreed I should sever ties.

I tried! At the time I was told there was no mechanism to give back a 2021 Crowd SAFE. So the vote passed and nothing happened.

That changed this week. Sahil reached out saying there is now a formal way to unwind the SAFE. I sign a rescission agreement, the original $350 comes back to me as a return of capital, and I am off the cap table.

One correction I want to note. His offer was framed as a path for “investors who no longer wish to be associated with the company.” That is not it. I have no quarrel with Gumroad the product or the people who use it. The thing I no longer wished to be associated with is him, and his choices.

So we’re getting our $350 back! What happens now? How should I use the $350:

• A. Buy back K5M shares

• B. Donate it (we will run a follow-up vote on where)

• C. Keep it in the treasury

• D. Hand me $350 and I will think of something

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Where To Next

I’m flying back to Los Angeles on Sunday. I have a court date¹ and then I’m heading to Portland for about two months leading up to the Shareholder Summit on July 11th. After that I’ll be in Oakland for a little while and honestly I’m not sure after that.

I have been posting a few short videos on YouTube and Instagram. I’ve decided to NOT CARE about trying to play the algo game, which means I’m not making a hook, or trying to lure people in, or play any kind of “optimization.” Instead, just a little story about trying to make friends with a crow.

I’m excited to get back but I’m also pretty bummed about leaving Kosovo. I really like it here. I threw myself a going away counter-strike tournament party yesterday. Maybe I can come back next year and make it an annual event.

Profitably Yours,
-Mike

I’m holding a large 3D printed “Goddess on the Throne” which it the logo for the city of Prishtina.

1. more on this later…