It’s GP musical chairs season – more VCs are leaving (or being asked to leave) their firms. But what rarely gets discussed in this coverage, or their ‘greener pastures’ blog posts, is the impact upon their portfolio companies. My advice still generally looks like what I wrote in … | Continue reading
I tend to advise folks that “anyone says you need to sacrifice *everything* for a startup is dangerous, but anyone who says you don’t need to sacrifice *anything* for a startup is naive.” And the early story of YouTube is about an amazing small team, coming together and throwing … | Continue reading
Eat the leftovers, read the blog posts. Oh and follow me on Bluesky. The Art of Taking It Slow [Anne Wiener/The New Yorker] – Profile of Grant Petersen, founder of Rivendell Bicycle Works. Petersen has become famous for making beautiful bikes, using materials and components that … | Continue reading
For startups, a good Board is better than no Board, but a bad Board is worse than anything. One component of a good Board is a high value add Independent Board Member, which in my experience, often doesn’t get added early enough (for a variety of reasons). But sometimes the CEO t … | Continue reading
“What’s one thing you stress to new VCs now that wasn’t as important, say, 10 years ago?” That was the question put to me last week by a senior leader at a large university endowment during Screendoor’s yearly Convening [part annual meeting for our LPs, part community event, part … | Continue reading
Ben Braverman and I went to a women’s college. Not at the same time (I’m older), and after it went coed. But Vassar itself is a small school, so that plus its liberal arts focus means you don’t find many of us in Bay Area tech. Ben and I started to hang out because of […] | Continue reading
The best podcasts are conversations which take you places you weren’t necessarily planning to go. My chat recently with Molly O’Shea of Sourcery (great newsletter, you should subscribe) covered more than I was expecting! This short clip is pretty self explanatory. I’ll never be o … | Continue reading
I’m a Sanzo drinker. I’m also a Sanzo angel investor. The order is important because I fell in love with the product before I even knew about the company, and the hustle of its founder/CEO Sandro Roco. Over the last few years he’s been a diligent company-builder, brand steward, a … | Continue reading
Sunday reads for you from a too hot SF Why Is the Loneliness Epidemic So Hard to Cure [Matthew Shaer/New York Times] – The Loneliness Epidemic as a cultural trend stared pre-COVID but the pandemic mirrored the effects of a weightlifter shooting HGH – immediate and noticeable diff … | Continue reading
The failure tiger stalked me for many years. The beast’s ferocity was intensified by my sense it was inevitable I’d be caught. Unescapable because merely the act of *aging* was going to make me vulnerable. To not being as current or ‘native’ on whatever new technology platform or … | Continue reading
I asked some investor friends to share, as the title suggests, one thing they wished people better understood about venture capital. There were no ground rules other than to specify that ‘people’ could be founders, politicians, LPs, etc and that it would be default attributed but … | Continue reading
I asked some investor friends to share, as the title suggests, one thing they wished people better understood about venture capital. There were no ground rules other than to specify that ‘people’ could be founders, politicians, LPs, etc and that it would be default attributed but … | Continue reading
I asked some investor friends to share, as the title suggests, one thing they wished people better understood about venture capital. There were no ground rules other than to specify that ‘people’ could be founders, politicians, LPs, etc and that it would be default attributed but … | Continue reading
I asked some investor friends to share, as the title suggests, one thing they wished people better understood about venture capital. There were no ground rules other than to specify that ‘people’ could be founders, politicians, LPs, etc and that it would be default attributed but … | Continue reading
I asked some investor friends to share, as the title suggests, one thing they wished people better understood about venture capital. There were no ground rules other than to specify that ‘people’ could be founders, politicians, LPs, etc and that it would be default attributed but … | Continue reading
“You see, I was hoping to work on Saturday Night Live.” That was my request of the NBC Human Resources department when making my case for a 1994-1995 internship. Enough years have passed that I don’t recall whether I received an actual verbal response or just an extended eye-roll … | Continue reading
I am reluctant to call someone a ‘friend’ unless the relationship has crossed the threshold honoring the depth of commitment behind the designation. By that framework I started out as a ‘fan’ of Javier Soltero way before we became friends. It was his mobile productivity startup A … | Continue reading
Sunday reads (and a listen) for you What It Takes to Raise a Series B [Ted Wang/ICONIQ] – Ted Wang, now investor and previous lawyer (creator of the Series Seed doc template), tackles what he looks for in a Series B investment. B Rounds are the toughest financings right now IMO f … | Continue reading
A product executive colleague at Google once joked he was basically an email router; that most of the problems they solved were largely about sending or forwarding a message with a small amount of value added. Certainly my life as an investor has me doing a bunch of this as well. … | Continue reading
Your lemons tend to ripen before your cherries. That was the advice an experienced seed investor gave me when we founded our own shop Homebrew. It’s a colorful (and delicious) way of describing what’s commonly known as the performance ‘J curve.’ Sometimes you get lucky and have o … | Continue reading
The commitment to do “the hard thing when there’s not instant gratification waiting for you.” That’s how Screendoor’s Managing Director Lisa Cawley measures competitive spirit. David Zhou recently featured Lisa on his Superclusters Podcast, and it’s a great listen for anyone in t … | Continue reading
Thank you Susan. I owe a lot to you. Many people do. I’m thinking mostly about your wonderful family right now, but I did want to share two of my favorite memories of our time together. If someone were going to ask about my time with you at Google, I’d tell these stories. The fir … | Continue reading
Back in my day, we had web pages and URLs. And you had to look for stuff. “Who needs to know about this?”: Communication as you Scale [Molly Graham/GlueClub] – People forget all the time that your company values can stay the same as you grow but the activities and practices requi … | Continue reading
Summer reading for you. Manage the What, Not the How [Molly Graham/Glue Club] – Molly always has great management essays, riffing off her own experience at learnings at places like Facebook and CZI. This one focuses on finding that right level of direction but not micro managemen … | Continue reading
It’s a holiday week. Here’s some stuff to read. Inside Danny McBride’s Lowcountry Comedy Commune [Sam Schube/GQ] – Incredibly talented dude, operating within his comfort zone, with people he cares about, and enjoying his life. Left Los Angeles and set up a production studio back … | Continue reading
Maybe I should be more worried about Artificial General Intelligence but these days it’s the probability of Artificial General Bullshit that leaves me wondering about AI-powered everything. Given that the enshittification of the web is largely driven by economic incentives, why d … | Continue reading
Tweet Translation “Excited for [Startup] to continue its mission at [Acquirer]” It was an acquihire and I lost money “They never gave up and I’ll miss working with them (hopefully will do so again). Congrats to [Startup] on their exit!” It was a journey but we at least got our mo … | Continue reading
Links to read When the growth slows, and, You and your Co-founder [Harry Glaser/Cofounder, Modelbit] – More good repeat founder wisdom from Harry. In the former he has practical advice for how to handle speedbumps post-hypergrowth period. The latter is a good articulation of true … | Continue reading
Darwin moves at half-speed in venture capital, allowing mediocrity and outdated ‘best practices’ to persist, much to the detriment of founders and LPs. The long time horizons, risk aversion incentives, and opaque flow of information all contribute to this stasis. What’s one possi … | Continue reading
“Admirer from outside of the cap table” is how I approached Kieran Snyder, Cofounder of Textio. That is to say, I DMed her on Twitter in 2016, impressed by the work she was doing but without a preexisting relationship. Thankfully the interest was mutual and we’ve had the chance t … | Continue reading
URLs. Fresh hot URLs. Air Canada Has to Honor a Refund Policy Its Chatbot Made Up [Ashley Belanger/Wired] – Air Canada’s chatbot gave a customer incorrect information about bereavement fare policies, and a court held the airline accountable. Unclear whether the chatbot was truly … | Continue reading
The good stuff on the Internet really does occur in the comments! I thought all that would happen is a few ‘likes’ and a comment or two. But then a CEO jumped in to point something important out…. while it technically might have been the recent recap which officially lowered the … | Continue reading
More stuff for you to enjoy…. What I Learned Selling My Company [Harry Glaser/then: Periscope Data, now: Modelbit] – Harry sold Periscope Data for $130m and is back building again with Modelbit, an ML engineering platform. Here he provides actionable advice for founders who are b … | Continue reading
Links! Get your red hot links here! There Are Plenty of Power Publicists. But Only One Works for Taylor Swift [Allie Jones/WSJ] – Tree Paine (as the owner of what I think is also a great name, I salute you Tree) seems incredible competent. It’s amazing how compelling that is thes … | Continue reading
My favorite links goes multimedia this time with two podcasts, among the other articles. Jelly Roll: The Popcast (Deluxe) Interview [Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli/New York Times] – The guy with the face tattoos from the Super Bowl Uber Eats commercial. I’d known he was also a … | Continue reading
I met Max when he was in undergrad and visiting SF as part of Princeton’s annual TigerTrek. Then years later we reconnected at Google (where he was a Product Manager) for a GV BBQ. It was so much fun catching up that soon after as he started Warmly I was fortunately given the opp … | Continue reading
The checks being cut to ‘owners’ of training data are creating a huge barrier to entry for challengers. If Google, OpenAI, and other large tech companies can establish a high enough cost, they implicitly prevent future competition. Not very Open. Model efficacy is roughly [techni … | Continue reading
Winter Break week for my kid more time with her, and when she’s with her friends, more time with New Yorker magazines. Here are a few essays, articles, blog posts, etc that I’ve enjoyed recently. What Happens When TikTok Is Your Marketing Department [David Segal/New York Times] – … | Continue reading
I read a lot of stuff and here’s a few worth passing along to you! China’s Age of Malaise [Evan Osnos/New Yorker] – A loooong read but essential stuff if you are interested in China from an sort of view (cultural, economic, geopolitical, startup). When I return to China these day … | Continue reading
Great interview with surviving cast members of Happy Days, which was a number one TV show itself, as well as producing FIVE spinoffs. Worth reading the whole interview but one particular part stood out for me involving the producer Garry Marshall and star Henry Winkler. WINKLER H … | Continue reading
Lots of venture capital transitions underway. Here’s what I predicted in Allocate’s 2024 Outlook Last week Pitchbook asked me (and others) for background on how a VC actually gets fired (or more often ‘transitioned’) Darwin moves slowly in venture, but these investor changes can … | Continue reading
Regret. That’s the emotion I most associate with Pat Kinsel and his startup, Proof (fka Notarize). Because I remember hearing about their seed round and thinking it sounded a lot like a Homebrew company, but yet Pat didn’t seek us out, and we didn’t have him on our radar. Fast fo … | Continue reading
When the founder of WordPress/Automattic says all he wants for his birthday is for you to blog, well, you blog. I’ve known Matt for, gosh, 15 or more years, and although I don’t see him as much as I’d like, I do admire what he’s built here and the spirit with which he lives. Here … | Continue reading
I *think* Daniel and I met at a VC happy hour many years ago. But outside of the history, he’s one of my favorite people to chat about the roller coasters of company building. He’s founder and CEO of Greenhouse, a ‘hiring operating system’ for companies which spans recruiting and … | Continue reading
I love to write. And don’t maintain a ‘schedule’ per se, but have always said that ‘if two weeks go by and I haven’t posted, it means something is amiss.’ Well, something is definitely amiss in the world so maybe easing back in is best done by sharing others’ work. Tech is a Tool … | Continue reading
A local shipping business set up a Lemonade Stand next to their retail store that’s reservable (for free) by community kids. Love stuff like this. More kindness and generosity in our world. | Continue reading
For your weekend pleasure When It’s Over & Helpful Boards [Jared Hecht/GroupMe, Fundera] – Two more great posts from one of my favorite founder bloggers right now. The former is about deciding to sell your company and the emotional journey accompanying the pragmatic one. After se … | Continue reading
According to the laws of aerodynamics a bumblebee shouldn’t be able to fly, but no one told it, so it does. This oft-repeated fact is, well, absolutely incorrect, but serves as a nice metaphor for ambitious startups. Probabilities suggest they should fail, but, hey, why not succe … | Continue reading