In 2020, Marc Andreessen published a profound essay in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that became a rallying cry for startups called; It’s Time To Build. In it, he discusses the importance of building various businesses, from housing, education, manufacturing, and transportation — anything that might hasten the dream of entrepreneurship and construct a better …
Tags: Gotta Go Fast, Shipping
When setting out to build side projects that generate revenue, my partner and I prioritized three things above all else; solving a real problem, researching and understanding what customers want, and creating a sustainable business. The purpose behind what we build is to be accretive to everything else we do now, and into the future. …
Tags: Gotta Go Fast, Slow-burn startup, ViewSource.to
Our trip around our sun is ending again and we are closing out the year. I started making predictions for the decade ahead in 2020, then made 2021 predictions, then 2022 predictions. Now that I have been doing this for a few years I feel like the pressure is off. I enjoy trying to predict …
Tags: 2023 Predictions, AI
The month of December is a strange month for VCs and Founders. 2022 is no different and I have always found the discussions and chatter around it to be extremely confusing. On the one hand there are a number of things happening, deals getting done, M&A, capital being deployed and general fury of activity. On …
For the past few years I have been doing fractional work for companies – mainly as a Fractional COO. More recently this has turned into fractional back office operations for funds, family offices, and GPs. With a specialized service, more time on my hands for my own projects, and getting so much inbound for operators …
Tags: Fractional COO, Fractional Operators, FractionalOperators.com
I have been thinking about early stage equity and advisor grants for some time, including a post in 2016, that I rely on and wanted to revisit. I have had a few founder friends reach out to me asking about how much equity to give to an advisor, and had some operators reach out asking …
Tags: Advising, Building The Machine
There has been so much written about the recent collapse of FTX and SBF and things are changing every day. I don’t have much to add beyond what I am reading, mostly in shock. Thankfully I did not have exposure to this catastrophe happening, but of course the prices are down everywhere. I would rather …
Tags: crypto
In reading about macro market events during the pandemic, I learned that people writing down their thoughts – in journals or notes – benefited greatly. I have done this a few times over the past few years, and in some cases it makes sense to publish those thoughts here. To share what I have learned, …
Tags: Building The Machine, Hiring, LayoffsBackground noise is a pain. Dogs barking. Babies crying. Leaf blowers war on leaves in the burbs. Cars in the city. You name it, and I have had it going in the background. This was all until I found a tool called Krisp that kills background noise. Yes, seriously. The truth is here that you …
Tags: Krisp, Tools I Use
I wanted to start sharing some of my investing thesis, how I make investments, and more importantly WHY I make them. I shared the following on Twitter recently and wanted to include in my blog here. 1/ I wanted to start sharing the WHY behind investments I have made and how I built conviction. I …
Tags: Angel Investing, Conviction