My latest interview is with Evan Walden the CEO and co-founder of Monday.VC who has been building since 2016. From first selling pesticides to taking on the mission of helping people find more meaning in their work, Evan shares the entire origin story and details of what the team has built. This is a fun …
Tags: Building The Machine Podcast, Evan Walden, Monday.vc
Last year I had the pleasure of meeting Alex MacCaw, CEO of Clearbit who has been building one of the more interesting data companies, and is definitely a Quiet Giant. We sat down for an interview about Building The Machine and I am excited to share it below. They call themselves a “marketing data engine …
Tags: Alex MacCaw, Building The Machine, Building The Machine Podcast, Podcast
I am excited to launch the first episode of the Building The Machine Podcast with my friend Nick Patrick who is the CEO and co-founder of Radar.io a location data infrastructure company. We go deep into the flywheel he has built, and go back to the beginning. The goal of this show is to dive …
Tags: Building The Machine, Building The Machine Podcast, Coby Berman, Nick Patrick, Radar.io
Some years ago the advice was to try join a rocket ship at all costs. Get on, hang on, and the success of the company will lift you to new heights. Perhaps this best encompasses the past decade of startup lore – get off the treadmill of corporate work you are on and step aboard …
Tags: Eric Friedman, Operators, Quiet Giants
I have always loved prediction posts, but shied away from them myself, probably out of fear and imposter syndrome. Seeing the the posts of years past from others finally got me over the line and I wanted to share my thoughts here. Since it’s a new decade, it also allows me to go deeper into …
Tags: 2020 Predictions
There’s a scene in Black Hawk Down in which US forces have taken such heavy attack, sustained massive injuries, and cannot get out that they call back to base they are “combat ineffective”. It’s a powerful scene and circumstance that shows the casualties of war and gruesome fighting during a firefight. It’s also not the …
Tags: Leadership
After about a year of consulting + executive coaching work as COO-As-A-Service for startups, I am happy to announce I’ll be joining the folks at www.Company.co. If I have learned anything, it’s that the people you surround yourself with are everything. Company is a great fit: they host, advise, mentor, lend a shoulder, and provide …
Tags: Company.co, CompanyVentures, Eric Friedman
Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio is an excellent read and background of Bridgewater and origin story. Getting to go this deep on how the firm began, has been run for so long, and understanding the open culture was fascinating. One of the more interesting takes within the book is the archetypes described and …
Tags: Bridgewater, Principles, Ray Dalio, Shapers
I am a big fan of the no update, update. A simple way to let someone know you are “on it” but with no material change. I was recently talking to a company I advise that is awaiting a big answer from a potential partner. I have a good relationship with them and to keep …
Tags: Business, Eric Friedman
(No, I am not starting a new venture fund that doesn’t care about making a return on its investments – but great name for that!) I wanted to share the story of how I came to create my own personal Fuck It Fund, which is a cash reserve that is setup for when things go …
Tags: Savings, The Fuck It Fund