I recently shared my startup journey in front of 400+ people at a conference. Of all the things I said, one question seemed to resonate with the audience the most: “Do you have your own thing?” Great founders I’ve met all seemed to have their “thing”. What is the “thing”? It’s hard to put into … Continue reading Your Own Thing
K-pop Demon Hunters is undoubtedly a huge success. It’s the #1 most-watched movie of all time on Netflix! One funny thing I’ve noticed personally: suddenly I’m seeing more people saying they have some sort of connection to the project. Some say they “coached” the direction of the movie and provided a lot of inspirations. Some … Continue reading Success Has Many Fathers
Caught up with one of my mentors, who has been living in Beverly Hills for 20+ years. He loves Beverly Hills and West Hollywood because he’s been in the consumer industry and BH/Weho are the places where you can spot the latest trends before they start catching on. He said “If I hadn’t lived in … Continue reading Where You Live Matters
With AI, resumes have become useless. Candidates are using AI to generate resumes; Hiring companies (and the ATS tools they’re using) are using AI to review them. So resumes are just a container for bunch of keywords used for machine-to-machine data communications. Take this software engineer resume, for example. I grabbed a random one from … Continue reading Resumes Are Dead
One of the biggest red flags in any pitch is when a founder tries to be someone they’re not. It’s quite easy to spot; most investors can see right through it. The thing though is, often this comes from a good intention, i.e. founder trying to listen to too much advice, not because the founder … Continue reading Be Yourself
My friend recently shared that he’s already run more miles this year (just by September) than he did in all of last year. The unlock for him was, last year he ran to train, while this year he runs because he enjoys it. I think the same can be said about startups. Founders have crazy … Continue reading Enjoy The Process
At my previous company, we had finally become profitable and no longer needed to raise money – that’s when we got a term sheet for funding. Because we had a term sheet in hand, we didn’t have to sell the company – that’s when the acquisition offer came in. So, based on my personal experience, … Continue reading The Startup Paradox
At a recent dinner, someone randomly mentioned Whoop, and we spent the next hour gushing about Whoop and Oura. It almost looked like we were competing to see who could be a better brand ambassador or fanboy. No one at the table worked for either company, of course. This is how viral products work. Shows … Continue reading How Viral Products Work
I think making the LA startup ecosystem great comes down to two words. Culver City. “Making LA a great startup hub” is too vague and broad. Just like no one says “let’s build a kick-ass CRM tool”, we need to be much more specific and start by focusing on a smaller area. Why Culver City? … Continue reading Culver City
Something people often misunderstand: giving brutally honest feedback isn’t about being harsh or acting like an asshole. Giving brutally honest feedback is about actually spending your time and mental energy – even for a bit – for a specific person. It means using the product they’re building, thinking deeply about the project they’re working on, … Continue reading How To Give Honest Feedback