I don’t usually envy people. But when I caught up with my connection (I’ll call him X) recently, I felt a twinge of it. He’s not the richest, the most successful, or the best-looking person in the room. But he recently started a new project, one he’s absolutely certain is going to be his life’s … Continue reading Those Who I Envy
What if your job were to start the biggest wildfire possible? (Probably not the best analogy given the wildfires in LA earlier this year, but please bear with me..) Probably the most common-sense move would be to find the driest forest – a place where one tiny ember could spark a massive fire (= market). … Continue reading The Wildfire Analogy
I was talking to someone who recently made the switch from operator to VC. He said the first thing he did was to join a community – I won’t name it, but it the community basically works like YC for new investors. I thought that was a great move. The bigger lesson was, before jumping … Continue reading See If There’s A Community
I was chatting with a founder and he said something funny yet also profound: “When I was going through depression and trying out all these so-called AI mental health apps, I could immediately tell – none of these apps were built by people who had actually experienced any mental health struggles. I just knew.” Do … Continue reading Founders Who’ve Been There
Two trends some founders told me they’re currently pursuing: These are both huge unlocks, and combined, these can lead to the emergence of new, vertically-focused small scale Berkshire Hathaways. Continue reading Two Recent AI Trends
Some personal tips for international founders looking to start an AI company in the US: So in short, I think starting with a service business doing client work is a great way to define customer problems and come up with a great product idea, especially for non-US founders. Continue reading For International Companies
Some very random observations looking at the top market cap tech companies (link in comment): Continue reading Some Observations On Top Market Cap Companies
The curious case of Clubhouse. I still remember the early days of Clubhouse. I was begging my connections to let me join. I knew people who drained their phone batteries just being on Clubhouse all day. Some even fell asleep on their phones, being in a Clubhouse room. But then it faded. I haven’t seen … Continue reading The Curious Case Of Clubhouse
I was chatting with someone recently, and one of our mutual connections came up — an LA-based businessperson who recently had a big financial exit. I asked if he was still in touch with that person. He said not really, because “he’s in a different echelon now and hard to reach.” Even worse, he said … Continue reading Stay Humble, Stay The Same
When I first came to America in the ’90s, to a small college town called Ann Arbor, Michigan, I was unmistakably foreign. I didn’t speak much English, and I looked different. I remember driving just 10 minutes outside of Ann Arbor, and some kids would see me and stare, mouths open, until their ice cream … Continue reading My Immigration Story