I recently caught up with a gaming VC, and he mentioned that he primarily invests in teams that have worked together for a long time. It seemed like, for him, the length of time a team has worked together is just as important as the team’s track record. He said this is particularly the case … Continue reading How Long A Team Worked Together
People often focus on the monthly burn, but not as much on speed. If your company is burning $100K per month, a 3-month project delay adds $300K to your burn rate. People also care about speed, but not as much about direction. If you spend 12 months building a product only to discover problems you … Continue reading Monthly burn < Speed < Directions
Modern startup frameworks like MVP, A/B testing, and the lean startup methodology are great; they’re proven to work. But they can’t solve everything. Take, for instance, finding life’s mission and calling. You can’t really discover those through MVP. The Wright brothers didn’t build airplanes after A/B testing a variety of consumer products (“We’ll build car … Continue reading MVP and A/B Testing Can’t Solve Everything
A mistake I often made while running my previous company: Not being clear enough about the Sunday vision and the Tuesday goals. Both are necessary. You can’t reach Sunday without first getting through Tuesday. Focusing on immediate goals and rallying the team around them brings focus and simplicity. However, smart people need a big vision … Continue reading Sunday Vision vs. Tuesday Goals
Founders struggling to come up with a “good business idea”: Instead of trying to develop an entirely new idea, try focusing on delivering a 10x better experience for an existing user behavior. Advantages include: Stripe, Shopify, Brex, Carta – these are all examples of companies that didn’t invent new ideas, but instead made existing processes … Continue reading Make Things Better
A former-operator-now-turned-a-VC I know seems to be frequently going into two modes: I get the sense that this person might be in a wrong profession… Continue reading Don’t Be Jaded or Envious
Founders sometimes fall into the trap of building products for investors and advisers, instead of for users. I’ve made that mistake myself. Once, after a productive conversation with a VC who raised some interesting points, I went back to my team and we built out the features he suggested. A few months later, when I … Continue reading Building Product For Investors vs Users
Shocked and saddened by the sudden passing of Arie Abecassis. Ever since Rob Pereyda introduced Arie years ago, I kept in touch with Arie and became an LP in his deftly.vc fund (which, by the way, is in good hands with Paul Canetti and friends). Arie and I would talk about our life goals, the … Continue reading Remembering Arie
Recently I was talking to a founder who wanted to introduce someone to me, saying he’s getting a lot of insights from this person and I should talk to him. Turned out, I was the one who introduced him to the founder in the first place 😂 It’s a good habit to remember who made … Continue reading Always Try To Circle Back
Which cold call request do you think has a better chance? A: “Hi John, I’m a founder starting a new venture in (a field that John doesn’t have interest in). I’d love to pick your brain and get some advice. Do you have any time available this week?” B: “Hi John, I was chatting with … Continue reading Cold Call 101
