Thought Leadership Threads

One business model I talk about frequently with Founders is underbuilding their software as a strategy.

It’s a really powerful concept that can help a product stand out in a crowded market and turbo-charge growth. Unpacked 👇:

It’s widely believed that “grit” is one of the most important characteristics of highly successful people. I have an emerging (and controversial view) that the YOLO investing behavior that we’re seeing is directly attributable to a societal reduction in grit. Unpacked:

I’ve been asked a lot why there’s so much variance on “valuations relative to traction”. Some companies are getting 100X ARR multiples while others are getting 2X. There’s no simple answer but a big driver is if a company can demonstrate “Multiplicative Momentum”.

Do you want to know a little secret regarding how I build conviction during my #startup diligence process? Do you want to know something that I spend time on that many early stage #VCs brush under the rug as silly and unnecessary? Short thread:

The only way to describe the public markets’ appetite for new Logos is “insatiable”. But why? SPACs vs. IPOs? I’m no public markets expert by any stretch of the imagination but I’m not going to let that stop me from weighing in on what I think is going on. Unpacked:

It’s hard to produce a 3X+ #VC fund. It’s much harder to do this consistently. Our first 4 funds are mature enough to know where they’ll end up and all of them will handily beat this benchmark. I reviewed our portfolio this morning and jotted down 12 notes. Shared:

One #startup trap to avoid (founders and VCs) is to fall in love with a value prop that can’t be delivered IRL now. Good diligence will surface disconnects but they’re often brushed under the rug by #VCs who believe fixing delivery over time will be fine. Unpacked:

VCs hear thousands of pitches in their careers but only say “yes” a few dozen times. Getting their attention in the initial pitch meeting is important because you won’t get a second meeting without the first going well. Here are 10 tips to help your pitch game:

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One of the biggest innovations in Banking came with the invention and deployment of ATM machines.  The technology is just over 50 years old and now over 10 billion transactions happen through ATMs each year in the US.

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