April 9, 2023

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a great Easter!

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Serial Cash-Flow Entrepreneurs

A CEO with No Problem to Solve

Weekly Reflection: Week One Hundred Ninety-Two

How an Emerging VC Manager Reached First Close

Winning a Small Market by Being Low Tech

Amazon vs. A Shipping Duopoly

Weekly Reflection: Week One Hundred Ninety-One

Happy Thanksgiving!

In-Kind Distributions to Limited Partners

I Touch Base to Stay Abreast of Trends

Founders Seeding Their Former Employees

Does Atlanta Still Lead the Nation in Inflation?

Founders Who Go from Zero to Billions

Weekly Reflection: Week One Hundred Ninety

Capitalizing on Rare Opportunities

Thanksgiving Reading Goal

Investing When Others Won’t

Apple Gets 36% of Google Search Revenue

Language of Business

Public Company Filings: Treasure Troves of Useful Info

Weekly Reflection: Week One Hundred Eighty-Nine

What’s Up the Road and Around the Corner?

WeWork Filed for Bankruptcy

Churchill on Looking Backward

Leverage and Venture Capital Funds

What Is Leverage?

Weekly Reflection: Week One Hundred Eighty-Eight

When Entrepreneurs Mingle, Opportunities Can Spring from Serendipity

Waystar IPO Postponed

WeWork May File for Bankruptcy

IPOs: 2023 Has Been Lackluster

AI’s Impact on Founders

Weekly Reflection: Week One Hundred Eighty-Seven

ChatGPT = More Vertical SaaS?

Learning Something New

Contrarian Perspective

The Importance of a Good Data Room

Takeaways from Six Months of My Schedule Experiment

Weekly Reflection: Week One Hundred Eighty-Six

Fundraising: Customer References

Learn from Others, Then Build

Haves and Have Nots

First-Source Data

Will More Capital Be Allocated to Credit?

Are Operators the Best Capital Allocators?

Weekly Reflection: Week One Hundred Eighty-Five

Raising a Small Fund: An Advantage?

Where to Begin When You’re Starting Something New?

The Prepared Mind

Fundraising Just Because You Can

The Value in Rereading Insightful Books

Weekly Reflection: Week One Hundred Eighty-Four

Airbnb Is Fundamentally Broken?

An Entrepreneur Through Acquisition

Great Artists Steal?

Fundraising Tip: Weekly Update Emails

Constructive Conflict

2023 Start-up Shutdowns by the Numbers

Weekly Reflection: Week One Hundred Eighty-Three

Highs and Lows of an Emerging VC Manager

Fundraising Tip: Ask VCs about Their Process and Timeline

Why Roblox Was One of First Round Capital’s Best Investments

An Unanticipated SaaS Price Increase

First Round Capital Recaps One of Its Best Investments

Writing: A Mental Clarity Tool

Klaviyo Was Bootstrapped for 3 Years

Weekly Reflection: Week One Hundred Eighty-Two

Early-Stage Advice for Billionaire Startup Founder

Recent IPOs: Bellwethers of Tech Investor Sentiment

Fundraising Hack: Don’t Pitch Your First-Choice Investor Too Early

Bill Gurley on IPOs Below Private Funding Valuations

Relationship Hack: Share Curated Links

$100 Billion Companies Ride Exponential Change

Weekly Reflection: Week One Hundred Eighty-One

Rational Decision-Making: A Superpower

Small Turnaround Companies for Sale

Venture Capital Deal Memos

A Capital Availability Bottleneck

H1 2023 Pre-Seed Fundraising by the Numbers

Weekly Reflection: Week One Hundred Eighty

Don’t Sugarcoat Failure for Investors

Financial Statements Are Essential

I Expect Heavy Fundraising through Year-End

Happy Labor Day

How I Capture My Fleeting Insights

Venture Capital Likes Big Markets

Weekly Reflection: Week One Hundred Seventy-Nine

Self-Education vs. Formal Education

Doing Your Best Work in Tough Times

Take-Rate Revenue Models

Executing with Limited Resources

Takeaways from Klaviyo’s IPO Filing