When an area becomes consensus but is still somewhat novel or hard to parse for investors, they often try to distill companies into very clear-cut and easily “findable” metrics in order to make decisions. In many cases, this wave of chaos, rapid change, and complexity pushes investors to retreat into discussing a constant in startups; Founders. And as one searches for Founder-Company...
AI companies today find themselves in multiple cycles of R&D and commercialization, making an implicit bet that the millions or billions of dollars spent on R&D will eventually lead to market domination and massive scale years from now. This pushes these companies into a dark forest they must navigate
What tracking changes in narratives tells us about conviction, depth, and emotions during times of exuberance and volatility
Navigating go-to-market, product, and customers during the most dangerous phase of an emerging category.
Power laws rule everything around us. This is a core principal of what we have largely come to learn in a world dominated by this narrative, which has also helped proliferate the concept of Asymmetric Upside. Within traditional tech/Web2, due to the compounding nature of moats (most notably network effects) and duopolistic markets, it is often assumed that outcomes follow a colloquial power law...
the greatest trick valley vc's played was to make employees believe their options were worth the tradeoff in present income, lifestyle, liquidity and flexibility of employmentcrypto fixes this— Meta DAOdas (@mdudas) November 7, 2021 There has long been discussion and divisiveness on startup equity in crypto. Most recently signified by Mike Dudas’ tweet above surrounding how crypto...
In technology, the concept and cycles of bundling and unbundling are well-understood. Historically what we have seen is that at very early stages, unbundling occurs, until some early primitives and use-cases are understood, which then results in bundling often due to necessity to level set a user experience or to kickstart true usage. As a given platform matures, unbundling then occurs to...
How technology markets and venture capital are heading towards a great bifurcation, an explosion of narrative driven value creation, and much more which will meaningfully change the job of technology investors across all asset classes.
If loops are the power source that accelerate the flywheel, inflection points build the spokes and physical properties of the flywheel, create the initial spin, and eventually are the stick which stops the wheel dead in its tracks.
Walking through the trickle down dynamics of how COVID-19 is impacting venture capital valuations
After spending some time reflecting on 2019, I figured I’d write out these thoughts more for my close friends, and it’s possible at some point I’ll publish an edited version of this without a password. Disclaimer that many of the views expressed below on life come from a specific type of experience both on growing up and of economic status and mobility. My key learnings/top of...
The importance of utilizing pseudosecrets to define and proliferate a narrative about your company.
Disclaimer: I believe that unless you are one of a few firms, there is no possible claim that there is a “correct” way to do venture, only to treat people with respect along the way. Venture capital started as a network heavy business and arguably still is to many. I don’t think that is dominant anymore. The Early Days: VC was the ultimate network business Venture capital started as the ultimate...
What happens when we can facetune to something “better”, generate to something familiar, and filter to something different.
Hatsune Miku and Gorillaz were just the beginning of the digital celebrity revolution.
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