One theme we talk about a lot in this newsletter is that startups aren’t economically sensible. That doesn’t mean they’re not valuable, or worth pursuing! But building the future is… Read more Stone Soup, Diversification, and the Alchemy of Venture →
Michael Seibel of YC posted a short video the other day about a topic that’s near and dear to my heart: Why Fundraising is Different in Silicon Valley. This is an interesting and important question. If you’re a startup founder looking for your first investment, the difference between fundraising in the Bay Area versus fundraising somewhere else isn’t a difference of degree. It’s just qualitatively a completely different exercise. Advice to founders on how to fundraise in San Francisco is, to put it bluntly, not applicable in other parts of the… Read more The Social Subsidy of Angel Investing →
There’s a lot you can criticize about cars and individual car ownership. But one criticism you shouldn’t make blindly is “Think about how much of the car you don’t use.” It’s true that not every driver or every trip needs the horsepower of an ICE or a top speed of 65+ MPH. Not every trip needs four seats, or even two. Not every trip needs climate control or cargo space. But it doesn’t matter, because cars are a bundle. A car is like cable TV. There are some features of my… Read more The Car Bundle →
Generally speaking, I think there are currently two main anthropological clichés about internet culture: The first one is “The internet brings out the status-seeking narcissist in us.” The internet, social… Read more Internet Crowds and Personal Space →
In this month’s interview special, I’m delighted to have Jamie Catherwood come on the newsletter and share some pearls of wisdom from financial history. Jamie has a remarkable interest and… Read more An Interview with Jamie Catherwood →
One year ago exactly, I wrote my first piece about a stablecoin called Tether. A year later, uh, wow: A complaint is not the same thing as a conviction. But the complaints are mind-blowing.… Read more The Trillion Dollar Lawsuit →
Back in 2015, I wrote a blog post called Dropbox: the First Dead Decacorn. At the time, it was the most widely shared take I’d ever written. I learned several… Read more Everything is Amazing, But Nothing is Ours →
If I told you about a piece of consumer electronics technology that: A billion+ people own and use every day Has changed those people and their world in some pretty… Read more The Audio Revolution →
