Category: Newsletters

Happy Saturday.
(Hello from Vancouver, BC today and a warm welcome to all the new subscribers from Vancouver Startup Week where I delivered a keynote on Thursday. I hope you’ll forward this to a friend if you think they’ll find it useful.)

1. “My job is to give you lots of advice. Your job is to ignore 95% of it.” [Link] [Tweet]

The worst requests for advice all end with the same question: “what do you think?” It’s a terrible waste of time for everyone involved.

If you’re serious about asking for advice, it’s best to start with specific questions. “We’re experimenting with Facebook Ads and seeing a X% conversion rate, is that inline with what you’ve seen elsewhere?” is better than “I’m building a thing for dogs, what do you think?”

Don’t be lazy. If you’re going to burn a little bit of social capital to get some advice, make sure you get the advice you actually need.

2. “We’re in a period of euphoria now. Get ready for a new wave of zombie VCs.” [Link] [Tweet]

This is counterintuitive to most people: raising your first fund is hard, raising your next fund is even harder. The same goes for raising money for your company: your first round will be the easiest money you ever raise.

3. “This is bigger than taxis — ridesharing is on a path to displace cars.” [Link] [Tweet]

The eye opener: “Industry experts estimate 30% of San Francisco lease owners will not renew when their lease comes up.”

Uber’s past the point of being a “taxi company.” They’re laying the groundwork for an entirely new transportation infrastructure.

4. “I’ve seen where my investor’s sentiment leads. Burnout. Depression. Loss of self. Extreme fear of failure.” [Link] [Tweet]

This. So much this.

I’ve been there too — it’s hard to bounce back. Take care of yourselves.

5. “My one and only rule for not getting burned out is simple: get over yourself.” [Link] [Tweet]

Yep: “No one is standing over you at 12 AM making you answer emails. No one is telling you that you can’t go for a run in order to save your sanity. These are your decisions and you have no one to blame but yourself.”

Work hard but put yourself first.

6. “If I work with you nine hours a day and you smell, then you’re ruining my life.” [Link] [Tweet]

This was my favorite read this week. This guy gets it: “I need to make a profit, but I would like to do it with ethics, dignity, morals. It’s my dream.”

7. “Low-margin businesses have never been more fashionable here than they are right now.” [Link] [Tweet]

The key thing here is to understand that your unit economics matter. Many founders don’t realize that it’s sometimes OK to lose money as a company (especially if you’ve raised outside money to speed up your growth) as long as your unit economics are sound.

8. “while nerds have taken over pop culture and technology, there’s one area they haven’t mastered: politics.” [Link] [Tweet]

If you want to make a huge difference in the world, entrepreneurship and politics are the best way to do it. You’re already reading this newsletter, so I assume you’re interested in entrepreneurship but I’m not quite sure where to point you if you’re looking to learn more about politics. (Any recommendations?)

As an aside, I served as an Entrepreneur in Residence at DHS/USCIS in 2012 where we focused on the immigration issues that many founders and entrepreneurs faced when trying to come into the US. Over the first two days of the project, I got a complete braindump on the immigration system: we saw the processing facilities, the training manuals, the people making it all work.

In those two days, I realized that it’s so easy to be the “armchair quarterback” when anything related to the government is brought up. It is, however, much harder to dig into the realities, learn about all the complexity and decide to do your part to help make things better.

9. “when you’re NASA, your idea of shooting something into the sky includes a gravity assist from Jupiter.” [Link] [Tweet]

Going fast is cool.

10. “I just don’t want to tell that story any more.” [Link] [Tweet]

The quantified self is only one half of the equation. The other half is using all that data to encourage consistent behavior change.

1,100

That’s the number of students enrolled in my public speaking course — this cohort started last Tuesday and will run for five weeks. Enroll now if you want to be first in line to hear about the next cohort I’ll be opening up soon.

I’m coming for you

Next up (though, not in this exact order): Lincoln, NE, Madrid, SP, Halifax, NS, Detroit, MI, Lagos, NG, Chattanooga, TN (coupon code: PaulSingh) and a bunch of other interesting places.

If there’s cool stuff happening in your neck of the woods, let me know ASAP — let’s get it on the calendar, I want to see how startups are growing in your neck of the woods.

Firehose

You can get the full stream of the things I read, it’s all on Twitter — follow me: @paulsingh. Sometimes I write stuff too. You can always find me on Slack, apply to join.

Have a great weekend!
-P

P.S. If you loved this newsletter, share it with a friend. If you hated this newsletter, share it with an enemy.

You’re enrolled in Public Speaking for Founders and Entrepreneurs. You’ll get the first lesson tomorrow.

So will over 1,000 other smart people — just like you and me — that are aiming to further their personal careers, raise more money for their companies and influence more customers. Just about anyone can be more successful if they learn how to be better communicators and that’s exactly what this course is about.

Right now, there are less than 12 hours left to enroll. Once class starts tomorrow, signups will close and I’m not sure when I’ll offer this course again. So, today is the last chance for your friends, your coworkers or the members of your favorite online community to enroll.

Please forward this email to someone that wants to learn with us. Or post about the course in your favorite Facebook group. Or retweet me. You get the idea.

See you tomorrow!

-P

P.S. here’s that signup link one more time (please share it): www.resultsjunkies.com/public-speaking-for-founders-and-entrepreneurs/

Happy Friday.
(Hello from beautiful Victoria, BC where I’m keynoting Tectoria later this morning and keeping my fingers crossed for a whale sighting before heading back to DC on Sunday. My free email course on public speaking starts on Tuesday — you’ve got till Monday night to signup. I hope you’ll join me.)

1. “America was supposed to be better than this.” [Link] [Tweet]

The first sentence just about sums this up: “The simple facts are enraging.” Look at the photo of him in cuffs and tell me that doesn’t make you sad for what we’ve become.

2. “I love being the father of a little girl. There’s not a minute of it that hasn’t been awesome.” [Link] [Tweet]

When you study celebrities — TV, sports, whatever — it’s easy to forget that they’re normal people too. This piece on Anthony Bourdain is fantastic and it’s easy to see why people love him so much: he’s raw, real and authentic.

My favorite quote: “I’ve said a million times that I’d rather miss the shot than disturb the mojo,” Bourdain says. “If you’re stopping people to move a light, it fucks up the dynamic and the spontaneity. You end up with a show that looks like everybody else’s.”

3. Public Speaking for Founders & Entrepreneurs is a free 5-week email course w/ less than a week left to join. [Link] [Tweet]

Nearly 1,000 smart people have signed up for my course and it’s starting this Tuesday. My goal is to make you a more confident communicator — on-stage and in-person — over the course of 5 weeks. I hope you’ll join and share the signup page with at least one other person in your network. I’ll be closing signups at 11:59p ET this Monday and it’s completely free so you’ve got no excuse to not sign up (unless, of course, you don’t want to improve yourself).

4. “Facebook now runs three of the most popular apps on the internet.” [Link] [Tweet]

Technology companies will never create the majority of jobs but what happens in the tech sector will disproportionately affect everyone else. In this case, just look at the engineer-to-user ratio and the overall number of people that use Facebook:

• WhatsApp employs 50 engineers for it’s 900 million users.
• Facebook is used by 1.5 billion people and Facebook Messenger is used by 700 million.

On a personal note, Facebook’s Safety Check feature came in handy after the earthquake in Chile earlier this week. It’s strange to think that we didn’t have things like this sooner.

5. “In an attempt to escape my self-imposed fate, I manifested an interest in technology.” [Link] [Tweet]

Sad, but true: “You would be amazed how often you can get away with this if you talk confidently and authoritatively and intertwine fragmented topics into a complex narrative.”

The world needs more critical thinkers and more people that aren’t afraid to provide direct, constructive feedback.

6. “As the saying goes, pics or it didn’t happen.” [Link] [Tweet]

I can’t say that I’ve been in any near-death emergency so I haven’t seen this “I’m about to die” selfie thing happen. How is this a thing?

7. “I feel like I’ve spent a huge amount of my career analyzing and very little actually doing something.” [Link] [Tweet]

Unsexy businesses FTW. (Have I ever told you that story about how I helped my family buy a gas station one time? Great cash flow, shitty business and awful hours. It was a weird year.)

Reminder: you can build an interesting business without starting it yourself and without ever raising a penny from VCs. The world doesn’t need more founders but we do need more entrepreneurs.

8. “today it’s about how fast you can iterate and how much traffic you can drive.” [Link] [Tweet]

Share this with your friend that keeps coming up with ideas but never actually does anything.

9. “ambitious ideas have similar success probabilities to their less ambitious counterparts, if not higher success rates.” [Link] [Tweet]

Consider this a reminder that you should be swinging for the fences, always. It’s the best way to make a difference, do interesting things and build the life you want.

10. “Nobody is going to give you more money until you can prove a lot of people love what you do.” [Link] [Tweet]

This is brutally honest. (Does this stuff really happen in the UK tech scene?)

I’m coming for you

I’m on the road again: Victoria, BC, Vancouver, BC, Lincoln, NE, Madrid, SP, Halifax, NS, Detroit, MI, Lagos, NG, Chattanooga, TN (coupon code: PaulSingh) and a bunch of other interesting places.

If there’s cool stuff happening in your neck of the woods, let me know ASAP — let’s get it on the calendar, I want to see how startups are growing in your neck of the woods.

Firehose

You can get the full stream of the things I read, it’s all on Twitter — follow me: @paulsingh. Sometimes I write stuff too. You can always find me on Slack, apply to join.

Have a great weekend!
-P

P.S. If you loved this newsletter, share it with a friend. If you hated this newsletter, share it with an enemy.

Well, this seems to be working: nearly a thousand of you have signed up to learn public speaking and to become better communicators over the next few weeks. This is going to be fun!

Don’t let anyone miss this opportunity.

Class starts one week from today and, once it starts, sign-ups will close. This is good because we’ll all be in this together but the downside is that if someone doesn’t hear about Public Speaking for Founders and Entrepreneurs, they can’t sign up.

So, it’s very important that everyone who might be interested in participating at least hears about it before the September 21 sign up deadline. Here’s what you can do to help:

• Retweet my tweet.

• Send Public Speaking for Founders and Entrepreneurs to your friends and colleagues. Some entire accelerator cohorts are taking the course together as they head towards their investor demo days.

• Send Public Speaking for Founders and Entrepreneurs to your favorite tech (or other) journalist. If we can get it on TechCrunch, Mashable and other places, we’ll be able to reach pretty much everyone that might want to take the course.

See you next week!

-P

P.S. Here’s that tweet for retweeting once again. Let’s make sure everyone gets a chance to sign up!

Happy Friday.
(Hello from Durham, NC today where I’m spending the day with Chris Heivly and the Triangle Startup Factory team. Also, I’m looking for BBQ y’all.)

1. “I’m starting a (free) email course on public speaking for founders and entrepreneurs.” [Link] [Tweet]

Three things:

1. You people are awesome. I asked a simple question last week to gauge interest in a public speaking course and you overwhelmed me with your thoughts. Thank you.
2. Public Speaking for Founders and Entrepreneurs is now available — it’s a (free) 5-week email course. There’s a community component to the class soplease sign up by September 21 to get in on the action. I don’t know when I’ll offer the class again so please get in before the cutoff date, I won’t be letting stragglers in after 9/21. Sign up here.
3. Before you ask: you made this my #1 engaged tweet (and link) this week, thank you. I usually put all my own stuff down below the weekly content but, since you made this the #1 thing this week, I don’t feel awkward putting my own course at the top.

2. “if you want to change the world (or even just grow a company) you must get things done.”  [Link] [Tweet]

A very wise man once told me “very few people get paid for ideas and you are probably not one of them.” (I’m looking at you, Vid.) So I invested in his company.

Pro tip: if you’re starting your personal or professional pitch with “we’re going to change the world” rather than hard facts about what you’ve already accomplished, you likely won’t.

Regardless of whether you want to make a ton of money, create a lot of jobs or change the world, you need to get things done. It’s surprising how many people forget that simple fact.

3. “AVs are the greatest force multiplier to emerge in decades for criminals and terrorists.” [Link] [Tweet]

This is a (long and) thought-provoking piece. Despite the fact that autonomous cars will likely make driving (er… riding?) safer and more economical, there are a lot pieces that still need to be figured out.

How does the police “pull over” an autonomous car? How do we prevent bad actors from using autonomous cars from carrying out “unmanned” terrorist acts?

If you’re a lawmaker, the next few years are going to be especially tricky. Good luck. (How does one get into politics and lawmaking any way? I digress.)

4. “We may start companies with our friends, but we don’t become friends with our co-workers.” [Link] [Tweet]

This is fascinating: “Focusing our friendship efforts outside work isn’t the norm around the world. In surveys across three countries, Americans reported inviting 32 percent of their closest colleagues to their homes, compared with 66 percent in Poland and 71 percent in India. Americans have gone on vacation with 6 percent of their closest co-workers, versus 25 percent in Poland and 45 percent in India.”

For my Indian friends: make me dinner and take me on vacation with you. (I assume you’re paying, right?)

5. “eSports is big, bigger than you imagine.” [Link] [Tweet]

It’s been a few years since I’ve seen Chris in person (back when he was working on Startup Digest, I believe) but I love these ecosystem maps he’s pulling together. Very useful.

6. “Talent is universal, even if opportunity is not.” [Link] [Tweet]

Ugh. Let’s blame VCs for the lack of capital outside Silicon Valley / NYC. No need to consider that those founders may not be competing at a high enough level or that LPs may have no interest in those markets.

<soapbox>

Look, maybe investors are to blame — but only partly. Founders everywhere need to step their game up and learn to communicate more effectively and broadly. LPs need to understand that companies can emerge from anywhere.

Because here’s the thing:

1. VCs, by definition, are managing LP money. If the LP doesn’t have an appetite for investing outside the Valley, you can bet that the VC won’t either. Call it the tail wagging the dog or call it the reality of venture capital.
2. Founders are quick to blame VCs for not “getting” their amazing business — it’s always easy to blame the other party. How about really understanding the market you’re competing in? How about learning how to communicate and inspire other people? More fundamentally, how about building a business that no one can ignore?

Everyone needs to step up their game: angels, accelerators, VCs, LPs and founders.Everyone.

</soapbox>

7. “Trump isn’t exactly self-made—he inherited substantial wealth from his father—but he is definitely self-invented.” [Link] [Tweet]

I hate to admit that I kind of respect Trump: the dude is a marketing and media machine. You couldn’t pay for the amount of coverage he’s getting these days and, in a presidential election, that’s a pretty important thing.

8. “the soft-skills millenials don’t have may be absent because their first job out of college is their first job ever.” [Link] [Tweet]

“Good social skills aren’t just about getting along with your boss or peers, it is communicating and connecting with people of all skills levels and backgrounds.” This.

If you’re in high school or college, do whatever it takes to join a venture-funded company and try to do as many jobs internally as they’ll allow you. After six months, you’ll likely have experienced more than your peers will see in two years of a “regular” job.

9. “It has become the beginning of a long goodbye.” [Link] [Tweet]

Life is beautiful.

10. “The purpose of all VC meetings is to get another meeting.” [Link] [Tweet]

You kids probably don’t remember the days when the VC industry was opaque. Transparency (and the Internet) FTW! (I fear that I may be turning into a bit of a curmudgeon at my age. The mid-thirties are a bitch.)

I’m coming for you

I’m on the road again: Durham, NC, Victoria, BC, Vancouver, BC, Lincoln, NE, Madrid, SP, Lagos, NG, Chattanooga, TN (coupon code: PaulSingh) and a bunch of other interesting places.

If there’s cool stuff happening in your neck of the woods, let me know ASAP — let’s get it on the calendar, I want to see how startups are growing in your neck of the woods.

Firehose

You can get the full stream of the things I read, it’s all on Twitter — follow me: @paulsingh. Sometimes I write stuff too. You can always find me on Slack, apply to join.

Have a great weekend!
-P

P.S. If you loved this newsletter, share it with a friend. If you hated this newsletter, share it with an enemy.

Happy Friday.
(No travel this week, hello from Ashburn today where I’m stocking up on travel size toiletries in prep for the next few weeks of travel. More on that later, let’s focus on you: I’m kicking around the idea of teaching you everything I’ve learned on public speaking.Interested? Scroll to the bottom of this email to learn more.)

1. “If you’re an entrepreneur considering the move to VC via a non-traditional route, here’s my advice: Do your homework” [Link] [Tweet]

Apparently, everyone wants to be a VC these days. Here’s the thing though: it’s easier than ever to become a VC (or an angel investor) but it’s harder than ever to be good at it.

If you insist on getting your feet wet, skip the traditional path entirely (eg, get into a firm as an Associate and work your way up through the years) and start looking into AngelList Syndicates. As little as $1K will get you into the deals of many high profile investors and I can’t think of any other way for you to get a huge amount of experience with very little capital exposure. Bonus: you can tell your friends you’re an active angel investor which is why you want to do this anyway, right?

2. “I should be happy. Instead, I find myself constantly preoccupied with thoughts of the future.” [Link] [Tweet]

A couple of things:

1. If you love cars, you should read this. With all the talk of electric cars and the future of transportation, I can’t help but wonder how much of our history we might be losing. Call me nostalgic but I want to teach my daughter how to pump gas and change her own oil someday. Given the way things are going, maybe I’ll just have to keep my pick-up truck handy so she has something greasy to learn on.
2. Bookmark this article and refer to it when you start your next job. I can’t recall ever seeing anyone writing something this detailed and, at the risk of sounding like a fanboy, passionate. It’s a compelling reminder to all of us that we should be swinging for the fences. I was personally moved by this statement: “Our world is full of truly incredible tales waiting to be told, not just in the realm of cars but in every subject we cover. So that will be the primary goal of Jalopnik moving forward: to tell great stories about speed.”

3. “It’s easier to articulate why you want to leave a job; it’s much harder to articulate to where you want to go next.” [Link] [Tweet]

The most rewarding part of being a VC is watching founders grow — personally and professionally — as their company matures. Unfortunately, that includes watching them stumble more often than is discussed on tech blogs these days.

It’s easier said than done but take care of yourselves. You’re building the future, you deserve to be happy — try not to forget that.

4. “you should understand LPs, because they play a bigger role in the venture stack than most startups realize.” [Link] [Tweet]

I’m convinced that if more founders truly understood how venture funds actually worked, everyone would be happier. After all, you should always understand how the other person makes money — only suckers take deals blindly.

5. “They are Goldman Sachs with guns—not to mention knives, bazooka launchers, sniper rifles, and assassins.” [Link] [Tweet]

Filed under only-in-Japan: “Other sources of gang discontent are increasingly odious restrictions on the use of gang business cards and the emblem.”

6. “The next adventure is waiting just around the corner — provided that you want to find it.” [Link] [Tweet]

This girl’s living on a train and all I can think about is how I’d continue using my safety razor every morning without slicing through my jugular. Also, adventures y’all — you got to live a little. (Have I told you about my Airstream idea recently? I digress…)

7. “The tech world doesn’t celebrate our kind of victory.” [Link] [Tweet]

“Doing a startup” and raising money have, for some reason, become the cool thing to do. This is a refreshing look at building a great business the old fashioned way “where unless your customers confirm your value in the form of real dollars, you don’t make it.”

8. “why wouldn’t I spend more time in a world where there are more people that ‘like’ me, wouldn’t you?” [Link] [Tweet]

Watch the embedded video, it’s moving.

9. “This represents about two-thirds of Facebook’s user base.” [Link] [Tweet]

1 billion people used Facebook on a single day. How did that not get more mainstream press? (Oh wait, probably because Donald Trump is running for President. Sigh.) ONE. BILLION. PEOPLE.

10. “when anything grows at the rate of a successful startup, the Y axis will take care of itself.” [Link] [Tweet]

PG wrote this, you should probably read it.

On Public Speaking (for Founders and Entrepreneurs)

On a crowded internet, the best UX/UI usually wins. In a crowded world, the best communicators usually win. I want to help you win.

Five years ago, I was a new (and young) VC with no brand, no history and no public speaking skills. I forced myself to get one one public stage somewhere on the planet each month and, despite my many embarrassing mistakes, I systematically improved my public speaking skills.

Since then, I’ve spoken to small audiences in rural Mexico, large multi-thousand person audiences in India and even did a commencement speech for a major U.S. university. It turns out, public speaking is a learned skill and one of the lowest-effort-highest-ROI skills anyone can have. Anyone can do it and, frankly, I wish I started 10 years ago.

I’m kicking around the idea of teaching you what I’ve learned — and spare you all the embarrassing mistakes I’ve made through the years. Interested?

On Books That Make You Smarter
I asked you about your favorite books last week and nearly a hundred of you replied. It seems that the two top recommended books are Zero to One and The 4 Hour Body. The latter has an entire chapter to improving your orgasms, I’m sure that had nothing to do with anything.

Apple Watch Week 6

I’m leaning into this thing, I think I’m going to pull the trigger. I’m finding that I get the most utility out of the Apple Watch in the place that I thought I’d use it the least: at home.

These days, I can plug my phone in the corner and forget about it. I can focus on my daughter or the conversation/task at hand and know that important things will pop on my watch. That alone is worth it.

Thanks (again) to Russell Rosenblum and Ed Pizzarello of RMR Capital for letting me borrow your Apple Watch for a bit.

Miscellaneous

1. The #resultsjunkies community is cranking along nicely. Hundreds of you applied and I’ve brought 33 of you into the fold for now. We’ve got a good group of investors and founders that represent billions of dollars of capital. Unsurprisingly, the conversations have been tactical and incredibly interesting. Apply to join. (Flattery might work on me.)
2. I was interviewed on the Inside/Outside podcast this week and someone said my voice was soothing. Listen here.
3. I’m about to hit the road again for the next few weeks: Durham, NC, Victoria, BC, Vancouver, BC, Lincoln, NE, Madrid, SP, Lagos, NG and a bunch of other interesting places. If there’s cool stuff happening in your neck of the woods, let me know ASAP — let’s get it on the calendar, I want to see how startups are growing in your neck of the woods.

Firehose

You can get the full stream of the things I read, it’s all on Twitter — follow me: @paulsingh. Sometimes I write stuff too.

Have a great weekend!
-P

P.S. If you loved this newsletter, share it with a friend. If you hated this newsletter, share it with an enemy.

Happy Friday.
(No travel this week, hello from Ashburn today where I’ve been hunkered down working on the new #resultsjunkies community. More on that later. For now, will you please click one of the buttons above and share this with your friends? Me love you long time.)

1. “Many of the startup t-shirts I see are completely worthless ” [Link] [Tweet]

I’m going to save you some time: I use Next Level 6210’s for my men’s shirts and Next Level 6610’s for my women’s shirts. They’re super comfortable and are pretty cheap even on small orders. It makes me proud to see people wearing my company t-shirts all over DC (and places as far away as South Africa and India)… even if they’re just wearing the shirts to be comfortable.

PRO TIP: I’m a big believer in building culture through schwag. I order the Charcoal colored shirts for my own staff and Midnight Navy for everyone else. It’s a small (and relatively subtle) difference in the colors but the sense of pride it instills is tangible. Ilove Josh’s suggestion to put the current year on shirts, I’m going to do that from now on. (Keep reading below… a little further down, I may or may not be suggesting that #resultsjunkies schwag is on the way.)

The absolute best part of this article, IMHO, is that Josh includes a spreadsheet for calculating the various sizes you’ll need to order. PAY ATTENTION TO THAT SPREADSHEET.

2. “Today we are experiencing a dangerous cultural shift toward the expectation of instantaneous response.”  [Link] [Tweet]

Nothing surprising here. We all carry phones and, subsequently, we expect everyone to always be accessible. If you’ve got my email or phone number, you know I’m terriblyhard to reach. It’s not laziness, I’m just trying to stay focused on getting my work done. (OK, maybe I’m a little lazy too.)

3. “If your product costs $30 to produce and you sell it for $99 you make money, right?” [Link] [Tweet]

If you look past the aggressive assumptions here (seriously, what sort of hardware product “only” takes 9 months to develop?), this stuff is pure gold. You can easily use this same information in your software business as well. Pay attention to that margin, y’all.

4. “So many people are buying Airstreams that the company says it’s selling five times as many as it did in 2009.” [Link] [Tweet]

YOU GUYS, two things make me happy on this one:

1. You actually clicked on this article enough to make it the 4th most read link in my stream this week. You must love Airstreams as much as I do. (Great minds do think alike, I suppose.)
2. BECAUSE AIRSTREAM.

OK, I have to tell you a secret: I can’t seem to shake the idea of buying an Airstream, hitching it to my pickup truck, plastering it with logos of your companies and then driving all over America to visit as many startup communities as I possibly can. Is that crazy?

I imagine I’d pull up in your city, roll out a keg, open up some lawn chairs and we’d throw a little shindig for every entrepreneur within 25 miles. It might get a little rowdy but we’d have fun.

How do we make this happen? (I’m being serious.)

5. “I wear jeans, and don’t frequent Nordstrom. But most of the time, I like waking up in the morning.” [Link] [Tweet]

Fun fact: I went to San Miguel de Allende a couple years ago, found a mariachi band and proceeded to march them into the home of one of my portfolio companies. Hilarity ensued. True story, I’ll show you the videos when we see each other.

Seriously though, don’t work on stuff that doesn’t make you happy. Ever.

6. “The longer I do this the more humbled I become.” [Link] [Tweet]

If you’re planning to raise money, you should read this. Also, it’s Mark Suster — that dude is smart as shit. More importantly, you should read this and form your own opinion. Investors (like most armchair quarterbacks) can be “directionally correct” but only founders in the trenches should be making the final calls.

7. “It’s like being in Hollywood, but with less-good-looking people.” [Link] [Tweet]

Yep.

8. “you realize that the drop pales in comparison to all the gains the market has made over the past decade.” [Link] [Tweet]

Look, I don’t know how to predict the future and neither do you. The important thing to understand is that the losses we faced earlier this week were tiny in comparison to the gains the market’s made over the past few years. Perhaps more importantly, the markets are up at the end of the week now.

TL;DR: business as usual. Focus on revenue. Focus on your customers. Focus on your employees.

9. “women appear to be the ones capitalizing on this shift in the workplace.” [Link] [Tweet]

People skills. You need them. (PRO TIP: learn how to communicate and inspire. Look at my book recommendations below.)

10. “research on the effects of frequent travel finds 3 consequences: physiological, psychological, emotional & social.” [Link] [Tweet]

Best part of the article: “So these may be problems of the 1% (or the 3%, or the 5%). But they’re real enough regardless. By all means feel jealous of acquaintances’ Instagram photos of exotic meals and faraway attractions. But harbour a small amount of concern as well.”

There’s no way I can disagree with anything the author says but I don’t know any other way to do my job. Entrepreneurs are rising everywhere, great companies are growing everywhere and communities are thriving everywhere — traveling nearly constantly to see them all seems like the least-worst way to get a pulse on everything happening everywhere else.

On Books That Make You Smarter
OK, so apparently you people like books — I knew you were smart. I’ve recommended So Good They Can’t Ignore You and The Charisma Myth so far. What’s the latest book you’ve read (and recommend)? I’ll share the most common suggestion I get in next week’s newsletter.

(Actually, while I have you: have you bought one of the new MacBooks? If so, what do you think? I’m considering picking one up to replace an old MacBook Air.)

Apple Watch Week 5

OK, so I’ve had this watch for a month now and it’s time to make a decision. Do I keep it or send it back?

My only hang-up at this point: are the benefits of the watch worth $400 at this point in time? I really can’t decide. Help?

Thanks (again) to Russell Rosenblum and Ed Pizzarello of RMR Capital for letting me borrow your Apple Watch for a bit.

Miscellaneous

1. If you find this newsletter useful, will you please share with at least one friend? (Don’t be shy — sharing is caring. Also, I might send out some sweet schwag to the people that refer the most friends. No, that is not bribery.)
2. I kicked off an experiment this week: #resultsjunkies community. I’m intentionally keeping the initial group small — we’ve got 20 extremely smart investors, family offices, accelerator directors and founders already interacting with each other. Apply to join. (Flattery might work on me.)
3. What else can I be doing / creating / writing to be more helpful to you? Hit ‘reply’ and let me know.

Firehose

You can get the full stream of the things I read, it’s all on Twitter — follow me: @paulsingh. Sometimes I write stuff too.

Have a great weekend!
-P

P.S. Don’t forget to share this newsletter with at least one friend. 🙂

Happy Friday.
(I’m back from Kelowna, BC… more on that later. Hello, from Ashburn, VA today!)

1. “In general, startups get distracted by fake work.” [Link] [Tweet]

Founders, please read this — I wish someone had called me out for making these same mistakes years ago. Focus on sales and product. Be honest with yourself and others when you’re deviating from those two things.

2. “Some of these literally blew my mind. Some blew my mind because I never realized how important they were.” [Link] [Tweet]

Two things make me happy about this:

1. The concepts are applicable in your personal and professional life. Win-win, y’all.
2. The author gives a shout out to Ben Congleton from Olark and he’s from Virginia, like me. VIRGINIA (FOUNDERS) FTW.

3. “He made so many kids smile, thousands. They all thought he was Batman, a hero. He was.” [Link] [Tweet]

This guy bought himself a Lamborghini but, instead of doing what ever “normal” supercar owners do, he bought a Batman costume (that might even be better than the one in the movies) and made sick kids smile. I’ve never met him but he was a real hero and the world is a little bit emptier for having lost him. RIP Batman.

4. Two Cows Explain Economics Better Than Any Class [Link] [Tweet]

The Irish Corporation FTW.

5. “Bullshit. There’s always enough time, you’re just not spending it right.” [Link] [Tweet]

This is obvious advice. Then again, going to the gym or saving money seem like obvious advice too.

6. “First, I was one of a few founders. As we grew, I became a manager of people. Then a manager of managers.” [Link] [Tweet]

If you had asked me about my thoughts on company culture about five years ago, I would have laughed and told you to go away. Today I realize just how important it is to a company’s success. Add this to the things-I-wish-I-knew-years-ago list.

7. “an enormous amount of a child’s fate is determined by luck, by accidents of birth, socioeconomics, and geography.” [Link] [Tweet]

My favorite part: “Life is just a series of moments, and it’s amazing how many of them we miss, rush past, or disrupt because our minds are elsewhere, anticipating the future or dwelling on the past. But a moment of joy or connection is its own justification, not a means to an end. Play can just be fun. Fart jokes can just be funny. Daydreaming and wasted time don’t have to be framed as developmental tools; they’re just nice.”

8. “It’s going to be on the phone and it’s going to be on paper.” [Link] [Tweet]

I used my iPad Mini to read books for a little while but have used nothing but my iPhone 6+ more recently. Actually, now that I think about it: I haven’t used my iPad Mini for anything in the last few months. Maybe it’s time to sell it.

9. “If it worked, some would call it genius; if it failed, it would be called the stupidest thing I had ever done.” [Link] [Tweet]

This is badass. Depending on your own views, hacking politics is either amazing or depressing.

10. What happens when you throw a camera into a black hole? [Link] [Tweet]

Fact: Interstellar is one of my favorite movies ever. I may or may not have watched in at least 10 times this year.

On Books That Make You Smarter
I mentioned So Good They Can’t Ignore You in last week’s newsletter and 80+ of you asked for another book recommendation. Read this: The Charisma Myth.

Kelowna, BC this week.
Suffice it to say, it was fun and full of smart people. Also, I learned to wake surf — you’ll find the video in those tweets.

I’ve spent the majority of the last 3 weeks on the road and it’s time for a bit of a break. It’ll be nice to be in one timezone for at least the next 2 weeks.

Anything interesting happening in your neck of the woods?

Apple Watch Week 4

I’m still not impressed with Siri. When it works, it’s OK. When it doesn’t, it fails spectacularly. Ask me about how I used Siri to say something about logistics and Siri decided to “autocorrect” my text to indicate that the recipient was a whore. (face palm)

Thanks (again) to Russell Rosenblum and Ed Pizzarello of RMR Capital for letting me borrow your Apple Watch for a bit.

What else?

If you made it all the way down here, I want to hear from you. What else can I be doing to make this more useful for you? How would you feel about being able to access me, my successful friends, advisors and confidants via a private Slack channel just for members of my email list?

Firehose

You can get the full stream of the things I read, it’s all on Twitter — follow me here: @paulsingh. Sometimes I write stuff too.

Have a great weekend!
-P

P.S. Don’t forget to tell me your thoughts on a private community of fellow #resultsjunkies. 🙂

Happy Friday.
(Hello from Ashburn, VA where I’m just now getting off a flight from Greenville, SC. It’s good to be back… until I leave on Sunday for a few days of tech, VC and other smart people in Kelowna, BC.)

1. “Bottom line: You can see the impact of mobility, social, the cloud, and broadband on society.” [Link] [Tweet]

Take a look at the chart of public tech company stock prices over the past year and you’ll immediately see how quickly things can change in this industry. It’s a solid reminder that technology is pushing into every industry now — if you’re not thinking ahead, you’re already behind.

2. “80% of the writing about angel investing is total crap, written by inexperienced amateurs who have never done it.” [Link] [Tweet]

Ignore the article’s title, read the rest of it and you’ve got a really good overview of angel investing — especially the challenges. If you’re lazy (why are you even reading this email?), it boils down to this: angels should use AngelList Syndicates for individual deals, angels should invest full-time if they want to go direct or angels should avoid investing entirely to focus on building their own companies.

Yep, sounds about right.

3. “You see all those headlines of companies just crushing it, but you know what the founders are really going through.” [Link] [Tweet]

Startups have been Hollywood-ized and, for better or for worse, everyone’s trying to be a founder these days — mostly for the wrong reasons. This should be required reading for that friend of yours that has a cool idea and is considering quitting their job to prove their commitment.

4. if I was 10 years younger: @AngelList Analyst Program [Link] [Tweet]

If you’re a recent graduate and have ever considered a career in venture capital, you should hustle hard to get one of these slots. You’ll likely be exposed to more things in 12 months at AngelList than you would probably see in 6 years at a “regular” firm. Deadline is Aug 23, hurry up.

5. “Work hard, know your sh*t” [Link] [Tweet]

I love this — especially the part about confidence, entitlement and deserving it.

6. “I hate it when people ask me how things are going and all I can do is give them a vacuous response.” [Link] [Tweet]

THIS. So much this.

On a related note… if you ever have a burning desire to receive unsolicited advice: have a baby, start a company or become an investor.

7. “Google can’t organically grow themselves to $1T fast enough and they have decided to financially engineer it.” [Link] [Tweet]

Three thoughts on this:

• Someone’s going to build a $1T company in our lifetime. Crazy.
• Google’s going to go after the financial industry. Totally plausible.
• Sad but true: “The rest of America won’t take Google as a financial conglomerate seriously until they sponsor a PGA event.”

8. “Yet again, a great time to be a founder…” [Link] [Tweet]

I’ve seen this “bang bang” fundraising up close recently as well and I’m not sure what to make of it. For the most part, the founders and investors are behaving rationally given the circumstances: founders see an opportunity to raise more money and investors see an opportunity to get in earlier.

9. “As a VC, I have to make bets on where the world is going. So, I follow the attention.” [Link] [Tweet]

That statement above captures the challenge (and the opportunity) of working in venture capital. As the author says, “the behavior of the young is predictive of the future.”

10. “even if a job is just a job, you can still have a profound impact on someone else’s life.” [Link] [Tweet]

Another reminder that actually giving a shit about getting good at something is good for you and good for others. My absolute favorite book on this subject is So Good They Can’t Ignore You (affiliate link) and I recommend it every chance I get.

On Doing Interesting Things
As I mentioned last week, 1776’s acquisition of Disruption Corporation is complete and I’ve decided to move on from 1776. If you’re working on something interesting and think I can help, hit ‘reply’ and tell me about it.

Kelowna, BC this week.
Any chance you’ll be there Sun PM – Wed AM? If so, let’s link up. (Any interesting events coming up in your neck of the woods?)

Apple Watch Week 3

More thoughts:

• Checking for notifications on the watch seems to be less rude than pulling out your phone in a meeting. So, there’s that.
• On that same note, it always takes two hands to operate the watch. That’s one area that the phone wins on.
• The lag time is terrible. Checking the time, pulling up an app, replying to texts via Siri — everything seems to take forever. Ugh.

Thanks (again) to Russell Rosenblum and Ed Pizzarello of RMR Capital for letting me borrow your Apple Watch for a bit.

Firehose

A few of you asked about getting the full stream of the things I read, it’s all on Twitter — follow me here: @paulsingh. Sometimes I write stuff too.

Have a great weekend!
-P

Happy Saturday.
(Sorry for sending this much later than usual this week and hello from Miami this morning as I return from Santiago, Chile today — more on that below.)

1. “Money will solve surprisingly few of your problems.” [Link] [Tweet]

My favorite line from the article: “Venture capital is a tool designed for a very specific purpose. It’s hyperdrive.” This is a great read for anyone that’s thinking about raising their first round — especially if you’re based outside the Valley.

2. “If you’ve never seen a term sheet or before — or have for that matter — it can have a dizzying effect.” [Link] [Tweet]

This is a straight up glossary. Bookmark it, you’ll want to have it handy when you’re reviewing your next term sheet.

3. “Founders are more concerned with raising the next round of funds than actually building the business itself.” [Link] [Tweet]

Nothing surprising or new in this one. Still worth a read… actually, pretty much anything Gary writes is worth reading. (Where does that guy get all his energy? I need it.)

4. “accelerator (n.): An institution connecting college dropouts with wealthy investors eager to lose money.” [Link] [Tweet]

Hah.

5. Shark Tank Investment Data [Link] [Tweet]

Two thoughts as I checked out this spreadsheet:

• Where’s all this data coming from? It’s surprisingly detailed.
• Those valuations tho.

6. “To me, [Silicon Valley] encapsulates a feeling, both the very best and worst of it.” [Link] [Tweet]

This one’s my personal favorite this week. If you’ve ever wondered about life in the Valley, this nails it.

7. “startups should do a better job with all aspects of their incentive stock compensation” [Link] [Tweet]

Given all the interest in working with startups these days, I’m surprised at how little employees know about stock options. Here’s a great guide on stock options, you should read it before accepting that offer to join a startup.

8. “If you say and do 1,000 ridiculous things, then 1% of them might work out.” [Link] [Tweet]

I normally don’t read this kind of stuff but James Altucher has a way of making everything funny. And useful. There’s lots of good stuff in here, I hope you’ll take a minute to read it.

9. “the single most important change in the startup ecosystem: transparency between founders and investors.” [Link] [Tweet]

This is a transcript of a keynote I gave in Bangalore back in 2012. The vast majority of it is still true today.

10. “For every dollar that goes in the wrong place, that’s a shitty dollar. And it should matter.” [Link] [Tweet]

There’s a lot of confusion around the usage of data / algorithms in private market investing: data isn’t about making more right decisions, it’s about making fewer wrong decisions. When you’re investing in early stage startups, that’s a huge thing.

On Doing Interesting Things
Earlier this week, 1776’s acquisition of Disruption Corporation was completed and I’ve decided to move on from 1776. Next up… we’ll see. 🙂 I’m spending time with some of the smartest people I know and looking at a bunch of interesting opportunities.

If you’re working on something interesting and think I can help, hit ‘reply’ and tell me about it.

On Santiago, Chile (and everywhere else… again)
Last week, I told you about my experience in Lincoln, NE: “Lincoln’s come along way in four years but it’s growth is just one example of what’s happening in smaller cities all over the US and abroad. It’s fascinating to watch.” I could say the same thing about Santiago.

I first visited Startup Chile for a demo day in June 2013 — the people were smart, the event was organized and the teams were interesting. Fast forwarding to this week’s demo day, Startup Chile’s come a long way: every team had revenue ranging from a few thousand dollars per month to $60K a month, the organization itself is bigger and their ambitions have grown exponentially.

In short, Chile has less startups and more businesses now.

(Any interesting events coming up in your neck of the woods? I’ll be in San Francisco, CA and Greenville, SC this week — let me know if you’ll be around.)

Apple Watch Week 2 

A couple of additional thoughts:

• I’ve continued to use my phone less, so there’s that. More interestingly, I now wish there was an easy (read: cheap) way to switch my iPhone 6+ for a smaller iPhone 6.
• The number of notifications on the watch became a bit much. I’ve pulled it back so that the only alerts I get now are texts, specific emails, phone calls, calendar alerts and weather alerts.
• The battery life isn’t as bad as I imagined. The watch routinely makes it through a full day with plenty of charge left. I put the watch on with 100% charge yesterday morning and there’s 45% remaining nearly 24 hours later.

Thanks (again) to Russell Rosenblum and Ed Pizzarello of RMR Capital for letting me borrow your Apple Watch for a bit.

Firehose

A few of you asked about getting the full stream of the things I read, it’s all on Twitter — follow me here: @paulsingh

Have a great weekend!
-P