Happy Friday.
Hello from Reston, VA this morning.
If you’re in DC on Mon, Feb 29, I’m throwing a kickoff party and happy hour in DC. I hope you’ll join me — I’ll buy the first drink (or two)! We’ve got room for 150 smart people and 112 have already signed up as I write this to you. It’s filling up fast and It’s going to be a great time. See you there.
If you’re in a video/podcast mood, check out this interview I did with The Foundation: Ditching Silicon Valley and Helping America´s Small Town Entrepreneurs.
And, as usual, if you’re in the DC Metro area and looking for a place to work (and hang out), join me at Brickyard Ashburn. If you mention that you learned about it through my newsletter (or you just hit reply now), I’ll hook you up. 😉
1. I’m going to make 10-20 angel investments this year, you should probably join my syndicate. #RJTechTour [Link] [Tweet]
I’m planning to dial up my personal angel investing this year (especially considering that I’ll be meeting thousands of entrepreneurs around North America this year). If you’re even remotely interested in investing alongside me, you should join my AngelList syndicate. I opened it earlier this morning and, already, over $60,000 has been committed to my syndicate.
It’s free to join, you can commit as little as $1,000 to the syndicate and you can manually opt-in (or out) of any deals on a deal-by-deal basis. I’ll be syndicating 100% of the deals I do this year (unless the founder / company explicitly opt-out) and, in especially competitive deals, I’ll be giving priority to syndicate backers that have pre-funded their accounts and made larger commitments.
If you’re even remotely considering getting into the angel investing business (or just want to see more diversified dealflow), I hope you’ll join today: https://angel.co/paulsingh/syndicate
2. “most entrepreneurs don’t understand this math.” [Link] [Tweet]
Another (awesome) Mark Suster piece. Founders, please take 5 minutes to read this — you’ll need to have your head around this stuff if you’re even remotely entertaining the idea of raising money this year.
The more that you understand the business of venture capital, the more likely you’ll actually be able to raise money from angels and VCs.
3. “One hundred percent. The model definitely works.” [Link] [Tweet]
What percentage of AirBnB listings are actually real estate speculators rather than people renting out their primary residence? (I’m going to guess it’s under 20% — what do you think?)
4. “Early stage VC is a fairly local business” [Link] [Tweet]
Venture capital, startups and your own professional career have exactly one thing in common: the power law rules all.
Whether you’re planning to start investing in your hometown or you’re looking to find a new job, it’s important to understand that opportunities tend to come from other opportunities. The real challenge is forcing yourself to realize that you have to hit a few singles and doubles before you’re ready to hit a home run.
5. “only thing harder than joining a VC firm is leaving one” [Link] [Tweet]
This is one of the best lists I’ve seen on the VC career track.
6. “You know what kind of companies generally survive? Companies that make more money than they spend.” [Link] [Tweet]
Is anyone else as tired of these articles as I am? Yes, we get it — the market’s changing, funding might get tight and founders might have to make some hard decisions. Sounds like the usual, actually.
Get back to work and build your businesses. The money will always find you.
7. “those who use strong frameworks to commit to being truly legendary have a few big advantages.” [Link] [Tweet]
Um. I’m pretty sure you only become a legend after you die. Also, anyone that callsthemselves a legend is probably an asshole.
You’re welcome to steal my personal motto these days: optimize for fun and profit, the rest will take care of itself.
8. “Your success becomes my success (less, ahem, the GP carry) and I’m rooting for you.” [Link] [Tweet]
Now THIS is the stuff you really ought to be reading. Limited Partners (LP for short) are the source of money that every VC needs. When an active LP talks, it’s usually best for GPs and founders to listen.
9. “the most dangerous risk for any startup is existential risk.” [Link] [Tweet]
TL;DR: Raise the most money you can and get back to work.
10. “It’s about getting more people interested in becoming entrepreneurs.” [Link] [Tweet]
Social skills are way, way, way more important than most people realize. It doesn’t matter how smart or talented you are, you’ll have a hard time getting ahead at anything if you can’t figure out how to communicate and inspire people around you.
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.