joy

Consider everyone who sees this my referrals 😆

@Abir2 Hahaha yes! Just don’t do it with your wife.

this is today's reminder to build products that make the mundane memorable every touchpoint is a chance to build trust & go viral.

Do you, like me, meet people in SF and think “This guy could be a character on Silicon Valley the show! Someone needs to make the sequel!” Well some of my friends are making it, and I couldn’t be more excited.

we spent the last four years reimagining what finance can be, unburdened by what has been. runway makes clear the significance of the passage of time in the context of all in which your business lives and what came before you. this is the result 👇

I had a chat last night with a billion-dollar SaaS founder/CEO. He's raised $200M at a $2B valuation in 2021. Living the high life in SF with a crazy house and a Porsche 911. On the surface, it seems like he has it all and living the dream. But he called me out of the blue at 11p last night to vent. It’s been 9 years since he started the company although people think it's overnight success. Last two years have been brutal. He’s sprinting to profitability. Layoffs. Now navigating the AI landscape. He goes: “I hope we can compete in an OpenAI world” I could practically hear his uncertainty crackling through the phone. Four years ago, he had a full head of blonde hair. Today, it’s mostly gray. He looks like Obama post-presidency. Then he dropped the bombshell, “I’m running a zombie company. I don’t know if we’ll ever IPO. Hopefully, we sell, and I get a 1-3x return for investors. I feel stuck.” This is the dirty secret of Silicon Valley. So many founders are trapped in the hype cycle, drowning in VC money but feeling like teenage toddlers trying to figure it out. I've been stuck before. I've been on this treadmill before. Sometimes you get unstuck, find that killer product and before you know it you're Silicon Valley's darling again. But most, time you're not. You're just treading water. And then you wake-up, you're 45, no hair, no kids, only yearly trips to visits family and realized you could have made a more profitable career (and more fruitful life?) just doing your own thing. Maybe you're happy. Because you gave it your best shot at "building something big". You wanted to become the next Mark Zuckerberg. But maybe you aren't. Maybe you realize that you can build something big on your own. No investors. Or join something early that isnt on the VC-train. He called because he’s desperate for a new direction. Profitable, indie startups. I keep getting these calls. The air is thick with anxiety. The unicorn dream is cracking, and people are waking up.

@calebbuening That’s a whole other ball of wax! I’ve worn people about using high dose Ashwaghanda for long periods of time— and some people may not be able to take it at all. Sourcing matters! And duration!

Founder negotiations

I feel sad to be rejected by @ycombinator but this is also the furthest i have gotten since wanting to start a start up in 2020 :”) next time

My best negotiation tip: You catch more flies with honey. 🪰🍯

1/8 This week we celebrated the 1-year anniversary of YourNegotiations.com, my startup that offers online classes & 1:1 consulting to help people negotiate job offers or B2B deals.

@gerta_ma This is AI? 🤯

1/8 🤖From 0 to 10, were you able to tell that this video is AI-generated? 0 = couldn’t tell at all, 10 = it’s so obvious it’s AI

brilliant idea: if vc's hired the twitter sleuths that cracked the kate middleton photoshop debacle to do due diligence on their investments, we'd never have a ftx / theranos scandal ever again

NEW podcast episode is up! Seth Godin — Coaching Tim on Overcoming Resistance, Lessons from Isaac Asimov, Writing Secrets After 8,500+ Daily Blog Posts, The Dangers of Authenticity, Practices for Consistency, and Much More Please enjoy! 🙌

Unmanaged stress is detrimental to happiness, sleep and overall health. 2 science supported solutions: 1) Real time stress control: Physiological sigh (deep vigorous inhale through your nose until lungs are full, then sneak in a bit more air with another sharp inhale, then exhale until your lungs are empty). 2) Raise your stress threshold: Use (safe!) deliberate cold exposure or any other reliable way to safely & quickly increase your adrenaline levels, while also controlling your mental focus. This takes practice but you’ll progress quickly.

The path to one’s best career and contributions to humanity is often non-linear & the “detours” serve a key role. Dr EJ Chichilnisky of @Stanford @StanfordMed - a world class neuroscientist who is working to cure blindness with biologically informed artificial eyes, explains:

The promise of AI is no UI.

@gerta_ma Which posts?

There’s allegedly some privacy concerns at Glassdoor and people are deleting their accounts. On that note, doing extensive market research on salary data is not necessary to negotiate an offer effectively! There’s many other better strategies that work - see my previous posts.

Women in tech, read this

@gerta_ma no spoilers!