Matt Levine

Anycast S1E3 Is here! With @EdgeUno CEO @mhmtkcn. Watch & Subscribe here: theanycast.com/how-edgeuno-is… We talk Edge, Out of control cloud costs, AI, Launching a startup in Latam and other things and stuff!

@davidu hmm..Does or does not include 6 white t-shirts?

🌉 I'm selling a condo in San Francisco. It's an amazing unit in a terrific building. I never lived in it as my life changed shortly after buying it. I did extensive renovations. Happy to do seller financing, too. redfin.com/CA/San-Francis…

@eastdakota @Austen You had me until we compared entry level ae’s being fired to the former head of the nba players association who’s on a 4yr/120m deal of which 85m is _guaranteed_.. being… traded… 🤷🏻‍♂️

We fired ~40 sales people out of over 1,500 in our go to market org. That’s a normal quarter. When we’re doing performance management right, we can often tell within 3 months or less of a sales hire, even during the holidays, whether they’re going to be successful or not. Sadly, we don’t hire perfectly. We try to fire perfectly. In this case, clearly we were far from perfect. The video is painful for me to watch. Managers should always be involved. HR should be involved, but it shouldn’t be outsourced to them, No employee should ever actually be surprised they weren’t performing. We don’t always get it right. And sometimes under performing employees don’t actually listen to the feedback they’ve gotten before we let them go. Importantly, just because we fire someone doesn’t mean they’re a bad employee. It doesn’t mean won’t be really, really great somewhere else. Chris Paul was a bad fit for the Suns, but he’s undoubtedly a great basketball player. And, in fact, we think the right thing to do is get people we know are unlikely to succeed off the team as quickly as possible so they can find the right place for them. We definitely weren’t anywhere close to perfect in this case. But any healthy org needs to get the people who aren’t performing off. That wasn’t the mistake here. The mistake was not being more kind and humane as we did. And that’s something @zatlyn and I are focused on improving going forward.

Alright some very quick (assumptive) analysis: 1. Looks like the company was nuking most of the sales org. If they’re keeping <25% of an org the calculus isn’t, “Are they doing a good job and have we given them a fair shake?” It’s more, “Who are the top performers we need to keep? We have to get rid of everyone else.” Totally unfair to her. It may have been nigh impossible to reach the performance bar required to stay. But hard to say with no info. 2. The fact that it’s two HR people who don’t know her is either a big mistep or it implies her manager (and possibly her manager’s manager etc.) are gone too. 3. The HR team was probably given a big list of names they needed to tell, and probably had no clue as to why the decision making led to some staying and some going. That’s not a fun position to be in, but could be the only alternative to a mass firing in a giant Zoom meeting depending on how much of management was also fired. 4. It’s interesting that they’re so clear it’s performance-based and not a layoff. That’s not an accident. Could be to avoid regulations around the WARN act, or as justification to give zero severance. Usually in this call they go over the high level of that stuff, but this one took a turn. Sad across the board.

@LouStagner err sorry 65% of the time bogey or worse from 20-29 yards?

@LouStagner @LouStagner hmm am I reading this newsletter chart right? A scratch golfer is going to make bogey or worse 72% of the time from 20 yards out or more?

I had a tour pro reach out and ask me to put this data together for him. Thought you would enjoy looking at it (and seeing how incredibly good they are!). Remember, these are the couple hundred best players on the planet! That data is from 2020 through 2023. The pro wanted to know what the birdie percent was from different distances in 10 yard increments for second shots from the fairway on par 4s. I also tossed in the chances of making bogey. The last two columns show the distribution of where birdies and bogeys are made. For example, from 100 to 109 yards: ➡️Chances they make bird = 29.4% ➡️Chances they make bogey = 5.7% ➡️Of all birds made from the fairway on par 4s, 7.4% of them are from 100 to 109 yards ➡️Of all bogeys made from the fairway on par 4s, 3.0% of them are from 100 to 109 yards

@davidu Kabuto

Best off-strip sushi in Las Vegas? I know people have strong opinions. 🍣🎰

Most underrated BGP community if you're deploying anycast.. "Set localpref same as peers" .. The power of mixing and matching carriers in regions is in your hands.

@therealfrankoh It’s cause I always have a caddie!

@therealfrankoh But more importantly, who hurt you?? Caddies are great

@therealfrankoh In that case “I’d rather not play bucket list courses if I have to experience them the way they want me to” is a terrible preference :)

@therealfrankoh Terrible take

@EvaVlaar International flight? Were us citizens boarding via a different line without the facial recognition? If so this wasn’t Delta making you, this was CBP matching your exit i94 photo to the photo they took of you on arrival.

Just had to go through ‘facial recognition boarding’ at LAX airport, meaning they scan your face and use your biometric data to identify you instead of checking your passport/boarding pass. I tried to refuse, but was immediately told by the gate agent that it was obligatory and that they wouldn’t allow me to board the plane if I didn’t comply. Yet another dystopian nightmare that has become reality.

@davidu @dkhos Was much better when we didn’t know our rider score tbh..

Does Uber have any recency bias in your Uber score or does like 10 years of trips just constantly average? Seems as if people like me who have taken 1000s of Ubers (4k+) can’t ever make even a .01 improvement or penalty. Cc @dkhos

@eastdakota It def seems like something is afoot

Wonder if this whole thing is about giving Russia a way to pull out of Ukraine and make Shoigu the scapegoat?

@putt4dough24 @JDanielBeckman @MattGinella Did the rule change that there are no electronics on the property, or are you just ignoring the rule and keeping it in your pocket ?

@JDanielBeckman @MattGinella I always have mine with me, and it’s never been an issue at CGC or any other place …but I also don’t feel the need to check it constantly while trying to have fun golfing

Too many rules for @MattGinella 😝 but not for me

@andruyeung +1

I’m thinking of starting a curated dinner series for tech leaders + founders in Toronto. • 8 ppl max • curated + relevant • vetted ppl, application only • hosted in private dining rooms • optimized for connection + conversation Will start small. Comment if interested.

@jmfjohnson Why did you wake up today and choose violence ??

@pgamva @RDSBarath @Titleist Yes, thus my use of the word “set”

Newest @Titleist iron are hitting the PGA Tour this week!

@pgamva @RDSBarath @Titleist Go onnnn

@exile @RDSBarath @Titleist There is.

@mattybcohen @FounderEric @ripple_ventures @markrmcqueen @TankTalkPodcast How are you both very busy writing cheques and also only writing 1 a month 🤷🏻‍♂️

@exile @FounderEric @ripple_ventures Sorry Matt - too busy writing pre seed checks right now to discuss. Feel free to check out my chat with @markrmcqueen on @TankTalkPodcast to hear why. open.substack.com/pub/tanktalks/…

Just talked with a Canadian founder who went straight to US and successfully raised $2 Million USD seed round. Zero time wasted. There's no pre-seed or seed in Canada, really.