John Di Giacomo
1K posts
John Di Giacomo
@jdigiacomo
Intellectual property, M&A, and e-comm attorney; sailor; lover of Michigan
iPhone: 44.745640,-85.560898 Katılım Nisan 2008
1.8K Takip Edilen1.5K Takipçiler
If you can take away anything from this:
It is possible to achieve your dreams.
If I can get an outcome on what started as a silly desperate letter opener company then all of you can do much more.
If you’re on the fence of building something pease do it.
It is the best time to build in history right now.
isaac@theisaacmed
I am proud to announce that late last year, I sold Mini Katana to a new owner. I am really grateful for the whole team and everything that MK has given me. It was my first measurable success. I started it when I was 23 and had nothing to my name. Advertising bans didn’t stop us, tariffs didn’t stop us. Last year a potential acquirer approached us. They buy and run YouTube channels. My job was done: Scaling our YouTube presence to 30m subscribers across two channels. 1b views a month 8 figures in our first 2 years. Hiring some of the best people and having a culture I’m immensely proud of. I have a lot more free time. I will be shifting my full focus to my other ventures. (Picture of our first ever warehouse space outside of my apartment).
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@allenwalton @landforce Wait should I not just be rawdogging it in terminal?
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I've been using Cursor for months because Claude Code seemed too technical based on the way people talk about it on here. I thought y'all were like living in terminal or something lmao.
Full IDE is way more complex, I did not need it. Way less token usage on Claude Code too.
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Said it a million times... so many better business models than eCom.
Now me, many of my friends, and definitely much of ecomfuel have made millions from it.
But doesn't change the fact that if you're just starting out or haven't already reached scale, I'd fish elsewhere.
Andrew Youderian@youderian
Extracting capital from a fast growing eCom business is nearly impossible. But there's a sweet spot where it does make sense. I surveyed 200+ store owners to figure out where. Here's what I found: The magic growth range is 10-20% annual revenue growth. Half of store owners I surveyed growing 10-20% are able to pull money out. Every other growth bracket? Way less. Why is 10-20% the magic number for distributing capital? Because you're not bleeding cash to fund explosive growth. The business is often mature enough to generate excess. Hypergrowth owners growing 60%+ top line? They look financially identical to sub-$1M businesses when it comes to extraction. Both are pouring everything back in. One by choice, one by necessity. The $1M revenue threshold matters too. Below it, less than 10% of owners are taking anything out. You're still building the machine. That's expected. Once you cross $1M and settle into moderate growth, the window opens. And it widens fast as you scale. At $5M-$25M growing rev 10-20%, three out of four owners are extracting capital. The other thing most people underestimate: margins. Below 5% net profit margin, less than a 1-in-5 chance of pulling money out. At 10-15% margins, that jumps to better than 1-in-2. So the real question isn't "should I extract capital?" It's "am I in the zone where I can?"
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@allenwalton Ask @scottbrills! He is smart about such things.
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I'd like to get my first 'nice' camera so that not all of my pictures of the kids are iPhone quality.
Two thoughts:
1) Wish I'd done it sooner.
2) I have insane brand loyalty to Canon only because it's what my grandpa used in the early 2000s, it's irrational.
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Friday was a special day - My wife became a U.S. citizen
It was a surprisingly beautiful ceremony.
There were 75 people from 33 different nations getting naturalized.
France
Vietnam
Germany
Lithuania
China
Burma
Congo
Canada
Honduras
Russia
Belarus
Namibia
Equador
Ethiopia
And many more.
There were smiles and tears and joy.
Some were solo, two were single mothers with a baby, and some had a huge family there to help celebrate.
In these days of mixed political discourse on immigration, the vibe in the federal courthouse was surprisingly at ease.
Clapping as encouraged, filming was permitted, beautiful music was performed live (National anthem and America the Beautiful)
The federal judge did a fantastic job of ensuring everyone felt welcome.
Went into detail about what becoming a citizen meant, the responsibilities it entailed (including taxes lol), and how their primary job was to keep our democracy working. To go vote.
The actual process of becoming a citizen is rough. Uncomfortable interviews, mountains of paperwork, lawyers, etc. Maybe this is a good thing.
But the actual ceremony was lovely and welcoming.
Feels good.
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@iamshackelford It gets better. We did the same. My take is that everything is hard as a parent. It can either be hard at home or hard abroad. We got a sound machine that sounds like a plane and pushed bedtime schedules to help with the time change.
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No joke - I literally cried when I got back from Japan.
Not tears of joy. Tears of exhaustion, frustration, and feeling like the worst parent on the planet.
My 1 yo son had his 4th int’l trip, and I turned it into a nightmare. We ripped him from his routine, destroyed his sleep schedule, and dragged him through a country where we were the loud Americans on trains with the crying baby.
The Japanese are respectful but quiet. We were anything but. 7 adults.. 1 screaming toddler…. the weight of everyone's stares.
We thought we were being smart by leaving the stroller at home. That was literally the worst decision ever because we had to carry him 24/7 and he couldn't fully walk around yet because of how busy / how much foot traffic we had to navigate through.
The hardest part was accepting that the travel I loved is gone for now. This new version requires different expectations, different planning, and a different mindset.
Seriously, any dads out there have some advice? What are your best toddler travel hacks?
Asking for a friend :)
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@allenwalton On the Quest 3? If not, it is incredible on it.
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all that work just to game an app
@levelsio@levelsio
How I get 100% perfect sleep: - very cold bedroom 18-20°C / 64-68°F (colder better) - 9kg weighted blanket by CURA (adjust to your bodyweight) - separate duvet from gf (I do this for years this might be the biggest sleep improvement) - 3M ear plugs (I tried Ohropax wax but they only half as silent) - eye mask - red LED lights that go on before sleep in bedroom - 0.2mg melatonin 45min before sleep then dim the lights (melatonin is ALWAYS sold in too high dose like 3mg, it should be 10x less or it doesn't work!) - 4x per week cardio + strength training, my resting heart rate (RHR) is 52 - mostly clean diet of meat + vegetables + fruit + black coffee + sparkling water with lemon (and sometimes cheat with dark choco), not a lot of carbs (almost never pasta or regular potatoes for ex but sometimes rice or sweet potatoes) - healthy biomarkers and body mass index, if you're overweight it WILL affect your sleep usually with sleep apnea etc - read phone before sleep but with Smart Invert on and my custom super dark hack using iOS Zoom (but it doesn't zoom it just decreases brightness even further), then read Kindle a bit to really make me sleepy 😂 - we try avoid eating after 10pm, and we sleep around midnight to 1am, especially sweet stuff like fruits seem to have a bad effect on my sleep - also DO not drink 2-3 hours before sleep or you wake up to go pee (which is more common when you get older) - disclaimer: no kids (yet) so easy talking Other things: Temperature seems to be the biggest impact for me, if it gets too hot I wake up and once I wake up my brain gets active and it's sometimes hard to fall asleep. I already had this years ago and thought it was stress but even if I have life stuff going along I can sleep solid 8h without waking up if it's just a very cold bedroom. If it's really super cold like 17-18°C / 62-64°FI just never wake up For that you need a thick duvet though and your gf needs thicker cause women are generally colder If you're culturally used to sleeping hotter, consider changing that because it seems to benefit almost anyone to sleep colder! An AC will do the trick. As @bryan_johnson tells everyone, sleep is the most important thing to prioritize for your health Good sleep benefits all your health markers, your immune system and so stops you from getting sick. Even cleaning your brain of plaque to avoid dementia when you're older
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@allenwalton @MehtabKarta If you liked Skyrim, I think Oblivion is better.
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@jdigiacomo @MehtabKarta I was still in high school, I don't ever remember hearing about this game.
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Wow, Oblivion remaster just dropped. See you all next week thx
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Underrated:
Live abroad in your 20s.
Nick Huber@sweatystartup
Underrated: Having a kid in your 20s.
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An update from month 8 of our family gap year:
Backstory: After running businesses for 15+ years, I realized my kids were growing up fast—my oldest only has 6 years left at home. My wife and I made the decision: it was time for a family gap year with minimal work and maximum presence.
The plan seemed simple: work one day per week, homeschool our kids (7, 10, 12), and travel extensively. Seven months in, the reality has been both more wonderful and more challenging than imagined.
Itinerary: First 4 months in Montana, spending lots of time with family and in the mountains before travel.
Hawaii gave us a first blissful week of unplugging—all five of us learning to surf together.
Japan stretched everyone's comfort zones initially, especially my crowd-anxious daughter. Visited Hiroshima for a WWII history lesson, explored back-alley eateries in Tokyo. Learned about Japanese culture in Kyoto.
On to the Philippines where I meet a team members of 15+ years (insane) that I'd never met in person! We also spent a week visiting/helping out at an orphanage, a highlight for the family.
Ended the Asia portion in Singapore which makes a strong case for the "benevolent dictator" model of governing. Back to Montana for holidays, home school and getting the kids their first real ski season.
The transformation in our children has been remarkable. One daughter discovered her inner nomad, making friends everywhere and thriving on new cultures.
The other daughter conquered her fear of crowds, moving from terrified on day one in Tokyo to gradually gaining independence until she was confidently exploring Singapore's hawker stalls on her own. (Singapore is notoriously safe)
Homeschooling humbled us immediately. Getting kids to listen to parents as teachers requires a patience I didn't know I needed. Though it's gotten better with time, teachers deserve profound respect (and much higher salaries).
Homeschooling has definitely be one of the hardest parts of the year, as has traveling with 3 kids in close quarters for 2 months straight.
Our kids are generally pretty good but tight quarters and sometimes long days caused kid fighting that drove both my wife Annie and I to 🤯.
Also crazy challenging? Having the self-discipline to stay away from work.
In the Fall I sabotaged myself by scheduling too many trips/speaking engagements despite being on the gap year, and was gone for 3 weeks straight.
The rest of the time I struggled with the discipline to just check out.
It's really, really hard to know there are things you could be doing to improve your business and leave them be. This is doubly true when you see issues impacting your profitability.
My team has done an amazing job of taking care of things. The problem has been with my ability to disconnect. Guessing I'm not the only entrepreneur who struggles with this, gap year or otherwise.
Cost is always a worry for a big year like this but I've been surprised at how we buy far less "stuff" while traveling. No Amazon packages, no gifts for endless birthday parties, no house projects.
It's definitely not as cheap as a "normal" year, but not nearly as expensive as you might think.
I'll plan on doing a final update this summer at year end. But so far it's been an incredible experience and an amazing bonding time for our family.
If you've ever considered it, especially if your kids are in that golden era of 6-12, I can't recommend it enough.
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@MehtabKarta I took my daughter with me to Italy and Croatia to teach at 2 months. Didn't regret it at all.
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Stupid to try and travel with a ~3 month old? Short flight.
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Doing some local LLM training. Man, MLX is good! I guess I never thought about why Apple moved to unified memory, but it makes sense now. Maybe it will give Cuda a run for its money.
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@RepMeijer Woah, woah. What about what you took from us? Bring back Ed Venture, my man.
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