Patrick Despres-Gallagher

"the habit becomes perfection" - taylor sheridan

"SaaS is dead," he said 7 hours into debugging a critical path function of a simple application that took weeks to build

"people talk to much. humans aren't descended from monkeys. they come from parrots." - shadow of the wind

Jeff Bezos: Slow decisions are worse than bad decisions

@endowment_eddie entire generation of investors and operators who have never seen a business produce cash flows very scary

It floors me that most of VC seems to pretend that the world of bootstrapped or capital efficient growth doesn’t exist.

@ItzSuds happy for you

Yesterday, 11 months after I started, I got the final commit for fund 1 I raised 525k in 2 days. I thought I was made. 6 mo later, on Oct 1, I’d only signed 1.7m Fund returns helped, but the only change I made was to unapologetically be me. Being authentic pays, it’s just hard.

@pavelprata @SHACK15sf

Planning a VC/LP mixer in SF for late April. Where’s the best "if you know, you know" venue in the city right now?

@noampomsky courage

as a rule the psychologically healthier someone is, the less time it takes them to do something they were eventually going to do anyway. Anything from sending a text to quitting a job. I’m not sure what to call it—processing time? lack of blocks? low avoidance?

@Casey 3. if it is his name

there are only two circumstances wherein a grown man should call another grown man 'buddy'; 1. if you want to fight 2. if you want to condescend, before you fight

@jaltma mhm open.substack.com/pub/gallagher/…

I might be too much of an optimist but I just don’t buy the permanent underclass thing. I just think no matter how smart AI gets, there’s no way a motivated person will wake up each day and be unable to contribute to society.

career investors that use the phrase "lifestyle business" pejoratively are in for a rude awakening

@anymanfitness most industry consumption is power law, so assume this is true for all products.

Insane statistic: The top 10% of drinkers drink 75% of the alcohol in America - and average 73.8 drinks per week. That’s a 10+ drink per day average. Alcoholics single handedly keep the booze industry alive in this country.

Claude Code: "You've hit your limit · resets 7pm" Me from 5-6.59pm

something big is happening, and we shouldn't be afraid of it. gallagher.substack.com/p/the-new-scar…

people are going to hear a lot more about @AsteraInstitute soon. haven't heard a vision that exciting in quite some time.

@tejeshwi_sharma @StanfordGSB was just thinking about joel today. quoted him yesterday to a founder: "great decisions come from great alternatives." rip.

My late @StanfordGSB professor Joel Peterson used to say: “Business is episodic. Relationships are serial.” The older I get, the truer this feels. Deals come and go. Business ebbs and flows. Cycles boom and bust. But reputations compound. Trust compounds. People remember. Play long-term games with long-term people. Be curious. Be useful. Be kind. Life and business is longer than one thinks.

@pmarca x.com/pjdgallagher/s…

Questions are more important than answers.

@parmita x.com/pjdgallagher/s…

The #1 tip for an early stage founder is to do things and take advice later. Outside of “sleep every single day” I have not found one piece of advice about “balance” and “taking care of myself” useful, especially from those who aren’t in the startup world. Even when it means well. It has only hurt me. I have noticed this with my ex and some friends. They mean well. They really do. But they are not contextualising their advice. Stuff like “your job and your life are completely separate” no. In my case they’re literally not? And to any founder, their company is never a “job.” That’s like calling my dad’s work a "job” in principle, it is. But he is not stepping out of the operating room because the clock hit 5 PM. It’s immaterial HOW he’s saving lives, and what he gets from it. He loves what he does. If I never stopped him, how could you stop me?! If I work too hard then it’s “your company is using you” like I give a shit? Is your child using you? No. They’re not. You love them. Some people are inherently cynical about founders. Because they are not in touch with reality. They think that any of this is transactional. As long as you’re there for the ones you love, you live life how you need to to get shit done. You were never meant to be normal.

when that first mega ipo hits

going to be a hard year for those in the corporate hierarchy responsible for writing "a plan about a plan" or scheduling "a meeting about a meeting" and everyone will be better off for it in the long run