With or without you

The best founders will win with or without you.

I love to help. But if you only invest when you can make a difference, you filter out the best opportunities.

Be there when they need you, let them get on with it when they don't.

Focal is back

Founders, Focal is back. It's where I met Tash Grossman of Slip. It's your chance to pitch to over 250 VCs including unbundled vc, Episode 1 Ventures, dmg ventures, Playfair and many more.

It takes 7 minutes to apply for demo day and over 1,600 introductions were made last time.

Application here. Please mention unbundled vc when you apply.

Shoutout to Caitlin Rozario

Shoutout to Caitlin Rozario of interlude for reminding me that whenever I need to solve a problem or stop procrastinating, I should take a break.

Fifteen minutes sitting in silence with no devices works for me. YMMV.

Leading with values

My article on Leading with Values for Business Brief magazine.

Inspired by Ben Horowitz's book, "What You Do Is Who You Are".

Thank you Amanda (Mandy) Eulenkamp for the opportunity to write.

How my brain works

Random insight into how my brain works:

A friend is learning Thai. He told me it doesn't use spaces between words.

My immediate thought was, "I wonder how this affects compression algorithms."

Speaking at Rare Founders

Two weeks today I am speaking at this event on Best Practices for Assessing Investment Opportunities. It is a great chance to understand what investors are looking for.

There are many other great speakers and fundraising founders demoing who I helped to rate.

Thank you to Vasily Alekseenko of Rare Founders for inviting me and SeedLegals for asking me to speak and I hope to see many of you on the day. Let me know if you're coming below!

20% discount link here.

AI makes the world better

For AI to disrupt the world, it has to lead to much better outcomes.

People will only use it if it's helpful. Businesses will only use it if it helps deliver better services or existing ones more efficiently.

If it does disrupt the world, it will look very different but on average we will all be in a much better place.

Talking to the duck

When I am stuck on something, I sometimes figure it out just by explaining my problem out loud. The act of explaining takes my mind somewhere where I figure out the solution.

TIL (thank you Nick Davis) that in software dev this is known as talking to the duck or rubber duck debugging. Link in comments.

Never if it’s obvious

If it's obvious, it's either a bad idea or too expensive.

Inspired by Harry Stebbings podcast with Trae Stephens.

Best US funds

Founders, if you had to choose a US fund to lead your Series A or B, who would it be?

I'm going to be in the States in three weeks time and want to meet the best funds to invest in my current and future portfolio.

Help me find them!

Sales objections

Hearing a sales objection is like finding a bug in your code.

It's good news.

You'd much rather it didn't exist but, if it does, you need to know about it.

Pitch deck feedback

Founders, your first draft pitch deck might not be so good. It can be hard to see the big picture when you're deep in the details.

Ask people in your 'startup family' for honest feedback. Be open to that feedback.

Rewrite. Repeat.

Target returns

I am laser-focused on doing everything I can to generate the best returns.

I don't have a target return, I am aiming for as high as possible.

Valuations matter

I have to think hard about the valuations I invest at. They matter. If every investment was at double the valuation, my returns would halve.

Occasionally, there is an investment where I would be happy to pay double the valuation. If I could only invest in these, I would. Then my returns would double.

A ranking game

Investing is partly a ranking game.

You see a lot of opportunities. You can't dig into many of them in depth because of how many you see and the other calls on your time. You need to choose the top 5, for example, opportunities to invest in each year.

How do you optimise your process to spend the right time on the right opportunities?

A risk reward game

Startup valuation is a dark art. Even if you see hundreds or thousands of startups a year it's still hard.

As an investor, you are playing a trade-off between risk and reward.

All other things being equal, what multiple could this business reach if it achieves its maximum outcome? Given the founders, the plan, the competition and the trajectory, how likely is it to move fast in that direction?

Put those things together and you may not have a specific valuation but you will have a way to compare different startups of different valuations.

Founder Mental Health Pledge

I have signed the Founder Mental Health Pledge. This is a subject I care about a lot and is one of the reasons I invested in Monika Holod's OMA Mind.

Also very happy to see OMA Mind is one of the mental health resources they include.

Investors, click here to take the pledge.

Blending boundaries in the Guernsey Press

Blending boundaries - AI's role in redefining leadership and management - in yesterday's Guernsey Press.

Mica Vaipan's RunYourself is at the forefront of this by helping transform managers into highly skilled coaches.

What motivates me

I am motivated by supporting my family, the challenge of building an investment business, and to sail past a couple of people from my past in a bigger boat.

How about you?

My one non-negotiable

My one non-negotiable for a London trip - a Tongue & Brisket chopped liver sandwich.