It’s fine to say no

I often ask things of my founders. They sometimes they feel the pressure to say yes when they don't want to. I try and make it easy for them to say no.

My job is to help them if and when they need it, not to make their life harder.

It's fine to say no.

Build your own tech or use existing software and APIs

Build your own tech or use existing software and APIs?

A founder asked me this very question. She'd been told that creating their own software would make them more appealing to future investors. It would have been expensive with unclear value add.

If owning your own tech will give you a significant competitive advantage then go for it. If putting existing tech together gives you almost as good a product just go with that.

Your business is about how you solve problems for clients not what tech you use. That's just how you solve them. Yes, it would be nice if you had tech nobody else did - that's a real moat - but it isn't if it doesn't give you a significantly better product. Existing software and APIs will improve and you will constantly be playing catch up.

Everything is built on the shoulders of others. That's how tech progress works. You wouldn't build your own Stripe to operate an e-commerce store. That's not your value add.

Don't build your own tech unless it gives you a competitive advantage. Understand the problem you solve for your clients and focus hard on that.

A long way to go

LinkedIn says it's the two year anniversary of unbundled vc.

As of Tuesday it has a portfolio of 15 investments with a 1.98 multiple and 54% IRR.

I've paused my investing to work on a project I can't talk about publicly.

A good start. A long way to go.

What most European founders need to know about raising from US VCs

I spoke with Daniel Glazer about the things he most wishes European founders knew about raising from US VCs.

Any interest to hear more?

Dad’s building companies podcast

This morning James Roycroft-Davis and I are recording a Dad's Building Companies podcast for his community of the same name.

He's on his first, I have four boys. What would you like us to cover?

Capitalism and property in the Guernsey Press

Hey, whaddaya know, my article on capitalism, property, and freeing up the market to do its job made it into the Guernsey Press . Crosswords and Sudoku also available.

Thank you again Amanda (Mandy) Eulenkamp.

GCSE results

Good luck to all the kids, and parents of, getting GCSE results today.

Our first one is today. Fear and hope.

Venture capital’s biggest myth

The biggest myth in venture capital in startups?

When, after their unicorn or decacorn exit, the founder or early investor goes on a podcast and says, "This is how I knew we were solving a problem that meant we would win."

Nobody knows. Founders are doing their best among uncertainty. Investors are doing the same.

We are all just trying to shift the distribution of outcomes as far as possible to the right.

Then, what will be will be.

Do the things that make you uncomfortable

Find a way to do the things that make you most uncomfortable.

I did this with musical improv by advance booking myself into every musical class on a retreat.

I did it with standup by signing up for a course where you had to perform at the end.

It will hurt. But when you get through it, you will feel you can do anything.

Musical improv

Saturday was an all day course in musical improv. Yes, that's singing and learning to sing songs you have made up on the spot.

It's not my first rodeo but it's still scary and incredibly joyous at the same time. Give it a shot if you ever get the chance.

Course run by Sarah Hansmann Rouxel.

The buck stops with you

Founders, the buck stops with you.

● Do you feel you have enough support?

● What support do you have?

● What support would you like to have?

Proud nerd day

I am declaring today proud nerd day.

I get drawn into a subject and have to study it.

Recently I've been nerding out on writing skills.

I've been listening to the very nerdy podcast How I Write by David Perell.

I am proud to be a nerd.

Fellow nerds, what have you been nerding out on?

Mentoring Martine Ellis

Coffee with Martine Ellis. Lots of founder energy.

She is who I did not yet have permission to mention in this morning's mentoring post.

She is building Martine Ellis Education and Training to "Excel in your high-energy career without losing your evenings and weekends."

Mentoring help

Help me. I am going to be mentoring someone.

I typically start with "What do you want to achieve", "Why", and "How do you think I can help".

How would you start, please?

The August pause

August is quiet.

You can't move as fast as you'd like because you have dependencies - other people.

That gives you more time - seemingly unwelcome time.

You can use that time to pause, think, see the big picture and plan.

Take advantage of these moments when you can.

Sometimes you need the pause.

Article submitted

Article submitted. Once it is published, I may consider sharing my conversation with ChatGPT that helped me produce it.

Is there any interest to see this?

But AI can’t do ‘this’!

But AI can't do 'this'! Insert your own specific task you'd like to hold against it.

Right now, AI is good at some things and not at others.

Two years ago it would have been astonishing to believe it would be good at any of these things.

We hold it to ever higher bars.

It, as we all are, is a work in progress.

How we got here in venture

I am deep in article writing. I am late. I am using ChatGPT to help as always. (Always? It's not been around so long.)

What about? How we got here in venture. Why so many crazy businesses got funded. Giving the liquid public markets what they wanted from an illiquid asset class. Where that leaves us today.

Coming soon-ish.

ChatGPT project update

I now have a working web app using Streamlit that uses GPT-4o mini via API and Google Search via Google Cloud and integrates the results. It works pretty well despite using mini rather than 4o.

Next step is to add conversation memory.

Ask it a question in the comments, please, and I will post the results and you can help me see where it falls short.

Finding cofounders

Founders - how did you go about finding cofounders?

How did you figure out if you were right to work together?

What are all the things you should discuss and make sure you are closely aligned on before jumping into this?

All the things please.