December 2018

WILL.I.AM
by editor|14 December 2018|CULTURE
Will.I.AM is a tech founder. @iamwill is the founder and CEO of I.am+, they originally focused on headphones as a consumer electronics company but peep this: he raised $117 MILLION from Silicon Valley, employs 300 people, and pivoted to an artificial intelligence...
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KEVIN DURANT
by editor|14 December 2018|CULTURE
Kevin Durant is a venture capitalist. He hangs with VC’s (had a bday party at Ben Horowitz’s house), invests with them (co-invests with Ronald Conway a lot) and his manager is out there sourcing and vetting deals for him (Rich...
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WHY 90% OF STARTUPS FAIL
by editor|14 December 2018|CAPITAL
A lot of people want to invest in startups but it’s tough. 90% of startups fail. Imagine investing your own money or people paying you to invest their money, and your first 9 investments fail and go out of business!...
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TRACTION
by editor|14 December 2018|CAPITAL
VC’s love saying “come back when you make more traction.” Most of the times it’s their way of saying they are passing, but other times they may not have the money to invest and they want to keep the relationship...
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WHAT NBA TEAMS, RECORD LABELS, AND VC FIRMS HAVE IN COMMON
by editor|14 December 2018|CAPITAL
I recently sat down with @dereklfisher discussing tech and basketball and the similarities between the two. It struck me after speaking to @yg about how his record labels make money the same way venture capital firms make money. The reason why athletes and entertainers...
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MILLIONAIRES
by editor|14 December 2018|COMMUNITY
There were 700,000 millionaires created last year in the USA. Let me repeat that: Millionaire households in the U.S. jumped by more than 700,000 last year. The U.S. now has a record of more than 11 million millionaire households. What...
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TORII HUNTER
by editor|14 December 2018|CULTURE
What does a baseball player like Torii Hunter do when he wants to start investing in tech? He finds the people in tech who have accomplished in tech as much as he has in baseball. Torii Hunter was a five-time...
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BIBLE STUDY
by editor|14 December 2018|COMMUNITY
In bible study today I reflected on what I’ve learned about successful engineers, founders, and executives. Here is one thing I learned that I hope helps someone. The things we focus on will manifest one way or another. Jesus said...
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CASPER
by editor|14 December 2018|CAPITAL
When I told my investors we were investing in Casper they laughed at me. Literally. In the first month, they destroyed sales forecast and were on a 12m run rate. What I learned from Casper is disruption is scary AND...
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ROBINHOOD
by editor|14 December 2018|CAPITAL
One of my favorite things about investing in tech is being able to beta test technology before its released to the public. When I invested in Robinhood in 2014 I was able to beta test it and use my wall...
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