Before I was a VC, one of my first angel investments went up 150x quickly. On paper it was my most valuable asset BY FAR. I never had a chance to sell. Sequoia & other great VCs were investors. Then it went to ZERO. For a newbie, it was an incredible lesson in startup investing.
VC at CRV | 5x Midas List | 4 IPOs | LOVE supporting incredible founders! A few include Doordash, Ring, Mercury, Patreon, Aerodome (now Flock Safety), etc.
- It seems everyone on twitter now thinks if you don’t have 70%+ gross margins your business model is broken. fyi: many of the largest companies in the world are high revenue, low gm businesses. Eg., Walmart has a $340bn mkt cap and 25% gross margins. Costco $130bn with 13%.
- Facebook earnings today confirmed what so many consumer startups who depend on paid CAC have been feeling (and tortured with these past few months): The company pointed to a 47% increase in average price per ad but only a 6% increase in the number of ads it delivered.
- If you’re hiring:Please don’t reach the conclusion that when a company lets 25%+ of their company go (Covid), the cuts are low performers. Many CEOs think the best folks will be retained no matter what. Not the case. Plenty of A+ folks getting cut due to drastic business changes
- Founders: If you are fundraising in the next few months, it will be wise to ask the potential investor:"how many boards are you on?" Folks sitting on 15+ boards will likely be a bit hard to reach the next few months. Just sayin.
- my product/UI mind is super frustrated that the icon on my phone for my google calendar app is frozen in time on “31” and can’t show the actual day of the month. Have to click to find the date. Had to vent. Who feels me?
- Guessing that right around now is the time in the cycle that younger VCs will learn that there can be a huge gap btw unrealized values/mark-ups and actual returns/DPI. Mark-downs, lack of secondary buyers, no exit in sight are realities of the business. Winter is here/coming. 😊
- we built the hoover dam, the golden gate bridge, the bay bridge, etc as a way to hire thousands in the great depression. what infrastructure can we build now that can have big impact? (eg, global warming solutions vs bridges/dams?) I might have suggested solar farms 10 years ago
- So few companies hit $1bn+ in annual revenue. I wish there was a name for this kind of billion-dollar unicorn....as those are the companies that I aspire to work on.


