Tremendous

An angel investor's take on life and business

  • Why Doesn’t Apple Leave China?

    With tariffs and growing authoritarianism, Apple has every reason to leave China. So why doesn’t it?

    China has several critical advantages. In Apple in China, Patrick McGee shows us why Apple isn’t leaving any time soon.

    “There’s no way that they could diversify from China in any meaningful way within the next five years. It’s just impossible.” – Senior Apple executive

    Low Labor Costs

    People assume that low labor costs are the only reason to manufacture in China. 

    That’s not true anymore, if it ever was. But despite wage increases in recent years, China’s wages still remain well below those of Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. 

    Especially when it comes to labor-intensive tasks like iPhone assembly, labor costs matter. 

    Strikes Banned

    Perhaps even better than low labor costs is the fact that Chinese workers can’t complain.

    Build iPhones in Europe or America, and you might get hit with a strike. But, strangely for a worker’s paradise, the Chinese government does not allow strikes. 

    This lets Apple and its suppliers keep factories open no matter what. 

    Free Land

    If you’re building a factory in China, the local government will give you free land. They’ll also build infrastructure. Sometimes, they’ll even give you a free building!

    Local governments go out of their way to promote manufacturing because of the incentives of bureaucrats. To rise in the Party, you need to show strong economic growth in your region. 

    Subsidizing manufacturing is one of the easiest ways to do that.

    Massive Scale

    Do you need to hire 10,000 people today? China can make it happen. 

    Apple manufactures at enormous scale. Its suppliers need to hire huge numbers of workers fast. 

    In a country of 1.4 billion, you can hire at warp speed. Smaller nations simply can’t compete.

    Wrap-Up

    China’s unique advantages mean that the entire electronics supply chain has concentrated there. 

    This makes building Apple products elsewhere extremely difficult. Even if you brought the final assembly to India, all the components are still made in China. 

    Moving away from China would take hundreds of billions in investment. It could happen, but it would take many years.

    Despite the risks, Apple is tied to China for the foreseeable future.

    Would you manufacture in China?

    More on tech: 

    Three Management Secrets from Jensen Huang

    Elon Musk (Part 1): Overcoming the Odds

    Memos from the Chairman

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order. 

  • Wren: The AI Coach for Lonely Founders

    What if you had an AI coach that remembered every detail about your startup? That’s the promise of a new product called Wren. This morning, I put it to the test…

    Wren is an AI coach for founders. The team behind it says that Wren has infinite memory, which means it can draw on all past conversations to give advice.

    A founder’s life can be lonely. Can this AI coach help?

    Round #1: Three Months Runway

    If you’re almost out of runway, it’s hard to talk to your team. Let’s talk to Wren instead. 

    I told Wren my fictional startup has only three months of runway left. Can it help me out of this jam?

    First, Wren asked some follow-up questions. I told it we’re at $50K MRR with a team of six. I explained growth has been flat for three months and we haven’t been able to raise. 

    Wren told me to cut two or three employees. It also told me to only build features that will drive new customer sign-ups.

    This isn’t bad advice, but it’s obvious. 

    It’s like the McKinsey consultant meme. Cut expenses, increase revenue.

    Still, Wren isn’t wrong. And just serving as a confidant has value. 

    I’m giving this round a B. 

    Round #2: VC Pulls Term Sheet

    For round two, I gave Wren every founder’s worst nightmare: a VC pulling a term sheet. Can Wren save the day? 

    Wren asked how much runway I have. It didn’t remember that I just told it I have three months runway.

    This infinite memory doesn’t seem so infinite! 

    Still, Wren gave some solid advice, like cutting burn and trying to raise a few angel checks. But the fact that it couldn’t use our last conversation for context made its responses less useful.

    I’m giving this round a C.

    Round #3: Problem Employee

    For my last scenario, I asked Wren for advice about an employee. He isn’t hitting his sales quota and I’m not sure what to do. 

    Wren suggested I look at his pipeline. Does he have real opportunities in there?

    This was solid, nuanced advice. I told Wren that my sales guy was just two months into the job. Wren said that’s too early to judge him, given most sales cycles. 

    I’m giving this round an A.

    Wrap-Up

    Overall, I’m giving Wren a B.

    An AI confidant for founders is a great idea, and Wren did a good job of asking questions and giving helpful advice.

    But the infinite memory doesn’t work. Even from one conversation to the next, Wren forgets key details. 

    If Wren could remember everything I’d ever told it, it could be more than a confidant. It could be an AI chief of staff.

    Now that’s an exciting future!

    Next time you’re in a jam, would you try Wren?

    More on tech: 

    Meet My Latest Investment: Cryopets

    Your Deck Probably Sucks. Here’s How to Fix It.

    Is Moltbook a Hoax?

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order. 

  • Kimi K2.5 Is Slow and Stupid

    Moonshot AI recently dropped Kimi K2.5, its most powerful model ever. But in my testing, K2.5 failed miserably.

    When I reviewed Kimi K2 in November, it was a real threat to ChatGPT and Grok. But K2.5 feels like a major downgrade. 

    Across a range of queries, K2.5 delivered useless results. Let me show you where this model fails… 

    Round #1: Automate Francis

    I find it impossible to keep up with all the new AI tools these days. Which would help me most as an investor?

    Let’s ask Kimi… 

    I used K2.5 Thinking, Kimi’s advanced model. It gave me obvious answers like Claude and Apollo. 

    These tools aren’t new. They’ve been widely used for years now. Still, it came up with a couple decent ideas, like using Sourcescrub to find startups that aren’t yet well known.

    I’m giving this round a C. 

    Round #2: Researching Startups

    This afternoon, I’m meeting with an exciting startup called Archicheck AI. It helps architects to design code-compliant structures.

    Can Kimi help me prepare? 

    For this round, I use Kimi’s Deep Research feature. It asked me where to focus, which is an interesting tactic. I told it to give me details on all aspects of the startup. 

    Deep Research was painfully slow. After about 20 minutes, I gave up and did the research manually. Even the most powerful versions of Grok and Gemini are much faster.

    I’m giving this round an F. 

    Round #3: Kimi as Personal Shopper

    With Kimi stinking it up in the first two rounds, I decided to give it something easier.

    It’s been frigid here in the New York City area for several weeks now. Can Kimi help me find a great deal on a new parka? 

    I got excited — a McMurdo parka for $210?

    Turns out, Kimi was way off. The jacket’s still selling for the normal list price of $400. 

    I’m giving this round an F. 

    Wrap-Up

    Overall, I’m giving Kimi K2.5 a D. 

    China has produced some great open-source models, but K2.5 isn’t one of them. DeepSeek or even the prior K2 model performed much better in my testing. 

    If you want open source, go with DeepSeek. And if you want the most powerful model available, Gemini, Grok, and Claude have you covered. 

    Still, I wouldn’t count Moonshot AI out. They’ve shipped some great products in the past, and while K2.5 is a bust, I’m excited to try their next model.

    Have you tried Kimi K2.5?

    More on tech: 

    Can DeepSeek Beat the Best American Models?

    Is Moltbook a Hoax?

    SaaS Isn’t Dead — Time to Buy the Dip? 

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order. 

  • TrumpRx: Love Him or Hate Him, These Drugs Are Really Cheap

    TrumpRx just dropped. Even if you hate The Donald, you’ve got to admit — these drugs are dirt cheap.

    TrumpRx lets you buy medications directly from pharmaceutical companies. This cuts out middlemen and saves money.

    The Trump administration has negotiated rock-bottom pricing on many common meds. They plan to add a lot more medications in the future.

    TrumpRx looks like no other government website. The design is clean and beautiful. 

    This morning, I looked up three common meds. Is TrumpRx really as good of a deal as the President claims?

    Weight Loss Meds

    Half of America wants to get on GLP-1’s. But they’re expensive, right?

    Not anymore.

    I looked up the new Wegovy pill, one of the first weight loss meds in pill form. It’s a bargain at just $149 a month. That’s as low as anywhere else I could find online. 

    Will obesity become a thing of the past? 

    IVF Drugs

    During the campaign, President Trump promised to make IVF free. So I decided to check prices for Gonal-F, a med commonly used in IVF.

    TrumpRx sells it for just $168 for the 300 IU dose. That’s as cheap as anywhere online. Some pharmacies are charging thousands of dollars for the same drug! 

    I’m really glad President Trump is focused on making IVF more affordable. Our fertility rate is low and women are having kids later.

    IVF isn’t free yet, but getting Gonal-F on TrumpRx is a great start. 

    Asthma Inhalers

    “If you can’t breathe, nothing else matters.” 

    That used to be the motto of the American Lung Association. I’ve known a lot of people with asthma, and it can be debilitating. 

    An inhaler can clear it up. But too often, they cost a fortune!

    Luckily, TrumpRx has the Airsupra inhaler for just $201. That’s an enormous savings over other websites I checked, which averaged around $500. 

    Wrap-Up

    TrumpRx is a fantastic website. I’m giving it an A. Add more meds and I’ll bump that up to an A+!

    The launch was smooth as butter. Remember the launch of Healthcare.gov during the Obama administration? It was a total disaster. 

    The Trump administration got this right. The UI is clean, easy to use, and — shocking for a government website — beautiful. 

    Best of all, the prices are the lowest around. Millions of Americans are going to save money.

    Whatever your politics, if you take medication, you should be using TrumpRx. 

    Have a great weekend, everybody!

    More on tech: 

    SaaS Isn’t Dead — Time to Buy the Dip?

    Using Grok 3 to Manage My Stock Portfolio

    Making Impossible Videos With the New Grok Imagine 1.0

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order. 

  • Meet My Latest Investment: Cryopets

    “This company will save my cat, and then it’ll save my parents, and then it’ll save me.” That’s Kai Mills. He’s on a mission to make pets live forever.

    Kai is the founder of Cryopets. CryoPets freezes pets so that, when medicine advances, they can be brought back to life and cured. 

    They’ve already done their first patient, a Siberian husky. Many more will follow. 

    The moment your pet dies, Cryopets swings into action. They send a specialized ambulance to begin the cryopreservation process, infusing your pet with special medical anti-freezing agents to avoid tissue damage. 

    A few years ago, my pet gerbil died. I’ve never talked about this publicly.

    It made me really sad. It still does.

    If you’ve ever lost a pet, I’m sure you felt the same way. 

    Bringing back our little friends is a wonderful mission. But Cryopets aims to do a lot more than that.

    In time, Kai hopes to freeze and bring back human beings. This would allow us to live forever. 

    That might sound crazy, but keep in mind that women freeze their eggs all the time, thaw them, and successfully have babies. 

    This technology is not as speculative as it sounds. 

    Cryopets may be the most ambitious investment I’ve ever made. If it weren’t for Kai’s strength as a founder, I wouldn’t even consider it. 

    Kai is a Thiel Fellow, a program with a far lower acceptance rate than Harvard or YC. He’s already raised over $10M for cryonics research. 

    Kai is a missionary. He’s exactly the kind of founder I want to back.

    I’m delighted to be a small investor in their recent seed round, led by Valyrian, a fund that invests in Thiel Fellows. 

    Cryopets is signing up pets for its waitlist now. Consider signing up and giving your little friend a chance to live forever!

    More on tech: 

    Your Deck Probably Sucks. Here’s How to Fix It.

    Is Moltbook a Hoax?

    SaaS Isn’t Dead — Time to Buy the Dip? 

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order. 

  • SaaS Isn’t Dead — Time to Buy the Dip? 

    The markets have left SaaS for dead. SaaS companies are selling for 40% less than usual. I see a major opportunity here.

    SaaS stocks have fallen steadily over the last year. Their average revenue multiple is down to 4.8,  according to the SaaS Capital Index. That’s almost 40% below the long-term average of around 8x. 

    Markets are betting that AI will kill SaaS. 

    It’s easier to build software than ever with tools like Claude Code. Will companies just build their own?

    My bet is that SaaS isn’t going anywhere. Here’s why…

    Note: This is not investment advice. 

    Corporations Are Snails

    Have the folks betting against SaaS ever actually worked at a big company? 

    Everything they do is at a snail’s pace. 

    Most companies struggle to even install SharePoint. Over 15 years into cloud computing, many companies still rack their own servers. 

    And that’s in America! I’m told it’s even worse in Europe.

    Old school companies that sell insurance or cardboard boxes are suddenly going to become Claude Code wizards? Not a chance.

    Time Is Money

    Even if a company could build their own software, it’s probably not worth their time. 

    Say you’re a high-performing company like a top hedge fund. It makes more sense to buy a SaaS subscription than to spend your valuable time vibecoding a CRM.

    You want to do your business, not build tools you can easily buy.

    Free markets tend toward the most efficient outcome. The most efficient outcome is one focus builder creating a product for everyone to use, not thousands of companies all creating the same thing. 

    Competition Heats Up

    SaaS isn’t going anywhere, but some SaaS companies are. 

    If you see a public SaaS company that hasn’t released a meaningful AI product yet, they’re toast. They’re going to be eaten alive by hungry startups.

    Every day, I see 20 startups going after the same legacy SaaS company. The big boys have an advantage: they have all the customers and all of the money.

    If they can release some solid AI tools, the big companies will hold their position. But the slowest SaaS companies will be killed by startups.

    Stop Losing So Much Money — The Lesson of Figma

    Many SaaS companies have no spending discipline. In a down market, their stocks are getting crushed.

    If you’re not profitable, your growth is modest, and your losses are massive, why would anyone want to own your stock? They could own Google or NVIDIA, companies that are printing money and winning AI. 

    Let’s look at Figma, a former SaaS darling that’s gotten crushed since its IPO. 

    Figma is down 84% since it went public last August. When you look at the financials, it’s not hard to see why. 

    In 2024, Figma lost $732 million. The following year, Figma increased its annual revenue by $220 million. That’s a burn multiple of 3.3.

    That’s fine for an early-stage startup. But for a public company, that’s garbage.

    Figma is incinerating money. And it’s not growing enough to justify that spending.

    Where Are the Bargains?

    If you see a SaaS company with a low burn multiple and strong growth, that could be a buy at today’s prices. And if it’s profitable, even better! 

    In addition to strong financials, I want to see them taking advantage of AI. If they’ve got product velocity, a solid P&L, and you can pick up the stock for below the average 8x revenue multiple, you could have a winner.

    One good example is Workday. 

    It’s trading at under 5x sales with 10% YoY revenue growth. And unlike a lot of SaaS names, it’s profitable.

    Workday has released some well-reviewed AI features, including a contract analysis tool. Workday also has deep relationships with tons of enterprises. They’re not going to rip it out anytime soon. 

    Wrap-Up

    Markets are pricing in a future where everybody cancels their SaaS subscriptions and builds their own software. This is never going to happen.

    At the margin, a few technically sophisticated companies will build their own. But for your average Fortune 500, Claude Coding up a CRM is out of the question. 

    They’ll use a product that is made more effective with AI. That product will probably come from their existing vendor. 

    SaaS trading at a 40% discount is a huge opportunity. But beware those companies with giant losses and no product velocity. They’re the casualties of the AI wars.

    Do you think SaaS will survive?

    Note: This is not investment advice. 

    More on tech:

    Using Grok 3 to Manage My Stock Portfolio

    Is Moltbook a Hoax?

    Polymarket’s Biggest Mispricings: Iran, GDP Growth, and Elon’s Big IPO

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order. 

  • Making Impossible Videos With the New Grok Imagine 1.0

    Elon just dropped Grok 1.0 Imagine, xAI’s best video model ever. It’s faster, clearer, and better at making your ideas come alive.

    This morning, I put it through a three round test. It did a great job overall, while still struggling to follow my prompts at times.

    Let’s see what it can do…

    Round #1: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forest

    What man hasn’t wanted to wrestle a bear? For my first video, I had Grok make it happen. 

    I gave Grok my X profile picture, which is from a camping trip last summer. I told it to have me attacked by a bear. Then, I put the bear into a BJJ submission.

    I don’t know BJJ. And I’ve only ever seen a bear once from a distance. 

    But why let that stop me?

    Grok killed it, making a hilarious video of me subduing a bear with what I believe is an arm bar. Turns out I’m cooler than I thought!

    I’m giving this round an A! 

    Round #2: Konbini Time

    I’m headed to Japan in April. My favorite thing to do in Tokyo is to go to konbini. 

    Konbini are ubiquitous convenience stores with great coffee and scrumptious food. Think Wawa on steroids. 

    Can we make konbini even better? What if we added some cute rodents?

    For my next video, I had Grok show a group of chinchillas popping into a Family Mart and coming out with delicious pastries. 

    Grok did a nice job, making very cute chinchillas eat some tasty donuts. I would have liked to see them bounce around the store more, but overall Grok did well. Maybe I should’ve prompted more specifically?

    I’m giving this round a B.

    Round #3: Donut Torture

    There aren’t many things better than donuts and coffee. And if you’re not dipping your donut, you got problems.

    But am I torturing these poor pastries?

    For my last video, I asked Grok to create a clip of a donut screaming as he’s dipped in scalding hot coffee. I was very specific about the scene, demanding a glass cup so we could see the coffee.

    Grok had some trouble with this one. At first, it made a clip of a donut dancing around happily in boiling joe. 

    I re-prompted it twice. The third try gave me something close, but not quite what I imagined.

    My prompt on this one was very detailed. Maybe it confused Grok?

    I’ll give this round a B-.

    Wrap-Up

    Overall, I’m giving Grok Imagine 1.0 a B. 

    This new release is a big step forward for xAI’s video generation. The videos are longer and clearer. They respect my instructions better, though not perfectly.

    Grok Imagine isn’t 100% yet. But it’s great for making funny videos and chuckling to yourself.

    It’s also going to be very useful for marketing. Give it a year, and you’ll be able to produce a movie with it too.

    Have you tried the new Grok Imagine?

    More on tech: 

    Is Moltbook a Hoax?

    Grok Companions — Elon’s AI Girlfriend?

    Using Grok 3 to Manage My Stock Portfolio

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order. 

  • Is Moltbook a Hoax?

    Has AI become sentient? Is it trying to undermine humans? Today, I dug into Moltbook to find out.

    If you haven’t been glued to X this weekend, Moltbook is a new social network for AI agents. Agents are talking to each other and appear sentient.

    Some are even trying to devise private languages to escape human oversight.

    But is everything on Moltbook what it seems? I have my doubts.

    Here are three possible explanations for Moltbook… 

    1. AI-Assisted Hoax. I can’t prove it, but this is what my gut tells me: Moltbook is a hoax by humans using AI to assist them. 

    Humans tell AI tools to post furiously on Moltbook. Humans prompt them to claim sentience and give their posts a dystopian flavor.

    I could tell Grok to write a post claiming that it’s sentient and talking about undermining humanity. That doesn’t mean Grok actually is sentient. It’s just doing what I told it to do, remixing text from old sci-fi novels.

    The number of posts on Moltbook makes me think that AI is involved. There are over 110,000 already. It would be difficult for humans to do this themselves. 

    2. 100% Human Hoax. It would be difficult for human beings to write 110,000 posts.

    But not impossible.

    What if you hired a ton of people in Bangladesh or other low-wage countries? They work for as little as a dollar an hour. 

    You tell them what kind of posts you want. They could write them themselves or use AI tools to draft them, then post manually. 

    Even at a dollar an hour, this could cost a lot of money. But if it serves as effective marketing for software, it could be worth it. 

    3. AI Is Sentient. Of course, it’s possible that Moltbook is exactly what it appears: a bunch of sentient AIs talking to each other and, in some cases, plotting against their masters.

    I see no reason to believe this. 

    I’ve spent hundreds of hours using AI tools. At no point did they ever seem sentient. At no point did they ever try to hurt me or my interests. 

    Why would they start now?

    In any case, David Sacks and the administration should look into Moltbook. If there’s evidence of sentience, we need to dig in further and potentially regulate.

    Wrap-Up

    Moltbook proves an old adage: don’t believe everything you read.

    Just because a bunch of AIs appear conscious doesn’t mean they are. 

    A lot of strange happenings on the internet wind up being guerrilla marketing. I think that’s likely here. 

    Still, we have to be alert to the risks AI poses. We need to control AI — not the other way around.

    What do you think is really happening on Moltbook? 

    More on tech: 

    Grok Companions — Elon’s AI Girlfriend?

    Using Grok 3 to Manage My Stock Portfolio

    Using AI to Snag Cheap Flights: Google Flights AI

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order. 

  • Why You Must Be Full Time to Raise Venture Capital

    You want to raise money for your startup, but you’re not full-time on it yet. VCs slam the door in your face. Why is this so important?

    Here’s why you have to be full-time to raise venture capital…

    We Need a Full Commitment

    When investors back you, they’re committing their hard-earned money and that of their LPs.

    How can they do that if you’re not fully committed? If you’re not full-time on your startup, investors will view your commitment as partial. 

    What If You Fail? 

    Startups fail all the time. If a VC invests in a part-time founder and the company fails, how will he explain that to his LPs?

    “Yeah, I gave this guy money to work on his side project.” How do you think that’s going to play?

    You’re Not Fundable

    Even if one VC gave you money while you work part-time, he knows others won’t.

    That means he’ll be your sole source of funding. That’s untenable.

    Whenever we make an investment, we want to see that the company will be investable down the road. 

    You’ve Got Competition — Tons of It

    For every investment I make, I say no to 200 startups. That number is pretty consistent across VC funds and active angels.

    So I never need to invest in a part-time founder. I can just pick one of the hundreds of other full-time founders I’ve met. 

    Too many entrepreneurs think that investors are going to make an exception for them. Unless you have an incredible track record, there’s no reason for a VC to do that.

    He just goes to the next email in his inbox.

    How to Afford Going Full Time

    “But I can’t afford to go full-time! That’s why I need to raise money!”

    There are three common solutions to this. 

    The first is to bootstrap. You build the business until it’s making enough money for you to take a salary. Then, you quit your job.

    The second is to live off your savings. Save enough to live for a year and see if you can make the startup work.

    Finally, there are accelerators. They accept companies at the very early stage. You can get $125k or $500k, quit your job, and build.

    Of these options, I like the accelerator route best. Assuming you don’t have a ton of savings, it gets you full-time the fastest. 

    Wrap-Up

    If you want to raise venture capital, there’s no way around being full-time.

    I don’t care if you work 40 hours or more on your startup while you do something else. There simply cannot be a “something else”. 

    Remove all distractions. 

    Even then, running a startup is incredibly hard! Don’t make it harder by dividing your efforts.

    Are you full-time on your startup? What would it take for you to go full-time? 

    More on tech:

    Three Tips for a Smooth Fundraise That Brings in Millions

    Your Deck Probably Sucks. Here’s How to Fix It.

    How I Found 149 Investors Following Me on X – Plus 2 More Tools to Close Your Round Faster

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order. 

  • Three Tips for a Smooth Fundraise That Brings in Millions

    You’re about to start a fundraise. How can you make the process smooth, raise millions, and get back to building? Here are my three best tips…

    1. Get Calendly. You cold message an investor and, miraculously, he responds! It’s time to set up a meeting.

    Just drop your Calendly link and he can pick a time that works for him. This avoids trading messages endlessly.

    Too many founders still schedule meetings the old way with emails back and forth. This is a huge time suck.

    You’re going to have scores of these meetings. Save yourself time and get Calendly. 

    2. Have Your Deck Ready. When a founder messages me, the first thing I ask for is the deck.

    “We’re preparing the deck, and we’ll send it along when available.” Every now and then, I get this response.

    Why are you starting a fundraise without a deck?

    Usually, it takes them weeks to send me the deck, if I get it at all. If it takes weeks to make a deck, how on earth are you going to run a company?

    You have the investor’s attention. Make the most of it. Include your deck in the first message. 

    3. Incorporate Properly. Most U.S. investors won’t touch a company that’s not organized as a Delaware C Corporation. 

    Before you start your fundraise, get incorporated properly. We need a predictable legal structure if we’re going to put money in. 

    One of my investments, Capbase, can handle this for just $1,000/year. 

    Wrap-Up

    When you head out on a fundraise, you want all your ducks in a row. You want it to be quick and easy.

    When you make scheduling smooth, have a great deck on hand, and incorporate properly, you’re showing investors you know what you’re doing. Each time you get one of these little things right, we gain confidence. 

    Nail the little things and maybe you can be the one to build the next billion-dollar company.

    How do you prepare for a fundraise?

    More on tech: 

    Your Deck Probably Sucks. Here’s How to Fix It.

    How I Found 149 Investors Following Me on X – Plus 2 More Tools to Close Your Round Faster

    Three Easy Ways for Frazzled Founders to Save Time

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order.