Tremendous

An angel investor's take on life and business

  • Why Businesses Should Leave NYC Now

    If you run a business in NYC, you should only be focused on one thing right now: finding office space in Jersey City. With anti-police mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani about to take over, this is the most important thing you can do for your company.

    Back to the Bad Old Days

    We saw the results of defunding the cops under Bill De Blasio.

    Crime shot up like I’ve never seen in New York. Random people threatened me on the street. I saw people passed out with needles in their arms.

    In 11 years out here, I’d never seen anything like it.

    With the election of Mayor Eric Adams, New York is on the mend. But with Mamdani running away with the primary, we’re headed back to the bad old days.

    Mamdani has repeatedly called for defunding the police. Now that he’s trying to get elected, he’s attempting to walk that back.

    If you’re buying that, I have some swampland in Florida you’re gonna love.

    Why Businesses Have to Leave Now

    Mamdani will likely win. Even if he doesn’t, his primary victory shows how far left the NYC electorate has gone.

    Soon, either Mamdani or someone very much like him will take power. They’ll defund the police and crime will skyrocket.

    Once that happens, it will be hard to recruit employees to NYC.

    Who wants to pay $4,000 a month for a closet and get robbed on their way to the grocery store? No one.

    The best talent will go elsewhere. They’ll go to your competitors outside NYC.

    Once you can no longer attract the best people, your company is done.

    It’s important to leave now while there’s still space available. If you’re streaming out with everyone else, the limited office space in the surrounding area will be taken.

    Why Jersey?

    Here’s why you should move to Jersey City: it’s close, but not too close.

    You’re safely across the river and away from NYC’s ultraliberal policies. But you’re close enough to the city that not all your workers need to move at once.

    They can trickle in over time on their own schedule. They won’t need to take their kids out of school, at least not right away.

    Asking everyone to move to Miami or Austin is a much harder sell. Asking them to hop on the PATH train is only a minor change to what they do now.

    Jersey City has some lovely office space. This weekend, I looked around online out of curiosity and found this beautiful co-working space right across the street from the Newport PATH station. There are also some great spots in Hoboken and Secaucus, close to major train stations.

    Wrap-Up

    The lifeblood of any business is talent. And in a couple of years, the best talent will not want to be in New York.

    You don’t wait until the roof collapses to leave a burning building. Don’t wait until you or your employees are being assaulted to leave NYC.

    I hope I’m wrong about New York’s future. But I wouldn’t want to bet my company on it.

    More from the blog:

    Just Write the Poor a Check

    ChatGPT Helped Me Pick Our Next Governor

    Big Money, Politics and Polarization: Krysten Sinema at the All-In Summit

    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. 

  • Just Write the Poor a Check

    When I was a kid, my family was on food stamps. But sometimes, what we really needed was money to pay the light bill. Why not just give people cash?

    Right now, Congress is voting on Medicaid cuts in the hopes of balancing the budget. I have a much easier way to fix these programs: just write people a check.

    A Grab Bag of Inefficient Programs

    The US government has countless welfare programs. Some of the largest are Medicaid (health insurance for the poor), SCHIP (health insurance for poor kids), SNAP (food stamps), and TANF (cash welfare).

    We spend about $750 billion on these programs in total. About 6% of that goes to admin costs: $45 billion.

    Compare that to Social Security. Social Security is much larger, at $1.5 trillion a year in spending. Admin costs are just 0.5%, or about $8 billion a year.

    It’s no wonder Social Security has way lower admin costs than programs like Medicaid. Medicaid has complex eligibility requirements and only pays for certain services. Handling applications and claims is time consuming and labor intensive.

    What Happens If We Just Give Them a Check?

    What if instead of all these complex programs for the poor, we did what Social Security does: give them cash?

    The poor would have much more flexibility. They’d be able to buy diapers when they need diapers, instead of wishing that SNAP card could be used for Pampers.

    The admin costs of these programs would also fall precipitously. If we got the admin costs on welfare programs down to the level of Social Security, we’d save about $40 billion a year.

    That’s a ton of money! That $40 billion could be used to help more poor people or reduce the deficit.

    The Power of Responsibility

    Being on welfare isn’t great. I know: I’ve been there.

    We don’t want people becoming dependent on the government for the rest of their lives. That is not a happy life.

    Don’t believe me? Visit any urban ghetto and see the results of these welfare programs. Or visit a poor, rural area like the ones I lived in as a kid.

    We should help folks get back on their feet if they’re having a rough patch. But we should time limit these programs to 5 years in a person’s life.

    This is incredibly generous.

    If you’re struggling, your fellow citizens will be happy to help you. We’ll cover your bills for a whole 5 years!

    But if you’re able bodied, you eventually need to work. Five years should be more than enough time to find something.

    And if you’re truly disabled, we’d be happy to support you for life. In a society as wealthy as ours, we have that luxury.

    Wrap-Up

    One big objection to sending the poor cash is that they’ll spend it on the wrong things. Drugs, alcohol, you name it.

    Let’s be honest: some will. But let’s also not fool ourselves: people sell food stamps for cash and buy drugs as it is.

    We shouldn’t penalize decent families down on their luck by treating them like children.

    They know what they need better than we do. Giving them cash is the easiest way to meet those needs.

    But another part of treating the poor like adults is responsibility. That’s why welfare must end after 5 years.

    Give folks cash. But enforce a time limit.

    This is how we can fix welfare in America.

    More on government:

    ChatGPT Helped Me Pick Our Next Governor

    Three Priorities for the Trump Administration

    Big Money, Politics and Polarization: Krysten Sinema at the All-In Summit

    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. 

  • Where Men Win Glory: The Pat Tillman Story

    Pat Tillman walked away from a $3.6 million NFL contract to join the Army after 9/11. What makes a man do something like that? As I headed off on vacation a couple of weeks ago, I cracked the book Where Men Win Glory to find out.

    Tillman was one of the best defensive players in the NFL at the turn of the millennium. But after the September 11 attacks, he was not content to sit back and let others fight al Qaeda. He decided to enlist himself.

    Tillman At War

    His base pay as a private in the Army was a long way from his NFL millions: just $1,290 a month. And Tillman put himself in grave danger, requesting an infantry billet.

    Tillman served in Iraq briefly but never saw combat. Soon after, he was deployed to Afghanistan.

    Sent to patrol remote villages near Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan, Tillman and his unit wound their way up remote mountain passes. As darkness began to fall that night, some of the Rangers in Tillman’s unit mistook him for a Taliban insurgent.

    Despite his efforts to signal to them, they shot him dead.

    The Cover Up

    At first, the military and the White House claimed that Tillman fell bravely resisting the Taliban. This was despite internal reports that he died in friendly fire.

    The truth was that Tillman’s death was a colossal screw-up by the military. Another soldier shot him dead at a distance of just 120 feet. It wasn’t even entirely dark when it happened.

    Soldiers even destroyed some critical evidence, including burning his uniform, which is against military rules.

    In time, the truth came out: Tillman was killed by his own.

    His death appears to have been an accident. Chalk it up to the fog of war: nervous men, many of whom had never been in combat, fired wildly and Tillman paid the price.

    Why Did Tillman Walk Away From Millions?

    Very few people would walk away from fame and millions of dollars to risk their life in Afghanistan. So why did Tillman do it?

    Tillman was a man of principle. He didn’t think others should have to fight while he sat on his NFL millions.

    But he was also a thrill seeker.

    Many times in college, Tillman made dangerous jumps from high cliffs into bodies of water. Some of the jumps could’ve killed him.

    I’ve never jumped off a cliff. I’ve also never served in the military.

    Principles shape our behavior. But so do more obscure personality traits.

    Preventing Friendly Fire: How Startups Can Help

    These days, I view a startup as the solution to every problem. And there’s a great startup to be built here.

    Sadly, what happened to Tillman is not rare. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the percent of casualties caused by friendly fire reached as high as 41% and 13% respectively.

    Nearly half of all casualties, caused by our own forces! This is unacceptable.

    Soldiers need a beacon that will broadcast their location and the fact that they’re friendly. Other soldiers could see this in a heads-up display or on a device. We could also put these beacons on friendly vehicles.

    This product would save untold lives. If you’re building it, contact me.

    Wrap-Up

    As I sit here writing this 21 years after Tillman‘s death, the Taliban is back in control of Afghanistan. 

    Tillman could have stayed home, played football, and enjoyed his family. They would’ve been better off. He would’ve been better off. And the situation in Afghanistan would’ve been no different. 

    I respect what Tillman did. But I wish he hadn’t done it.

    Sometimes, answering the call of duty isn’t the thing to do. Sometimes, we’re better off taking care of our own.


    More on books:

    Nuclear War: A Scenario

    Unit X

    Empty Planet (Part One)

    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. 

  • What Percent of Companies Pivot?

    “The initial idea doesn’t matter — most companies pivot.” I’ve heard that 100 times. But is it really true? Today, I dug into my portfolio to find out.

    I looked at investments at least a year old. This way, they’ve had time to pivot.

    Here’s what I found…

    Of 29 companies in the sample, 10 pivoted. 19 are still working on the same idea they had at the time I invested 1-4 years ago.

    Are pivots more successful? Or is pivoting something only a failing company does?

    To answer this question, I looked at the 3 most successful companies in my portfolio. Of those 3, one is a pivot.

    If I expand that to the top 5, I still have only 1 pivot. This makes sense — if you’re crushing it with your initial idea, why change?

    Since I’ve only been investing for around 4 years, my sample size is small. I searched for data on how common pivots are but couldn’t find anything useful. So for now, you’ll have to content yourself with my study, small though it may be!

    The bottom line is most of my investments don’t pivot. This is especially true for the most successful companies.

    As investors, it’s our job to challenge conventional wisdom. And from what I’ve seen, the commonplace that “the idea doesn’t matter” is wrong.

    I pay close attention to both the team and the product. Odds are, they’ll still be slinging this thing for a long time.

    More on tech:

    My Biggest Losses as an Angel Investor

    Don’t Give Answers. Ask Questions.

    Do Non-Founders Make Better Investors?

    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. 

  • My Biggest Losses as an Angel Investor

    I lost my entire investment. Twice. These are my worst losses as an angel investor.

    Everyone online wants to talk about their wins. But you really want to learn something? Lose some money and feel the sting.

    Here’s the mistake I made and why I’ll never do it again…

    Two Strangely Similar Companies

    A couple of years ago, I made two investments that looked rather similar.

    Both founders were wonderful. Deeply committed, incredibly hardworking.

    Both products were very innovative. Had they worked, they would’ve been giant outcomes.

    But both startups had the same problem: their bank accounts were running low.

    These companies didn’t have an active round going. So, at that particular moment, my money was the only investment cash coming in.

    Since both these startups were breakeven or slightly profitable, I didn’t worry about it. But here’s what I didn’t realize…

    How These Bets Went Bad

    A small profit can turn into a big loss pretty quickly. A customer churns, a usage-based scheme doesn’t get the usage you imagined, etc.

    When that happens, you need a cash cushion. If you don’t have it, you’re toast.

    Had I invested in these startups alongside a lead, they’d have had a few million dollars to fall back on. But I didn’t.

    Both founders held on much longer than I ever expected. But eventually, they had to admit reality and close up shop.

    The One Thing I Did Right

    As dumb as my decisions were, I did one thing right: bet sizing.

    I made tiny feeler bets on both these companies. As painful as these losses felt at the time, they were actually quite small in the context of my portfolio.

    Let’s take the “fund” of 36 companies I’m investing out of right now. These losses represent just 2% of it.

    I don’t make a larger investment until the company sees some real success. My biggest investment is 11% of my portfolio, and that company is doing a lot better than these two.

    What I Learned

    If I had invested in these 2 companies alongside a lead who put up millions, they might still be operating today. Not waiting for a lead was the key mistake I made.

    Fortunately, I only made that mistake twice in 35 investments. I won’t be making it again.

    Today, I look for a lead putting a minimum of 12 months runway or $1 million (whichever is more) into the company. I’m also fine with a party round so long as the company has that same amount of cash signed and wired. In fact, my most successful investment to date was a party round.

    With that kind of cash coming in, the company can weather some serious hits without going out of business.

    Wrap-Up

    These two founders did nothing wrong. They’re wonderful entrepreneurs.

    They worked incredibly hard to make those companies work. But it just wasn’t possible.

    I’d back either of these guys again in a minute.

    It was me who made the mistake. I shouldn’t have invested without a lead.

    Mistakes happen. They’re the cost of doing anything ambitious. We just need to learn from them.

    And this is a mistake I won’t make again.

    More on tech:

    Working for Jimmy

    Don’t Give Answers. Ask Questions.

    Do Non-Founders Make Better Investors?

    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. 

  • Working for Jimmy

    Yesterday morning, I didn’t want to get out of bed. I was on 4 hours sleep. But then I thought, “Jimmy needs me”.

    Who’s Jimmy? Jimmy is the name I’ve given to that anonymous founder out there who needs help.

    Jimmy is just starting out. Nobody believes in him, but he has a killer idea that’s going to make life better.

    Jimmy is my customer.

    Learning from Michele Ferrero, Chocolatier

    Who doesn’t love those little Ferrero Rocher chocolates? Whenever I go to the pharmacy for a flu shot or some other unpleasant task, I pick one up at the checkout counter.

    But it wasn’t until yesterday that I found out Ferrero is a multibillion dollar empire!

    Turns out they make Nutella, Kinder, and a zillion other things. The company is worth at least $40 billion, and founder Michele Ferrero was the richest man in Italy.

    In a wonderful episode of the Founders podcast, host David Senra explains how Michele kept himself laser focused on the customer. He gave her a name: Mrs. Valeria.

    Mrs. Valeria was Michele’s boss. She would decide the success or failure of his business and the livelihood of thousands of employees.

    Every decision he made, he made with Mrs. Valeria in mind.

    Inventing Jimmy

    As I listened to this podcast, I thought to myself: how can I take Michele’s lesson and apply it to angel investing?

    I realized I needed my own Mrs. Valeria. A representative founder.

    I decided to call him Jimmy.

    Jimmy is loaded with skills. Jimmy has a couple of hardcore builders working with him. And Jimmy is about to create something huge.

    But nobody believes in Jimmy. He’s an outsider. And he needs my help.

    What Does Jimmy Need?

    So what does Jimmy need? I came up with a list:

    1. Cash.
    2. Prompt responses. Jimmy is trying to move fast. He cannot wait for a week for me to reply to an email — all too common amongst VC’s.
    3. A clear yes/no. Jimmy needs to know where he stands.
    4. Clear rationale for a no. This will help him find out what he needs to do to get funded.
    5. Intros. Jimmy is an outsider. He needs intros to other investors, customers, and key employees.
    6. Occasional advice. Sometimes, Jimmy needs someone to kick around ideas with. But he doesn’t need meddling.
    7. Help boosting social posts. These are the key to customer acquisition for many companies. So I take some time each day to like and comment on posts from my founders. It’s fun to see what they’re working on!

    Wrap-Up

    It’s really hard to think of “founders” in general. It’s much easier to think of one person.

    That’s why I created Jimmy.

    Maybe Michele Ferrero faced the same thing. He created Mrs. Valeria.

    No matter what business you’re in, the customer is king. Or as they say in Japanese, okyakusama wa kamisama — “the customer is God.”

    So when I’m tired and my behind is dragging, I think of Jimmy.

    Jimmy’s tired too. But he needs me to clock in and get to work.

    Together, we have a chance to achieve something great.

    More on tech:

    Don’t Give Answers. Ask Questions.

    Do Non-Founders Make Better Investors?

    Hot Categories I’ve Never Invested In

    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. 

  • Don’t Give Answers. Ask Questions.

    “Should we keep selling to the mid-market, or go after the whales?” a founder recently asked me. Instead of giving her an answer, I asked her a question…

    “What’s the difference in sales cycles between the two?” I asked.

    “That’s just it!” she responded. “The sales cycles are basically the same. But the big customers are 5 or 10 times larger ACV’s.”

    “It sounds like you’ve got a solid argument for going after the big guys,” I said.

    “That’s what I was leaning towards,” she responded.

    “I think you should go with your gut,” I told her. “You’re in this every day. I’m parachuting in for a half hour. You know better than I do.”

    Why Asking Questions Is Better Than Giving Answers

    After our chat, she started going after the larger customers. And sure enough, revenue growth went way up, hitting 3x year over year!

    The traditional startup advice is to go after smaller customers first. They usually have shorter sales cycles and are more likely to do business with startups.

    As soon as she asked me this question, I was sorely tempted to parrot that cookie cutter advice.

    But I didn’t. Instead, I asked her a question.

    The Answer Is Within You, Grasshopper

    Turns out, the cookie cutter advice did not apply to this company.

    And no wonder! Every company’s different.

    This is why I rarely give founders a straight answer. Since I don’t actually work at the company, I only have so much context.

    Usually, the founder already knows what to do. They just need a sounding board and some validation.

    How VC Advice Can Hurt Companies

    Asking questions does a better job at revealing the truth than just making a statement.

    We investors love to think we have all the answers. You’ll never see anyone make more pronouncements with less knowledge than a VC.

    But we don’t have all the answers. Every startup is different.

    The problem is, founders tend to give our opinions undue weight. We have the playbook to success, right?

    In truth, each founder is the best expert on her company. If anyone has the answer, it’s her.

    The investor can help by listening and teasing the right answer out of her. But when he short circuits that process and gives an opinion based in minimal knowledge, he’s hurting, not helping.

    Wrap-Up

    If you’re an investor, try asking questions of your founders. If you’ve picked your founders well, the answers are already within them!

    If you’re a founder, encourage investors to ask you questions. These questions help you refine your thinking.

    The right answer is out there. Together, you can find it.

    More on tech:

    Do Non-Founders Make Better Investors?

    Hot Categories I’ve Never Invested In

    Small Investors Lead to Big Investors

    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. 

  • Do Non-Founders Make Better Investors?

    I’ve never been a founder. This gives me one advantage: I’m never tempted to tell founders what to do.

    The Problem Board Member

    A while back, I was chatting with a great entrepreneur I know. We’ll call him Hal.

    Hal is crushing it. His SaaS company is growing rapidly with incredible cash efficiency.

    But Hal had a problem.

    His board member, whom we’ll call Jim, was becoming a hindrance.

    Jim wasn’t just listening, asking questions, and giving a little advice like a good board member. Jim wanted to tell Hal how to run the company.

    Hal politely explained why they don’t do things Jim’s way. But Jim couldn’t let it go.

    I wondered, why was Jim acting this way? Why did he think he knew better than Hal?

    How Not Being a Founder Helps Me As an Investor

    I’ve never founded a startup. And I don’t intend to.

    Being a non-founder makes it easier for me to avoid doing what Jim does. I am not tempted to think I know better than the CEO.

    How could I possibly know better? I’ve never done his job.

    Founders often find it hard to stand on the sidelines. But that’s exactly what investors need to do.

    I’m eager to help the founder however I can. But I’m comfortable letting him run the company.

    Instead of dictating strategy, I like to ask questions. I want the founder to refine his own thinking, not substitute my judgment for his.

    Who’s Better at Investing — Founders or Non-Founders?

    There are great investors who have been founders. There are great investors who haven’t.

    Michael Moritz was a journalist before he became a VC. Doug Leone was an executive at Sun Microsystems. Bill Gurley was an investment banker.

    Maybe the fact that they never founded a company made them more comfortable advising the founder, instead of dictating to him.

    On the other hand, there are some amazing founder-turned-investors like Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and Paul Graham.

    They have advantages of their own. They can provide better advice to a founder since they’ve been in his position.

    Both founders and non-founders can make great investors. Either way, you take your advantage and press it.

    Wrap-Up

    Hal wound up working things out with Jim.

    Hal and the rest of the board explained to Jim that these decisions are Hal’s to make. Jim seemed to accept that.

    But I had to wonder, how much of Hal’s time was wasted on this pointless dispute?

    I don’t do things like Jim.

    I try to help the company along the margins. But mostly, I get out of the way.

    And because I’ve never been a founder myself, getting out of the way is a little bit easier.

    Great to be back from vacation! I hope you guys are getting some rest this summer too.

    See you again on Monday!

    More on tech:

    Tools My Startups Love

    Hot Categories I’ve Never Invested In

    Small Investors Lead to Big Investors

    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. 

  • Tools My Startups Love

    If you want to know where technology is headed, look at what the smartest founders use. Here are the tools my startups are loving right now:

    Delve

    Delve automates compliance for SOC 2, HIPAA and more. Delve can get you compliant and ready to close big deals. 

    I first heard about Delve when one of my startups used it a while back. Now, that startup is closing huge enterprise deals. 

    Without compliance certification from Delve, they couldn’t have done it. 

    Cursor

    The most crazed builders I know use Cursor. Crazed in a good way: the kind of guys who work 14 hours a day and ship new features constantly. 

    Cursor uses AI to make coding easier. Cursor has helped my startups massively increase productivity. Any company not using it is risking their entire business. 

    Anthropic

    A marketplace startup I invested in recently started automating some of their onboarding and customer support. They chose Anthropic as the best tool for the job. 

    Anthropic’s API’s tend to produce better, more natural sounding results than other models. And since Cursor uses Anthropic as well, this AI lab scores twice on this list!

    SimpleClosure 

    I hope you don’t have to use this one. 

    But the reality is, most startups don’t make it. And if it’s time to close your company, you want to make sure it’s done right. 

    SimpleClosure can handle all the legal aspects of closing your startup. I had a company go through this process recently and SimpleClosure made it quick and easy. 

    Leaving the corporate entity hanging around can mean you still need to do tax and regulatory filings. Spare yourself that and handle it the right way!

    Wrap-Up

    Highly successful early stage founders are the earliest of early adopters. They’re looking for any advantage over their competition. Watch what they’re doing, and you’ll see the trend before everyone else does. 

    When you help my startups, you help me. So I’m grateful to these companies!

    I’m heading off on vacation today. The next blog will be next Friday, June 20. 

    Talk to you soon!

    More on tech:

    My Favorite Tech Tools

    Hot Categories I’ve Never Invested In

    Small Investors Lead to Big Investors

    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. 

  • Testing Mistral’s Latest Model

    Everybody forgot about Mistral. But I just used their new model and let me tell you: don’t sleep on these guys.

    This morning, Mistral released its most powerful model yet: Magistral. Today, I took it on a test drive.

    I asked 3 questions using Magistral Medium via Mistral’s Le Chat. Let’s see how it does!

    Helping Francis’ Poor Throat

    I’ve been dealing with a sore throat for the last few days. I’ve tried a few home remedies, but is there anything I’m missing?

    Let’s ask Magistral…

    Magistral gave me some good ideas, including honey and saltwater gargling. The suggestions had great citations, including Penn Medicine’s website.

    Magistral was also incredibly fast, giving me a response with sources in just a couple of seconds. Magistral did that faster than any other model I’ve seen.

    I’m giving this round an A! Time for some honey tea…

    Learning About Anti-Drone Tech

    Ahh, that’s better. Now, let’s give Magistral something a little harder.

    I’m researching a startup that stops drones. So I wondered, what’s the current state of anti-drone technology?

    Maybe Magistral can help…

    Magistral gave me a beautiful table with all the information I wanted. I didn’t even tell it to give me a table, but that worked quite well for organizing the info.

    I’ve heard of shooting drones down and hitting them with lasers. But it turns out there are many other ways to neutralize them, from GPS spoofing to RF jamming.

    Magistral gave me a great overview of the key technologies and also included some useful sources. And all this data came out in only 1 second!

    The only thing I’d change is I’d like to see citations in the table on each key technology. But overall, this was great work.

    I’ll give this round an A-.

    Digging Into the Medical Tourism Market

    Lately I’ve been working with a startup that’s making medical tourism easier. So I wondered, how big is the medical tourism market in America now, and what are the most popular procedures?

    Let’s ask Magistral…

    Magistral’s answer surprised me. Turns out almost a quarter of all medical tourism is for cosmetic procedures!

    Another procedure many Americans do abroad is IVF. That’s an opportunity I’m excited about. With folks having kids later, the demand for IVF is likely to grow a lot in the coming years. And unfortunately, getting IVF in America is terribly expensive!

    Magistral gave a great overview, complete with sources, in just 1 second. But most of the sources were websites I’ve never heard of, so I’m not sure about the quality.

    I’m giving this round an A-.

    Wrap-Up

    Overall, I’m giving Mistral’s latest model an A-. That’s a lot of progress from where Mistral was before!

    When I tested Mistral in April, it was well behind the best American models. Now, it’s getting close to the top tier.

    ChatGPT and Grok still find better sources than Mistral does. But for most tasks, Mistral is more than sufficient.

    Mistral is especially useful in applications where speed matters. If your users are complaining about latency, you should give this model a try.

    It’s easy to write off Mistral. They’re small. They’re French.

    But these guys just turned out a top tier model. Leaders like OpenAI and Anthropic better watch out.

    More on tech:

    Testing Mistral’s Le Chat

    Using Grok 3 to Manage My Stock Portfolio

    Talking AI, Biotech and More at the Single Family Office Summit

    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.