I’m investing $3M this year into startups solving across this spectrum.
Here are the biggest opportunities I’m most excited about. If you’re building in any of these areas, let’s chat.
Let's dig in 👇👇👇
1/ Education
$50K for subpar Zoom classes and an increasingly meaningless credential won't cut it.
Next gen schools, (@flockjay), communities (@Career_Karma), homeschooling (@withprimer) and recruiters (@placement) will educate, train and support the next billion people.
2/ Crypto
The parabolic rise in bitcoin and ether price over the last few weeks may seem bubble-esque, but over the last 4 years, crypto developer and startup activity has 10x’d.
⬆️projects = ⬆️startups =⬆️innovation = ⬆️value.
Crypto and decentralization are about to rip.
3/ Creators
The internet unleashes human ingenuity. Empowering ingenuity is the perfect pick/shovel business.
Companies that enable this - e.g. @teachable, @BookCameo - will take a “slice of human creativity.”
Over the last decade, cloud adoption exploded. This decade we'll see a similar explosion of digital identity and security.
It’s not an accident that @OneTrust (shoutout Atlanta!) is on pace to be the fastest growing enterprise software company of all time.
9/ Fractional Ownership
@AliBHamed taught me an interesting lesson a few years ago - your mind opens up when you view everything as an asset.
I’m interested in companies increasing ownership in unconventional assets - collectibles, digital art, sneakers (e.g. @withotis).
10/ The Elderly
The elderly are increasingly isolated and depressed. Companies that build products to combat these emotions will unlock an undertapped consumer segment.
There are different angles here - e.g. grandkids on demand (@join_papa), niche community (@HelloRevel).
11/ India
Digital infrastructure has been totally unlocked in India. @reliancejio gave 4G for free to all Indians in 2016 and since then, over 400M Indians have been brought online.
Prediction over the next decade: India will surpass China for unicorns.
12/ There are so many more areas to explore. Climate, real estate, healthcare, construction, enterprise software, retail etc.
I'm bullish on this decade - it'll be the best one in human history. Let’s get to work!
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0/ After talking to 200+ founders this year about operating through COVID, @schlaf and I coined a term we hope catches on in 2021:
“Human-Centric CEO.”
We think this philosophy can drive 10x impact for leadership in organizations.
Let’s dig in to the what, why and how 👇👇👇
1/ One of the most commonly cited management think pieces for operating through crisis is “Peacetime - Wartime CEO” by @bhorowitz. And for good reason, it's a philosophy for companies to survive, reinvent and ultimately win when macroeconomic environments shift.
2/ In most of the conversations we’ve had with Founders, we hear frequent allusion to this framework to help navigate the landscape. We’ve even used it over the past year.
But while helpful, it's incomplete. And it's application can lead to deeply problematic outcomes.
0/ After evaluating 200+ startups this year, I've been in some awesome and not so awesome pitches.
Here are the top 10 mistakes I see Founders make that routinely derail fundraising 👇👇👇
1/ “If we just get 1% of the market we’ll be a billion dollar company”
Most software markets are winner take all, or at least winner take most. Dominant companies have a flywheel on talent, capital, product.
Explain why you'll be a major player, not a passive participant.
2/ Mistaken X for Y analogies - “We’re Peloton for Education”
If you’re pitching yourself as X for Y, make sure you understand X and Y intimately. These analogies often don’t work in practice because of business model particularities of X and industry dynamics of Y.
0/ I tripled down on angel investing this year, investing $1M+ in ~20 companies in 2020. I’ve learned what feels like 5 years worth of lessons in 1 year of investing. Here are my 10 biggest takeaways for anybody interested in getting started investing:
1/ Ownership reality > ownership mindset.
The earlier you think of yourself as an investor, the better. Investing in startups is a cheat code to participating in the future with asymmetric upside. Worst case, you lose 1x your money; best case you 1000x it.
2/ Invest in founders that are better than you.
When you’re floored by a founder, work with them. Period. If you're with the right people you’ll either (a) make a killing because they’ll figure it out / see something you don’t or (b) learn a ton and develop a killer network.
1/ Over the last 2 days, 3,000+ people pumped up a thread I wrote about ATL's success; but like all success, underneath lies a😤grind. Over the last 18 mo's I’ve learned a lot running an org w/ 100+ FTEs. Here’s 50 lessons I learned the hard way so you don’t have to.
Thread 👇
2/ Create an identity for your company
It’s so easy to get enamored by shiny objects. Identify the value in your industry and decide strategically where you want to go. There’s a lot of ways to drive impact, but you can’t do all of them at the same time. Focus is key.
3/ When in doubt, just ask “Why?”
Whenever I want to push deeply, I’ve found the easiest tactic is to ask “Why?” Asking why either gets us to ground truth or it highlights a gap in our thinking. If we can’t come up with a good answer, then I know we haven’t yet cracked the nut.
1/ Last night I tweeted that Atlanta is on absolute fire. 2,300+ liked the tweet. There’s a special energy building here. So what is going on in this “overnight success hub”? Hint - it’s been 15 years in the making. Time for a 🔥 thread 👇👇👇
2/ Atlanta has historically been a Fortune 500 town. Today Atlanta is home to 26 F1000 companies (16 F500) - household names like @UPS, @Delta, @CocaCola. All have been instrumental to “increasing the size of the pie” - these companies cumulatively do $500B+ in revenue annually.
3/ ATL has had tech success, but it's been few and far between. Meanwhile, something deeper has been happening. Specialized expertise has been sewed into the city’s fabric - logistics, aerospace, retail, payments. Atlanta goes toe to toe with any other city on vertical expertise.