Extremely excited for The Generalist's upcoming piece:

"Tech in Africa"

Meet the team...
@iaboyeji @Nicho0le @haydenalcalde @sgrin77
@LewamKefela @Daudex @aaronqfu @cm @lymusing
1. E

If you follow African entrepreneurship, you know @iaboyeji. He's been a founder of @Andela, @theflutterwave, and now @anafricanfuture.

future.africa Image
2. Nichole

Founder and MD of @TheChrysalisCo is @Nicho0le. She invests in companies in emerging markets. (That includes 22 countries.)

She's also an @ObamaFoundation fellow.

thechrysaliscapital.com Image
3. Abdul

@lymusing is an investor at @IndexVentures. He's passionate about entrepreneurship in Africa, particularly in his home country of Senegal.

Helped bring this team together in a major way.

indexventures.com/team/abdul-ly/ Image
4. Hayden

@haydenalcalde is the founder of @RallyCapGlobal, and focuses his investments on fintech in emerging markets.

He's backed companies like @mono_HQ, @pngmemobile, and many others.

rallycapventures.com Image
5. Steven

@sgrin77 is the Managing Partner at Lateral Capital, a fund focused on the African tech ecosystem with investments in @AutochekAfrica, @carry1st, and many more.

Before that, Steven was a Director in the Office of the President of Guyana.

latcap.co Image
6. Lewam

@LewamKefela is an investor at @villagecapital. She is also the founder of @Africa_Playbook, which covers African startups.

Highly recommended!

africaplaybook.com Image
7. Chris

Huge thanks to @packyM for introducing me to the awesome @cm.

Chris is a Partner at @timoncap, a fund that invests in African startups including @lorisystems, @DecagonIns, @appzonegroup, and many others.

timoncapital.com Image
8. Dauda

@Daudex is building @alida_school, a tech school to educate the next generation of African entrepreneurs. He also invests in companies via @akivavc.

He has a great Substack, called Vista: vista.substack.com Image
9. Aaron

@aaronqfu is a General Partner at @sherpafund, as well as the founder of @venture4africa.

He's invested in companies like PayHippo, Zumi, OnePipe, and more.

sherpa.africa Image
If you're interested in the state of tech and entrepreneurship in Africa, you won't want to miss this Sunday's piece.

Just sign up via the link below and you'll receive our full report for free. I cannot wait to share!

readthegeneralist.com
And of course, @pkisadha!

An amazing researcher at Future Africa. Image

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More from @mariodgabriele

16 Jun
.@stripe's keynote was absurdly impressive.

Tons to admire. My 10 ten takeaways 👇🔥
1. Covid was a huge pull-forward

To be expected. But still, impressive.

Stripe brought on *2 million* new companies since the start of 2020, aided by e-commerce gaining share.
2. Stripe has scaled but retained performance

The company had 173 *billion* API requests. Performance is seemingly unaffected, even during busy days.
Read 13 tweets
16 Jun
Forbes 30U30 makes uniquely *zero* sense for VC.
I remember folks worrying about getting selected while I was a junior VC.

Hopefully, this has changed.

Because it is truly nonsensical, for several reasons.
1. VC's feedback cycle is long

If you invest in a seed round, you won't know if the co's a "success" for years.

Sure, there will be proxy indications (up rounds), but these are often disconnected from real financial progress.

You don't know if you're good for a long time.
Read 10 tweets
13 Jun
Stripe is insane.

It's not just a company. It's a civilization in the making.

Here are the 10 things that make the company so impressive.

readthegeneralist.com/briefing/stripe
1. The Collisons think super long-term.

Employees talk about how the company doesn't think in years...it thinks in decades.

That comes from the top.
2. They are hyper-patient recruiters

In an interview with @johnolilly, @patrickc talked about how he courted key recruits for *more than three years* before they joined Stripe.

They are "painfully persistent."
Read 12 tweets
2 Jun
This is my best Walt Disney impression. Here's where I hope The Generalist goes.

- Play w boundaries of "audience" + "creator"
- Multiplayer by default
- Build, invest, write in public
- Decentralize decision-making to community
- Be the platform for smart ppl to share thoughts
Since I'm not a very good artist, I can't compete with Disney's amazing original.

But I've done my best...

Meet some characters below ;)
First, the "Blue Whiskered Job Fox."

He just wants to get people into careers they really like.

The more people he helps find a job, the longer his whiskers grow.
Read 10 tweets
30 May
Tbh I was sleeping on the world of "calm funding"...

- Early-stage investing focused on value
- Outperforms 95% of traditional VC
- Firms: @earnestcapital, @indievc, @collab_capital

Had a lot of fun learning about this with @tylertringas.
readthegeneralist.com/briefing/calmf…
1/

What is "calm funding" (CFs)?

There's some disagreement over terminology. Some prefer "funds for bootstrappers" or "indie venture."

In short: investing in co's that don't risk survival for growth. Instead, calm businesses look to achieve sustainability and independence.
2/

Who are some "calm companies"?

They can be profitable "lifestyle" businesses, or become massive public companies.

- @zapier: $5B val, raised $1.3M
- @atlassian: $58B val, raised after 9 yrs
- @1Password: $1B, raised after 14 years

Scores of others
Read 10 tweets
25 May
Hearing of more founders selling secondary shares.

Some really interesting new incentives to think about:

- Founders don't have to sell to get rich
- Can 'swing for the fences' more
- Less downside in raising beyond means
- Upside in constant raising to 🔼 secondary prices
If I were an employee of a company where the CEO was aggressive at selling secondaries...I'd have a lot of questions.

- Should I be trying to sell my shares?
- Does the CEO believe in this long-term?
- What kind of signal does this put out to the market?
I think we're going to see a class of mega-wealthy founders that built...a fundraising company.

Folks that understand VC dynamics well enough to exploit them.

The result may be something like a "VC Ponzi Scheme."

A co that looks unbelievable on paper, but doesn't do much.
Read 9 tweets

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