A concept I learned in 2023 that I wish I learned in 2013.

Asymmetric Opportunity: There are two types of Asymmetric Opportunities:

• Asymmetric upside is when the upside is much > than the downside.
• Asymmetric downside is when the downside is much > than the upside.

The goal is to do more things with "Big Reward" and "Small Risk"

Here are some examples:

Y Combinator's most common advice is to "do things that don't scale."

Startups often believe they need to scale immediately or not at all.

But in reality, startups take off because you make them take off.

The first unscalable thing you have to do is recruit users manually: Waiting for users to come to you is not an option.

Stripe, a successful startup, aggressively pursued early user acquisition, even though they could have waited.

Go out and get your users.

With $50,000, you have several business opportunities that you can venture into.

I've compiled a list of the top 45 ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

1. Food truck: Start a mobile restaurant with a unique menu. 2. Coffee shop: Open a coffeehouse that offers premium coffee, snacks, and pastries.
3. Microbrewery: Create unique craft beers and sell them in your own brewery or taproom.
4. Ice cream parlor: Serve delicious ice cream and frozen treats in your own shop.

My favorite examples of shooting your shot:

1. Elon Musk cold-calling rocket expert Jim Cantrell to convince him to help him colonize Mars in 65 words (the pitch worked). 2. Nicole Lynn DMing Jalen Jurts on Instagram to try to become his agent (he's now the highest paid player in NFL history)

Agree or disagree?

Bill Simmons has the best take on where you should go to college:

Allow me to make my annual case for everyone to apply to warm-weather schools... Don't spend four years in cold weather.

There's no reason.

Go south, go west, but go.

And if they have a good sports team, even better.

As I slowly, yet surely, turn in to Mr. LLC 🇺🇸, the most common question I get asked is:

"Why should I form an LLC?"

Here are the top benefits I've learned after personally working with 1000s of founders globally.

1. Tax Write-Offs 🤑 Tax Write-Offs 🤑

Owning a small business is the best tax deal in America.

Why?

Because of tax write-offs. With an LLC for your business, you can save $1000s.

https://twitter.com/ArjunMahadevan/status/1631705419294085121?s=20

doola Partnerships 🧵 doola 🤝 Brex

https://twitter.com/ArjunMahadevan/status/1662121039869140992

Examples of Asymmetric Upside:

• Investing
• Starting an LLC
• Creating content
• Moving to a big city
• Asking someone out on a first date
• Sending a cold email to Evan Spiegel (CEO of Snapchat)
• Writing a @doolaHQ Build in Public Investor Update - Week 24/52 🧵 Week over Week Growth Summary 📊

• ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue): $XM +1.00% (vs +0.60% last week)
• Subscribers: XK +1.92% (vs +2.07% last week)

For any elite performer, the key to victory is creating the right routines.

Michael Phelps has a secret ritual that helped him become the mentally toughest swimmer in the world and win 23 gold medals.

It's called "Get the videotape ready": Four years before the Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps won 8 golds at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he followed the same routine every race.

New partnership alert 🚨

We're teaming up with Arc to enable founders in the Arc network to seamlessly form their US business using doola's company formation API.

Here's more on the @doolaHQ 🤝 @join_arc partnership: What is doola?

We're a Business-in-a-Box and we took the tech we built in-house...

And decided to offer it to businesses around the world.

Now any company can offer a full suite of business solution services (formation, EINs, Registered Agent) via API.

https://twitter.com/ArjunMahadevan/status/1519763644472569856?s=20

Back in 2005 on Valentine's Day, three (single) guys had nothing to do.

So they decided to build an app.

This is the wild story of how one of the biggest social media networks in the world started as a dating site: It was 2005 and the demand for the video was on.

But the three founders, Chad, Jawed, and Steve, needed a practical application for video.

What do the following celebrities all have in common?

• Oprah
• Beyonce
• The Rock
• Tim Cook
• Will Smith
• Elon Musk
• Jennifer Aniston
• Serena Williams
• Michelle Obama
• Mark Zuckerberg

They all have morning routines.

Here's how they start their days: 1. Oprah Winfrey:

The media mogul starts her day with 20 minutes of meditation followed by a workout session. She believes in setting intentions for the day and practices gratitude.

A 26-year-old software engineer built a $1 billion app in two years after following his girlfriend's advice.

This is the story of how a failed passion project turned into one of the most iconic apps of our time: Kevin Systrom left Google frustrated.

Having spent almost three years as a product manager at the company, Kevin was eager to take on more responsibility and apply his nuclear drive to something tangible.

Instead, he was offered by his boss to take up golf.

Most life hacks suck.

So I crowdsourced the best from 22.1 million people on Reddit.

Here are 11 life pro tips.

1. Airplane mode to get off annoying calls: 1. Airplane mode to get off annoying calls:

If you’re stuck on an annoying call, put your phone on airplane mode instead of just hanging up. The other person will see “call failed” instead of “call ended.” And to make it less obvious, disconnect while you're the one talking.

A list of asymmetric opportunities by @naval:

• Create a book, podcast, video
• Go on many first dates
• Go to a cocktail party
• Move to a big city
• Create software
• Invest in startups
• Buy bitcoin
• Start a biz
• Tweet

My addition:

• Public Investor Updates 🧵 Week over Week Growth Summary 📊

• ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue): $XM +0.48% (vs +0.43% last week)
• Subscribers: XK +2.05% (vs +1.96% last week)

New partnership alert:

We're teaming up with @500GlobalVC to enable their global community of founders to seamlessly form their US business using @doolaHQ's company formation API.

Our shared global focus makes this a match made in heaven.

Here's why: At its core, 500.co is a venture capital firm and startup accelerator that focuses on early-stage investments and helping startups grow. They provide funding, mentorship, and resources to help entrepreneurs turn their ideas into successful businesses.

Hard work raises your floor. Talent raises your ceiling.

10 traits we can all develop that require zero talent:

• Effort
• Energy
• Passion
• Attitude
• Work ethic
• Doing extra
• Preparation
• Coachability
• Being on time
• Body Language

Examples:

1. Kobe Bryant: 1. Kobe Bryant - Work ethic.

This is the discipline of showing up consistently and making the best decisions that lead to peak performance.

Even at the pinnacle of his career, the late basketball superstar Kobe Bryant’s work ethic was legendary...

businessinsider.com/kobe-bryant-in…

We've got news:

We're launching an all-in-one solution for managing your business finances.

doola Books is the ultimate bookkeeping software for founders.

Say goodbye to the stress of managing your finances and spend more time focusing on what really matters.

Let's dive in: 1️⃣ What is doola Books?

doola Books helps you simplify your financial record-keeping. It's perfect for individuals, freelancers, and businesses. It's like having a virtual accountant in your pocket. 💼💻

doola.com/books/

Here is what you get with doola Books:

You don't get less scared.

You get more brave.

This is how to overcome imposter syndrome, once and for all:

https://twitter.com/calum_johnson9/status/1665710344830943234?s=20

You can check out the full episode where @calum_johnson9 and I discuss this on YouTube



The short answer to how to overcome imposter syndrome is:

You need to change your mindset.

Pixar and Disney use a specific framework to tell captivating stories that keep your eyes glued to the screen.

It's been used repeatedly to create box office mega hits.

The framework is called the Pixar Story Spine.

Here's how you can use it to become a master storyteller: The Pixar Story Spine formula is as follows:

• "Once upon a time there was ___."
• "Every day, ___."
• "One day ___."
• "Because of that, ___."
• "Because of that, ___."
• "Until finally ___."
• "And ever since then ___."

Pixar and Disney use a specific framework to tell captivating stories that keep your eyes glued to the screen.

It's been used repeatedly to create box office mega hits.

The framework is called the Pixar Story Spine.

Here's how you can use it to become a master storyteller: The Pixar Story Spine formula is as follows:

• "Once upon a time there was ___."
• "Every day, ___."
• "One day ___."
• "Because of that, ___."
• "Because of that, ___."
• "Until finally ___."
• "And ever since then ___."