9 stats about community/event creation so you can increase the odds of success: 1) ~12% of people will respond to random event invitations via calendar or email. Can be higher if people have context, but that's the baseline.

Want 12 people to show up for a dinner? Invite 100

142 intros made between 42 investors for 50 pre-seed deals yesterday

All from 1 deal call w/ folks @UnusualVentures @alley_corp @MaCVentureCap @Techstars @AforeVC @RedSeaVentures, FOs, scouts @sequoia @Accel + others

Many think deal sharing = adverse selection

Why ours works: 40 calls in, the best practices that make it actually work as expected:

-Heavy enforcement of norms: no sharing other people's deals or bumping sharers out of their own allocations. 0 violations in 40 calls

-Best practices: Swift voting for intros, and fast connections made

🚨New community launch: housing travel swap🚨

So many of my friends are traveling regularly, looking for short-term stay apartments/subletters.

Instead of seeing Instagram story posts all the time, I'm starting a housing swap community.

The structure to make it work👇: -All members will be vetted by me before joining.
-Members will share their travel dates with me privately, and the city they are coming from and going to.
-I will publish a calendar without attribution showing availability in different cities.
-Members will be match made...

On making tough decisions...

The "LEGO house/apple" framework: Did a ton of reflection this weekend about big decisions and overthinking.

Have more to share later this week, but one of the first frameworks that helped me navigate the toughest decisions in my life years ago came from a best friend of mine.

The metaphor was about...

On life narratives:

I've been fascinated for years with idea of life narratives - the stories we tell ourselves about how the world Is and how we navigate life given that way of being.

Not everyone's conscious of what theirs is; interesting to explore.

My narrative is... That life is like being in a backyard on a warm summer evening as the sun sets.

We come across serendipitous moments all the time, like lightning bugs/fireflies in the backyard.

Sometimes they might light up in front of us, and we get to take in the moment joyfully, but...

Some of my favorite atypical questions to ask people:

(Because I'm done with superficial conversation at this point in my life) "What's been most on your mind lately?"

(Open-ended, and often people ask "you mean at work?" I reply "intentionally ambiguous, whatever is on your mind is on your mind")

Let's you dive into something they are thinking about

Nobody likes having to use a CRM.

Truth is, you can build connection superpowers without having one, if you do it right.

My 4 favorite strategies, + 1 new I'm going to try: Context: I run 60+ communities, 2 newsletters, and hosted 300+ events in 1 year.

I'd go crazy keeping a master CRM updated of everyone I meet.

The 4 strategies:
(1) Community-as-CRM (eg WhatsApp)
(2) Emoji Contacts
(3) Loops
(4) Event lists

(Bonus) WhatsApp Distribution List

Why you aren't seeing more opportunities (referrals for deals, leads, jobs, connections)...

The 7 ingredients of staying top of mind in someone's mental "speed dial" list: "Speed dial" list = Being in the first group someone reaches out to

My framework comes from years of building communities, hosting events, and creating content.

The 7 ingredients:
1. Cadence
2. Variety
3. Engagement
4. Novelty
5. Uniqueness
6. Perceived value
7. Emotion

Why many emerging (and some established) VCs are struggling to raise their funds...

Unfiltered thoughts/non-obvious reasons: I'll start with the classic @nbt formula of sourcing, picking, winning, helping.

**Sourcing**:
1. Over-relying on pedigree of network (FAANG alum, YC, etc). That's great to start, but unless you are doing something to maintain relevance and mindshare, not enough...

2022 was the year of investing in rocket ships 🚀.

2023 is the year of investing in weather balloons🎈

How to spot the differences, and how it will help with investing in this down market 🧵 🚀 = the companies of the last bull market:

With great resources we could get a company to take off, fighting gravity and friction with $ to get to scale (with or without PMF). 👋 Uber, Bird, Draftkings, etc.

What valuation should you raise your round at?

4 variables you need to force-rank for your raise:
-Valuation
-Round size
-Speed
-Quality of cap table

The answer depends on what your company needs most.

A tale of 4 startups...👇 4 co's I've invested in:

A: Cashflow >0, 20% MoM, bootstrapped
B: Revenue = 0, seeking distribution leverage
C: Early revenue, needs to hire to service a big contract
D: Bootstrapped, ~$1M run rate, cared about VC alignment

Different stories/answers for each, rightly

🚨🔎🚨 If you are trying to find the right VC firms to connect with (I'm talking to you, LPs, VCs, and founders), this is for you: I've been in VC for 5 years.

1 big conclusion:

90% of VCs (brand, website, strategy) are so similar that they sound like somebody did a copy/paste job with a thesaurus

The 5 free apps I’ve used to make $1,074.68 with minimal effort: 1. Pogo @joinpogo "The Consistent One"

💸 Earned: $25.03

Earn rewards on every purchase for sharing your purchase data

Pros:
-Best value per time spent
-Easy to use (3-5 seconds each time)
-Consistent rewards
-Extra perks on app

My referral code: pogocash.app.link/YZ4GX

🚨I’m hiring 🚨

I’m bringing on someone part-time to work with me on investing/ecosystem/community building.

It a mix between Associate/Chief of Staff/Special Projects

Everything about the role is in the link below; 10 reasons why you should apply…👇🏻

airtable.com/shrNdeDPy0yonz… 1) You will learn a ton. Not just about one area, but the intersection of them all.

I've done a weekly email roundup of high value reads/resources for tech folks for 2.5 years. I'm sharing out what I come across for those who want some easy-to-filter content.

This week's batch highlights:
-Great sector reports
-VC learnings
-Founder opps
... 
1/ For founders fundraising:
-Amazon Alexa Fund is hosting a virtual pitch for $1M - 10/6 deadline:

https://twitter.com/lolitataub/status/1309274762397405184?s=20

-Rise of the Rest is hosting a $2M pitch, 10/25 deadline:

https://twitter.com/lolitataub/status/1309265807646416896?s=20

2/

I’ve been surprised that some firms have had such lacking hiring practices. We’ve hired three folks to our team since I joined, and kept three rules for it:

https://twitter.com/AshleySLiu/status/1299087625719087104

1) Never break a timing promise. If we promised an update by next week, we sent one, even if we were still deciding. “Hey, we are still working through this, and will update you next week. You’ll hear from us again by X.” All it takes is an email to make people feel attended to.

I've done a weekly email roundup of high value reads/resources for tech folks for the last 2 years. I wanted to start sharing out what I come across for those who want some easy-to-filter content. In this week's batch are startup and investing finds, plus a bonus or two... 1/ Startup finds!

On Support:

@anthemis @diversityvc @LWLGlobal and 30+ funds (@geri_kirilova @Jillwillnyc @lisaxu92 @ashleypaston and more) hosting female founder office hours on 6/30:

https://twitter.com/geri_kirilova/status/1272912008892100608?s=20

2/

Great to have @Sherveen of Free Agency at Founders Friday yesterday talking about lessons learned bringing Hollywood style Agency to startup talent:

1) His passion was not his solution, but larger problem of information asymmetry in hiring. He’s tried multiple tech products 1/ 2) Pick the sharp edge for your value prop, people will be patient with you if you do that. For Free Agency, it’s getting them interviews. He focused on that, and his clients worked with him as he improved processes. 2/

@infatuation CEO Chris Stang at Founders Friday: Big lessons shared... 1/ Know your values when it comes to key strategic decisions, and let them guide you when facing opportunities that could draw you away from your vision.

Some learnings from this week's Customer Success Roundtable with CS leads across NYC, including @getfreshly @banknovo @contently @CityRow :

1) Bartenders, waiters are top candidate pools. Avoid folks who worked at big companies, they've learned too many habits. 2) Favorite interview questions:
Q: Who was your best boss? What stood out about them? Who was a bad boss? Why? (Analyze values and alignment with your style)
Q: Tell me about a time when you fixed a process/something that was broken at work? (Assess ownership)

Some VC’s say it’s bad to share any deals you passed on. I disagree.

Startups are like restauarants, and VC’s are the guests. One guest might love Ethiopian food, one might hate it, and one might not seriously consider it just because they don’t know the cuisine well. Does that mean the Ethiopian restaurant is good or bad? Depends on who you ask.

If the lover says no, then yeah, maybe pass.