I’m currently flaring with my chronic illness. I’ve had ulcerative colitis, which is an incurable inflammatory bowel disease, for the past decade. Fortunately I have been in remission for most of those years—and I am sure I can get there again soon. Here is how. (1/X) First, some context: my first flare was awful, lasting years. I seriously considered removing my colon—but was saved after discovering the right nutritionist and holistic care. I thought holistic medicine was total BS, but now I think it’s the future of personalized medicine.

It's official: I'm going to demote myself.

Well, sort of. For the next four months, I asked @b_nicks11 whether I could serve as his direct report for the next four months, to learn how he runs Angel Squad. A quick thread about why: 1/ @b_nicks11 is the founder of Angel Squad, our @HustleFundVC community of angels who desire to (1) learn about angel investing; (2) participate in deals alongside our fund; and (3) enjoy a network of highly talented, non-a-hole operators. It's amazing: hustlefund.vc/squad

We're not a big fund ($150M AUM, including SPVs), but we've said NO to tens of millions of dollars of LP commits.

I wanted to create a thread about the common reasons why we reject LP money. 1/ As an emerging manager, it's super hard to say NO to money--especially when we first started; but at the same time, LP relationships are 10+ years per fund! You're gonna grow old with these folks, so we gotta like you and agree on values.

The list of automatic NOs:

I'm 40 today, and I felt inspired to write a letter to myself as a 10 year old. Thread below (1/X): Eric! This is Eric from the future, the year is 2021! Believe it or not, I'm now dad's age. First and foremost, I wanted to assure you that you're doing fine and will be healthy in 30 years.

I'm super excited to be teasing a collab that we're launching between @HustleFundVC and @ViewSonic on October 6, 2021. This new thing really feels like coming full circle for me, as I think back about my journey starting my first company 16 years ago. A thread... 1/ I started my first startup in the summer of 2005, out of my dorm room. Let's just say I wasn't quite supposed to be living there (as I had already graduated), but I somehow got a room and the Internet was really fast. That's all I needed to get going.

I've been thinking a lot about compound interest. It's not just about money. It's about everything, including physical/mental health, manifest in the small/big decisions we make every day.

The biggest compounding factor of my life is who I surround myself with. Thread: 1/ There was a time many years ago where I was stuck in a job that I hated. Nothing about it was specifically bad, but I just felt like it was suffocating my creativity. Each day I walked into the office, my heart rate jumped a bit and cortisol flushed a bit through my body.

1/ There are few people that have had as big a personal impact on me in 2020 than @lolitataub. She is one of the smartest and most empathic people I've met as an adult.

I think that every founder should engage with her, @srcasm, and their new @thecommunityvc. 2/ This year, Lolita, @HungVPham, and I started collaborating on a TBA project, where we had our first opportunity of working together.

Frankly, things started out a bit rough, but held a social contract to be super honest with each other.

One thing that I learned to do early in my career as a CEO was to set a 'social contract' with anyone new whom I'd work closely with. I found this to be a useful way to set rules/expectations on how to work together.

I wanted to share what I tell founders in our social contract: 1/ The first thing I commit to is blunt honesty--but always assuming that the direct feedback is coming from a good place in our hearts. I don't like being surprised or surprising anyone else, so committing to hard/fast honesty is a solid means of getting to transparency.

1/ I see a lot of advice for founders on how to behave toward VCs, but let’s talk about how VCs should behave toward founders. Call it ‘VC Etiquette 101’.

The following advice is drawn from real founders I know who reported this bad VC behavior to me recently: 2/ VCs should respond to e-mail.

Even if it is to apologies that they will be slow to respond, just confirm receipt with the sender. Try to respond within 48 hours with a real response.

1/ I want to start an honest conversation about kids: They are terrible for your career. They strain your marriage. They make you way poorer.

But they are also the best decisions I’ve made in my life. Here’s what my experience has been like with two young ones. 2/ Before kids, I was all about my startup life. I built an awesome edtech company with my wife, and we sacrificed many years (filled with joy and pain) to get our nut. We traveled a lot. We ate out. We hung out with friends every weekend.

Then we decided to have kids...

1/ There is so much idol worship in Silicon Valley re: successful founders and investors. But there is a common denominator for success which is rarely addressed: Privilege

I want to confess my own journey of success, as it relates to Privilege. 2/ My Korean parents were poor when they arrived to the US, seeking opportunities for their future kids. Upon immigrating, my father Germanized the spelling of our last name (B-A-H-N), with the rational that a white-sounding last name would open up opportunities. I think it has.