Good is the enemy of great

"Good is the enemy of great."

It's easy to be motivated when your existence depends on it. What would you do if things weren't going so great. What more could we do.

This is not about hours, it's about mindset.

Try and get yourself into that mindset no matter what.

Let your kids fail

"Let your kids fail."

It's harder than ever to figure out what skills will matter in five years time. What skills do I want my kids to have?

I keep coming back to the skills I look for in founders. And to resilience.

The best way to build resilience is to fail. And to get back up again.

Let them fail at things that matter to them. But won't matter in the long run.

Random dinner

Have you ever been to a random dinner?

We signed up on Cielo, answered some questions to be matched (not a dating site), were given a time and place, and met for dinner.

Four of us signed up - me, Jon Hong 👨🏻‍💻, A N Other and David Palmer. We also had a photographer and journalist, Christina Campodonico, in attendance who perfectly integrated herself into the group.

Three of the four of us are improvisers and two do creative writing. I don't know if we were well matched or it attracts these kinds of people.

We stayed for four hours. A great bunch of people I'd be happy to have dinner with again.

Thank you to Cielo founder Jai Lunkad. I love trying things like this and we all had a great evening.

Mixed messages on coachable founders

"We invest in founders who are coachable."

I have mixed feelings about this statement.

Yes, all great founders should be coachable. But it sounds like code for, "Do what we tell you."

What do you think?

Podcast with Advik Kapoor

"How Much Money Should Founders Raise?"

I did a podcast for the amazing Advik Kapoor's The Revamped Founder with precisely this title. We cover this and a lot more including what motivates me and founders to continue to learn and personally grow.

Available now on YouTube and Spotify. Links in the comments.

Let me know what you think, please.

Be bold and unapologetically you

Be bold and unapologetically you.

Yes, you have to present yourself in your best light. But do so in a way that is true to you.

People can sense authenticity. Mainly because it's hard to present well when trying to be something you're not.

Ambition and failure

I'm not interested in good, I want to be the best.

Have ambition. Don't be afraid to fail.

To raise you need:

Founders, to raise you need:

1. The underlying truth about your business to be great,
2. To frame that well in your messaging, and
3. To hustle to make it happen

You need all three. 2 & 3 help you to raise. They are also important proof points on you as founders.

One month away

One month ago today I headed off.

London, San Francisco, London and Cambridge later, I'm now waiting at London City Airport to fly home.

Looking forward to seeing my family.

Lunch with Leeho Lim

Lunch at Where the pancakes are with Leeho Lim. Thank you Tytus Stempniewicz for the introduction.

Then an open mic in Kings Cross.

Then Ben Schwarz and friends at Royal Albert Hall with Michael‏ Loberman.

Tomorrow, Cambridge.

Waiting at SFO

At SFO, after 3.5 weeks, meeting 35 funds and numerous other meetings. Waiting to board.

Then 2 days in London, 2 days in Cambridge, and home.

Some fun and important things first but looking forward to seeing my family soon.

Never stop learning

Everything is a learning experience.

Ragnar Kjartansson: The Visitors

After meeting two funds and hosting a Focal session, I finally had some time this afternoon to be touristy and visit SFMOMA San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Go see Ragnar Kjartansson: The Visitors.

He (in the image below) and eight friends collectively recorded a partially improvised a piece of music in separate rooms of a historic mansion. The installation is videos of each of the recordings placed around a room and has an incredible feel as the audio balance changes as you walk around the room.

Highly recommended.

Tom Charman is a hero

I will have met over thirty VCs by the end of this trip. So many people have helped me that I can't name them all and I haven't asked any of them for permission other than one.

Tom Charman is a hero. He has made me so many introductions. We only met just before my trip. He just tries to help as much as he can.

I am nervous about making introductions people might not want and burning social capital. I need to figure that out. I know others who do the same as Tom. I have something to learn.

Thank you 🎥 Gabriel Isserlis, Tanuvi Ethunandan and Alex Somervell for all suggesting we should meet.

Coffee with Nick Moy of Codeium

A pleasure to have coffee with Nicholas Moy who is automating coding at Codeium.

We got deep into AI, life skills in an era of disruption, education, fast learning, ten things I can't recall, and Dunning Kruger (which everyone else suffers from).

Thank you for expanding my mind and looking forward to the next one, Nick!

Coffee and ice cream with Mayur Upadhyaya

Lovely to see Mayur Upadhyaya who is here for RSA Conference for coffee and ice cream and to hear about everything he and APIContext are up to.

His selfie skills are much better than mine.

Yes, that is the Golden Gate Bridge you can just about see in the distance.

Focal S24 demo day

Join me and hundreds of other investors at Focal's S24 demo day this coming Thursday 16th May.

We've filtered thousands of applicants down to the final twenty-five who will be pitching from 2pm-5pm BST.

At previous demo days you've had the chance to invest alongside incredible VCs like Lightspeed, GV (Google Ventures) and even me at unbundled vc.

I will also be hosting a Q&A session with one of the finalists.

What do you do solely for joy

I was at a great dinner last night in SF where we chatted about always optimising for everything - a typical founder characteristic - and then moved on to what we do just for joy.

What do you do solely for joy? I'll start.

Improv. I'm never going to be great at it. I'm at peace with that. I just take great joy in the madness of not knowing what I or my scene partners are going to say or sing or do and then that becoming real and occasionally good.

Your answers in the comments, please.

For now, relax

Seven meetings today. Lots of follow ups to do this evening.

For now, relax.

Venture, AI, poker and table tennis

Great to meet Tytus Stempniewicz of Techni Ventures and chat venture, AI and poker and play a little table tennis.

He is much better than me - hence no video!