This is the story of Assurance, which sold to Prudential in 2019. The founders bootstrapped the company to profitability and never looked back. I think a big part of this was getting the timing right. “It’s an unusual success story in a tech industry saturated with startups that raise gobs of venture capital dollars with a growth-at-all-costs mentality and sometimes never become profitable.” ~ learn more
Some seem to think so. “When Slow Ventures announced that it would set aside $20 million to invest in individual creators, GP Sam Lessin responded to onlookers’ confusion with a memorable quip: “it’s def not indentured servitude.” ~ learn more
Applying for a VC job in 2018, Kyle Harrison made the case for Figma becoming a $19 billion company when it had only $4mm of revenue. “I talked about this idea of financial gravity; basically that a company's ability to just continue to grow exponentially becomes increasingly difficult as they scale. And that you can look for the things that could make a company capable of defying gravity.” ~ learn…
“For some reason … it’s a badge of honor in tech to shit on strategy.” This is a great counter to the position that execution is ee. “A strategy is a high-level plan to achieve one or more goals under conditions of uncertainty, designed through recognizing the challenge (diagnosis), setting a direction to overcome it (guiding policy), and detailing steps to implement the policy (coherent actions).” ~ learn more
A long and enjoyable post about making excellent charts. “A good line graph is a fusion of right and left brain, of literacy and numeracy. Just numbers alone aren't enough to explain the truth, but accurate numbers, represented truthfully, are a check on our anecdotal excesses, confirmation biases, tribal affiliations.” ~ learn more
An old lesson: rather than rejecting work you don’t want, price it so ridiculously high that you’ll celebrate if you get it. ~ learn more
“Best Buy will soon begin carrying continuous glucose monitoring devices that require a prescription, opening the door to broader future healthcare product offerings ordered by physicians for their patients.” They seem to be targeting the diabetic market, which sadly just keeps growing. ~ learn more
“In a move that echoes a sci-fi series, researchers have developed a super-small material that was able to not only stimulate nerves in rodents, but reconnect them as well. The finding could lead to injectable particles that take the place of larger implants.” ~ learn more
"Our study showed fiber reduced inflammation in the brain region responsible for memory by as much as 50%.” ~ learn more
This started as a response to the 1970s oil price shock and was further aided by a carbon tax introduced in 1990. “Sweden, Norway and Finland also have the coldest climates in Europe. In all three countries, there are now more than 40 heat pumps per 100 households, more than in any other country in the world.” ~ learn more