I have been trying my best to have an open mind when it comes to politics and worldviews. I try to understand and question my biases so I can feel confident that my opinions and beliefs are informed ones. I consider my political orientation Left/Progressive. I don’t agree with all Democrat policy. I think most politicians, regardless of party, are inept and care more about preserving power and their jobs than they do legislating. But I do believe that the government can be a remarkably effective tool to make Progress and help people.

As part of my quest to have a more comprehensive and empathetic understanding of people's political inclinations, I follow a lot of Republicans that I think are very intelligent and successful people. I try to learn about what is most important to them, politically speaking. The common denominator seems to be fiscal policy.

I understand that people don’t like taxes.

I understand that people don’t like it when the government spends lots of money.

I understand why people think the federal government is bloated and ineffective.

I understand why people don’t like their business regulated.

I understand why people are vocal about these issues. But I do not understand your silence when children are regularly massacred in schools in this country. It’s a preventable epidemic and it does not happen anywhere else. And like it or not, this is a political issue.

Is this not your line? And if it isn’t, do you have one? When is enough enough?

Asking for my children and yours.

I recently read The Power Law by Sebastian Mallaby. There is a section about how Thomas Perkins, the founder of Kleiner Perkins, approached venture capital. His strategy was to "identify the white-hot risks, then find the cheapest way of going after them." Essentially, determine where the startup might fail (e.g. is there a foundational technical breakthrough that's required? Some complex operational execution? A question of market demand? etc.), and maniacally focus on solving for that singular element in the most economically efficient way possible. I very much like this approach to investing and company building. Constraints (i.e. the limited amount of money one has in the bank) force focus and ruthless prioritization.

In the past decade tech entrepreneurs have experienced remarkable market conditions. Money from venture capitalists was seemingly infinite. This created a series of bad behaviors that entrepreneurs will have to unlearn. Mainly, it enabled founders to do too much shit at once without truly understanding and focusing on what was most important to make their business actually work (i.e. what is the white-hot risk?). My strong preference for company building, particularly at the early stages, is to singularly focus on the thing that is mission critical and to tackle that in the scrappiest way possible. I, like every other entrepreneur, have made the mistake of trying to do way too much on more than one occasion. The times things worked best were always when we had a crystal clear focus on the absolute most important thing to accomplish and focused all of our resources and attention towards it.

The recent market turn is going to create new constraints for entrepreneurs. Capital will be much harder to come by, and this will be a forcing function for leaders to do less. Ultimately, I think this is a very good thing. Many founders will struggle to adapt - these are new market conditions for a lot of people and new is always difficult. But those that do embrace these newfound constraints and zealously hone in on the white-hot risks are going to emerge having built industry-defining iconic companies. They will likely build better companies faster in this capital-scarce market than they would have in the capital-abundant one. Call me old-fashioned, but I'm excited about this return to normalcy. In the long run I think it will produce better outcomes for everyone in the ecosystem.

I have been trying my best to have an open mind when it comes to politics and worldviews. I try to understand and question my biases so I can feel confident that my opinions and beliefs are informed ones. I consider my political orientation Left/Progressive. I don’t agree with all Democrat policy. I think most politicians, regardless of party, are inept and care more about preserving power and their jobs than they do legislating. But I do believe that the government can be a remarkably effective tool to make Progress and help people.

As part of my quest to have a more comprehensive and empathetic understanding of people's political inclinations, I follow a lot of Republicans that I think are very intelligent and successful people. I try to learn about what is most important to them, politically speaking. The common denominator seems to be fiscal policy.

I understand that people don’t like taxes.

I understand that people don’t like it when the government spends lots of money.

I understand why people think the federal government is bloated and ineffective.

I understand why people don’t like their business regulated.

I understand why people are vocal about these issues. But I do not understand your silence when children are regularly massacred in schools in this country. It’s a preventable epidemic and it does not happen anywhere else. And like it or not, this is a political issue.

Is this not your line? And if it isn’t, do you have one? When is enough enough?

Asking for my children and yours.

I recently read The Power Law by Sebastian Mallaby. There is a section about how Thomas Perkins, the founder of Kleiner Perkins, approached venture capital. His strategy was to "identify the white-hot risks, then find the cheapest way of going after them." Essentially, determine where the startup might fail (e.g. is there a foundational technical breakthrough that's required? Some complex operational execution? A question of market demand? etc.), and maniacally focus on solving for that singular element in the most economically efficient way possible. I very much like this approach to investing and company building. Constraints (i.e. the limited amount of money one has in the bank) force focus and ruthless prioritization.

In the past decade tech entrepreneurs have experienced remarkable market conditions. Money from venture capitalists was seemingly infinite. This created a series of bad behaviors that entrepreneurs will have to unlearn. Mainly, it enabled founders to do too much shit at once without truly understanding and focusing on what was most important to make their business actually work (i.e. what is the white-hot risk?). My strong preference for company building, particularly at the early stages, is to singularly focus on the thing that is mission critical and to tackle that in the scrappiest way possible. I, like every other entrepreneur, have made the mistake of trying to do way too much on more than one occasion. The times things worked best were always when we had a crystal clear focus on the absolute most important thing to accomplish and focused all of our resources and attention towards it.

The recent market turn is going to create new constraints for entrepreneurs. Capital will be much harder to come by, and this will be a forcing function for leaders to do less. Ultimately, I think this is a very good thing. Many founders will struggle to adapt - these are new market conditions for a lot of people and new is always difficult. But those that do embrace these newfound constraints and zealously hone in on the white-hot risks are going to emerge having built industry-defining iconic companies. They will likely build better companies faster in this capital-scarce market than they would have in the capital-abundant one. Call me old-fashioned, but I'm excited about this return to normalcy. In the long run I think it will produce better outcomes for everyone in the ecosystem.