|#112 MWAVC| - Cappin' 😩
Had a conversation with a young founder last night. All I was talking about was unrealistic valuations backed up by “certain agreements we have”, bunch of name dropping, no understanding of his numbers, a whole lot of vanity metrics, a couple of fibs and half-truths here and there that I ignored and a whole $0.00 of revenue since the company started 2 years ago? Hm. And apparently raised from someone who by my calculations owns 0.83% of the company? The no-revenue-making company? Interesting. I guess it’s his company so he knows what he’s doing so Godspeed. But guys, please spare us the fluff and get straight to business. When I’m listening to people pitch, these are the things I personally look out for:
What problem you’re solving
How you’re adding value
Your unfair competitive advantage/ moat
Growth metrics/ traction
Revenue
Simple as 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
Anyway, the conversation I had reminded me about this tweet below from Michael Seibel (Prez. YC).
“Many startup founders consider lying as a way to get ahead. The vast majority quickly realize that whatever short term gain they might get from lying will be erased by the long term consequences **when** they get caught. Make sure that no matter the fate of your startup, your reputation as a (sic) founder does not get tarnished. That way you are always in the position to start another company in the future.”— Michael Seibel
This is the post today. Don’t lie or twist the facts.
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Remember January is a long month. Don’t go broke trying to impress this Christmas. If you’re looking for investment opportunities, feel res to send me a mail :)
Article List— What I’m reading (10 articles a day x 7 days x 4 weeks x 12 months = 3360 articles a year).
Netflix’s international business is its fastest growing: Netflix about to eat your lunch. Growing heavy in EMs.
The Money Men Who Enabled Adam Neumann and the WeWork Debacle: Note that there’s no women there. Women > men.
The Next Big Customer Experience From Jeff Bezos: “Let’s take a trip to Mars on our next vacation?”
BYJU’s net loss narrows to nearly ₹15 cr in FY19: One of my favorite companies introduced to me by Jason. They have the sales process down to a tee.
Goldman unveils Blackstone-like investments group: Took them long enough. Sheesh
Payment startup Chipper Cash raises $6M for southern Africa expansion: 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
OMAR AL-BASHIR GETS ONLY A TWO-YEAR SENTENCE FOR CORRUPTION: L-O-L. After you found more than 100m$ in suitcases in his house? With this flimsy excuse? We will never move forward with people like this going off basically free.
WeFunder Gets $5.1M To Be The ‘Kickstarter For Investing’: Good good. Private investing to the masses.
Inequality: Ghana's richest earn more in a month than its poorest can in 1000 years – Oxfam: Welp.
VC Satisfies Its Sweet Tooth By Giving Insomnia Cookies $3.93M In Capital: First time I had insomnia cookies, I understood why people are in love with them. Had my “butter” moment.
West-Africa investor Verod Capital hits $200m hardcap for Fund III: There we go!
Podcast— What I’m listening to (1 podcast episode a day= 365 podcast episodes a year) — Broadening my experiences through others’ stories.
New American Scandal is out. Find out about biggest controversies to hit America including why George Bush went to war in Iraq and how he BS’d his way into justifying this war.
Book— 1 Chapter a day x 7 days x 4 weeks x 12 months = 336 chapters. Most books have 10-12 chapters, so 1 year = 28 to 33 books. And my book list is nearing 1000 books. Send help 🌚
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📱📱Quote of the day
“Success is a five step process: need to know what you’re going after (your goals), then you encounter your problems on the way to your goals, have to diagnose those problems and get to the root cause of whats causing them, when you have the root cause, you design something, do it. do this over and over. formula for success.” —Ray Dalio
Remember: “Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter.”