|#545 MWAVC| — The Sundaylies 🗞️🗞️🗞️
Your weekly dose of top articles from "the MWAVC guy", as someone called me the other day 😂
Hi,
Welcome (back) to MWAVC for my 545th post on about finance, investing, venture capital and all that jazz. My name is Ato (more about me here and here) and I try to write every single day, inspired by Seth Godin (Seth’s Blog) and Fred Wilson (AVC). I haven’t done the best job over the last few months (read: years 😬), but I’m working to be better and more consistent, even as I manage this crazy schedule.
In case you’re new here, quick introduction: I’ve been investing in some way shape or form for the last 12+ years and now work with one of the pre-eminent VC firms in Africa - Microtraction, and the family office that acts as the GP - Pave Investments. Read more on us here and here. Much of the writing I’ll share here are based on things I find interesting that I’d like to share and hear your thoughts on. This is also an outlet for my thoughts, lessons, asks etc. and I think you’d find most of it valuable if you’re remotely interested in learning about venture capital.
I’ll be developing the content further, including things I think will be helpful and would appreciate any feedback on what’s working vs. not, and what could be helpful for you over the long term. If you’d like to sign up, you can do so here. Or just read on.
And BTW, If you are a (or know any) pre-seed, seed or Series A investor, looking to co-invest in African founders, please introduce them to me (ato@microtraction.com). Happy to learn about the next generation of category-defining businesses.
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The Sundaylies 🗞️🗞️🗞️
“Sunday Reads” has evolved into “The Sundaylies”. The name just came to me and I think it’s dope. The Sundaylies will be 5 articles I read during the week, that I think the MWAVC community needs to read. Let me know how you feel about these. As always, appreciate any feedback.
How I'd Grow Bumpa: Great piece I stumbled upon on one of our portfolio companies. Suggested a few names to the writer, so will be on the look out for those. I like how detailed it is, and Kelvin, the founder of Bumpa, shared my sentiments.
The Amazing Power of Deflationary Economics for Startups: If you call yourself a startup, you need to know what deflationary economics means…
African product, global market: Expensya employees cashed out $10M from 2023 acquisition: “African product, global market” - That’s literally my thesis for the next stage of my investing activities. Been cooking this for the last 2 years and now we’re executing. Be on the look out for this. It will be very different from what you see in the space today.
Blaxit: Tired of Racism, Black Americans Try Life in Africa: I live in Accra and I see the positive and negative effects of this every day. Writing could be better but good overview of the situation nonetheless.
The AI Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence: Tim Urban is unmatched in his ability to distill complex topics for everyone to understand. One of my favourite writers. Given what we’re seeing happening before our eyes with Open AI here and here, I think this is well worth another read. The world as we know it is going to change forever.
Currently Reading 🎒
Back reading Aig’s Leaving the Tarmac. Just looking for all the lessons I can glean from this remarkable duo that built Africa’s largest bank by assets. Read it? Let’s trade notes when I’m done. Or maybe, should we start a book club? 🤔
Currently Listening 🎧
Business Wars has been my favourite podcast from Wondery since its launch. Loving the new series on Pepsi currently. Take a listen.
I hope this is helpful to some founders out there. I’m happy to speak more on this with anyone looking to build a company and wants feedback. Thinking of bringing my Office Hours back for founders to book 30 minutes to tell me about themselves, their businesses and ask for feedback, but haven’t made a full decision yet. Should I? 😬 (I’ve got 8 yeses to this so far, and looking for 2 more before I push it).
If you are a (or know any) pre-seed, seed or Series A investor, looking to co-invest in African founders, please introduce them to me (ato@microtraction.com) and let’s do some work together.
Remember: “Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter.”
Please share and subscribe as well.
Till tomorrow,
AB
+1 to the office hours