In 2008, Brian Chesky was trying to raise $150,000. For this sum, you could’ve owned 10% of Airbnb. His friend Michael Seibel introduced him to 7 top investors, but Brian didn’t get a single check. Today, that 10% stake would be worth about $5 billion.* Subscribe Let’s look at the reasons these investors passed and figure out where they went wrong. You can read the entirety of the rejections here, but I’ll just quote some key parts. #1 “Not in our area of focus.” Having too narrow a focus can be a real problem. Every year, there are thousands of new startups created. Only a few will ever mat ..read more

Astribot just dropped ‘Hello World’ A super impressive household robot that can cook, clean, do laundry, etc.pic.twitter.com/r25unLF0mL — Barsee (@heyBarsee) April 26, 2024 Subscribe He pulls a tablecloth from beneath a pyramid of wine glasses. They scarcely move an inch. This is Astribot, a new robot from Chinese startup Stardust Intelligence. In an incredible new demo, Astribot cooks, decants wine, and even irons a shirt. And should you need a little Chinese calligraphy done, Astribot can do that too! Stardust Intelligence claims that the video was shot at 1x speed and the robot is no ..read more

Facebook (yes, I’m still calling it that) just released a ChatGPT competitor: Meta.ai. This morning, I put the two head to head on 3 challenges to see which bot is better. Let the games begin! Subscribe Challenge #1: Teach Me About SEO I was chatting with the founder of an interesting new SEO startup. That made me wonder, what’s new in the field of SEO lately? Let’s ask Meta AI… Meta pulled some interesting information. But I found a lot of unfamiliar acronyms, like EEAT and SERP. I would’ve preferred a response in plainer English. Also, Meta only used one source, which is not ideal. I want ..read more

Subscribe How do you know if one of your investments is a winner? And when you find one, what’s the best way to double down? I dug into some real venture capital inside baseball with top angel Jason Calacanis on the latest This Week in Startups. One of the best ways to increase your returns in venture is by using reserves. Reserves let you double down on your best companies, goosing your returns. JCal invests in a ton of startups, often beginning at pre-seed. He’s planning about 200 for his current fund. Of those 200, he’ll double down on somewhere between 10 and 30 (5 to 15%). So which one ..read more

Part of my job as an investor is to try to imagine what the future could look like. So today, I spent a little time daydreaming… Here are 3 technologies I think could change the world completely — for the better. Subscribe 1) Ageless fertility. Women in America are having children later and later. And if a woman has her first child at 35, she may not be able to have as many as she’d like. But what if we removed the age issue completely? A woman could work hard and enjoy life, settling down only if and when she’s truly ready. She could then have a baby at 50, secure in her career and mature e ..read more

Want to make that 3 or 4x fund an 8x? Then you better have reserves. A new report from Primary Venture Partners shows that reserves strategy is one of the biggest drivers of returns in venture capital. Let’s dig in… Subscribe From Good to Great (Funds) Partner Jason Shuman analyzed over 150 mature VC funds with strong returns. He segmented them into two groups: good (3.5x average return) and great (18x average). One of the biggest differences between good funds and great ones was how they handled reserves. Great Funds invested 38.7% of their capital in 23% of their investments that generat ..read more

We glide past Big Ben on a picture-perfect sunny day. But there’s no chatty cabbie at the wheel — this car is driving itself. Last week, Wayve released an incredible demo. Wavye’s latest Lingo-2 model drives us around central London with ease, and even explains itself along the way! Subscribe Meet Lingo-2, a groundbreaking AI model that navigates roads and narrates its journey. Watch this video taken from a LINGO-2 drive through Central London The same deep learning model generates real-time driving commentary and drives the car. pic.twitter.com/eZB8ztDliq — Wayve (@wayve_ai) April 17, 20 ..read more

I work for myself. That means no juicy bigco health insurance. But I’ve found another way — a Christian health share. Subscribe Since 2018, I’ve been using a service called Medishare. Medishare is a collective of people that share each other’s medical bills. Health shares will usually exempt you from any penalties under the ACA or state laws. Having Medishare has exempted me here in New Jersey. For the last 6 years, Medishare has worked great for me! Here’s what I’ve experienced… 1) Eye infection. I got pink eye a couple of years ago, not long after I signed up for Medishare. “Does this thin ..read more

This morning, I opened LinkedIn and saw 26 new connection requests. Here’s how I decide who I’m actually going to meet. Subscribe My Checklist 1) Launched product. No matter what kind of company you have, you eventually need to launch a product. I invest in software. Most technical founders can pop up a basic product in a few months. This high school junior made an EMS dispatch tool on his own in just 200 hours! That gives you an idea of what a skilled builder can do. I could meet founders before their product is launched, but I almost never do. There are too many pre-launch companies to mee ..read more

Yesterday, I was chatting with a wonderful young founder in New York. I mentioned trolling Crunchbase to find startups. “Wow, we need to get on there,” he replied. Subscribe Today I’m going to show you the simplest way to get investors contacting you. It’s free, and it only takes about 15 minutes. When you’re done, your company will be on one of the most popular databases among investors. If you show them something interesting, you will have VC’s and angels contacting you. The steps: 1) Go to Crunchbase.com 2) Click “Create profile” on the left. 3) Click Company. 4) Put in details about yo ..read more