A partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) focused on tech startups — mostly based in LA, but splitting time in SF also.Author of The Cold Start Problem.
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2024-02-27 00:00:38
(Above: No, it doesn’t really look like this — and yes it’s mostly office parks and tech billboards. But I like to pretend) You’ll never regret spending time in SF If you work in tech, you’ll never regret spending 3-5 years in the Bay Area. This is advice I’ve been giving to people for years, and […]
2024-02-13 01:00:57
The “Dinner Party Jerk” test is a solution to a common problem: Startups often struggle at pitching their team, even though for the earliest stage companies, it’s incredibly important to do it well to raise capital — as I’ve described it below: Pre-seed- Bet on the team Seed- Bet on the product Series A- […]
2024-02-07 01:29:04
It’s hard to be a product without a strong theory of distribution Here’s a common startup situation. A team busts their ass for months building the first version of their product. It’s almost done. Now a big question emerges — how do you get the first people to use your product? Hmm… If you find […]
2024-02-06 01:00:38
Every time you ask the user click you lose half of them. (And this why tutorials, splash screens, and lengthy signup flows are a bad idea) If you’ve been building apps for a long time and have seen the results of a lot of A/B tests, you quickly realize that people are a flighty bunch. […]
2024-02-01 02:39:38
Above: Many small business figured out the hard way why coupon sites generate worse users Incentive programs often don’t perform The people you attract with referral programs, free trials, coupons, and gamification — folks who are “incentivized” as a broad umbrella category — are usually MUCH WORSE than organic ones. Worse LTVs, worse conversion, less […]
2024-01-24 01:30:29
Grand Theft Auto 6 and the future of AI If you happened to miss it, a few weeks back, here is the game trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6. It’s worth watching, and is amazing on multiple levels. But GTA 6 might be the peak of the open world category, untouched by the next wave […]
2024-01-16 01:00:54
Dear readers, As we enter a new year, many of us are setting goals to write more and create more content. As someone who has been writing consistently for the past decade, I wanted to share some strategies that have helped me in my writing journey, particularly in a professional context. Collecting ideas First and […]
2024-01-16 01:00:33
(above: Me in Sep 2023, a happy author, finding the Japanese translated version of my book at the wonderful Daikanyama Tsutaya Books in Tokyo) Dear readers, As many of you know, 2 years ago I published my first book THE COLD START PROBLEM. It aims to tell the story of why some products — […]
2024-01-11 01:00:08
Hey readers, This is a small deviation from my usual topics, but wanted to share. This is one of the most important graphs that I saw in 2023 that has led to behavioral change for me. This is in Peter Attia’s book Outlive. Here’s the graph: tldr: if you want to be able to briskly […]
2024-01-05 03:00:26
Dear readers, I was recently interviewed by the great Brian Balfour (CEO/cofounder of Reforge) and Fareed Mosavat (ex-Reforge/Slack/Zynga) which turned into a lively discussion — I think we could have gone longer! — which we just published in two parts. You can listen to both parts below, and the kind folks at Reforge also typed […]
2024-01-04 03:54:58
Hi readers, Doing a short round up on various links, books, a quick life update, and other stuff going on. First, I did not write much in 2023 (I was busy!!) but am proud of what I published… Blog posts from 2023 How to design a referral program. I headed up Uber’s driver and rider […]
2023-09-30 20:43:35
Dear readers, I was triggered to write this post because ChatGPT apologies way too much, takes too long to get into the meat of an answer, and I wanted to fix that. This came up because like many of you, I’ve been trying to incorporate ChatGPT into my workflows — both at my job, and […]
2023-09-14 23:30:15
Hi readers, First, the big personal news — I’m married! Emma and I had a very small ceremony in the desert town of Moab, Utah, where we enjoyed a week of hiking, UTVing, eating, and dancing with our immediate family, and we’re back for a few weeks before heading out to our honeymoon in Japan. […]
2023-08-24 00:00:27
Hi readers, Over the years, I’ve shared lessons and tips from writing a professional blog — previously 10 years of professional blogging – what I’ve learned. Recently, I’ve had some major changes in my workflow, and wanted to share more. Pre-AI blogging workflow My pre-AI workflow for blogging — what I’ve been doing for over […]
2023-08-22 00:00:49
There’s been a big wave of Creator Economy startups over the past few years, as the rise of social media platforms has empowered content creators to become a focal point for consumer engagement. This wave of startups promised creators that they could help them better monetize their audience on social media if they only promoted […]