Tech has the fewest assholes per capita. Politics has the most

in 1993, the President was ~30 years older than me. in 2002, the President was ~30 years older than me. in ~2018, the President was ~30 years older than me. today, the president is still ~30 years older than me.

I want to live in a world where friends feel ok to drop by each other's home unannounced

so i tried to transfer $10k into my bank account got this ...

Poland is about to overtake Japan in GDP per capita. no one who came of age in the 1980s can comprehend this.

after making 140+ angel investments, the only criteria that seems to be correlated with success is the founders’ cash compensation. the lower the cash comp over the first four years, the higher the likelihood of success. I’m not sure why.

Pretty much everything is a scam. That is what makes life so interesting.

when a tech company promotes its CFO to CEO, it usually is not a good sign

when I was in college (in the 1990s) I would send cold emails to Steve Jobs (then CEO of NeXT) and Steve Ballmer (then #2 at MSFT). both would reply within hours ... to a college student not sure if they're successful bc they're responsive or responsive bc they're successful

when i lived in SF I used to see Jack Dorsey walking 2+ miles to work every day. no head phones, no podcasts, no music. just walking. and thinking when was the last time you had a full hour just to think?

Jeff Bezos: “Being wrong might hurt you a bit, but being slow will kill you.”

knew VC was power-law driven ... but did not realize that just 4 companies have driven 85% of YC's realized returns. insane power law!

most of success in life is just following up with people at least 20 times

my goal this year is to make 100 seed investments (~$300k checks). if you know an amazing founder, pls DM me.

The new PPP index (much better than the Big Mac index)

Most people that changed the world were workaholics. MLK, Gandhi, Hamilton, Thatcher, etc all worked nights and weekends. But if you are not interested in changing the world, then working more than 40 hours a week is optional. I choose to try to change the world.

this was written over 100 years by Andrew Carnegie -- the Elon Musk of his era -- about the best people. still very true today

number of employees of a well-run 100-person start-up that care about the long-term company: 60 number employees of a 10,000-person company that care about the long-term company: 6 this is why start-ups can win.

One of the deepest SaaS secrets is that many “SaaS” companies are actually services businesses masquerading as software businesses.

the best employees are the ones always trying to get the CEO to move faster. you want to be pushing the CEO … you don’t want the CEO pushing you.

One of the rarest things is to find people that simply to do what they say they will do. Just doing this one step puts you in the top 10% of people.

almost all interesting people are disagreeable

SFO airport no longer sells water (in plastic, cardboard, or can) ... but continues to sell soda and gatorade in plastic, cardboard, and can. what percentage of people that were going to buy water will now buy a sugar drink instead? cnn.com/travel/article/sf-ai…

have invested in over 300 startups and still have no idea what the difference is between pre-seed, seed, and Series A

best advice to students: "Take the professor, not the class." best job advice to job seekers: "Take to boss, not the company."

academics get paid for being clever, not for being right. investors get paid for being right, not for being clever.

cold emails work great. introductions are not as needed today as they once were. most VCs read every well-formed cold email they receive. so do most CEOs. keep them short and clear and they will be read.

In my freshman chemistry class (for engineers) at Cal (400+ ppl), they did a poll: + How many of you are immigrants?: 30% + How many of you have both parents that are immigrants?: 75% + How many of you have both parents born in the U.S.?: 6 people

there are zero companies in the world that are really well run. Most companies, even the really successful ones, are a mess. So if your company is not an absolute mess, you have a really good shot at winning. It is a pretty low bar because running companies is insanely hard.

this is like more money than there is in the entire world ... and it looks like it is hard coded. anyone know why?

if the CEO of a company is not spending >25% of their time recruiting, than that is a lifestyle business

the best job isn't CEO & cofounder the BEST JOB is the non-CEO cofounder you get all the upside with much less burden there are 3 cofounders of AirBNB but i only know the name of the CEO -- the other 2 are the real winners as they are both rich and anonymous

that's actually a great excuse. going to start using that one

From 1964 to 1982, the stock market gained zero. Zero. Stock market does not always go up.

no great founder ever had imposter syndrome. none. none of these people ever had imposter syndrome: Jobs, Gates, Zuck, Elon, Thiel, Jensen, Page/Brin, Bezos, Rockefeller, Walton, Dell, Griffin, Ellison, Benioff, Karp. Not one of them.

Announcing the All-Tech Cabinet for 2025: Vice President: JD Vance @JDVance Chief of Deswamp: Elon Musk @elonmusk Sec of State: David Sacks @DavidSacks Sec of Treasury: Peter Thiel @peterthiel Deputy Treasury Sec: David Marcus @davidmarcus Sec of Defense: Palmer Luckey @PalmerLuckey Deputy Sec of Defense: Josh Steinman @JoshuaSteinman Deputy Sec of Defense: Michael Kratsios @MichaelKratsios Sec of Health and Human Services: Vivek Ramaswamy @VivekGRamaswamy Sec of Commerce: Katherine Boyle @KTmBoyle Head of Innovation: Marc Andreessen @pmarca Deputy head of Innovation: Amjad Masad @amasad Sec of Labor: Travis Kalanick @travisk Sec of Homeland Security: Trae Stephens @traestephens Attorney General: Antonio Gracias @GraciasAntonio Deputy Attorney General: Makan Delrahim @makandelrahim Solicitor General: Will Scharf @willscharf Chief of Making Decision: Liv Boeree @Liv_Boeree Sec of Transportation: Thom Tillis @SenThomTillis Sec of Energy: Gwynne Shotwell @Gwynne_Shotwell Sec of Education: Joe Lonsdale @JTLonsdale Director of National Intelligence: Cliff Sims @Cliff_Sims Head of SEC: Cameron Winklevoss @cameron Head of FTC: Tyler Winklevoss @tyler CIA Director: Blake Hall @Blake_Hall Ambassador to the UN: Jacob Helberg @jacobhelberg National Security Advisor: Sigal Mandelker Deputy National Security Advisor: Kevin Harrington NSA Director: Mira Murati @miramurati Chief of Staff: Ben Horowitz @bhorowitz Ambassador to Italy: Chamath Palihapitiya @chamath Head of Federal Reserve: Bill Ackman @BillAckman Chief Economist: Tyler Cowen @tylercowen Middle East Envoy: Shaun Maguire @shaunmmaguire Head of FDA: Martin Shkreli @MartinShkreli Head of the World Bank: Erik Bethel Deputy Sec of State: Ken Howery @KenHowery Chief Communications Officer: Erik Torenberg @eriktorenberg Chief GPU Officer: Aaron Ginn @aginnt Chief Crypto Officer: Shervin Pishevar @shervin Chief Meme Officer: Alex Cohen @anothercohen Jr Engineer: Auren Hoffman @auren who did I forget?

more good news. USA, USA!

Any VC that makes you pay for their lawyers is not founder-friendly. Founders barely affording rent should not be footing legal bills for VCs with private jets. And yet this is standard. a thread 🧵

checked into a Hampton Inn and I saw the future. it was a singularly pleasurable experience. you check in via the Hilton app and it allows you to select the room of the hotel. just like selecting a seat in a plane, the app gives you a layout of the rooms (floor by floor) and let’s you pick. there were two rooms left on the highest floor and i picked the one i thought was best. then the app creates a mobile key for you. when i got to the hotel (got there late because my flight was delayed 3 hours), i just went straight to the room. i walked straight passed the from desk without even stopping. got to the room and the mobile key actually worked as advertised. i never even interacted with anyone on the hotel staff (which, for someone like me, is preferred) this was awesome. no time checking in. no time waiting in a line. no dealing with the bellman that it waiting anxiously for their $20 tip. just got to go straight to my room (which was wonderful) and go to bed (as I mention, it was late). why can’t every hotel do this?

In your 40s, some of your kids will be at Coachella with your friends

This is the craziest graph. What a difference 15 years makes.

update: only have done 39 seed investments thus far in 2025 -- goal is to do 100 a year ... so need to increase the pace what are the best non-obvious ways to find amazing founders?

Recruited athletes at Harvard for the class of 2027 had an average SAT score of 1368, compared to over 1540 for non-athletes—a staggering 170-point difference. Yet, most Division I athletes proudly list their sport on their résumé, effectively signaling, "I likely have a lower IQ than my classmates, with whom I’m competing for this job." And let’s not forget, many of these athletes come from affluent families who could easily afford top-tier test prep. To put it in perspective, a 1368 SAT score is below the median at every top-25 college. At schools like Rice, Emory, Notre Dame, Michigan, UCLA, and WashU, it would land in the bottom quarter. A solid score? Sure. But at the elite level, it’s not particularly impressive. Employers love hiring athletes, but is it worth a 170-point SAT trade-off? That’s roughly equivalent to a 12-point difference in IQ—a meaningful gap. So why do employers make the trade? Presumably, they believe athletes bring hard-to-quantify qualities like grit, teamwork, and an unstoppable drive to win. What’s your take? Is the trade-off justified, or are we overvaluing athletic prowess in the professional world?

don't assume that someone is smarter than you because you cannot understand them. it often means they do not know what they are talking about

one of the firms we invested in recently raised their Series A. to start the process, the company sent emails to many VCs. stats on raise: * the top branded partners at the top branded firms: almost all responded to the email within 4 hours. all wanted to set up a meeting within a day. * the top branded partners at the mid-tier firms: usually needed to receive 2 emails to set up a mtg. mostly requested mtgs within 4 days of 2nd email. * the low-tier firms: had the lowest response rate. many times they wanted to set up a mtg 2-3 weeks out. they all missed seeing the deal. i'm surprised that the top-tier firms are more responsive than the low-tier firms but kinda makes sense. always be hustling.

It is like Benjamin Button democracy

to be a 10xer: (1) Do everything you say you are going to do. (2) Manage your boss and colleagues — don't make them spend time managing you. (3) Proactively help the organization. (4) Be positive (don't complain). Be a “yes, and” person. quora.com/How-can-I-make-500…

Being enthusiastic is worth 25 IQ points. - Kevin Kelly

Here's why the Peter Thiel interview question ("what is a heretical view you have") is so predictive: It reveals that most people hold conventional opinions and call them “heretical.” Almost everyone cannot come up with an answer that most people they know do not agree with.

free range kids!!

the best predictor to IF a VC gives a term sheet is how easily the elevator pitch is translated from the investing partner to her/his peers. This leads to massive over funding of simple ideas to explain (food delivery, etc.) and underfunding of abstract ideas (middleware, etc).

When a venture capitalist says "your TAM is too small" they rarely mean "your TAM is too small"

The Thiel question ("what is a heretical view you have") is such a great question because almost everyone answers it with an opinion that most people agree with People think their views are heretical when they are very mainstream

1/ Data businesses are generally misunderstood. DaaS has different metrics than SaaS. While there has been a lot written about SaaS businesses (how they operate, what metrics to watch, etc.), there has been surprisingly little written about data businesses.

why so few publicly traded venture capital firms? interesting that so many VCs talk about how important it is to go public yet none of them take their own firms public.

100% of founders fantasize about starting a country

netflix, spotify, amazon etc have years (if not decades) of preference data, but the recommendations are remarkably bad. why are they so bad?

many people seem to think 10x engineers will be the biggest AI beneficiaries. Replit CEO @amasad has a different take: “For 10x engineers it basically helps them type faster (we’ve calculated a 30-40 percent productivity boost) For people who weren’t coding before, you can’t even put a multiple on it. It’s infinity X” (on World of DaaS pod)

most job interviews are optimized for people that think really fast on their feet. (likely not the #1 thing one should optimize.) job interviews at start-ups should have more written and take-home project assignments where the candidate can take time to think.

the biggest time suck is managing people.  the second biggest time suck is hiring.  so the fewer people you have and the longer they stay, the more time you have to do actual work

Diagram of the Keith Rabois formula for starting a company

the number one criteria for hiring: the person really wants to work at your company

The founder line: higher conviction than knowledge (but not too much higher)

Founder CEOs are massively under-comped after 4 years. I just spend the last few days advocating for 3 different founders to get higher go-forward comp. But their VCs just don’t get it. The VCs are soooo short-term. when you have a truly great founder, making them feel comfortable and valued could potentially 2x your return – give them the comp they deserve

Crazy hard workers: every athlete that has achieved remarkable achievements. Think of the athlete you admire and they inevitably worked their butt off. Think of a great musician and they are spending countless hours practicing. Doing anything worth while is really hard work.

I have not had problems. battery life has been great. possibly one of the apps you are running does not play well with iOS11

overheard: "Someone with B+ intelligence in several fields likely has a better grasp of how the world works than someone with A+ intelligence in one field"

it is almost April 15 and i just got my tax bill ... (just purchased a new country ... army included)

the best employees push their manager more than their manager pushes them

National security strategy for the U.S.: 1. ID the top 10k AI researchers not in the U.S. 2. Grant them special visa 3. Visa comes w perks like stipend, work visa for spouse, citizen fast-track, etc.

new rule: if the lowest default tip is over 20%, then leave no tip.

once you get over 500 employees, the biggest risk to your business is your own HR department

Very excited to announce that @SafeGraph has raised our $45M Series B to democratize access to data. Come work with us! safegraph.com/blog/why-safeg…

there is a high correlation between the people you want to hire and the people that work an entire plane flight. next time you fly, just drop job ads off on the seats of all the people jamming

there are 10x more VCs than we need and 10x fewer founders than we need

True v govt reasons for the fires explained

wife: "daddy's company just raised $45 million. what do you think of that?" 9-year-old: "does that mean we get a bigger allowance?"

my IQ is at least 71

If your boss or your colleagues are managing you, that is a bad sign. You need to manage them. Don’t put the burden on your boss to come up with things for you to do.

The most amazing stat from my conversation with Joe Lonsdale: there are more administrators than students at Yale. are ivy league schools just hedge funds with an educational side business?

Nice and Correct vs. Mean and Wrong

Skiing is a terrific study of humanity. It is really cold, uncomfortable, inconvenient, and fantastically expensive. ... But everyone likes it mainly because everyone likes it.

All successful people push others to move faster. That is the main common trait of successful people.

LinkedIn is an amazing company. It has not truly innovated in years and yet remains central to doing business. That is the example of a moat.

Still think SpaceX will ultimately be more valuable than Tesla

Questions people ask you (by location) and what they REALLY mean

if you are wondering ... top 2% net-worth in USA: $2.7M top 1%: $12.7M top 0.1%: $62M median: $193k ~40% of people are negative to zero net worth

key benefits of DC area: - access to lots of talent - amazing schools - Virginia is 5% tax rate (though not 0% like FL or TX) - great airport access - traffic bad but way better than LA/SF/NY - amazing food scene - incredible nature - great weather what else?

Amazon could significant up-end venture capital (more than even Softbank did) from their proprietary access to AWS data and their willingness to reduce fees. in the "your margin is my opportunity" department

Spending time alone is really, really important Most super successful tech founders spent a massive amount of time alone when they were kids and young adults. And most of these people still spend a much larger percentage of their time alone today than most outsiders would think. Especially when people are growing up, spending time alone gives one the space to explore, to be weird, to learn, to imagine, and to dream. Reading is really (REALLY) important. Read a wide variety of books and articles that stretch your imagination. Read fiction and non-fiction. Read wonderful novels written by authors from far-away lands. Read things that challenge your political thought. Read the Bible, the Koran, Buddhist texts, and ancient mythology. And don't just read conventional things assigned to you in school (like Hemingway, Shakespeare, and more) but try to seek out authors on your own. Many of the most successful people spent their childhood reading the encyclopedia. Many of them would eventually read every encyclopedia volume letter. These people had an insatiable need to learn new things. When these founders people walked to class, they were probably reading a book or a magazine (in those days, it was a paper book). Some of these people even got injured walking into things because they were reading. Most successful founders had parents that asked them to READ LESS. Today the encyclopedia is free and on the internet. But today the encyclopedia is so big that it would be impossible to read in a lifetime -- so today choices about what you read could be a bit harder. But reading is still really important. Play acting At an early age, most of successful founders spent more time play-acting than others. Very few of these people spent their time playing organized sports ... they instead were in their bedroom, backyard, or nearby park playing by themselves. They were letting their imagination run wild. They were imagining themselves as secret agents, slaying dragons, marshaling their toy soldiers to do battle, starting businesses, dealing with family situations, and more. Experimenting It is amazing how many successful people lit things on fire, blew things up, captured and studied bugs, built bird nests, and more. My guess is that every single successful tech founder subjected themselves to multiple electric shocks (some on accident, some on purpose). They were building, creating, viewing, and observing. And they were the ones in charge of the experiment -- they were the prodders. Lots of creative activities While most tech founders are known for their right-brained prowess, most spent a very large percentage of their childhood and adolescence doing very creative things. They were writing short stories and plays, painting, sculpting, writing poems and lyrics, writing computer programs, and more. Creating versus Consuming Reading, watching wonderful movies, listening to music, etc. are all great ways to spend time. But they are passive -- these are consuming functions. Most of the successful people spent a large percentage of their time creating vs. consuming. They were building things, starting things, etc. This is really important. Today it is harder to spend time creating because there are so many more options to consume. In the old days, one would get bored pretty quickly of the consuming options (usually the best option was to read a book or watch bad television) where today there are just so many more options. In fact, the tablet is essentially designed to maximize consumption (unlike the PC which is a better tool for creation). Get away from the social pressures of school School, especially middle school and high school, is socially incredibly high pressure for everyone. People are jockeying for position and cliques are forming and unwinding constantly. There is a "Game of Thrones" aspect to the social standing within high school that is ultra competitive and hard to escape. By spending time alone, people get needed breaks from the high school Game of Thrones. Alone-time allows you to spend time actually exploring yourself (rather than spending time conforming to some sort of norm). Today, alone-time is frowned upon Something happened in the last 30 years to encourage parents to spend more time with their kids. Another huge trend has been for parents to give their kids opportunities by enrolling them in lots of sports, weekend classes, summer learning retreats, and more. While there are so many good things about the trend of more involved parenting, one of the very important unintended consequences is that kids have significantly less alone-time than they once did. And even when they are alone, they have the means to be a part of of the larger group through social networks, SMS, and more. So it is harder for them to escape the social pressures of school. So we should expect the best strategy for kids today to not be the same as the best strategy for past generations. But most everyone (young and old) -- especially those that have good social lives and have been reasonably successful -- could use more time alone and more time to themselves.

Scott Cook (founder of Intuit) is probably the most successful tech founder that no one talks about. success: he built an amazing company ($13B revenue) personal life is stable: happily married, 3 kids balanced: he seems to be very happy anyone else a huge Cook fan?

The future belongs to the builders, not the networkers.

so someone else gets all his social security when they retire?

definition of being rich: you can quit your job without having another job lined up.

smart people like to bring up every corner case. but that ends up wasting a lot of time talking about things with very low % of happening. in most startups, better to focus on the solution and focus on shipping.

you’re clearly not an ambitious person in tech if you’re moving to miami or austin at 24 (ok for established billionaires though) is SF still the only real place for ambitious young people in tech?? what about NYC?

things rich people do not want you to know: they are actually very happy

Number of hours people work vs how many hours they claim they work

have never seen a well run business. ever. the best businesses are mediocrely run. all businesses are loosely functioning, disasters, and some happen to make money