Father. Husband. VC. INTJ. Dad Joke Lover. Partner @FirstRound.
Philly
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- Followers 149,914
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1/ On Tuesday the @PhillyInquirer chose to publish an offensive political cartoon portraying Israel as an aggressor against a “meek” Hamas. And I cannot sit in silence.
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Hard to take this statement at face value -- given all the tweets @paddycosgrave has been liking over the last few days. I saved several of them on the attached google doc (so we have a record when the @WebSummit PR team asks him to delete them).
docs.google.com/spreadsheets…
We are devastated to see the terrible killings and the level of innocent civilian casualties in Israel and Gaza. We condemn the attacks by Hamas and extend our deepest sympathies to everyone who has lost loved ones. We hope for peaceful reconciliation.
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One of the hardest startup problems for startup founders to diagnose is a PMF problem masquerading as a GTM problem.
I've seen so many founders waste months tearing apart their sales/marketing/pricing/positioning…when they should have been tearing apart their product.
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I’ve seen more term sheets pulled in the last month than in the last decade.
Just sayin.
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One of my favorite pastimes when spending time with other VC's is to try to decide which phase of the VC lifecycle they are currently in...
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Motorcycles are common (2018: Honda sold 18M motorcycles)
Jet planes are rare (2018: 806 Boeing planes)
VCs sell jet fuel, which doesn't work in motorcycles
Bad stuff happens if VCs push jet fuel on a bike owner. Or if a bike owner thinks they can fly.
nytimes.com/2019/01/11/techn…
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Voice AI is getting so good over the phone that it’s basically becoming a permissionless API to the enterprise.
Enterprises can restrict APIs, but they can’t restrict incoming calls.
OpenTable won’t give you API access to make/modify/cancel a reservation? A voice agent can just call and do it.
The telephone may be amongst the most underrated developer platforms of 2025.
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Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm - Winston Churchill
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I know it is hard for founders to focus on reducing customer churn when your stomach is churning from watching the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas. It is hard to focus on growth while you're watching so much destruction. It is hard to focus on optimizing lifetime value when you're watching one of the most inhumane attacks in your lifetime. It is hard to be present when your head and your heart are elsewhere.
Take the time to care for yourself and others. Your morals matter more than metrics.
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Got this gem from @vkhosla:
"If you prioritize for maximum risk reduction, you typically end up choosing a path where the consequences of success become inconsequential..."
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This story is deeply disturbing. As is the fact that the only people in my feed whom I've seen sharing it are female theinformation.com/silicon-v…
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OH: Most entrepreneurs-turned-VCs never operated a profitable business...until they started a venture fund.
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Just found @LeadEdgeCapital's "Hierarchy of Information Disclosure." Companies choose which data to present -- ranging from "cash profits" to "being voted the best place to work in our city."
So true!
(Shared with permission)
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After seeing my Twitter feed full of Ray Charles singing “Georgia on my mind”, I just want to proactively state that after Philadelphia delivers the election for Biden, we would prefer Elton John’s “Philadelphia Freedom” to Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Philadelphia”.
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We all can use a reminder:
While LinkedIn makes it easy to find someone's pedigree (where they worked, where they went to school, who they know), it does NOT reveal someone's character (their values, kindness, courage, integrity, grit, loyalty, sense of humor, etc.).
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Typical VC: How can we help?
@Firstround: Let us connect you with 10-20 potential customers to test your hypotheses, bolster conviction & move your startup into its next phase. Its the customer discovery sprint we think every founder should do. Oh, and we do it pre-investment.
1/ Introducing Discovery Assist: a new way for early-stage founders to get in front of potential customers, faster.
We’ll make the intros, you focus on the conversations. Request invite below:
discoveryassist.firstround.c…
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3/ Hamas is evil.
Their stated purpose is the annihilation of the State of Israel and the genocidal murder of Jewish
people.
They are terrorists. Their brutality and barbarism is comparable to (or worse than) ISIS.
Their attack on October 7th killed more Jews than on any other day since the Holocaust.
They slaughtered over 1,400 Israelis and 30 Americans.
They raped women. They killed babies. They wiped out entire families.
They kidnapped over 200 innocent civilians – including infants, women and grandmothers.
Hamas didn’t attempt to hide these crimes – they video recorded them. And posted them on social media.
Hamas oppresses the Gazan people by using them as human shields and by taking funds that are intended to provide aid for Gazan civilians and diverting them for weaponry. Hamas has spent the last several days putting up roadblocks to prevent Gazans from evacuating from northern to southern Gaza – after Israel warned them to flee.
I acknowledge that there are issues in the Israeli-Palestinian geopolitical conflict where there may be room for reasonable people to debate. But the butchery and barbarism of Hamas is clear. They are evil – and abhorrent to everything modern society stands for.
whitehouse.gov/briefing-room…
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A seed-stage investor who highlights his/her Series A markup-multiple is like a marathon runner bragging about the time of the second mile in the race. It's great to get off to a good start...but it's a long race.
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After 200+ redeye flights here's my feature request. Let passengers board 2-3 hours early. They'll watch the safety video via app (to prove they saw it) & fall asleep before takeoff. Turns a 4 hour horrible sleep into a 7 hour sleep. kk - get on that @united and @AmericanAir.
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We raise our kids on a conveyor belt of conformity. It is really hard (and lonely) for someone to step off. But those who have the courage to do so are those who will create the change we need.
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So @JeffBezos’s true acquisition cost of the @washingtonpost was actually $10.25B not $250M. cnbc.com/2019/10/25/microsof…
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In VC it is easy to imagine “everything that can go wrong”.
The real skill is having: 1) the ability to imagine “everything that can go right” and 2) the ability to assess whether the founder has the fortitude to overcome everything that will inevitably go wrong along the way.
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5/ While the Inquirer’s public apology does not unring the bell, it is an important first step to recognizing the danger of printing content that reinforces antisemitic tropes. I’ve spent the last two days thinking deeply about whether I should resign my position -- and have decided not to. Despite its failures, I still believe in the Inquirer’s mission and leadership. And I believe that Inquirer will have a better chance of taking additional steps towards combating antisemitism if I remain.
I hope I am not wrong.
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4/ Yet on Tuesday the Philadelphia Inquirer chose to print a syndicated political cartoon casting Israel as a jack-booted aggressor (in a manner remarkably consistent with how old cartoonists portrayed the Nazis). And it portrayed Hamas as a teeny-tiny victim of Israel’s disproportionate response.
Israeli people are the victims of Hamas.
Gazan people are the victims of Hamas.
Hamas, however, is not a victim.
In the battle against terrorism, the Philadelphia Inquirer mistook the victim for the aggressor.
The Inquirer got it wrong.
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1/ When we started @firstround in 2004, I didn't know what institutional investors did. Heck, I barely knew what venture capitalists did.
First Round Capital's first fund was $7M.
Then in July of 2007 I got this cold email from @nshalek who was then at the @Yale Investments office. After getting to know the Yale team, they decided to anchor our first institutional venture fund.
And I quickly learned what institutional investors did ;-)
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Just helped my 16-yr old daughter with her first tweetstorm. She found that @realDonaldTrump's grandfather lied on his naturalization form!
1/ Yesterday @TheJusticeDepart argued to #SCOTUS that lying on naturalization form can result in loss of citizenship nytimes.com/2017/04/26/us/po…
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"Ski Week" isn't a thing in Philadelphia. If you're a founder raising seed-stage capital -- drop me a line. I'm working this week 😁🏂⏳
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"Principles are only principles if you’d hold them even when they are costly."
Great quote from @reidhoffman
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Just started watching #TigerKing. It’s so nuts I can’t stop watching.
It’s definitely going to cost me time away from my budding careers in epidemiology, medical research and macro-economic prognostication.
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We are looking to add a new partner to the @firstround team. Learn more about the role and our hiring process here. If you’re open to a new adventure or are just curious to learn more, we’d love to hear from you. Please share to help us spread the word! 🙏medium.com/@firstround/openi…
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My daily routine:
1) Get an email from a VC I know asking me to intro them w/ @ivanhzhao & @NotionHQ
2) Forward it to Ivan asking if I can make intro
3) Ivan says he's "not focusing on VC at the moment. Please politely decline for us"
4) Wait until tomorrow & repeat w/ new VC
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Funders:
It is 10x easier to create a successful podcast than to create a successful venture franchise
Founders:
It is 10x easier to become a millionaire via Series B secondary than via exit
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“Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.”
Peter F. Drucker - 1909-2005 - Management Consultant - Educator - Author
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This Reddit pump of GameStop is fascinating — and explains a lot. Can someone point me to the subreddit that must be doing the same thing to seed stage companies?
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I find it far more productive to try to identify people who know how to ask the right question — than to try to identify people who have all the answers.
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We’ve received many great applications for @firstround Angel Track — but too few are from women/underrepresented minorities. We’d love your help empowering a diverse next generation of early investors. Know someone who should apply? Tell them to apply at angeltrack.firstround.com
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2,850 days.
Almost 8 years.
That's how long it took to save a life.
In August of 2016 my @firstround partner, @btrenchard, led @OssiumHealth's Seed round.
And in May of 2024, a 68 year-old woman in Michigan became the first patient to receive a bone marrow transplant from a deceased donor.
When she was not able to find a bone marrow match from a living donor, she enrolled in Ossium's PRESERVE I clinical trial -- and matched with bone marrow stored in at Ossium's biobank (the only bone marrow biobank in the world).
Until now, every time an organ donor died, their bone marrow was discarded. Thrown away. Regardless of whether there was a cancer patient who was a genetic match and desperately needed that bone marrow.
Ossium figured out how to collect, process and cryopreserve bone marrow from deceased organ donors. Their network of 27 organ procurement organizations recovers bone marrow from organ donors and transports it to Ossium's facility where the company processes and manufactures the doses for the patients -- and cryopreserves it in their biobank.
Before Ossium it typically took months to find a living bone marrow donor who is: a) a genetic match, b) healthy enough, and c) willing to donate. And those are months that a blood cancer patient often doesn't have.
Today there is a woman in Michigan who is alive -- and on a great recovery trajectory from her blood cancer, because Ossium had a bone marrow unit that could match her and save her life.
Congrats to Kevin Caldwell and the entire Ossium team.
We can't wait to see the impact you have over the next 2,850 days.
More info here:
foxnews.com/health/leukemia-…
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25 years ago on this day, my first company (Infonautics) went public. We sold $30M of stock in the offering -- at a $130M valuation.
Today that is a strong Series A round...
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Wow! @KiwiCo_inc has passed $1 Billion in lifetime revenue. The company only raised $10M in VC financing -- and has been self-financing itself for the last 10 years. So impressed by @sandraohlin's consistent execution, focus and willpower to ignore the VC industry's vanity metrics!
fortune.com/2024/10/14/toy-b…
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2/ I joined the Board of the Philadelphia Inquirer because I believe in the importance of independent, local journalism. And seven years ago I became the Board Chair, understanding that the only way a paper is truly independent is if it has a newsroom free of external influence or agenda. The Inquirer Board has no control over the stories (and cartoons) that appear in the paper – or on its website. Nor should we. The Inquirer is a public benefit corporation that is 99% owned by a non-profit – and I don’t think anyone wants to live in a city where a group of non-journalists controls what gets published (or doesn’t).
Over my board tenure the Inquirer published many stories of which I am proud – and a handful of stories which I have thought were poorly reported. And while I’ve gotten dozens of calls over the years by people who believe the Inquirer got a story wrong, I’ve never chosen to publicly comment. Maybe I should have.
I acknowledge (and appreciate) that the Inquirer’s Editorial Leadership has already published an apology -- and I am glad to be tweeting my thoughts afterwards (so my tweets can’t be interpreted as unduly influencing that apology). I’ve leant my name and credibility to the Inquirer, however, and I’ve heard that my silence has been interpreted by some as a passive endorsement. So I want to publicly share my anger.
inquirer.com/opinion/comment…
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Are you a creative and unconventional thinker, yet also highly analytical and logical? Come be my next Chief of Staff! This Philadelphia-based position will work alongside me in all areas of venture capital…from investment review through exit. Apply here: medium.com/@firstround/were-…
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Ten American Flags.
Ten empty seats.
In honor of the Ten Americans being held hostage by Hamas.
Thank you @Giants for this poignant message. #BringThemHomeNow
Today, we are flying flags in 10 empty seats in MetLife Stadium to honor the Americans currently being held hostage.
These hostages were just 10 of the 200 kidnapped during the terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7.
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I've spoken to a lot of VCs and GPs in my career - and here is what many of them miss:
In venture, "how fast you win" matters just as much as "how much you win".
Imagine if you ran a venture fund that has 4x gross return (top quartile performance) - with the following specifics:
100% of capital called evenly over first five years
1x distributed spread evenly over last half of fund life
1x distributed in the third-to-last year of fund life
1x distributed in the second-to-last year of fund life
1x distributed in the last-year of fund life
If fund life is 10 years - this would generate around 27% IRR
If fund life is 18 years - this would generate around 11% IRR
Longer duration transforms a very strong multiple into an IRR that would have underperformed the S&P 500 over the last decade.
Mick Jagger would be a lousy VC. Time isn't on your side.
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Hard to take this statement at face value -- given all the tweets @paddycosgrave has been liking over the last few days. I saved several of them on the attached google doc (so we have a record when the @WebSummit PR team asks him to delete them).
docs.google.com/spreadsheets…
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We just published @firstround's 4th annual State of Startups report. Here are the Top 10 highlights: stateofstartups.firstround.c…
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For (too) many VC's the only DPI they've generated is their ability to "disappear post-investment"
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The initial funds of Accel, Kleiner Perkins, CRV, Mayfield, Venrock, Greylock, NEA, TA & Sequoia COMBINED were under $125M!
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Very cool to see that @flatironhealth is now New York's largest VC-backed exit! (And proud that @Firstround has funded three of the four largest exits in NYC). cbinsights.com/research/top-… #NYCtech
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Philadelphia is battling two crisis at the same time.
In the last 14 day period, more people in Philly have been shot by guns (107) then have died of Covid (76). I'm glad @MayorKenney issued an emergency order for Covid -- but where is the emergency action for gun violence?
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Dear #LizMagill
I edited your letter to the @Penn community based on your Congressional testimony. This appears to more accurately represent your perspective. If you can update the letter posted on the website to reflect this, I would appreciate it.
Thanks,
Josh
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Just watched @bgurley's presentation on how to pursue your dream job. This should be required viewing at all colleges/universities. I especially loved how Bill showed the importance of insatiable curiosity in your area of passion and why mentors matter. piped.video/watch?v=xmYekD6-…
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My week: I’ve installed 7 virtual backgrounds for Zoom calls so I can change them based on my mood.
@BillGates’s week: I’m building 7 factories to produce vaccines.
Bill wins.
Bill Gates is setting up factories to manufacture 7 leading vaccine candidates before we know which is best & safest; we can test the vaccines in parallel, and then throw away all but the factory for the best vaccine. May save many months.
Just extraordinary.
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Better written than most "deal memos" at VC firms...
Written 4 months ago: teddit.net/r/wallstreetbets/…
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One of the hardest things in VC (& life) is the ability to continually rethink your prior assumptions to see if they still are accurate.
An exercise: "What is a belief you hold (about a company, market, etc) that, if proven wrong, would cause a big change in your decisioning?"
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This is the best 20 second encapsulation of Philadelphia I’ve ever seen. #PhillyPhilly
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1/. One person's view on the private markets.
When an investor backs a company, they are actually making two bets:
1) Execution Bet - Can the company find PMF, grow revenue, scale over the next 7+ years?
2) Valuation Bet - If they execute, will the company be highly valued?
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When I was 13 years old, my parents bought me an Apple ][+. I didn’t know it at the time, but that one gift changed the course of my life in unimaginable ways.
What gift changed your life the most?
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Loved this "Investor Update Oath" from a repeat @Firstround founder. Focusing on transparency, brevity and frequency. #IWishEveryFounderDidThis
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1/ Some thoughts on how companies get valued.
When it comes to exit valuations, "Where" you build often matters more than "What" you build.
An (imperfect) analogy below...
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The first time I rang a bell in public - it was when Infonautics went public in 1996.
Today I was more nervous ;-)
#BucketList
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My basic rule of thumb for COVID-19 safety: If your safety measures are not embarrassing to your teenage kids, you are not behaving safe enough.
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From Barbara Bush’s Commencement Address at the all-female Wellesley College, 1990:
“And who knows? Somewhere out in this audience may even be someone who will one day follow in my footsteps, and preside over the White House as the President's spouse - and I wish him well.”
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1/ The vast majority of founders have not led a company during a downturn -- and as a result the last 12 years have conditioned founders that they can "ignore the macro" market.
That is no longer the case…
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Today Forbes revealed their 2025 Next Billion-Dollar Startups List – and it was amazing to see that 20% of them were seed funded by the @firstround team!
Congrats to @LoyalforDogs (and @celinehalioua for gracing the magazine’s cover), @AssortHealth, Collate, @withdavidai, and @reductoai
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I first met @ivanhzhao 11 years ago -- and his pitch for @NotionHQ was unlike anything I had ever experienced.
We did not discuss technology products like Microsoft Word or Google Docs. Instead, we spent an hour discussing the openness and form factor of paper. Ivan marveled how a blank sheet of paper allowed anyone to express anything (in writing, math, drawing) without artificial constraints or limits imposed by the paper-creator. The paper-creator did not have to "guess" what people would want to use their tool to create.
Ivan believed that software should be as open and free as paper. Thankfully, @firstround invested.
Today's @Forbes profile captures how remarkably different Ivan and @NotionHQ are -- and their journey to build the Internet-powered paper...
forbes.com/sites/kenrickcai/…
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Breaking news: @firstround unveils new foldable term sheet in surprise announcement
Microsoft unveils new folding smartphone in surprise announcement trib.al/1o33HgT
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Question that few founders ask themselves: If my company could "own" the first result of any Google search, what would that query be?
Question that few VCs ask themselves: Would I rather back a company that answers a popular search today -- or a question that isn't yet asked?
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Some sage advice I was given last week:
Hell is living in heaven and complaining about it.
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Before social media, a man could have a mid-life crisis in relative privacy. Now it’s content.
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Are you a creative and unconventional thinker, yet also highly analytical and logical?
Come be my next Chief of Staff!
This person will spend the next 2+ years working alongside me in all areas of venture capital. From inbox ✉️ to investment review 💰 through exit 💸!
Learn more -- and apply here:
jobs.ashbyhq.com/firstround/…
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Founders sending out investor updates without including any revenue, growth, margin, burn rate or financial metrics.
MⓞNK BLOODY
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FACT: Founders who sit during @Firstround partner meetings do better than those who stand & present. It is a conversation not a presentation
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Love this poster. Anyone know who makes it or where I can buy one? "Orville Wright Did Not Have A Pilot's License"
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If you were to create a "personal cap table" of your relationships, who would be your biggest shareholders?
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