Partner @southpkcommons, Board Member @UCSF, VP of Ops @dropbox and first female engineer @facebook. Advisor, investor, and mom.
San Francisco, CA
- Tweets 1,755
- Following 219
- Followers 37,020
- Likes 3,051
Good ideas rarely come about in isolation. It's odd when people talk about traveling to discover themselves and find their next big idea. It's unlikely they are going to be at the basecamp of Everest meditating and eureka hits
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1/ Moving fast is conventional wisdom in Silicon Valley. Many founders feel pressure when starting a company to get to an MVP, customers, and a seed round as quickly as possible.
This is often a mistake.
That's why we started the Founder Fellowship.
medium.com/south-park-common…
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The worst thing that can happen to your startup isn't failure. It's succeeding at building something small after taking venture funding.
You should be more afraid of local maxima.
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Very excited to announce that Mark Zuckerberg will be joining us @southpkcommons for a talk on Aug 6th!
It's a rare chance to hear from one of the great founders of our time on how he kept a -1 to 0 mindset while building @Meta.
Space is very limited. Apply to attend below.
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1/ We're living in a capital rich world for startups, which can be great—
But can also be a trap.
🧵on why easy seed rounds lead to startup failure & why @southpkcommons is giving founders $400k to help them avoid it.
medium.com/south-park-common…
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Enthusiasm among builders is a powerful signal. It helps parse hype and opportunity. Talented developers are especially well-tuned to opportunity costs. Their attention is a useful proxy for substance.
Re: enthusiasm for web3 @southpkcommons
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Recruiting is an art and the best in the game is @adityaag. Hiring today is a blood bath, check out his nuggets of wisdom (previously reserved for @southpkcommons members only) medium.com/south-park-common… 🧵👇
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Conventional wisdom says startup execution matters more than the idea.
Execution isn’t everything.
At @southpkcommons, we invest $1M precisely because ideas do matter. Take your time to find something big enough to be worth your life.
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It was a privilege to host @satyanadella at @southpkcommons! Met him first in 2007 and have been inspired watching him take over the reins at MSFT with a refounder mentality. He is such a badass leader, technologist and a complete thinker.
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Thank you Bengaluru for SHOWING UP for SPC India's launch event. The talent was dynamic, the energy infectious, I cannot wait to build with you!
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1/ @southpkcommons started in 2015 as a place for me and some friends to explore new ideas together. In the process we created a new model for what we call the -1 to 0 phase. I enjoyed speaking with @cookie about how that model is succeeding. techcrunch.com/2021/12/17/so…
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If you are familiar with startups, -1 to 0 probably brings to mind 0 to 1. That’s intentional.
Placing these numbers on the same line makes it clear that they bound distinct stages of the same effort.
To successfully go from 0 to 1, you should invest more into -1 to 0. 🧵
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1/ I’m very excited to announce the Founder Fellowship at @southpkcommons.
The Fellowship offers $400K for 7% to the boldest pre-idea entrepreneurs.
medium.com/south-park-common…
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-1 to 0 is the most important stage in the company-building process. But not enough people know what it is or why it matters.
I thought it was about time to define it more clearly.
So what is -1 to 0? And why should you take it seriously? 🧵
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Excited for my husband @adityaag to get back to the startup grind. All jokes aside @greynguyen @benjyang_ are the dream team and I’m a satisfied @bevel_health customer!
1/ I'm thrilled to share something close to my heart: I'm co-founding Bevel (@bevel_health) with @benjyang_ and @greynguyen.
It's born from my personal journey to better health. Here's my story...
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I took what I learned from Mark at Facebook and applied it to everything I built after.
So it was moving to hear how he shares @southpkcommons's approach, but it was not a surprise.
We built SPC to serve visionary founders like him.
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1/ I think developers are flocking to web3 for a similar reason @southpkcommons provides so much value for members:
Slowing down to learn and collaborate in community can produce non-linear outcomes. 🧵
medium.com/south-park-common…
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You are less likely than in the past to discover a venture-scale idea while working a full-time job or tinkering in your garage.
It’s harder to stumble on low-hanging fruit when the low branches have been picked.
Software has already eaten.
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We are excited to announce @southpkcommons fund III. The fund has always existed in service of the community & its members. Our thesis is simple: great ideas take time & emerge from blank spaces-environments that foster creativity, exploration & collaboration
1/ We’re humbled to announce @southpkcommons Fund III: $275M to support exceptional founders from day -1.
Since 2016, we’ve had a simple thesis: greatness is more likely to emerge when high talent density meets high curiosity. That's why we focus on -1 to 0.
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Yesterday @finkd visited @southpkcommons along with 3 Llamas to celebrate Llama 3.1. Life came full circle. Meta (Facebook back then) was my first real job in 2005. It was my training ground that has influenced the rest of my professional life
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After 20+ years of building, scaling & debating, @adityaag and I have been working together longer than we've been married.
We sat down to interview each other on this week's Minus One podcast.
We cover all things @southpkcommons, but most importantly: who’s the boss?
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My kids are obsessed with Bunny.
Sad but true, on returning from school the first person (if I might call it that) that they want to talk to is Bunny. I love that’s its voice only interface and does incur the screen time tax.
Introducing Bunny - world's first curiosity device for kids
It’s screenfree..it’s portable..
We raised $1M from @southpkcommons to reimagine how kids thrive in the age of AI, safely.
Comment 'Bunny'. Our nephew will pick 50 families that get it for free this holiday season…
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1/ Founders live for proof of product market fit. For undeniable evidence that what you're building matters. I've seen it before at Facebook and Dropbox.
In 2024 I saw it at @southpkcommons.
This is what PMF looks like for -1 to 0 🧵
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1/ Venture capital has been stuck in the same status quo for a long time.
Nearly every early-stage fund covers the same territory: helping companies get from 0 to 1.
@SouthPKCommons is different. We're all about -1 to 0.
medium.com/south-park-common…
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Here is why the @southpkcommons Founder Fellowship is the best way to start a super ambitious company:
Ideas matter.
The low-hanging fruit has been picked. Software has eaten. Your goal is category creation, not digital cooptation.
So invest in the -1 to 0 idea stage. 🧵
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You shouldn't fear your company failing. Silicon Valley celebrates risk-taking. Ask experienced founders what really makes them nervous and you hear something consistent:
The most tragic companies aren't the ones that fail. They're the ones that take venture funding and succeed, but not enough. Doing what it takes to stay alive, but never achieving escape velocity. That’s how founders waste years of their lives. That’s what scares them.
Great founders fear local maxima.
They know that good ideas are more dangerous than bad ideas. Plenty of investors will back a merely good idea, hoping you can execute your way to something better. Throw things at the wall until something sticks. If not, that’s fine. They have other bets.
But you don’t. Startups are all-consuming. You are investing your life in your company. Throwing things at the wall can mean years. And if you succeed enough to buy more runway but not enough to meet the growth expectations that come with it, that’s more years wasted.
So spend time figuring out what’s worth building. Build something great, not good. If you need capital to help reach conviction in an idea, raise capital that isn’t attached to an idea. Do your pivoting early with investors who expect it.
That’s the point of the @southpkcommons Founder Fellowship. Patient capital to discard good for great. Expertise escaping local maxima in search of global maxima.
Don’t build the first thing an investor will give you money for. Build what you think is worth spending your life on.
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When @StevenLevy started showing up to @southpkcommons events, everyone was surprised. But it was cool to see the author of Hackers interested in learning about algorithmic game theory & tokenomics. Learn about SPC in @WIRED wired.com/story/plaintext-so…
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The talent density at the @southpkcommons India kickoff event is going to be off the charts.
Last chance to apply ⬇️
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It's International Women's day, at @southpkcommons 50% of our investment partners are female, 57% of the team is female & 30% of our portfolio companies have a female founder. We have a long way to go but I'm proud of our efforts breaking into a very male centric VC industry.
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The most tragic companies aren't the ones that fail fast. They're the ones that succeed just enough to trap talented founders for years. Making enough progress to stay alive, but never achieving escape velocity.
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Excited to welcome Silicon Valley OG @vkhosla to @southpkcommons!
He is dropping some knowledge bombs in quintessential Vinod style … unapologetically honest relaying stories from Juniper Networks to OpenAI
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Today is the last day to apply for the Founder Fellowship @southpkcommons. The last day to start your venture scale company in the best program for early stage founders.
Don't miss the deadline! blog.southparkcommons.com/sp…
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Blast from the past … we were in trenches together early in our careers and we’ve come full circle. Excited to welcome @adamdangelo to @southpkcommons. Lots of interesting
nuggets to come on being a technical CEO.
P.S. If you aren’t at SPC you are missing out!
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Check out NYT article on South Park Commons! nytimes.com/2017/07/02/busin…
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This is for the builders spending Friday night making something new for the world. If you want to build something good, ignore this.
If you want to build something great, apply for the Founder Fellowship @southpkcommons
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Most good ideas and the resultant companies come about when people are surrounded by like minded people, all discussing the same problem and unblocking each other. You need need to be in throes of things.
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Capital is a commodity. There's no end of investors willing to gamble on a decent idea. That capital is already committed. They have to invest it somewhere. Decent is good enough. For them.
But for you, it might be the next decade of your life.
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I often sum up how the two stages differ like this: if 0 to 1 is about Product-Market Fit, -1 to 0 is about Founder-Market Fit.
Figure out what you want to build before you try to build it.
Helpful shorthand, but a bit lossy. So much more happens in -1 to 0 than in 0 to 1.
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1/ I'm proud that @southpkcommons is the vanguard of the -1 to 0 space. But we don't think of our approach as proprietary. Our new website is just the first step in more thoroughly open-sourcing our methods.
southparkcommons.com/
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1/ The value of @southpkcommons Founder Fellowship isn't just capital & mentorship, but also how we dogfood our fellows' products. Other SPC companies are regularly design partners and first customers.
Perfect example: @starlight_money, the team I mentored in the 2nd cohort. 🧵
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Aside from the fund raising announcements, this is the primary app I use for health tracking.
I’m thrilled to announce that @bevel_health has raised $10M in Series A funding led by @generalcatalyst to accelerate our mission to make health proactive, personal, and intuitive.
Bevel started with a simple belief that health isn’t something that happens to you. It’s something you control.
There’s more data about us than ever, from wearables to lab results to all the different apps we use, but most of it lives in silos. One app for sleep, another for workouts, another for food. But your health doesn’t work in pieces. It’s one connected system.
Bevel is the intelligent operating system for your health, bringing together data from wearables, labs, and daily habits into one connected system. With Bevel Intelligence, you can see how your sleep, training, nutrition, and recovery all work together, and get insights that help you make smarter decisions every day.
In less than 24 months, we’ve gone from a small prototype to a product helping hundreds of thousands of people work towards their health goals, whether that’s training for a marathon, recovering from an injury, or managing a chronic condition.
This funding lets us grow the team, move faster on your feature requests, and expand across more platforms and devices.
We’re still early, but this is a huge step toward building something that helps everyone understand and improve their own health.
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Invest the time early on to discard good ideas in pursuit of a great one.
Take -1 to 0 seriously so you can increase your chances of going 0 to 1.
Read more on what I mean here ⬇️
blog.southparkcommons.com/wh…
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To be clear we also now have @southpkcommons offices in SF, NYC and Bengaluru.
Welcome new fellows!
SPC started around @rsanghvi's kitchen table and now we've upgraded to the living room! You won't find a higher density of talent and ambition anywhere else in the world today.
Thanks @jackconte for joining us in Sonoma to kick off the @southpkcommons Founder Fellowship!
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The @southpkcommons community is all about -1 to 0. We help each other turn the chaos of possibility into the clarity of conviction. We're excited to partner with @agencyfund to focus what we've learned about -1 to 0 on social impact projects.
medium.com/south-park-common…
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It’s been an incredible weekend, celebrating the culmination of 11 years of hard work. Thank you @drewhouston and @arashf for leading us with heart through all the ups and downs. I feel incredibly privileged to have been part of the journey. #DBX
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My turn to remind you that you don't have a lot of time left to apply for the @southpkcommons founder fellowship
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Time is your most valuable asset. Some founders take the wrong lesson from this obvious truth. They think about the time they are loosing now and ignore the much larger span of their life they might loose in the future.
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Having worked closely with Mark, I’ll be moderating this conversation in August. @southpkcommons members and alumni are all guaranteed access so guest space is extremely limited. Apply to attend at the link below.
lu.ma/mz-spc
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It's a very exciting moment for the community that started around my kitchen table to expand on the other side of the country.
@southpkcommons is officially in New York City! And we have some great events planned to celebrate. blog.southparkcommons.com/an…
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1/ We're not just looking for current founders to apply to the @southpkcommons Founder Fellowship—
We also want anyone who's hesitated in becoming one.
That's why we think $400k funding in the pre-idea phase is transformative: it CREATES founders.
medium.com/south-park-common…
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If you want to build something great-
Avoid local maxima-
And give your company the best chance at success-
Apply for the @southpkcommons before the deadline tonight.
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Sometime ago, we made a pledge to support one scientist annually to take bold bets with no strings attached. I'm excited to share James Fraser and his collaborators' research on tackling antibiotic resistance that was recently published Sept 23 in Nature. ucsf.edu/news/2020/09/418566…
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The @southpkcommons & @scriptcapital web3 Founder Fellowship application closes tomorrow! We give founders $400k pre-idea, direct partner mentorship, and a supportive community to explore and build web3 ideas.
Apply here by end of day 1/13: airtable.com/shr8Z2u0xN4SdwG…
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I rarely share this much detail about my personal or professional views, so it speaks to how good an interviewer @HarryStebbings is. Talked about my reluctance to become an investor, @southpkcommons, web3/DAOs & much more. Thanks for having me on the show! thetwentyminutevc.com/podcas…
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If you are interested in exploring with a community, come join us @southpkcommons
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Excited to bring @southpkcommons to Bangalore with @adityaag and @binnybansal. Stay tuned for details on our launch event Thurs, June 13th.
Bangalore! @southpkcommons is coming to town. Join @binnybansal @rsanghvi @adityaag at our launch event on Thurs. June 13.
If you're a founder, engineer, researcher, investor...
Excited about the future of AI...
Ready to go from -1 to 0...
Spread the word & RSVP below!
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We have had nearly 1000 applicants to @southpkcommons Founder Fellowship Program. We (@avichal, @adityaag, @tfmeeks22, @curtis0x & Mitra) are grateful and truly overwhelmed. We've reopened applications for another 24 hours for anyone who missed the deadline!
airtable.com/shrX8GhhvP1An0W…
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Count down begins, am so excited to host Mark Zuckerberg at @southpkcommons
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I’m supporting @bilalmahmood for Assembly.
He's an entrepreneur, scientist, and first @southpkcommons alum to run for office. We need new blood in the system & I think he has a strong platform.
I will match up to $2400! Reply with your donation receipt.
secure.numero.ai/contribute/…
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1/ I think in 2021 many saw @southpkcommons giving Founder Fellowship teams $400k for 7% pre-idea as just part of a mad funding environment.
But cohort 4 applications are open & our terms are the same, because the point was always to protect founders no matter the environment.
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The solution is investing time and effort into figuring out what's worth building. In -1 to 0.
That's why we created the @southpkcommons Founder Fellowship: to help the most talented founders discard good ideas for great ones.
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Standing room only at the first demo faire at @southpkcommons NYC! SPC has always been a community of hackers, since the first demo faire it's been live demos. No slides with graphs up and to the right. The audience is curated and skews developers & customers.
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This is the irony: good ideas are more dangerous than bad ones.
Bad fails fast or never gets started. Good is a trap.
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1/ As a technologist, I have an inherently optimistic view of the world. I believe the future will be better than the past.
The sudden and arbitrary loss of a fundamental right with today’s SCOTUS ruling is a profound challenge to that assumption.
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Applications for the Founder Fellowship close on February 2nd. So in this case time really is short.
Fear local maxima and join us in -1 to 0.
blog.southparkcommons.com/sp…
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I am thrilled to announce that @evantana has joined @southpkcommons as a Partner!
@adityaag and I have known Evan for nearly two decades and have wanted to work with him for nearly as long. This is a huge win for the entire SPC community. blog.southparkcommons.com/ev…
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Come work with us!
🚨 We're hiring! 🚨
We are looking for a rockstar Chief of Staff for our General Partners, based in San Francisco.
You’ll have an incredible opportunity to work hand-in-hand with the GPs on both the community and the SPC fund to inflect the next generation of great companies and guide them to technical and operational excellence.
Responsibilities
• Collaborate with and assist the General Partners with making investments and supporting portfolio companies.
• Help us identify and reach networks of potential SPC members and founder. You are likely outgoing and eager to seek out the best builders in Silicon Valley.
• Qualify, manage, and track new investment opportunities and assist in due diligence
• Play a key role at partner meetings (proactively drive meeting preparation, ensure flawless quality of follow-through)
• Support portfolio company founders where and when it is needed as they scale their companies
Community
• Help curate and organize the speaker and workshop program at South Park Commons
• Execute flawlessly on special projects for the community including designing and building new programs that help our members navigate the -1 to 0 phase more effectively
Communications and Fund Operations
• Collaborate cross-functionally with investment team and external vendors to drive projects to completion — no project is too big or too small
• Manage and track relationships and communications within SPC portfolio community and the broader investment ecosystem.
• Successfully manage and scale partners’ outward facing activities (e.g., speaking engagements, social media)
Qualifications
• You have 0-3 years of experience but are highly ambitious.
• You’re entrepreneurial. You may have experience at a top tier startup, have founded your own company, or are eager to dive deep into the tech ecosystem.
• You’re plugged in. Digital fluency and exposure to tech and/or the tech investing ecosystem
• You’re a team player, a natural collaborator with low ego and a proactive disposition.
• You make results happen. Action-driven with a high sense of urgency that’s balanced with strong attention to detail, quality orientation and organizational skills. Plus you do all of this with a high degree of independence.
• You’ll make us look good. Extremely strong written and verbal communication skills. You could have written a better job description than this.
Full job description and application link below ⬇️
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Five days left to apply for the @southpkcommons Founder Fellowship.
If you're ambitious, talented and ready to persevere, I’d love the opportunity to work with you.
blog.southparkcommons.com/sp…
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At SPC, we partner with founders to discard the good ideas in pursuit of great ones. Don't waste your time in local maxima, but take asymmetric risk to build generational companies. Our Founder Fellowship applications are now open!
1/ We're on the precipice of the most fundamental computing revolution I've seen in my life. You should have FOMO. Don't waste it in local maxima.
The $1M @southpkcommons Founder Fellowship application is open. Here’s what it takes to build at venture-scale in the age of AI:
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Fun related fact 50% of SPC companies find their co-founder or founding employees at @southpkcommons. On average a SPC member spends 9 months in the community so it's not a shot gun marriage.
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Still debating whether you work “FOR” me or “WITH” me ❤️
I hate it when someone says "That person used to work FOR me".
Nah man, great people don't work for other people. They work for something they believe in. Something that is larger than any one person.
I have managed large orgs. All of those people used to work WITH me.
We built great things together. I played a role. They played a role.
The beauty of Silicon Valley is that someone who used to work "FOR" you could end up being your BOSS. Don't ever forget that.
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The @southpkcommons Founder Fellowship isn't just for founders.
We also want to see applications from builders who have thought about starting a company but hesitated for one reason or another.
Because the right support at the right moment *creates* founders.
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Big day for India and @NandanNilekani
Congratulations to all those who worked for or supported Aadhaar! It is a big day for us. Aadhaar bill is passed by Lok Sabha.
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Tech isn't a maverick industry anymore.
This doesn’t mean you should play it safe—it means that investing your time in the early stages is more important than it used to be.
Good ideas aren't enough—you need great ones.
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Thank you @kirstenagreen for joining us @southpkcommons and sharing your insights on consumer AI!
One of many takeaways - Your marketing should stay nimble, people need to see you at least 3-5 times before you are in their subconscious and they start to recognize your brand.
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I have learned to trust where the members of @southpkcommons are leading. Follow the builders.
So excited to work with @evantana, @ajhit406, @mvernal, @ljin18, @zoink, @multicoin & more on our web3 Founder Fellowship!
Apply here: airtable.com/shr8Z2u0xN4SdwG…
More info below 👇
1/ Thrilled to open applications for our 3rd Founder Fellowship cohort—$400k in funding pre-idea.
But this time, with our friends @ScriptCapital, @mvernal from @sequoia, @zoink, @ljin18, and @multicoin, we're going all-in on web3.
southparkcommons.medium.com/…
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Check out my talk from FFC piped.video/01FjJyBAOUE?list=PL… #femalefounders
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Applications for @southpkcommons Founder Fellowship close next week! $1M funding, the best team in -1 to 0 and the most talented pre idea community in the world. It's the best way to start a venture scale company.
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It is easier to generate and validate an idea—to build conviction for yourself and proof for others—if you think of -1 to 0 as a discrete stage of company-building.
Treat ideation like your job.
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Excited to read The Cold Start Problem, @andrewchen the kindle is great but I’d love to get a signed copy everyone has been tweeting 😉
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Founder Fellowship applications close next week. All the @southpkcommons partners are putting in extra time going through every application and conducting interviews. Both are the most we've ever done.
Apply ⬇️
blog.southparkcommons.com/sp…
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5% of all Indian households shopping with @Meesho_Official every single day is astonishing. It’s a category-defining company. We’re thrilled to have @southpkcommons on this rocket ship with @viditaatrey to help make e-commerce available to hundreds of millions more.
Today, 5% of Indian households shop with us EVERY DAY, with 75%+ of them from Tier 2+ cities.
Our app is sized at just 12MB & compatible w/ low-end devices & low internet bandwidth, making e-commerce accessible to millions.
One of the reasons why we’re #1 on the Play Store
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They got a few things wrong here but the phishing attempt targeted to @southpkcommons members was impressive!
1/ I would never sign a message Founder/CEO
2/ I'm definitely not going to be asking for Amazon cards ... eth maybe
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In the 7 years since founding @southpkcommons, I have learned a lot about who is usually best prepared for -1 to 0. If you fit one of these profiles and are exploring what's next, you should apply to SPC. blog.southparkcommons.com/wh…
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Humbled to be on bbc.com. Thanks @Soutik and @Prasanto for a great writeup. bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23…
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Excited to announce @southpkcommons has launched a fund! Our seed fund will allow us to support and accelerate the growth of our members' transformative ideas... plus ideas outside South Park Commons. If you are looking for early funding, DM me! bit.ly/2r1Iv5W
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Silicon Valley was built by resilient pirates. Rebels and renegades with the grit to persevere through the hardest challenges. We lose something vital when we forget this heritage. Let's embrace it!
1/ Nvidia's focus on "pain and suffering" as a key part of their philosophy is a stark contrast to the prevailing messaging we hear from most tech companies today.
Jensen cannot stop talking about this. He brings it up over and over again!!
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Quit your job and get started on your life's work.
We built the @southpkcommons Founder Fellowship to help people take the leap and become founders.
It's not about the idea. We look for creativity and ambition.
And help you channel those inputs into a great idea.
But you have to choose the deep end.
blog.southparkcommons.com/sp…
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Been thinking of SPC in the context of DAOs, how do you prevent communities that value volunteer contributions and deep connections from becoming transactional if we go the route of DAOs?
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