We are going to spend $4 billion dollars decommissioning a nuclear plant that is 26% of California’s carbon-free energy, which costs 40% less than power we buy from other providers and has a risk of failure of less than 1 in 7 million years 🤯😭😤
VCs calling companies “zombies” feels really disrespectful to founders and teams. Those of us who have built companies know how hard it is to grow consistently without dips along the way. Maybe opt for less time throwing shade on twitter and more time helping your portfolio.
It is surprisingly hard to grow from $1m ARR to $5m ARR. Requires true PMF, a repeatable leadgen & sales process, raising ACV significantly and the leadership & team to execute all this. It's a real shift in mindset from what's required for $0 to $1m ARR.
Placed an order with
@Ford
for an F-150 Lightning with a refundable $500 deposit. Test drove the vehicle and decided not to buy it. Dealer marked the vehicle as sold the system anyway and kept my deposit. No way to contact Ford corporate. So classic. Can't wait for my
@Rivian
.
Climate today feels like fintech in 2012. It's a small-ish group of really talented & committed people taking significant risk by working on things that are easy to write off as "never going to work". But some of them will, and big.
“Climate” is the trend… but the draw for founders is that some of the largest markets in the world are being transformed. Energy, Real Estate, Construction, Insurance, Food, Transportation. All largely untouched by technology to date. The scale is mind boggling & exciting.
With all the "extinction" doom and gloom out there, I did a little thinking about when
@RichAberman
and I incorporated
@WePay
on August 28, 2008. 17 days later Lehman went bankrupt and the "Great Recession" began. Some reflections on how we survived and ultimately thrived 👇
It took about 3 hours of Modbus TCP debugging and almost an entire bottle of wine but I got my solar system hooked into
@home_assistant
last night. Turns out you can still hack on things other than AI.
Trend of accepting lots of small checks from large number of angels is accelerating with this YC batch. Nothing wrong with that, but in my experience the most value comes from the 1-2 angel investors that are willing to invest real time & have sufficient skin in the game
For those saying JPM couldn't buy because the Riegle-Neal act doesn't allow M&A when banks exceed 10% of national deposits, exceptions are permissable for banks at risk of default. In fact, this is probably the ONLY situation where JPM could do something like this.
When
@RichAberman
and I moved to Silicon Valley to start
@WePay
, we walked into Bank of America with $18K to open an account for "payment processing" - they looked at us like we were truly crazy.
SVB took us to lunch, opened the accounts & even lent us money. They'll be missed.
I’ve seen companies battle back from stagnant growth. It requires a committed team, a multi-year timeline, supportive investors, a willingness to bet the farm and a huge amount of tenacity. It’s not for the faint of heart. But never write off a founder with these qualities.
Thanks to the team
@WePay
for the privilege of a lifetime. And the team
@jpmorgan
for embracing us with open arms for the last 3 years. Great days lie ahead.
Everyone knows that violence towards innocent children is among the most evil acts of all. But it provokes an entirely different & visceral feeling in a parent, one that I couldn’t possibly fathom 18 months ago. My heart aches. 🇮🇱
Underrated benefit of angel investors: we care about the company's success, but we don't care that much. Leads to much more frank conversations with founders when things aren't going great, and more honest advice.
Question from a founder: in an acquisition discussion, should you let the buyer interview the team before you have an agreed upon price? Answer: Hell no.
I’m only half joking when I say this LEGO set is the coolest thing
@boomaero
has done yet! Thanks
@bscholl
for this, and your unbridled enthusiasm, audacity and vision.
@hunterwalk
@patio11
@hnshah
@bradleytusk
I’ve thought a fair amount about what drives chronic underpricing by saas founders... number of factors but the overwhelming one is that in the early days the product is improving far faster than one can increase prices with a straight face.
@paulg
@rerarom
When a startup is acquired by a big company, this is one of the toughest cultural changes to manage. Incentives can easily shift from “do the right thing” to “do what is explainable and defensible” without the right leadership.
I understand there is some VC glee about the balance of power shifting out of founders hands a bit. This is healthy for the ecosystem. But don’t count out founders who raise a lot of money and hit a growth speed bump. The good ones will figure it out and they’ll need your help.
Dumb startup idea that I desperately want: a robotic playmate for my dog. Something that will play with her in the backyard and tire her out on the days I just don’t have it in me
Taking the last 6 months off has been awesome, and it has helped me shed a lot of what
@paulg
calls "bullshit". But with free time, I've also managed to accumulate some new bullshit too. Re-reading this essay was a good reminder to do some more pruning:
Exciting to see SF voting for moderate policies that are still quite progressive - the city's rebound continues. What the Chronicle calls "progressive" in SF would be called "extreme" in most of the country.
@paulg
@Ford
@Rivian
Gah such a headache it’s not worth it. That being said, it’s funny how we just expect and accept this behavior from dealers. If a bank acted this way, there would be investigations, fines, prosecutions.
Jessica was sitting at her computer with a big smile. I asked what she was doing that made her so happy, and she said she was listening to a draft of the Bill Clerico Social Radars episode.
Congrats to
@brian_armstrong
and the
@coinbase
team. And thank you Brian for that bitcoin you sent me (it was worth $12 at the time). I sold it for a very handsome profit at $300 🤦♂️ but I did eventually buy back in 🚀
Placed an order with
@Ford
for an F-150 Lightning with a refundable $500 deposit. Test drove the vehicle and decided not to buy it. Dealer marked the vehicle as sold the system anyway and kept my deposit. No way to contact Ford corporate. So classic. Can't wait for my
@Rivian
.
Platform funds as seed investors are a trap. Their incentive: maintain optionality on later rounds & bad signaling risk if they don’t do the A. Seed fund incentive: help raise an A at a good price from great investors. Have a network to do so. Plus more mindshare!
Partner at $1B multi-stage fund: "If any pre-seeds of yours are upcoming, we'd love to peek!"
Never seen so much seed interest from platform funds, almost to the exclusion of A (and definitely to the exclusion of Bs). Off the charts.
All said and done, it's good for founders.
I feel like tweeting this is the nail in the coffin of my transformation from founder to VC, but who is going to SXSW? (particularly those in climate)
I am thinking about making the trip for the first time in 10 years 😬
Not to be a downer, but this smoke episode is only a taste of what's to come. Here's a chart from NASA Ames of projected average air quality.
Under the most likely climate scenario, our average air quality in the 2070s will be equivalent to the "red sky" summer of 2020!
In this week's episode of The Social Radars we talk to Bill Clerico of WePay. They had to evolve their idea for 18 months until they found a big enough market! Many other founders would have given up or painted themselves into a corner.
Of the people I know who moved away from the bay area (and haven't moved back yet), feels like 1 in 3 or 1 in 2 have plans to come back in the next 12 months. Long SF!
Greece arrests 79 people for wildfire arson across the country.
As I have talked about at length on the podcast and in my articles, The fires in Spain and Greece were likely arson related. Local Firefighters and politicians have been saying it for months and I first made
TL; DR: be frugal, focus on customers, manage cash, pick the right investors, have the right expectations, ignore the stuff that doesn't matter and keep trying stuff. And don't think about macro-economics all that much.
I was stressing this morning in bed about wrapping and travel and being behind -
@kateylyn
turned to me and said “wow, we have a lot to be grateful for” and changed my whole outlook & mood in a snap. Hope you do too, and you have someone to remind you of it. Merry Christmas!
Oldest person in the US now lives in Mendocino County and is 114: “she said her formula for longevity included two fingers of red wine at dinner and minding your own business” (+ the Mendocino air of course)
@paulg
Certainly SF is in a rougher place than NYC in the 90s. But two other factors to consider: 1) most of this sort of activity in NYC happens in the outer boroughs whereas in SF it’s just a block away in the Tenderloin & 2) the opioid epidemic
Starting to feel like “climate tech” is a misnomer. It’s really that the largest segment of our economy (energy) is going to completely change in the next 20 years. It’s the most exciting investment opportunity of our lifetime. Bigger than the current generation of AI.
Our first check into
@wepay
after YC was from
@davidhornik
- who didn’t just wire two 23 year olds a million dollars, but also threw in a foosball table to boot (we had to pick it up from his garage). Thrilled to see him continue his unique approach with
There is something magical about investment banks in that it they attract smart, ambitious people and then make them miserable enough to quit and take big risks. Thank you
@paulg
and
@jesslivingston
!
@semil
@ataussig
I think one of the reasons SF feels “back” despite not being back at the levels of 2019 is that the serious people are still here and moving here but the spectators are gone. Signal to noise has improved. Almost feels like the bay in 2008-2011 which was pretty epic
@benwbear
@Ford
@Rivian
Thank you! I got a refund. Agree with you 100% and I am glad it’s a focus. I’m sure it’s very hard to change these experiences given how entrenched dealers are
RIP Fry’s. WePay shared a building with you in Palo Alto for many years, and while I rarely found anything to buy, I always loved doing a lap and checking out the cowboy mannequins when I needed to clear my head.
BREAKING Scoop: Fry’s Electronics is closing business nationwide effective tonight. Source: Wilsonville, OR store employee. website will go down at 12am
#Frys
#FrysElectronics
Big news… we have a Twitter/X account! And a ton of great stuff to share about wildfire technology & the impact our portfolio is having over the next few weeks. Give us a follow.
👋 Hi! We're Convective Capital, a venture capital firm funding startups solving the wildfire crisis.
Join our community to learn about upcoming events, updates from our portfolio companies, and Firetech news. 🔥
@mwseibel
One trick: constrict a narrative why that particular partner is preferred or has some advantage in an otherwise competitive process. Customers like to feel special :)
Working with
@chrisfhoward
to build
@wepay
was a real highlight (and incredibly fun). I was privileged to call him a board member (and now friend and LP!)
Seeing him return to his roots with a fresh fund gets me fired up. Founders, call him!
Today, I’m thrilled to announce the launch of my new firm, Ritual Capital, a $38M seed-stage venture firm investing collaborative $300k checks in exceptional founding teams building iconic, enduring companies.
@paulg
@anammostarac
I think the California coast (particularly in Mendocino) might be the best version of this. Perfect wood fire weather, frequently brisk, never bone chilling.
I started
@convectivecap
after a wildfire burned along the access road to our cabin and today is an exciting day: portfolio company
@Pano_AI
is live in Mendocino County helping protect our property!
Trump didn’t create this anger - he recognized and fanned it. He is responsible and he needs to go. But this alone won’t solve the problem unless we also address the root cause of it. History will repeat itself with the next politician willing to stoke these flames.
OKAY. I think it's time to make it official.
📣 Introducing Wayfinder II — a $35M seed-stage fund investing $300k-$1M checks in founders building enduring companies solving tomorrow's hard problems.
California megafires are solvable.
If you live here, understand that you have agency. Start with the facts.
If you live anywhere else in the U.S., this is impacting your air quality (and food quality) too. Get educated.
We can do this.
#wildfires
I should add he still holds the title of only board member to show up to multiple board meetings on a skateboard. But more importantly he was a tireless champion of the company, a loyal backer through thick and thin, a truth teller, a mentor and a friend.
Our first check into
@wepay
after YC was from
@davidhornik
- who didn’t just wire two 23 year olds a million dollars, but also threw in a foosball table to boot (we had to pick it up from his garage). Thrilled to see him continue his unique approach with
@micsolana
As an owner of multiple guns and a fellow, frustrated, SF resident, not sure I agree. Lots of training required to use a firearm safely in a high stress environment. Without training, odds are high you will hurt yourself or someone you love, or have the gun used against you.
For all the haterade SF gets, I thought the city did a remarkable job picking up the pieces after yesterday’s storm. Crews were out clearing drains & streets, directing traffic and moving downed trees within minutes. Credit to
@SFFDPIO
@sfpublicworks
@SFPD
and
@LondonBreed
!
We’re thrilled to lead this $5m round and double down on our investment in
@overstoryai
!
@indradenbakker
and the team have identified a huge need (utilities needing visibility into vegetation around their lines) and built an amazing product and business around it
#firetech
We’re thrilled to share we’ve raised $5.2M in funding to support our fight against the
#climatecrisis
.
Led by
@convectivecap
, this round helps us expand our vegetation intelligence platform, mitigating wildfire risk and preventing power outages.
During his inaugural address in 2019, Zelensky told lawmakers: “I do not want my picture in your offices: the President is not an icon, an idol or a portrait. Hang your kids' photos instead, and look at them each time you are making a decision.”