Some random things I have changed my mind on that seem obvious now, but didn't 5 years ago... Startups are not built by community, startup communities are built by the people who were part of 1-3 exceptional companies in a geographic area. Large SUVs should all have sliding doors like minivans. Most Americans care about the cost of their housing than the size of it. We have made smaller developments illegal in much of our cities when the market wants more of it. You will often advance your career faster by staying put at the right company than making a jump for title/pay/responsibility. If you are at the wrong company, jump as fast as you can. You walk farther from the parking lot into a shop at a mall than from a shared parking garage to an old-fashioned main street store, you just may have to walk across a street or go around the block. I have time to tackle 1-2 meaningful problems after my current career in venture (right now the ones I think the most about are housing, education, meaningful careers for blue-collar people).
What would you say the purpose of a startup community is? Is there a purpose or is it jusy a byproduct? My two cents is that communities don’t BUILD startups, but they can provide / attract abundant resources / fuel (i.e. capital, talented labor, etc) for those who are building
Any interest on fixing the childcare issues? I’ve got something on the back burner I was looking for people to help push forward. My bandwidth is focused on my current startup.
I was always partial to the falcon wing doors, gives a futuristic feel with the hardware at the top rather than the sides.
Point four is surprisingly true, which seems a bit counter-intuitive because you’d think a background with experience across many different workplace cultures and companies would be a huge benefit! You’d think varied experience and a track record of adaptability and quick ramp-up time would be highly desirable! Employers tend to see it the other way. They seem to prefer the kind of person that settles in. In practice, companies tend to have mountains of tech debt that makes it hard to bring on new hires no matter how experienced they are, and makes industry experience and knowledge of best practices essentially worthless beyond a very shallow point. It makes tribal knowledge extremely valuable and tenured employees extremely expensive to lose. Personal biases are also at play, especially during the hiring process. Managers are human beings too, and they’re not necessarily measuring their performance at interviewing and making the right hiring decisions. Like everyone else, by default they tend to value perceived loyalty very highly, even if the objective of the hiring process is to find an excellent engineer. I was once passed over for a Senior Software Engineer role for being “too engineering-minded”.
Great points! I set out to be disruptive to the real estate PE model. We are based in the Midwest and not "graduates" of those companies. Will probably bootstrap for life. But that's okay, we still have the best hotdish. And an alternative PE model that apparently the rest of the world may care about.
Meaningful careers for blue-collar people is one that needs to be done ASAP. I have a few friends in the trades that are looking to change careers for this exact reason.
Large SUVs should have sliding doors. I concur! The one about startup communities is interesting...I didn't think of it that way. I have noticed from my experience that a community's success is quality over quantity. Walking is good for us; park far away if possible, within reason.
Agreed. You have to surround yourself with great people, and a company you see a long term vision with. Compound interest 🚀
Right there with you on blue collar ;)
Early-Stage Investor @ Antler | Tech, Startups, VC
10hAnother one: NIL has been best thing for college football, across all levels.