In the early days of Haystack, we would share stories about new investments. Then, the industry exploded. So many more startups. More investors chasing them. More noise. And, so, we’ve become more muted about sharing publicly what the investments are, especially at the early stages,... Read More

For usual readers of this blog, by now you’re perhaps used to seeing a new post “Quickly Unpacking” the latest technology startup acquisition, usually of the billion-dollar plus category. Throughout the history of the modern startup ecosystem, “billion dollar exits” drove the model, the returns,... Read More

The last few weeks, the same question has surfaced: “What on earth is happening in the seed market?” My answer: “Everyone is on the hunt for the next DocuSign. And it’s a bloodbath.” Let’s wind the clock back over two years. In the summer of... Read More

(This is a post where, if it resonates with you, I’d encourage clicking on and reading the links embedded.) In the context of entrepreneurship and the creative process, I am a big believer in constraints. I fundamentally believe that a shortage of resources, or a... Read More

To say 2020 has been an unsettling year would be an understatement. It is not lost on me how this year, the pandemic, the lockdowns, the divisions – it has wreaked havoc on our attention, on our livelihoods. The impact of 2020 has, unfortunately, been... Read More

In the world of creating, building, and financing startups, people do a lot of talking. A lot. We know this all too well on the investor side, with all the blogs, tweets, and panels. Especially now, now that most of our working lives are happening... Read More

I am stating the obvious in this opening sentence, but I need it for the post: In each round of funding for a startup, the founders sell a portion of their equity in exchange for cash. While there’s variance, it’s accepted that founders will experience... Read More

I didn’t plan on writing this today, but it happened. I have to write this quickly tonight. As a little tradition on this blog, I’ve singled out companies starting in 2012 with Stripe; there was Snap back in 2013; Slack in 2014 (after prematurely saying... Read More

It’s our twin sons’ birthday this morning, and no one wants to read (or write) a very lengthy post, but before I head out to run some errands, I need to quickly unpack last night’s news that Twilio, a $45B public company (wow!!) is about... Read More

Last week, we held The Alignment Summit V online via Zoom webinar. Instead of a full-day in-real-life event that’s quite special, we made it entirely online, short, and still special, I think. For those of you know me, you know that this is a very... Read More

For those who know me, they may laugh at the metaphor I’ve recently latched on to. I am not a big “outdoors” person. Sometimes I joke with people who gush about camping or ocean kayaking that “I actually like the indoors.” Yeah, I’ve gone camping... Read More

With the arrival of June 2020, it’s almost as if there is no pandemic when it comes to the early-stage investment market in the Bay Area. The early-stage tech formation world and the VCs that support them are mostly “back in business.” Some never really... Read More

Since 2008, I have been a very active Twitter user. Over 100,000 tweets later, Twitter is not only a product I use many times a day, it is the number one used app on my phone, week in and week out, far ahead of any... Read More

As an early-stage private market investor, one of the many things I obsess over is how to design and manage the funds we raise and deploy. Ask 100 peers how they do it, and you’ll likely get 101 answers back. The problem is, as each... Read More

Ever since becoming a dad in 2013, I’ve been obsessed with obsessing how I organize and spend my time. That obsession only intensified when our twin boys arrived in 2015. Ever since, it’s been hour by hour, each unit of time accounted for with as... Read More

Love it or hate it, the stock market is the sentiment machine for the United States. It is our nation’s Fitbit, Apple Watch, mood ring, tarot card, and more for getting a pulse of our economy today and a glimpse into what shareholders believe the... Read More

For the past few weeks, I’ve been talking to 2-4 close investor friends/mentors per day. Often, it’s just to go out for a walk, or we talk about a company or two we are both investors in, or we trade notes on household management tips,... Read More

Everyone is doing their own version of “triage” right now. Let me state upfront – I recognize using medical terminology to discuss non-medical emergencies during a public health crisis is not ideal. To be clear, it is not my intention to equivocate the portfolio “triage”... Read More

This is a post for startup founders to hopefully better understand how investors and VC firms are adjusting to this new world. There are lots of tweets floating around citing “business as usual” and “we are open for business” — and while those proclamations and... Read More

in a previous era, there was political speech about a campaign of “Shock and Awe.” The idea, in those times, was to use military strength and western idealism to win “hearts and minds” of innocent citizens in the Middle East to see the valor in... Read More